Pippa's shoulder to cry on: Newly single Middleton takes weekend break with George Percy
Perhaps she just wanted to take her mind off her split from long-term boyfriend Alex Loudon.
For just days after her newly-single status first leaked out, Pippa Middleton was enjoying a weekend-long shoot at the stately pile of her close friend, George Percy, the Mail Online understands.
Accompanied by a small group of friends, the Duchess of Cambridges vivacious younger sister spent three days taking pot-shots at grouse on his family estate in the Borders.
Over the summer, Pippa Middleton and George Percy were seen at endless social events, including the Queens Club championships in June
George's parents Ralph and Jane at their home, Northumberlands Alnwick Castle, which features as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films
George or to give him his proper title, Earl Percy, son of the 12th Duke of Northumberland also invitedPippa, 27, to join his family at a Remembrance Sunday service held at Roman Catholic St Paul's Church in the nearby village of Alnwick.
Shetook a place in the front pew along with his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and grandmother, Dowager Duchess of Northumberland, Duchess Elizabeth.
George, 27, sat in the row behind.
TheRev David Archer, who led the service, admitted he had noticed a ratherattractive lady in the front row but had no idea it was the future kings sister-in-law.
The pair have been c! onfidant es since they shared a flat at Edinburgh University
Ihad noticed an attractive lady in the front row, but I did not realise it was her. She did look like Pippa Middleton, he said.
St Paul's new priest, Father Phil Carroll, had welcomed the group into the church but also failed to notice Pippa and remarked: That shows how much we know about what is going on.
But an unnamed worshipper said: It caused a bit of a stir in the church.
According to friends, George was one of the few men who made Pippas beau a little green around the gills.
Royal sources say that while Pippas friendship with the heir to one of the richest and grandest dukedoms in the land wasnt the reason for their split, Alex never felt entirely comfortable with the closeness of their relationship.
Thepair have been confidantes since they shared a flat at Edinburgh University along with Ted Innes Ker, son of the Duke of Roxburghe.
Over the summer the couple were seen at endless social events, including the Queens Club championships.
The night before the tennis Pippa and George were also seen enjoying a three-hour dinner together in a French restaurant near Sloane Square before returning to his London flat where she was eventually seen leaving at 2am. Bizarrely, George shares a flat with another of Pippas exs, JJ Jardine-Paterson.
Therewas also a long weekend in Madrid with a gaggle of girlfriends shortly after the royal wedding in May, where the affable aristocratwas seen squiring Pippa out to several of the citys hottest nightspotsas rowing her around a boating lake.
Old Etonian Alex, a contemporary of Prince William at the upper-crust school, is no slacker in the family stakes.
His father, James, is a successful financier and former High Sheriff of Kent while his grandfather, Francis, married Lady Prudence Jellicoe, daughter of Admiral Sir John Henry Rushworth Jellicoe, who commanded the Royal Navys Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in the First World War a! nd becam e the second Governor-General of New Zealand.
Olantigh, his familys Kent estate, is an eminently respectable country retreat with more than 20 acres of farmland.
But it cannot even begin to compare with the Northumberlands Alnwick Castle, which features as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
The castle is known as as the Windsor of the North and Georges family are regarded locally in Border country as royalty.
The familys wealth is conservatively put at around 300million and includes more than 100,000 acres of land as well as an estate in Surrey and Syon Park in London.
A bright, well-mannered and well-meaning young man, George, who studied geography at university specialising in renewable energy, also recently set up in business and is poised to drill the first commercial geothermal well in Country Durham.
Ex-boyfriend Alex found Pippas association with the Percy family claustrophobic
His parents, Ralph, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, and gardening-obsessive mother Jane are sensible sorts and withheld the bulk of his inheritance to prevent him going off the rails.
The couple are on kissing terms with most members of the royal family (including the Queen) and they and their four children were all invited to prince Williams April wedding.
For her part Pippa was said to be supremely at home when she attended the wedding of their eldest, daughter, Lady Katie at Alnwick In February.
Little wonder that Alex found Pippas association with the family a little claustrophobic, according to one well-placed source.
Last week The Sun reported they had finally spilt after 18 months together just weeks after Pippa was given the keys to Alexs Fulham home..
According to the newspaper, Pippa and Alex, a former professional cricketer who works as a financial analyst at brewing giant SAB Miller in Woking,! are now barely speaking.
She and Alex split briefly in the summer but this time its over, a source said.
The paper claimed that Alex, who is intensely private, felt uncomfortable with Pippas new found celebrity.
Friends have always expressed surprise at the relationship Alex is very nice and steady and all that but hes just, well, a bit boring particularly compared to Pippa who is hugely outgoing, one told the Mail only last month.
Friends say her next beau would need to be seriously sporty and well off. And it wouldnt hurt for them to have even a moderately respectable country pile, said one.
Perhaps the Middletons might yet boast double duchesses in the family?
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