FOR ONE YOUNG ROYAL, AN EARLY WHIFF OF SCANDAL

LONDON -- Britain's Sunday papers hauled out their largest headline type
today to banner the following news item: A 16-year-old boy on school
vacation experimented with alcohol and marijuana.

Normally, that would be the quintessential dog-bites-man non-story, but the
teenager in question was none other than Henry Charles Albert David Windsor
- -- better known to everyone here as Prince Harry. He is the younger son of
Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and a member of the generation
that is supposed to restore the reputation of Britain's scandal-plagued
royal family.

The news reports, confirmed in their essence by St. James's Palace --
Charles's home -- said that the prince got in trouble when his father was
rarely home last summer and his closest companion, older brother Prince
William, was traveling the world. Harry started hanging out with friends at
a nearby pub, the Rattlebone Inn.

The young prince and his pals did some serious drinking, the reports say,
so much that Harry was thrown out one night after cursing at the pub's
cook. The group also got in the habit of a late-night "spliff" -- the
British word for "joint" -- in a shed behind the bar.

Of all the Rattlebone boys, Harry, not surprisingly, had the biggest house.
He lives on his father's palatial country estate, Highgrove, in the rolling
green downland southwest of London. So the young prince started inviting
the gang over to "Club H," the basement den he has turned into his own
hideaway.

And that's when Harry's wild summer went up in smoke. Some royal staffers
noticed the sweet scent of marijuana in the air, and reported same to
Prince Charles.

The paternal response, the reports say, was calm but firm. Charles declared
the Rattlebone off limits. He banned any further marijuana -- and to make
the point stick, he sent the boy on a "terror trip" to a drug clinic in
southeast London to meet hard-core addicts who had started down the road to
addiction with marijuana.

Since then, Harry who is now 17 and a junior at the prestigious prep school
Eton -- has apparently held to the straight and narrow. The only trace of
further embarrassment came at Christmas, when he was seen in the lingerie
section of a London department store buying a $40 feathered thong, perhaps
for a girlfriend.

Which raises the question: Why did a high school boy's minor summer
escapade merit any newspaper ink at all?

It is legal in Britain for 16-year-olds to be served alcohol, as long as
the drink accompanies a meal. Since pub owners are generally willing to
extend the definition of a meal to a single bag of potato chips, high
school students are seen drinking in pubs every night of the week. Like
other European countries, Britain has stopped enforcing laws against
smoking marijuana; many kids light their spliffs on the sidewalk right in
front of police stations.

But Harry is different, because he is a prince. That's the basic bargain
that comes with being royal in a democratic age. Merely for being born
right, you get the lavish palace, the long yachts, the loyal retainers. In
return, your foibles entertain the populace.

"They have no constitutional power. They do represent the nation at
ribbon-cuttings and the like, but we could elect somebody to do that for a
tiny fraction of what we spend on our royals," says Jonathan Freedland, a
columnist for the Guardian newspaper. "So why have them? Well, some people
like the tradition of the thing. And the tabloids love them. They are our
own national soap opera."

The current royal family has provided endless fascination for Britons. The
marital, extramarital and business exploits of the four children of the
present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, have shocked and saddened the nation
for more than two decades. The rocky marriage of Harry's parents, with
much-publicized cheating on both sides, has prompted many to suggest that
Charles should not be allowed to inherit the throne.

But the two sons of Charles and Diana are generally seen here as a new
beginning for the dynasty that the queen refers to as "the firm."
Nineteen-year-old William, who is next in line to be king after Charles, is
the spitting image of his mother and a heartthrob for teenage girls around
the world. Harry, who has a reputation here as a quick wit and a star
athlete, is third in line to the throne -- although he is unlikely to
become king if his brother stays healthy.

That's why the palace was eager today to get beyond the headlines
tarnishing a shiny new generation. Buckingham Palace, the queen's official
home, had no comment on today's stories. St. James's Palace responded to
the media hullabaloo with a single curt sentence: "This is a serious matter
which was resolved within the family and is now in the past and closed."