A Blue Blood with its back up is something to behold. And it seems Tinsley's pop wont be out-gauched by those pesky Hiltons... Here he lists the 'Mercer Family Papers', if you will.

Aristocrats move in mysterious ways.
It took former discount carpet salesman George Mercer four whole months to catch up with Lowdown's March 2 item stating that his daughter - camera-friendly New York socialite Tinsley Mercer Mortimer - "rose from humble beginnings in Richmond, Va., and bagged Standard Oil heir Topper Mortimer as a husband in 2002."

But I'm so glad he did!

"As my grandmother said, paper never refused ink - and obviously you have not done any research on Tinsley Mercer," her dad said in a plummy lockjaw left on my voice- mail. "To refer to her as having humble beginnings from Richmond is totally inaccurate."

Reached yesterday in Palm Beach, the 59-year-old Mercer elaborated:

"We're in the [Social] Register. Her ancestor is Thomas Jefferson. She was raised in the biggest home in central Virginia. We had a nanny, two gardeners and a butler. She was selected to lead the Southern debutante figure. We felt so bad for her sister Dabney when Tinsley got it. But then Dabney led the figure. The first time ever two sisters were picked to lead the Southern debutante cotillion! Tinsley is so smart, but I'll tell you who's tougher and who's smarter: Dabney Mercer. You should be writing about Dabney Mercer.

"They have no Mortimer St., but there is a Mercer St. We owned everything before the Revolution. The largest crown grant ever given. To John Mercer, you can check it out: 63,000 acres by the Potomac. We have a lot more money than the Mortimers. They only got that Standard Oil by marriage. They're Yorkshire. We're London. We're in the Court of St. James.

"Now, we're not the kind of people who blow our horns. We're not braggers, and we're not out there to try and pump ourselves up. It's against our family code to be publicized. ... We're related to the royal family. I wear the royal red. The fact is Topper married up, Tinsley married down. You understand what Mortimer means? It means 'undertaker.'

"We are a very successful family. And we maintain English titles, as the matter of fact. To print [otherwise] is absurd."

Lloyd Grove