Pippa Middleton's pheasant shooting posse includes a popstar's ex and a Doctor Who girl Just minutes from the centre of Edinburgh sits a magnificent Palladian stately home called The Drum. Like the pyramids in Egypt, which are close to a slum area, it is an architectural wonder perched surprisingly near an ugly part of the ancient Scottish capital. Those fortunate to be invited to the shoots that are regularly held on the estate will see unlovely council blocks in the distance as they walk over its 500 acres. But these environmental scars can't spoil the convivial shooting days at The Drum hosted by Edinburgh society stalwarts Alan and Patrea More Nisbett and their three strapping sons. The pheasant posse: The ladies who make Pippa's party one of the most exclusive around consists of partridges, the middle row has hen pheasants, while the back line comprises cock pheasants One of those, Billy - who overlapped with Prince William at Eton - had a fling with Pippa Middleton five years ago, and they are still friends. Which explains why she was photographed in tweeds and standing in line with nine female friends in front of a pile of dead pheasants and partridges, after shooting at The Drum last weekend. Handsome Billy, a graduate of the Sloaney Newcastle University, went to business school before going into property. According to one friend, he is - as you might have guessed - "a hunting, shooting, fishing type through and through." He is, of course, no stranger to blue-blooded society, having dated Lord Beaverbrook's daughter Charlotte Aitken - who briefly married the Duke of Roxburghe's son, Charles - before settling down with his current wife, New Zealander Charlotte Davison. It seems to have been Charlotte who organised this shoot for the couple's female friends, no doubt under the watchful eye Billy's formidable mother Patrea who, like The Drum, is considered an Edinburgh landmark herself. Country life: In another snap from the same weekend posted on Instagram Pippa is seen smiling and playing with a black labrador A one-time lady-in-waiting to Princess Anne, she worked at Harpers & Queen magazine and is a founder of The Good Schools Guide, a directory of Britain's independent schools. She was also a contributor to that bible of all aspirant society gals, The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook which was published, oddly enough, in 1982 - the year Kate Middleton was born. Can we assume mother Carole had a well-thumbed copy? Patrea apparently collects antique lorries, feels the imperilled upper classes need to be "cherished" and enjoys elephant polo tournaments. She also set up Drum Riding For The Disabled on the estate, which offers riding for more than 250 people. Social life at The Drum has been a part of the city's calendar for decades. "For every generation of Edinburgh undergraduate, there has always been a More Nisbett son to socialise with," said one beneficiary of their hospitality. Everyone always talks about The Drum. The shoots with black-tie dinners, the lunches - it's the most sought-after invitation for socially ambitious Edinburgh Sloanes. So who, from left to right, are Pippa's girls in tweed? Here are their potted histories . . . THE FITNESS GURU As one of the hosts, Charlotte More Nisbett is clearly the most at home in that she's wearing her slippers. But though she might look like a jolly Scottish Sloane, in fact she's a Kiwi fitness instructor. Charlotte, who is married to Billy More Nisbett, went to a private girls" school in Christchurch, followed by the New Zealand Institute Of Sport and then found her way to London and Chelsea's Harbour Club, Princess Diana's favourite gym, as an instructor. Charlotte now specialises in helping to rehabilitate sportsmen and women after injury. She has trained kick-boxers, hockey teams and a rugby team, so those pheasants didn't stand a chance. Hosts: Kiwi Charlotte and her Scottish husband Bill More Nisbett, who once dated Pippa, pictured on their wedding day in 2011 Annabel Kilner: Attended Edinburgh university with Pippa where she was known as the 'carpet heiress' and hung out 'with all the grandee girls' Annabel Kilner, who overlapped with Pippa at Edinburgh University, is now head of business development at Made.com, an online furniture company. Back in 2001, she organised an Edinburgh University fashion show that included various society beauties, including her friend, Prince William's former crush, Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe (now the wife of tycoon Richard Branson's son, Sam). She went to the highly-academic Wycombe Abbey private school in Buckinghamshire, became a deb, and was known at Edinburgh as the "carpet heiress" because her father ran a carpet company. "She hung out with all the grandee girls like marquess's daughter Lady Sybilla Rufus Isaacs and the one-time Tory Prime Minister's granddaughter Lady Iona Douglas-Home," says a