Eleanor Doughty
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brushingboots.bsky.social
Eleanor Doughty
@brushingboots.bsky.social
330 followers 200 following 820 posts
Writer on the aristocracy, big houses, old money; author of HEIRS AND GRACES, a history of the modern aristocracy, which is out now! Views my own, yours for £. [email protected]
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453305/heirs-and-graces-by-doughty-eleanor/
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brushingboots.bsky.social
Eleanor Doughty @brushingboots.bsky.social · Sep 6
‘This is a marvellous book’

Heirs and Graces is reviewed in today’s Times and I am a little emotional (again).
www.thetimes.com/article/68f2...
It’s tough being a toff — the decline of the British aristocracy
In Heirs and Graces, Eleanor Doughty documents how aristocrats are surviving in an age of inheritance tax, from turning their estates into safari parks to working for B&Q
www.thetimes.com
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
'We are deeply sorry for what took place. People often ask, ‘you must have known...’ – No!'

For this week's Great Estates I went to Ampleforth to interview the abbot Dom Robert Igo – about IICSA, monastery life and the cost of living in an abbey. It was a lot.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/37cdadf...
‘Even a monastery isn’t immune to the cost of living crisis’
Great Estates: Ampleforth Abbey is putting its troubled past behind it with a ‘creative’ vision for the future
www.telegraph.co.uk
September 14, 2026 at 7:55 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
'We are deeply sorry for what took place. People often ask, ‘you must have known...’ – No!'

For this week's Great Estates I went to Ampleforth to interview the abbot Dom Robert Igo – about IICSA, monastery life and the cost of living in an abbey. It was a lot.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/37cdadf...
‘Even a monastery isn’t immune to the cost of living crisis’
Great Estates: Ampleforth Abbey is putting its troubled past behind it with a ‘creative’ vision for the future
www.telegraph.co.uk
September 14, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
'We need to take more risk. The UK has a lower GDP per capita than Louisiana. Why? Because the US takes more risk'

This week's Great Estates is at Cornbury with the insurance magnate David Howden – and what fun it was! On new money, snobs, the City, and Ascot
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/f81d34c...
‘I’ve spent millions on my 5,000-acre estate – and I don’t even own it’
Great Estates: an insurance magnate from the City has turned Cornbury House into a hard-working home
www.telegraph.co.uk
September 1, 2026 at 8:20 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
I have spent the afternoon reading one of the IICSA reports (for work) and truly, this is not a good way to spend time
September 1, 2026 at 4:27 PM
brushingboots.bsky.social
'We need to take more risk. The UK has a lower GDP per capita than Louisiana. Why? Because the US takes more risk'

This week's Great Estates is at Cornbury with the insurance magnate David Howden – and what fun it was! On new money, snobs, the City, and Ascot
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/f81d34c...
‘I’ve spent millions on my 5,000-acre estate – and I don’t even own it’
Great Estates: an insurance magnate from the City has turned Cornbury House into a hard-working home
www.telegraph.co.uk
September 1, 2026 at 8:20 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
A short story in a few lines. My house has had the same roof for almost 200 years. It hasn’t rained for three months. House has been beautifully dry all summer in preparation. Whole new roof slated to start this week; scaffolding is now up. What is it now doing? Raining, biblically. Fab!
August 27, 2026 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
Lord Kimble Montagu didn't meet his father, the Duke of Manchester, until he was 21 – and he's never spoken about it before. This week's Great Estates is on the old Manchester pile, Kimbolton Castle, now a school, ft several bankrupt dukes and Catherine of Aragon
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/14973bf...
‘My grandfather sold our country house to a school in 1950. I’d do the same thing today’
Great Estates: Lord Kimble Montagu is glad that Kimbolton Castle has a living purpose
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 17, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
‘I don’t know what they teach them there but Etonians are always right’

I went to Holkham to see the inimitable @jakefiennes.bsky.social: on the worst harvest in 30 years, wildfires, ‘as the brother of…’, the king, and exactly how much rain we now need ASAP
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/af7c0fc...
Jake Fiennes: People are to blame for wildfires, not rewilding
The conservationist on irresponsible campers, the ‘hindrances’ of his surname and how the Government doesn’t understand rural communities
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 16, 2026 at 8:10 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
Lord Kimble Montagu didn't meet his father, the Duke of Manchester, until he was 21 – and he's never spoken about it before. This week's Great Estates is on the old Manchester pile, Kimbolton Castle, now a school, ft several bankrupt dukes and Catherine of Aragon
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/14973bf...
‘My grandfather sold our country house to a school in 1950. I’d do the same thing today’
Great Estates: Lord Kimble Montagu is glad that Kimbolton Castle has a living purpose
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 17, 2026 at 8:06 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
‘I don’t know what they teach them there but Etonians are always right’

