Prince Louis has embraced the autumn spirit with his latest obsession, which was revealed by the Princess of Wales as collecting conkers.

The seven-year-old royal is a big fan of horse chestnuts and has been growing his collection with gusto, according to his mother Kate Middleton.

The Princess, 43, shared the information during an outing with US First Lady Melania Trump, when the pair spent time with a group of Scouts at Frogmore Gardens during US President Donald Trump's official visit to the UK this week.

Together, Kate and Melania chatted with the children who had travelled from Lewisham in south-east London, about their time in the Scouts. They also created artworks with them.

Kate, who is joint president of the Scouts, told Chief Scout Dwayne Fields about Louis's current obsession.

'We keep finding conkers in cupboards, in his bed – conkers everywhere!'

The Royal also revealed that Louis is so enamoured by the autumnal staple that he even puts the conkers in his toy trucks and plays with them.

Louis has been known to pick up different pastimes: last year, his father, the Prince of Wales, revealed that his youngest son had picked up a very loud new activity.

Prince William said Louis had started learning to play the drums - and joked that it made life at Windsor very loud.

Laughing, William said: 'My youngest is learning the drums that's why I spend my entire life with my fingers in my ears.'

As well as divulging the tidbit about Prince Louis on Thursday, Kate also impressed royal watchers with her autumnal fashion during the outing in Frogmore Gardens, in front of Frogmore House.

Looking effortlessly elegant, the Princess dressed diplomatically, blending both US and UK brands. 

She sported a skirt by American designer Ralph Lauren, a khaki suede jacket and brown cashmere knitted vest from British brand Me+Em and a scarf from Sudbury Mill, where the royal visited last week to watch the production of the silk products.

Meanwhile, Melania changed from the engagement she undertook with Queen Camilla earlier that day, and looked as equally chic in a suede brown jacket, cream trousers and flat pumps. 

Kate and Melania arrived separately and met away from the cameras before walking down the gravel path into the picturesque gardens together.

There, the children - dressed in bright uniforms in honour of the red squirrel - were concentrating on their creative activities.

They were met by Dwayne Fields, the Chief Scout, who invited the ladies to take part in an activity making pictures of animals out of leaves they had, Catherine sitting on the floor and Melania, wearing trousers, a suede jacket and flat pumps, using a small plastic seat.

The princess chatted happily about the kind of things the children had been doing. ‘What are you doing? What are you drawing? Come and show me. Wow,’ she said, as the children chatted excitedly away.

‘Have you got any concerns hidden away in your basket? I like doing this with my children. I had such fun doing this when I was your age.’

Dwayne invited the First Lady to sit down and asked for volunteers to help her.

‘This is the First Lady of the United States. Do you know that big country .. you are going to help Mrs Trump here with the leaves we found in the garden,’ he said.

Melania was told that she could draw any animal she liked - and chose to draw a surprisingly good bear, helped by Mabel, five, who enjoyed the activity so much she even sat on her lap.

The women then hosted a picnic for The Squirrels in the gardens, organised by the Princess who had arranged for a special packed lunch to be given to each.

And as part of their lunch, each of the children were due to receive sandwiches containing honey made by The Princess of Wales herself from the Wales family’s hives at Anmer Hall.

As well as honey in the sandwiches there was Anmer Hall honey in their homemade granola bars.

In addition, the First Lady gifted a jar of White House honey to each of the children as a memento of their very special day. The gifts of honey were wrapped in white boxes, with red ribbon.

After revealing that she had also brought gifts from the US scouts for their UK counterparts, Dwayne, the British chief scout, took off his neckerchief and gave it to Melania as something to take home.

‘Thank you so much, that is so kind,’ she said, before she and Kate walked back to their cars. 

The gardens are on the estate where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle lived from 2019 at Frogmore Cottage, a Grade-II listed two-storey, stucco-faced house.

In 2023, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were asked to vacate the property - which had been a gift from Queen Elizabeth II - after stepping down as senior royals.

The estate is also the site of the 17th century Frogmore House, a royal residence since 1792 and where the Sussexes had their wedding reception in 2018.