Just over ten hours after giving birth, the Duchess of Cambridge looked radiant. The Duke beaming beside her as they emerged from Saint Mary's Hospital with a little girl, eight pounds three ounces. 

 

In front of hundreds of cameras and well wishers, Kate settled her new baby into a waiting car. William got behind the wheel and drove his family home to Kensington Palace.

 

The news of the birth was announced on Twitter, and then moments later by a traditional town crier.

 

(It's a girl! It's a girl!) 

 

It was a happy moment that hundreds have waited for outside the hospital. Some since the beginning of the April. 

 

It's a baby girl! What more could we want? Over eight pound. George was eight pound six. Oh, I'm hoping that I would take a look at the baby myself. I like it!

 

A baby was born, and not just any baby, a royal baby, and not just any royal baby, a princess. This is one of the most amazing feelings, I know it's, it's kind of, it's a silly feeling, but it's so fun to be a part of it. I have to kind of, catch myself, take a step back, and really soak it all in.

 

One of princess's first visitors was her brother, Prince George. William had been in the delivering room momentarily leaving the hospital to collect his 22 months old son. 

 

Within 20 minutes, he was back. The toddler making his first public appearance since the royal tour of Australia, a year ago. William willed the little prince to walk. He preferred to be carried. But delighted the crowd with a wave. The British public had wagered on a baby sister for George. And London's icon lit up with the news. 

 

Crowds flocked the Buckingham Palace to see the official notice mounted on an easel in the forecourt. Retailers would also welcome the princess. It was expected to inject more than one and a half billion dollars into the British economy over her lifetime. 

 

Just hours old and already the darling of the media and the public elite. Matt Foster, CNN, London.