If you have to downsize, then you might as well see the upside. It was in this spirit that Kevin and Pandora Maxwell hosted what must have been Britain’s ultimate garage sale. Obliged to sell the 11-bedroom Moulsford Manor House to settle a £3 million debt, the Maxwells put up everything that they could not auction to the wider public for tender. Interest in the event was, as we report today, intense.

Some of that enthusiasm was curious. Exactly why anyone would pay £750 for the late Robert Maxwell’s kilt and sporran is baffling, unless the buyer had been tipped off that the remnants of the Daily Mirror pension fund was stashed away in the aforesaid item. Similarly, the competition to secure the family Canadian canoe is strange, especially as with Mr Maxwell’s recent financial luck the boat probably came without a paddle.

In a touching moment, however, Mr Maxwell decided that he could not face selling off his father’s Army uniform and slapped a false “sold” label on it. He was probably right to do so. His father often used to boast that when he arrived in Britain all he had was that uniform and his shotgun. It was not long, as one wag noted, before both of them were loaded.

His son has not been so fortunate. He and his loyal spouse have seven children to look after and are moving to a much smaller property in the Jericho area of Oxford. His offspring should surely not have the sins of the grandfather held against them. And, who knows, in years to come they might enjoy a chuckle thinking about whoever might be trying to navigate their way in an unpredictable canoe while wearing a £750 sporran.