Another Rutland peer

Will Howells reports the welcome news that the Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury (who as Eric Lubbock won the historic Orpington by-election for the Liberals in 1962) has started writing a blog.

Intriguingly, Lord Avebury reveals that Eleanor Paston his 13 times great grandmother married Thomas Manners, the first Earl of Rutland.

The Manners family are now the Dukes of Rutland, which reminds me of the following entry in Lord Bonkers' Diary:

I was sad to read of the death of my old friend Thor Heyerdahl. No one gives him much thought now, but in his day he was Quite The Thing. If he thought a set of chaps in one place had come from another place then he jolly well set out to prove it. He was not afraid to sail a papyrus raft from Easter Island to Egypt (or perhaps it was the other way round?) if that would aid him in his pursuit of the truth. It happened that some years ago I had a dispute with the Duke of Rutland over the boundary of our estates. I shall not bore you with the details here: suffice to say I was clearly in the right. Nevertheless, to prove my point at Law I had to demonstrate that my ancestors has settled the northern shores of Rutland Water. With Heyerdahl's help I was able to construct a vessel from Stilton rinds and recreate their voyage. There was a spring tide running and Ruttie was in playful mood, but we made landfall and the Duke settled out of court.