Savage poem by Lord Longleat’s brother is unearthed calling him an ‘egocentric fool’ and slamming the ‘smutty pictures’ of the Karmasutra he hung around his manor
- Brothers Christopher and Alexander were notoriously bitter rivals in life
- Alexander sacked his brother running the Wiltshire estate and turfed him out
- An unearthed poem sees Christopher describes Alexander as ‘drunk and smelly’
The feud with his younger brother was so bitter that the late Marquess of Bath once claimed that ‘six volumes of my memoirs are devoted to sibling rivalry’.
And now an extraordinary poem unearthed by The Mail on Sunday reveals just how ferocious and deep-seated the bust-up between the scions of Longleat House really was.
Bad blood between the pair made headlines in 1992, just days after the death of their father Henry, the 6th Marquess. On inheriting the title, Alexander Thynn sacked brother Christopher from his job running the Wiltshire estate and turfed him out of his home.
In 48 lines of vitriol, Christopher (right) describes Alexander (left) as a ‘stupid egocentric fool’ and a ‘clown’ who is ‘crude in everything you do’. Lord Bath sacked his younger brother when he took the title following their father’s death
But the poisoned verse uncovered by this newspaper shows their enmity goes back much further than this.
In 48 lines of vitriol, Christopher describes Alexander as a ‘stupid egocentric fool’ and a ‘clown’ who is ‘crude in everything you do’.
He gave a copy of the poem to a friend in 1988, who has now decided to share it following the death of Lord Bath, 87, from coronavirus earlier this month.
In it, Christopher savages his brother, who earned the nickname the ‘Loins of Longleat’ due to his dozens of lovers or ‘wifelets’, and his pornographic murals.
Christopher wrote: ‘Your smutty pictures on your walls/To me are total junk/Graffiti has you by the balls/ You petty, puerile punk.’
And in the final verse he snipes: ‘Drunken, smelly, swollen belly/Grasping, mean and fat/Wobbling like a halfset jelly/God knows what you’re at.’
While the brothers were said to have eventually reconciled, the friend said: ‘I always knew it was Christopher’s intention to publish this poem. In view of the passing of Lord Bath, I think it’s a tribute to Christopher in a weird way, perfect poetic justice.’
While Alexander leaves behind an estimated £200 million fortune, Christopher had just £330,000 when he died in 2017, aged 82.
Christopher’s wedding in 1968 was attended by the Queen and The Rolling Stones. But he was arrested en route to his honeymoon the next day when 37 amphetamine tablets were found in his luggage at Heathrow.
Lord Bath, above, leaves behind an estimated £200 million fortune following his death earlier this month. His brother Christopher had just £330,000 when he died in 2017, aged 82