Deceased Aristocrat

For the hardcore reader of obituaries, there is nothing better than a deceased British aristocrat. It may not be good for the deceased or their family and friends, but for those of us who like to read obits, little in the English language tops reading about the death of a British aristocrat.

And that's generally reading about them in the NYT, never mind the polished sendoff they might get from the British press.

Take the recent passing of Stella Tennant, 50, described as an aristocrat British model who inspired designers. 

We learn she was none other than the granddaughter of the youngest of the Mitford sisters, that sextet of women that dominated British intelligentsia in the early part of the 20th century. Putting names to the relationship, Stella was the granddaughter of Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke of Devonshire, and Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters.

Going back further, the obiturist Guy Trebay tells us "Ms. Tennant was directly descended from Bess of Hardwick, the builder of the opulent Elizabethan manor Hardwick Hall, who was once reputed to be the richest woman in England."

Stella apparently played down her aristocratic heritage as best she could, by having a three-decade run in fashion "during which she walked the runways for most of the major fashion designers."  She was on more magazine covers than Elvis or the Beatles.

Stella's parents were no less titled than her grandparents, her mother being Lady Emma Cavendish and her father the Honorable Tobias William Tennant, the son of the second Baron Glenconner, who himself was the younger half brother of Colin Tennant, "the rakehell favorite of Princess Margaret and the force behind the development of the Caribbean island of Mustique."

Knowing that the late Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's sister, was a unrepentant party girl, I have to assume a "rakehell" is the male equivalent.

But just to be sure, I did look up the word "rakehell," a word I'm sure I would have never read if I wasn't reading about a deceased British aristocrat.

And sure enough, rakehell gets the definition of a "fashionable or wealthy man of immoral or promiscuous habits." If you can't name at least three American equivalents of a rakehell your television hasn't been on since this morning.

And that's the beauty of reading about a deceased British aristocrat. You come across words like rakehell, and a Mitford sister grandchild that a designer Anna Sui said, "was so elegant and had the prettiness and androgyny of an Elizabeth Peyton drawing. Plus, there was that posh accent and the defiance of the nose ring." Gone at 50.

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