Pink or Blue?

From the smart sidewalks of Belgrave Square to the teeming front stoops of South London's slums, an English baby is known by the carriage he keeps. Massive, super-sprung, often a flashy lilac in color, for the Mayfair nanny and the working-class "mum" alike, the Big Pram has become in postwar Britain a symbol of status akin to the automobile in U.S. oneupmanship. But at least one winter baby in England next year is due for a hand-me-down. As Buckingham Palace prepared for the first child to be born to a reigning British monarch in more than 100 years,* the old pram in which Queen Elizabeth herself was wheeled was dug out of the palace lumber room, tastefully refurbished in anticipation of its new royal occupant.

Though the new baby is not expected until late January or early February, the bassinet used by Prince Charles and Princess Anne has been redecorated in buttercup yellow and white frilled nylon--safe colors for either sex. A sunny nursery suite commanding the palace's inner courtyard sports a fresh coat of off-white paint and new chintz curtains. Technicians are ready to fit out a complete delivery room in one wing if, as anticipated, the 33-year-old Queen decides to have the baby in Buckingham Palace. And the daughter of a Merseyside policeman, Mabel Anderson, taken on as an assistant nanny at Charles' birth because she was the "only applicant not shivering with nerves," has already been appointed the baby's nanny. If the newest member of the royal family turns out to be a boy, he will be second in the line of succession after Prince Charles. If the baby is a girl, she will rank third after Anne. Either way, Princess Margaret will drop to fourth place.

* Predecessor: Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Beatrice, who inherited her mother's longevity, died in 1944 aged 87, leaving one of the world's largest autograph collections. Elizabeth's first two children, Anne and Charles, were born before she became Queen in 1952.

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