Captain Moonlight: Many barrelled

SOCIAL note: last week at Ascot the Prince of Wales met Zara Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, wife of Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax. Mrs Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax is a former Lady-in-Waiting to the Princess Royal. Her sister is Alexandra 'Tiggy' Legge-Bourke, secretary to the prince's private secretary. Miss Legge-Bourke was, according to Tatler, 'spectacular' at lacrosse at Heathfield. Mr Plunkett-Ernle-Erle- Drax is a cousin of Baron Dunsany. His family achieved its barrels through the 18th- and 19th-century usage of a husband hyphenating his wife's name if she were heiress to landed property. Should you meet a Plunkett-Ernle-Erle- Drax, remember that Ernle is pronounced Earnly. A mission to Russia with the French in 1939 by Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett- Ernle-Erle-Drax failed to avert the German-Soviet pact. He was also an authority on swimming-pool solar heating. The longest multi-barrel on record in England is Major Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache-de Orellana-Plantagenet-Tollemache-Tollemache (1884-1917).