It had to happen. Kate Middleton’s choice of hat at Cheltenham racecourse last week (pictured) has brought out the neurotic, self-appointed thought police who object to the use of real fur.

Was it real fur, though? Selfridges’s fashion department opined: “I am 110 percent sure it is genuine and it looks as if it is some sort of mink. Selfridges does not stock fur for ethical reasons but it is quite clear that that is what it is.”

Animal rights campaigners at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said they would be appalled if the hat was made from fur.

“If it is, then Kate is hugely out of touch with the vast majority of young women,” a spokeswoman said. “A recent survey showed 90 percent of young women would never wear it and the majority of fashion shops such as Harvey Nichols and Selfridges refuse to stock it. Maybe Kate is trying to fit in with what she perceives to be her new family while wearing a dead animal on her head. After all, the palace guards still wear real bearskins and the Queen is happy to wring the necks of pheasants.”

I wish someone would explain to us why farming animals for leather shoes, gelatine capsules for medicines, soap, spaghetti bolognese, glue, and a variety of other products, is different from using their skins to keep out the cold.

Kate has just learned that when you’re perceived to be a toff a different set of rules apply to your behaviour.

Royal Anecdotes has covered the long-running saga of the sale of Nether Lypiatt before. The country house of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent has been on the market for ten months. It’s said to be poorly decorated, even down-at-heel, and to be too close to the Stroud Pony Club for comfort. The price has been lowered from £6m to £5.5m, all to no avail.

The latest prospective buyer was TV presenter Noel Edmonds, a man forced to part with his beloved Okehampton estate following a messy divorce. Surely Noel, who is currently enjoying renewed success with his television career, would take to the early 18th-century mansion set in 36 acres, with eight bedrooms and six bathrooms? Unhappily, it was not to be.

The decor didn’t matter to Edmonds, President of the British Horse Society, who had planned extensive refurbishment anyway. It was the overall lack of privacy that put him off, a view that echoes other complaints about noise from the Pony Club.

A friend of Edmonds said: “The house completely lacks privacy. It can be viewed easily by members of the public from the road outside. It isn’t a main road — but it’s used as a cut-through between Bisley and Stroud. A number of celebrities have viewed it and its lack of privacy is why they’re struggling to find a buyer.”

The Royal couple are anxious to sell because their rent subsidy from the Queen of £120,000 a year for their apartment in Kensington Palace runs out next year. Estate agents have advised that Nether Lypiatt is unlikely to go for more than £4.5m, a sum recently offered by artist Damien Hurst.

Chelsy Davy.

Prince William got a squeeze from girlfriend Kate Middleton at the weekend, while his brother Prince Harry’s girl Chelsy Davy cut a more lonely figure.

Rumours have it that Zimbabwe-born Chelsy, 21, now living in Cape Town, is not finding it easy to maintain a long-distance romance with Sandhurst-based Prince Harry.

The UK Mirror reports: “These days her new Mercedes sports car, a gift from her rich dad, seems to be the love of her life. She was snapped after driving down to the shops to console herself with cigarettes and chocolate.”

Harry is flying to South Africa in April to join Chelsy on safari.

By contrast, William and Kate seem idyllically settled. An onlooker said: “At one point she even messed about with his hair. They looked very happy.”

In a poll to launch a Disney TV channel, Prince William and girlfriend Kate Middleton have been named Britain’s favourite “Prince Charming and Cinderella”.

According to Glasgow’s Daily Record, Celebrity Big Brother’s Chantelle and Preston were placed fifth, three ahead of Elton John and newly-spliced partner David Furnish.

Prince Charles and Camilla were 11th.