Scottish toffs begin to sweat as referendum counts down

Fearing taxes on mansions and compulsory purchase of their estates, Scottish aristocrats are getting nervous – very nervous – in the face of next week’s independence referendum.

Nearly three-quarters of all of Scotland’s land is owned by 2,500 people: the Duke of Buccleuch, for example, holds 250,000 acres.

Interviewed by the Tatler, the Duchess of Argyll said: "This place eats money. But what if [First Minister] Salmond imposes a mansion tax? We're done for." Her family owns 62,000 acres and Inveraray, the castle used in the 2012 Downton Abbey Christmas special.

In the Scottish Borders, Lord  Palmer told the Tatler's reporter of his concerns. "I mean, [the pro-independence movement] simply do not know what they're doing," he told the magazine, the bible of British high society.

Lawyer Felicia Morris, described by the Tatler as "the new queen of the London-based Scots", said: "Everyone's very worried. It's being talked about incessantly at dinner parties."

Not all aristos are divorced from ordinary life, though perhaps they have unusually demonstrative ways of displaying their feelings.

Three years ago, Kit Fraser, who lives in a castle in Perthshire, stripped down to his underpants outside the Royal Bank of Scotland’s agm in Edinburgh to demonstrate Scotland’s anger at bankers “stripping the nation bare”.