By Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com, and Jamieson Lesko, NBC News
LONDON - The spirit of the Olympics came to Britain?s Windsor Castle on Tuesday as Queen Elizabeth II welcomed torchbearers to her home.
Local residents ran through the grounds of the royal residence carrying the flaming symbol of the sporting event.
The torch was on the latest leg of a winding, 8,000-mile U.K.-wide itinerary that ends with its arrival at the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, on July 27 for the televised ceremony at which the queen will declare the Games open.
It has already been carried from Land?s End, at the far south-western tip of England, to Wales, Northern Ireland and across to Scotland.
It even briefly crossed the border into the Republic of Ireland on its route, which was designed to take it within an hour's?journey of?95 percent of Britain's population.
Some didn?t have to travel at all: The queen carried an unopened umbrella Tuesday as rain-sodden runner Gina Macgregor, 74, took the torch directly to her front door at Windsor Castle, in Berkshire.
Earlier in the day, it was held aloft by Roger Bannister, the first runner to smash the four-minute mile in 1954. Bannister, 83, walked 30 yards along the same track in Oxford where he ran the mile in three minutes, 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954.
Read more coverage of the Olympic torch relay at ITV News
Even with more than two weeks still to run, the torch has already seen its fair share of human drama, including a torchbearer in Yorkshire who paused to propose to his girlfriend.
The Olympic torch has made its most eminent journey yet. In the space of just a few hours it passed through the hands of two sporting knights, a champion jockey and was greeted by the Queen. ITV's Tim Ewart saw its stately progress.
In emotional scenes last month, Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson -- the most seriously wounded British soldier to survive the war in Afghanistan -- was cheered and applauded by crowds as he bravely carried the flame 300 meters despite his crippling injuries.
American stuntman Nick Macomber carried the torch in a special hands-free carrier while using his free hands to control a jet pack on his back when the relay passed Britain?s National Space Centre in Leicester, central England.
And earlier this week some onlookers saw more than they bargained for when a streaker ran ahead of the relay in an apparent protest on behalf of Tibetan independence.
Among the highlights still to come are visits to the ancient site of Stonehenge, the white cliffs of Dover, and London?s Kew Gardens.
More London 2012 coverage:
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