Duke of Rutland's daughters make Downton Abbey's Crawley sisters look like angels

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Lady Violet, 22, Lady Alice, 20, and Lady Eliza, 18, fixtures on social scene
Attended the £29,000-a-year Queen Margaret's school in York
The sisters upset locals with 'all night' parties
They regularly post racy images and share their lives on Instagram

Published: 17:56 EST, 20 November 2015 | Updated: 04:35 EST, 22 November 2015

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For an age where celebrity grows not on family trees but on social media and reality obsessed TV shows, some will find the aristocratic allure of the Duke of Rutland's glossy daughters quite mystifying.

Yet for much of this year Britain's society pages have been filled with accounts of the glamorous and pampered existence of Lady Violet, 22, Lady Alice, 20, and 18-year-old Lady Eliza Manners. Whether it's dancing on the sofa at Tatler's Little Black Book party, hiding under the beds to startle visitors touring the family seat, Belvoir Castle, or upsetting the neighbours with their up-all-night partying, no trifling detail of their lives has escaped attention.

And no red carpet is complete without their gamine presence.

When Violet — Vi to the family — locked herself out of her London home, she shared the moment online with a picture of herself peering through the letter box. There are selfies galore; from revealing shots in changing room cubicles to close-ups in skimpy bikinis.

Trio of trouble: Alice, Eliza and Violet Manners have been a mainstay of high society. Britain's society pages have been filled with accounts of their glamorous and pampered existence

Nowhere is out of bounds. Alice posted a snap of her and Violet in a lavatory, while saucily remarking of a picture taken from a Vogue magazine shoot: 'Forgot to keep my legs closed oops.'

Of a photograph taken last week of her hunting, which exhibits her shapely bottom, she writes: 'Giving the guy behind me an eyeful . . .'

Such has been their whirlwind arrival on the party scene, with an unorthodox domestic background, that the sisters have inevitably been compared to the Mitford girls — though not for any political or literary tendencies.

It might be more accurate to liken them to the Earl of Grantham's lively daughters in Downton Abbey.

As an old family friend observes: 'None is going to find a cure for cancer, but they're not total dimwits. They can be quite silly and get carried away with wittering on (photo-sharing website) Instagram, but deep down they are very sweet girls and not at all snotty or grand.'

What all three do possess, however, is a sublime self-confidence that comes with knowing exactly who they are. The friend explains: 'When you are a duke's daughter, you can pretty much do anything.'

Cheeky girls: Violet (left) and Alice share a shot by a pool on Instagram. They were all sent to a traditional all-girls boarding school

Sent to a traditional all-girls boarding school, £29,000-a-year Queen Margaret's in York (Eliza left in the summer), their extra-curricular education has included hunting, shooting, skiing and, above all, socialising.

Nothing has been allowed to come between them and a party — not even their parents' unusual separation in 2012 after 20 years.

In a typically aristocratic solution, the Duke and Duchess merely reorganised their living arrangements and moved into separate wings of the vast Belvoir Castle, where they both have new partners.

Parallels were drawn with Lady Chatterley — the D.H. Lawrence character who embarks on a passionate affair with a gamekeeper — after the Duchess's new lover was last month revealed to be her estate manager, Phil Burtt.

The Duke's new partner, known as 'Andrea' by locals, is believed to be in her 40s and originally from South America.

Belvoir — pronounced 'beaver' — the ancestral home of the dukes of Rutland for 500 years, remains party central.

Doorstep: When Violet — Vi to the family — locked herself out of her London home, she shared the moment online with a picture of herself peering through the letter box

Eliza's 18th birthday in August, during which she and her mother, Emma, took to the stage to sing Cat Stevens's Father And Son, had a circus theme. Her portly father David was, appropriately, dressed as a top-hatted ringmaster.

For Alice's 18th two years earlier the dress code was The Arabian Nights. The sisters' younger brothers Charles, now 16, the Marquess of Granby, and Lord Hugo, 12, arrived on camels. One of the boys even wrote a rap for her: 'Alice, Alice, Alice, she lives in a Palace, Palace, Palace.'

Even her gran got in on the act by performing a belly-dance.

The Duke's 50th birthday in 2009 was a sit-down dinner for 320, after which he cut the cake with a ceremonial sword so big he could barely lift it. Guests including Elizabeth Hurley wore 1920s outfits, drank martinis and were entertained by burlesque dancers.

Partying has been part of the fabric of castle life since the Duchess — born Welsh farmer's daughter Emma Watkins — installed a full-size nightclub, including smoke machines, when she moved into Belvoir in 2002.

But while this was no problem in rural Leicestershire, the same cannot be said in West London, where the family have a £2 million townhouse which the girls racily refer to as 'the Pussy Palace'.

Earlier this year it emerged that the three sisters had upset locals with what were described as 'all night' parties.

One neighbour complained that it was like 'living next door to a nightclub'. A letter chronicled the 'broken nights, unpleasantness and noise' she had suffered.

In particular, the girls, who have been dubbed the 'posh Kardashians' — after the reality TV clan — fell out with marketing consultant Jackie Elliot, who wrote to their father explaining there had been so much disturbance that she had spoken to the local council numerous times, and on one occasion the police were called.

She went on: 'I have also written to Violet and on occasions, after the event, we have received an apology. But not always and in any case, the apology has never prevented callous repetition.

'In her note of apology after last week's party your daughter Eliza said she has 'little experience of London life'. I was brought up in the country and know these are not the ways of the country either.'

