I note the article says that Prince Andrew asked the Countess of Derby to give his girls some tips. What a shame she didn't include fashion tips in her little lecture.
"Cazzie" Derby is a tall, slender, slightly rat-faced beanpole - the York girl's figures would be as comprehensible to her as those of little green ladies from Mars.
Funnily enough, I was a spectator at the Countess of Derby's wedding. She was born the Hon. Caroline Neville, daughter of Lord Braybrooke, whose family built our local stately home, Audley End. Cazzie was married in the enormous and very beautiful parish church in Saffron Walden, Essex - which was also coincidentally the venue for the marriage of Princess Alexandra's son James Ogilvy.(His wife is from the nearby village of Arkesden). The church is the size of a small cathedral - ours was a very wealthy parish in the 1400's - and considered highly suitable for aristocratic and semi-royal weddings. So when the Earl and Countess were married I lined the church path along with all the the other gawping locals.
It was a very grand affair, feeling rather like the last hurrah of the ancient feudal system. The reception was held in the state rooms at Audley End house I remember wondering at the time whether the guests knew that the family had long since sold out to English Heritage and were actually living in the stables! The main money-making attraction at Audley End (apart from the house itself) is a miniature steam railway that runs through the wooded grounds. It is the personal hobby of the current Lord Braybrooke - at Christmas they put up a sign saying "Santa Express" and he drives the trains himself dressed up as Santa Claus.