I went to Holkham to see the inimitable @jakefiennes.bsky.social: on the worst harvest in 30 years, wildfires, ‘as the brother of…’, the king, and exactly how much rain we now need ASAP
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/af7c0fc...
Jake Fiennes: People are to blame for wildfires, not rewilding
The conservationist on irresponsible campers, the ‘hindrances’ of his surname and how the Government doesn’t understand rural communities
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 16, 2026 at 8:10 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
Apropros recent events, I was minded to look up Peter Carter-Ruck and this (new to me) detail about his relationship with Private Eye does not disappoint. I knew the F/Ruck bit but not that there was a coda
Extract from Peter Carter-Ruck's Telegraph obituary: In 1989 Carter-Ruck publicly attacked the £600,000 damages awarded to Sonia Sutcliffe against the magazine and was invited to an Eye lunch, an occasion he attended with some trepidation. Not long afterwards, he asked if, in the new spirit of friendship, they would now stop printing the first letter of Ruck as an F. Their response, not unpredictably, was to print the first letter of Carter as an F as well. "I think my relationship with Private Eve is now definitely hate," he said later.
August 11, 2026 at 7:10 PM
brushingboots.bsky.social
Be a writer, they said – it'll be fun, they said. And yet here I am reading up on the Bankruptcy Law Consolidation Act 1849. (It is still the best job there is.)
August 6, 2026 at 7:56 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
Oh my good lord, it's raining. A rare, sweet pleasure
August 4, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
This week's Great Estates is on Revesby, Lincolnshire where I learnt how to herd deer, went stoat spotting and almost fell into the reservoir!
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/2d2198f...
‘We’ve always treated our 6,000-acre estate like an elderly relative that needs looking after’
Great Estates: village charm and bustling business keep Revesby relevant in the 21st century
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 3, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
historyrage.bsky.social
📅 #onthisday 3 Aug 1945 Manny Shinwell became Minister of Fuel and Power. Soon after, open-cast mining transformed the grounds of #WentworthWoodhouse . @brushingboots.bsky.social reveals the clash between government need and aristocratic estates.

🎧 Listen : pod.fo/e/3a194b

#History #Podcast #otd
August 3, 2026 at 10:30 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
This week's Great Estates is on Revesby, Lincolnshire where I learnt how to herd deer, went stoat spotting and almost fell into the reservoir!
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/2d2198f...
‘We’ve always treated our 6,000-acre estate like an elderly relative that needs looking after’
Great Estates: village charm and bustling business keep Revesby relevant in the 21st century
www.telegraph.co.uk
August 3, 2026 at 9:27 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
This week I have been doing a lot of specifically Not Writing work so am desperate to actually use my brain and Write Something, yet here is a 101-minute tape that I have to transcribe first and OH the indignity!!!
July 29, 2026 at 5:19 PM
brushingboots.bsky.social
People say that stuff is iconic and it almost never is but perhaps the Crooked House in Lavenham actually is. A very civilised Monday morning indeed
The Crooked House in Lavenham, Suffolk with a blue MGT GT outside
July 27, 2026 at 12:44 PM
brushingboots.bsky.social
On the Other Place MrMemory (who isn't on here?) points out that Hilary Benn leaving government means that Andy Burnham will be the first Labour PM who has not, so far, had a Benn in his cabinet. Of course, there's still time, given that Lord Stansgate remains in the Lords, ironically
July 20, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
philipcoggan.bsky.social
Andy Burnham definitely going back to the 1970s by appointing a man called Healey as chancellor
July 20, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
wtfrench76.bsky.social
Ach, really sad news with which to start the week. RIP. --> BBC broadcaster Edward Stourton dies aged 68 www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...
BBC broadcaster Edward Stourton dies aged 68
Corporation pays tribute to ‘outstanding’ journalist who presented shows including Today and One O’Clock News
www.theguardian.com
July 20, 2026 at 8:06 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
This week's Great Estates is on the outrageously beautiful Broughton Castle where I had a gorgeous day with Lord Saye and Sele – or rather, Martin Fiennes as he prefers to be known. On new money, old money and why (just) being posh doesn't cut it in the big house
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/3a00d20...
‘Being posh doesn’t pay the bills. Castles need passion, commitment and money’
Great Estates: Broughton Castle has survived war and tragedy but heritage alone won’t secure its future
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 20, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
brushingboots.bsky.social
Slightly inevitably I wrote about George Cottrell, Nigel Farage and the aristocracy for the Spectator
spectator.com/article/the-...
The aristocracy is still very good at producing black sheep
Wouldn’t you be a bit odd if you were from a family that lived in a massive house and had endured generations of being waited on?
spectator.com
July 13, 2026 at 8:26 AM
brushingboots.bsky.social
Huh, so David Ross has a peerage at last I see. He's changed his tune. This here from my 2021 interview with him where he was brusque, if not rude – and his PR told me not to mention the fact that we were meeting behind a big black door with '10' on the front
www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/...
"There is an EdStone in my garden." The original? "You'd have to go and look at it," he says. Where does the motivation for political donation come from? "Political donations are not philanthropic in [the same] sense." There is a pause while he taps a paperclip on the table. Would he like a peerage? "No."
July 16, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Eleanor Doughty
adambienkov.bsky.social
The thing about Kemi Badenoch's purge of any Conservative member to the left of Enoch Powell is that she's so close to a Tory revival if she only realised it. All she needs to do is to lead a party that is not obviously mad and wait for Reform to crumble, but she can't even manage that
July 14, 2026 at 8:44 AM