Alas, the girls promptly fell foul of danger that never faced Downton's Crawley sisters — social media. Lady Violet put a photograph of the letter online, commenting: 'It has to be said I won't take all the rap for being so unpopular with my neighbours. There's definitely a number of people who have helped along the way.'

She then compounded matters by responding to a friend who sarcastically praised her for her efforts in upsetting the neighbours: 'It wasn't difficult they complain about EVERYTHING! Haha.'

Ms Elliot, who had lived on the smart Fulham street for 25 years, did not see the funny side. 'It has been going on for years,' she sighed. 'Loud music, people coming and going very late, talking in the road, shouting, cars arriving, cars going.

'I have written to 'Violet no- Manners', as we call her, several times and sent text messages. Sometimes she apologises, but it doesn't stop. Around early February, I wrote to the Duke. He wrote back a short letter which was perfectly courteous and said he had made the 'occupants' aware of its contents.'

Of Lady Violet uploading the letter online, Ms Elliot noted: 'It is typical of the immaturity and lack of manners they have. I don't know what they do, it's like they have elephants in the house.'

Nine months on and the house is somewhat quieter. Alice and Eliza have moved into a flat around the corner, while Vi shares the five-bedroom property with four flatmates.

It is only fair to say the sisters are hardly standard delinquent types.

After leaving Queen Margaret's, Vi went to work for British Polo Day, which organises matches worldwide. She now works for a Soho-based production company which puts on shows for big designers at events such as London Fashion Week.

She also, with her sisters, helps promote Belvoir itself, taking part in a photo shoot for Vogue China to attract more Oriental guests.

The Vogue interviewer wrote: 'The aristocrat is chatty, unaffected and candid, openly talking about her struggle with dyslexia as a child, her entrepreneurial ambitions and even volunteering to reveal her most embarrassing moments . . .'

This, apparently, was tripping up on her high heels and breaking a tooth in the Maharajah of Jodhpur's palace in Rajasthan.

Her boyfriends have included Andy Jordan, from reality TV show Made In Chelsea, and a hedge fund investor called Will Wells. Currently, her love life is said to be 'quiet.'

Sister Alice, described by Tatler as 'thrillingly racy — before she left St Margaret's she put her headmaster on a dating site' — is said to be seeing Otis Ferry, foxhunting son of crooner Bryan, though this is denied.

The girls are long-time friends with the Ferry boys but the romance — if that is what it is — has not pleased everyone in the sisters' circle. Says a friend: 'We call them the feral Ferrys. They're not as nice as they look.'

Celebration: Eliza Manners' 18th birthday party with Alice (left) and birthday girl Eliza

Alice's father is more generous. 'Otis Ferry gets a thumbs up from me,' he told us. 'He seems nice. I couldn't say whether or not I see him as a future son-in-law. Who knows?

'I don't really want any of my girls to get married before they're about 30, ideally, because that way they have time to have a career.'

Since leaving the Conde Nast College Of Fashion, Lady Alice has been working at Phoenix, a fashion magazine, and helped design a new retail section within Fenwick, the West End department store.

Her friends include Burberry model Matilda Lowther, a niece of the Earl of Lonsdale, and other fashionistas.

Eliza is following in her big sister's footsteps, having also joined British Polo Day. According to Alice, however, Eliza is the rebel.

The sisters recently recalled how one morning Eliza had asked to speak to them both. 'F***! I thought you were pregnant but you'd just had a tattoo,' Violet told a magazine.

The tattoo was in memory of the late Belvoir housekeeper Kate Pacey who, explained Eliza, 'had raised Dad and was at the birth of every one of us and had worked at the castle most of her life'.

Growing up at Belvoir, say the girls, was fun. In the saffron silk bedroom where Queen Victoria once slept, and Kate Moss was photographed in bunny ears, they would hide under the bed and 'scare the tourists by sticking our hands out'. Says Eliza: 'I remember one American saying: 'Holy-moly, Mr Guide, we have an issue here.' The tour guide would send the Americans into the next room and come back and give us a b********g.'

But if this all makes them sound like spoiled brats, friends say that is not the case. 'Naive maybe, and I know they sound terribly spoiled because of that letter and Vi's Instagram comments, but they have impeccable manners.

Lively: The Manners sisters have been compared to the Earl of Grantham's girls in Downton Abbey

'They know they're grand and have a butler and they grew up in a castle and are the daughters of a duke, but they're in on the joke, if that makes sense. They don't take it all too seriously, particularly given what they've been through with their parents.'

Speaking about her parents' arrangements, Lady Violet said: 'It's really chilled. We all go to Dad's tower to visit him and watch TV and things, and every week we all meet in the middle and have a roast.'

Of her mother's boyfriend, Phil Burtt, she added: 'He has been a huge part of the shoots we have at Belvoir becoming one of the most successful in the country.'

Some of their tenants are less positive about the situation. 'Those children are bound to be mixed up after what's happened,' said one.

For the sisters, however, there is the reassurance that they are continuing a grand traditional of colourful Manners girls.

Aunt Lady Theresa was an Eighties It-girl nicknamed 'the Titled Tart' for her raunchy onstage antics with her band, Business Connection — 'better known for her rear end, and the column inches of Debretts which describe its members, than for its music', one critic concluded.

And the divorce of the sisters' great-grandmother, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, was the sensation of the Sixties when her husband accused her of sleeping with 88 other men.

With such antecedents, it seems likely we will be hearing — and seeing — a lot more of the Manners girls.