Ned finds his Waugh bride
ARISTOCRATS are usually busy with their shotguns at this time of year, but the Marquess of Salisbury’s son and heir, Viscount Cranborne, has his sights set on a wedding instead.
I hear that Ned Cecil, as the 51-year-old Viscount is known to chums, is due to exchange vows on New Year’s Eve with journalist Constance Watson — greatgranddaughter of satirical novelist Evelyn Waugh — who’s two decades his junior.
Cuddly Ned, who has a daughter from a previous relationship, stands to inherit a £335 million fortune, which includes one of England’s largest historic properties, 17thcentury Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, and its £150 million art collection. His father became a pariah among many Tories after making a secret deal with Tony Blair to axe hereditary peers from the Lords, as long as 92 of them kept their seats. Curiously, the family decline to comment on the happy news.