Daisy Cornwallis-West was the Diana, Princess of Wales of her day.

She was the 1890s equivalent of the 1980s Sloane Ranger. Like that most famous Sloane, Diana Spencer, Daisy was married in her teens to one of Europe's most eligible bachelors and became a princess, fashion icon and international beauty.

Like Diana, Daisy turned to charities and good works when marriage to her much-older prince turned sour.

Like Diana, Daisy treasured her childhood home as a much-needed place of comfort and refuge after the fairytale was over.

For Diana, Princess of Wales, home was Althorp in Northants. For Princess Daisy, it was Newlands Manor near Milford on Sea in the New Forest.

Newlands Manor comes frequently into the story of Daisy, Princess of Pless, a book by Canadian author John Koch which is being promoted by the St Barbe Museum in Lymington.

Based on Daisy's own diaries, the book tells of parties at Newlands where the guest list often included half the royalty of Europe.

Daisy fondly described Newlands as "an unfortunate mixture of Churchwarden Gothic and bad Strawberry Hill." But it was idyllically situated on the Solent coast and was the 'bees knees' for naughty Nineties yachting parties.

When the annual regatta took place at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, visitors squeezed out of Queen Victoria's holiday home at Osborne House and crowded into Newlands Manor.

The manor had been left to the Cornwallis-West family by Daisy's grandmother in 1886. Thirteen-year-old Daisy came to love the creeper-clad house with such passion that, when she married and went to live in the castle of her husband Prince Hans Heinrich in Pless, Germany, Daisy imported a Milford gardener to recreate her beloved Newlands' rose terraces.

She recorded her homesickness in her diary in 1892, a year after her wedding: "On moonlit nights I used to wander on the terraces alone, hearing German and smelling cigars, and the sound of the river in the valley made me think of the sea at Newlands."

In July 1894, she was allowed to pay her first visit home since her marriage. A typically-illustrious house party gave Daisy the chance to observe the "strained" relationship between the future King Edward VII and his nephew Kaiser Bill of Germany - a premonition of the First World War 20 years later which was to cause such hardship for her.

But in the 1890s such horror was ages away. Daisy's main interest was racing up the Solent on the Prince of Wales's yacht Britannia, and laughing with Prince George at the sight of older royalty taking naps.

By 1900, Princess Daisy was burying herself in humanitarian projects to make up for the lack of love and fulfilment in her marriage - despite the birth of a son and heir.

She gave generous Christmas parties for the poorer residents of Pless, started schools for disabled children and launched lace-making factories to help unemployed women. In his book John Koch says that, to the people of Pless, Daisy was "a fairy princess." Her popularity with the people helped Daisy in the darkening years before the Great War.

While her unfaithful husband divided his time between mistresses and architectural projects - he redesigned all the doors in his castle to allow three rulers to pass through side-by-side - Daisy was working to stop the impending conflict. She wrote an impassioned letter to the Kaiser, pleading with him not to declare war on England.

"England is ready to stop building warships but must go on doing so as long as Germany does," she wrote.

"Your Majesty will lead the way, not by the agony of death or making the young cornfields red with blood and the world dark with misery, but by doing good."

When Daisy's appeals failed and war was unleashed in 1914, she did her bit by becoming a Red Cross nurse.

It was 1919 before Daisy saw England again. She recorded how the old porter at Southampton docks remembered her, greeting "Miss Daisy" like a long-lost friend. By then Daisy's beloved Newlands Manor had been sold to pay family debts. Today the gothic style building survives, but it has been divided up into flats.

The Cornwallis-Wests were linked with Newlands for just 36 years but the family will always be remembered in Milford on Sea. Roads named West, Cornwallis, De la Warr ( an early ancestor) and Pless all commemorate the dynamic dynasty.

Daisy, Princess of Pless, priced at £14.95 is available from the St Barbe Museum in Lymington. Ring 01590 676969 and ask for Gordon Young.