contemporary. For a while she tried to set up a company selling silk sleeping bag liners for "glampers" (glamorous campers). Then she joined Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com, in an interiors venture before joining Made.com, which Hoberman also backs. Frances Trahar is described as a "blonde boho beauty who straddles two continents with confidence," on the website of The Sisterhood - the strange, all-girls sporting charity Kate Middleton was involved with during her split with William in 2007. The Sisterhood is run by Emma Sayle (best known for running sex parties called Killing Kittens) and Frances belongs to the charity's South African branch. She went to the University of Cape Town and used to work for the Diamond Trading Company, part of De Beers, in client communications. Her father was once CEO of Anglo American, the De Beers holding company. The Sisterhood website adds: "With trademark double dimples, she is just as easily spotted sailing a dhow in East Africa as sipping champagne at the opera." Now she seems to have moved on to running summer courses at the University of St Andrews, hence her appearance in Scotland. THE CROONER'S EX Older and flashier than the rest, Verity Buchanan, nee Evetts, nearly married Old Harrovian pop star James Blunt, who is still a friend. He went - as did Pippa - to her Hampshire wedding to Christopher Buchanan, where not only the guests but the bride and groom were pictured swigging "alcopop" bottles of Smirnoff Ice. She is also close to William and Kate through their friends from Norfolk, the Van Cutsems. Blonde beauties: Verity Evetts, left, pictured on her wedding day and Frances Trahar, right, who went to university in Cape Town and used to work for the Diamond Trading Company An Oxford graduate, she was "extremely social at university and hung out with Lord Freddie Windsor (Prince Michael of Kent's son) and Arthur Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington's grandson) ." Verity was a barrister, but left the Bar to work for an African investment firm. "Obviously bright, but also a real party person," says one friend. THE OFFICER'S WIFE Another Edinburgh graduate, Rose Green works in corporate responsibility for a branding company called Pentland Brands. A former debutante who is "supernice with lovely manners," according to a friend, she recently married a soldier called Captain Storm Green (seriously) of the Coldstream Guards. He is an Army poster boy - appearing on its website advertising for new recruits. Her maiden name Williams- Wynne, is one of the longest- established in Wales. Unfortunately, Rose's parents went through an unpleasant divorce seven years ago when her father, referring to the financial settlement, said "the whole thing sucks." He kept the Welsh estate that an ancestor had won in a game of chance with Henry V. His lawyer said of his estate: "He can't eat it, he can't go on holiday with it, he can't fill his car with petrol with it and he cannot spend it." Rose's mother is also well-connected - she's the daughter of Lord Buxton and sister of the Countess of Home. THE TV PRODUCER Yet again, an Edinburgh graduate. Annabella Ward, nee Hurst-Brown, is a TV executive, a former Doctor Who producer who started off doing mini-episodes for Comic Relief and worked as a script editor on the BBC spy series Spooks. The educationalist: Kate Shand dreamt up the idea of starting a tutoring company while recovering from a broken back she sustained in a skiing accident Raised in Hampshire and Battersea, her father is an ex-Merrill Lynch banker and City grandee and her mother is a director of the Royal Ballet Company. At Edinburgh University, she was a pal of Billy More Nisbett as well as being Annabel Kilner's flatmate. THE BLOGGING ARTIST Rose Green's sister (see above), Leonora Sowerby is "bubbly and sweet" and married to Ed, a "sustainability consultant and copywriter" from Cornwall. She is an artist with a website which shows off her oils, and a blog called "Leonora Draws," where she posts the illustrations she has done for companies such as The Bump, which runs antenatal classes and was set up by broadcaster and adventurer Ben Fogle's wife Marina (whose sister is married to Verity Evetts's brother, see above). THE CHELSEA TUTOR Kate Shand went to the smart Roman Catholic private school St Mary's Ascot and then Brasenose College, Oxford. A few years ago she broke her back while skiing. While convalescing she dreamt up the idea of her education company, Enjoy Education, a private tutor firm based in Chelsea, much praised in Patrea More Nisbett's Good Schools Guide (see above). She also sits on the committee for Prince Charles's Foundation For Children And The Arts. Management Today named her as one of "35 under 35" women to watch. Otherwise, she loves playing tennis - just like sporty Pippa, who has said that, if she gets married, "it would be in my tennis whites."