But Debo christened him after her favourite jockey. She's never heard of the Duke of Wellington.

James Lees-Milne recorded in his diary that the Duke of Wellington was furious when he heard that Debo had called his son 'Morny', which happened to be a diminutive of the Wellesley title Lord Mornington. 'How would you like it,' he complained to the Duke of Devonshire at a party, 'if I christened my grandson Harty of Burlington?' Nancy broke in, 'But Debo christened him after her favourite jockey. She's never heard of the Duke of Wellington.'

M.S. Lovell, The Mitford girls (2001), 385, note 1 (p.564) 

Citing J.Less-Milne, Prophesying peace (1999), 345 

I suppose he did it to force me to buy a wig

My hair was cut in London by what I thought was a faithful hairdresser. I was writing to you & Honks & Woman & not watching him & lo & behold I am an active Lesbian, Irma Grese, a prison wardress, a Great Dane breeder, anything but an ordinary English woman. I suppose he did it to force me to buy a wig.

Deborah to Nancy, 14 October 1968, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 607

Two enormous countries where you can’t get servants & where everything in the shops is machine-made

Then there was talk about Russia & I said, ‘You must realize that to us in Europe, Russia & America seem exactly the same, two enormous countries where you can’t get servants & where everything in the shops is machine-made.’ She said I’d got it all wrong & her customers have gracious lives like anything.

Nancy to Jessica, 28 August 1957, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 319

Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste

I heard the following blissful remark – one old count to another old count about a third: ‘Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste’! And the same ones about the Dsse de Vendôme whose death has plunged the Faubourg into widows’ weeds, ‘Well she must be in heaven by now’ as if she had caught a tram. Oh how funny they are.

Nancy to Diana, 4 April 1948,  ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 265

I never attempt the Hoover or lighting the stove or any of the moderately tough things

Darling, housework. I make my bed & wash up a coffee cup & then I go to bed & sleep the sleep of utter exhaustion until dinner time. What does it mean & how can people manage? I never attempt the Hoover or lighting the stove or any of the moderately tough things.

Nancy to Diana, 7 January 1946, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 248

They think of literally nothing all day but bulls and the Virgin

You know we started off in Spain, and you’ll never believe this but they are two hours late for every meal – two hours, Fanny – (can we lunch at half-past twelve today?), so of course, by then, you’ve stopped feeling hungry and only feel sick, then when the food comes it is all cooked in rancid oil, I can smell it now, it’s on everybody’s hair too, and to make it more appetizing there are pictures all round you of some dear old bull being tortured to death. They think of literally nothing all day but bulls and the Virgin. Spain was the worst of all, I thought.

N. Mitford, Love in a cold climate (1949), collected edition. Kindle loc.16,932

All the fault of that damned padre

Uncle Matthew went with Aunt Sadie and Linda on one occasion to a Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. It was not a success. He cried copiously, and went into a furious rage because it ended badly. ‘All the fault of that damned padre,’ he kept saying on the way home, still wiping his eyes. ‘That fella, what’s ’is name, Romeo, might have known a blasted papist would mess up the whole thing. Silly old fool of a nurse too, I bet she was an R.C., dismal old bitch.’

N. Mitford, The pursuit of love (1945), collection edition. Kindle loc.11,246

I was a Hon, since my father, like theirs, was a lord. There were also, however, many honorary Hons; it was not necessary to have been born a Hon in order to be one

On the afternoon of the child hunt Linda called a meeting of the Hons. The Hons was the Radlett secret society, anybody who was not a friend to the Hons was a Counter-Hon, and their battle-cry was ‘Death to the horrible Counter-Hons.’ I was a Hon, since my father, like theirs, was a lord. There were also, however, many honorary Hons; it was not necessary to have been born a Hon in order to be one. As Linda once remarked: ‘Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.’ I’m not sure how much we really believed this, we were wicked snobs in those days, but we subscribed to the general idea. Head of the hon. Hons was Josh, the groom, who was greatly beloved by us all and worth buckets of Norman blood; chief of the horrible Counter-Hons was Craven, the gamekeeper, against whom a perpetual war to the knife was waged.

N. Mitford, The pursuit of love (1945), collection edition. Kindle loc.10,627

Starting her list of expenditures with 'Flowers... £490'

Muv made sporadic efforts to interest us in the subject of household economy, and once offered a prize of half a crown to the child who could produce the best budget for a young couple living on £500 a year; but Nancy ruined the contest by starting her list of expenditures with 'Flowers... £490'.

J. Mitford, Hons and Rebels (1960), 45

Large tracts of town property [are] more than Norman blood

Ancestry has never counted for much in England. The English lord knows himself to be such a very genuine article that, when looking for a wife, he can rise above such baubles as sieze quartiers. Kind hearts, in his view, are more than coronets, and large tracts of town property more than Norman blood. He marries for love, and is rather inclined to love were the money is; he rarely marries in order to improve his coat of arms.

N. Mitford, 'The English aristocracy', ed. N. Mitford, Noblesse Oblige (1956), 45

The only non-royal people slightly superior, in his eyes, to the rank and file of his subjects, were dukes

Père Tellier,a Jesuit who came to be loathed so much that he was perhaps chiefly responsible for the expulsion of his Order from France. A sort of Rasputin, with ardent, black eyes in a false, terrible face, ignorant and wildly ambitious, he was a peasant and boasted of it to the King, who was unimpressed since in his eyes the peasantry and the bourgeoisie rated exactly the same - the only non-royal people slightly superior, in his eyes, to the rank and file of his subjects, were dukes.

N. Mitford, The Sun King (1966), 222-223

He had three further reasons for disliking the Dutch: the republicanism which seemed ingrained in their character, their Protestantism and their pamphlets

Co-operation with the Dutch did occur to Louis. he offered his daughter Marie-Anne to be the wife of William of Orange and received a humiliating rebuff. William said that in his family one married the legitimate daughters of kings, not their bastards. ... Louis XIV, always touchy on the subject of his illegitimate family, never forgave William the insult. He had three further reasons for disliking the Dutch: the republicanism which seemed ingrained in their character, their Protestantism and their pamphlets. His own press was strictly censored, but disagreeable observations on himself, his policy and his family never stopped coming off the printing presses of The Hague and Amsterdam.

N. Mitford, The Sun King (1966), 19