SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Camilla is snapped sitting on VERY shabby chic as she and Charles perch on sofa with threadbare cushions

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The greatest insult the late Alan Clark hurled at Michael Heseltine was that he ‘had to buy his own furniture’, implying the millionaire publisher was somewhat declasse.

Not a charge that could be levelled at Prince Charles, I fancy. The heir to the throne welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Clarence House this week, with furniture so tatty it could have passed through several generations.

Charles and Camilla were snapped perching on the threadbare sofa where one of the badly frayed cushions had clearly seen better days.

Charles and Camilla were snapped perching on the threadbare sofa (pictured) where one of the badly frayed cushions had clearly seen better days.

Despite his famously extravagant lifestyle of butlers and valets, Charles has developed a fondness for time-worn pieces. On BBC show Countryfile in 2013, he wore a Barbour-style coat patched with so many bits of leather he admitted he could ‘hardly move’.

He even has a pair of shoes made out of leather salvaged from an 18th-century wreck which, he said, ‘will see me out’.

Wild Earl's Waitrose wobbly 

The Earl of Cardigan has been acquitted of ten counts of anti-social behaviour over the past two years, ranging from harassing his gamekeeper to a ‘puerile’ spat with one of the estate’s trustees.

However, this week, it was 11th time not-so-lucky. For on Wednesday, Chippenham magistrates’ court found David Brudenell-Bruce, estranged father of The Voice star Bo Bruce, guilty of ‘using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress’ after an altercation in Waitrose in Marlborough with his former caretaker, Prue Chetwynd-Talbot.

Chippenham magistrates’ court found David Brudenell-Bruce, estranged father of The Voice star Bo Bruce, guilty of ‘using threatening words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress’

The once-penniless aristocrat has been fined £200 plus £350 costs. He denies the charge and plans to appeal. ‘I was merely pointing out Ms Chetwynd-Talbot to a mutual friend,’ he tells me. ‘But she claims she found my demeanour frightening.’

Meanwhile, the earl has a vacancy to fill, as long-serving trustee Wilson Cotton handed in his notice this week, following a High Court dispute over the management of the earl’s 4,500-acre Savernake Estate. Those with a strong constitution only need apply.