Lord of the Lonely Hearts to meet Miss Right

by JAMES MILLS, Daily Mail

As the lord of a magnificent country estate, he has much more to offer than just a GSOH.

So when David Piper, otherwise known as the Lord of Warleigh, placed a lonely hearts advert in an international newspaper, it caused a scramble among eligible women from across the globe.

Now, after sifting through more than 1,300 replies, the 53-year- old divorcee believes he has finally found his Lady of the Manor - and although he hasn't actually met her yet, she's moving in tomorrow.

Rosaura Cappelleri, a 32-year-old American real estate agent from Salt Lake City, has sold her home and business and is flying to England with her two children.

The pair have been in constant contact over the telephone and Internet since the advert was published in the International Herald Tribune last December.

Mr Piper, a property developer who bought the 111-acre Warleigh estate along with the title of lord four years ago, has met 13 of the women who replied but Miss Cappelleri is the one he 'clicked with'.

'I'm very fond of her,' he said. 'We speak every day on the phone for two hours at a time and we e-mail constantly.

'We have not met in the flesh yet but we definitely clicked.

'I have met a few women who replied

and she's the one I'm most interested in.

We have the same interests. We like the

same music and she is very intelligent.'

Mr Piper says he very careful to specify that he wanted someone of independent means

to put off gold-diggers and fraudsters.

'Rosaura is a businesswoman who has

sold her business and home, so she is

financially secure in her own right,' he says.

Speaking from the U.S. yesterday, as she and her sons aged eight and nine were preparing for her flight to Gatwick, Miss Cappelleri said: 'David and I have become really good friends and it was getting to the point where we needed to move it to the next stage.

'We are such good friends but I don't assume anything because we haven't met yet.

'We want to see if there is any chemistry. You can't force it, but if there's no chemistry then we still have a great friendship.'

Mr Piper, has four teenage children and divorced five years ago.

Replies to his lonely hearts advert included an opera singer from Verona in Italy and a French art dealer.

The lord of the manor was also contacted by African women from Niger and Somalia, two from Germany, including a Canadian teacher living in Frankfurt, one from the U.S. and another from Denmark.

Mr Piper admits to having had 'various girlfriends' since he divorced, but until now has not found the right woman.

j.mills@dailymail.co.uk

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