Prince William went undercover to gain work experience

London - The Duke of Cambridge learned what it was like to take orders as well as give them during a work experience stint as an odd-job man in an English stately home, news reports said on Monday.

"He spent a week working around the estate and made sausage rolls and mince pies," Chatsworth House head housekeeper Christine Robinson revealed in her memoir.

"Then he spent a week at the house, dressed in overalls, drinking tea and eating fish and chips with the rest of the housemen and joiners."

It was intended that Prince William go incognito for his two weeks at the north of England mansion in 2005. But he did not deny his real identity when visitors did a double-take and approached him.

Robinson recalled how the duke was rumbled despite carrying planks of wood in his workmen's clothes. "The look on visitors' faces was priceless," she said.

The second-in-line to the throne was 23 at the time and just out of university. After his stint at Chatsworth, he spent three weeks working as an intern at financial institutions in the City of London.