A groundskeeper at Sandringham House, a private residence in Norfolk where the royal family gathers every year for the most regimented Christmas fun one could ever imagine, remains in critical condition after falling off a riding lawnmower and becoming submerged in a small lake on the property on Monday.

The employee, a man in his thirties, is believed to have been underwater for several minutes before police pulled him out. A spokesman for the Norfolk police told press "I cannot speculate on how he came to be in the water."

The incident occurred around 1:30 p.m., about half an hour after the Queen finished hosting a private dog party for some bitches she knows. According to a secretary of the East Anglia branch of the Welsh Corgi League, 63 club members were in attendance with 48 of their dogs. The Telegraph reports that the Queen "chatted with members and petted their dogs for around half an hour," before she'd had quite enough of that, thank you.

The secretary confirmed to the paper that the Queen "likes to pet and stroke the dogs," adding "we all have a nice time." Excepting, of course, the laborer who very nearly drowned to death on the other side of the property.

[Photo from Getty]