Losing the Loins of Longleat

Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, owner of the Elizabethan stately pile, Longleat House, who has died at the age of 87 after contracting COVID-19, was one of Britain’s most colorful and eccentric aristocrats.

At an imposing 6’5″, with flowing shoulder length hair and straggly beard, and colorful outfits more befitting Woodstock, the Old Etonian and ex Life Guards officer, was chatelain of an impressive 9,000-acre estate, which was one of the first to feature lions in 1966 when his father, the sixth marquess – a keen collector of Nazi memorabilia – introduced them to the sprawling Wiltshire property.

Given his libidinous lifestyle, the media dubbed him the Loins of Longleat, and he housed his many girlfriends, who he called “wifelets,” in houses dotted around the estate.

The news of his passing particularly impacted on State Street Ballet board member Arlyn Goldsby, who knew Alexander and his mother Anna, after meeting many years ago at a London fashion event.

“She was absolutely divine,” recounts Arlyn, who used to own the store Objects on Coast Village Road. “We were invited to lunch at Longleat and Alex was reclined on a chaise with his long-haired dachshunds.

“I remember vividly sitting at a huge table for lunch when the butler appeared and said, ‘My Lord, the London Times is on the phone. It was like a scene out of a Julian Fellowes movie.”

Arlyn and her late husband, Marlowe, made a point of visiting the aristocratic family each year they were in England.

“Over the years we met many of Alex’s female friends on the train on our trips down there. He was an utterly fascinating and charming individual.”