Spetlcer Comptoll CaIlOldill'l. eig"th J)uke of J)tWIlII',ir~. oPla hod a dream. •• I dreamed." 11. THE DUKES OF ENGLAND XGLAXn hu t,wt'nty-six dukes. It docs and the thouglJts of the pot"! could not he not Sf'em Iikt'l\' that their number will sepurated from the milieu for whieh he hn I be fllrt.ht'r incre"ased. Although the King intended them. The same di. 'onance is pt'r E P08;;('R~eS tll(, right t,o do so, the scrllplN! eoptible in the prei!Cnt existl>ncc of the English of the C'rown have dllring t,he last se\'t'nty yea.rs dukes, who display the pomp, wealth, and outwt"ighed evell the most powerful protection. brilliant titles of their unccf;tors, whilo they ~inc(' titles of Icf:l.~ exalted nobility-lord, vis themselves are nothing but mediocre golf play count-are f"equentl)' conferred, this re!:!traint, ers, social lions, or harmless outsiders. It would cannot be explain ,\ by 11 prejudice against re be quite mistaken to regard them ns the secret jIlH'lll\ting the aristocracy. And indecd, thert' driving force behind the British plutocracy. is 1Il0ro in it: the dl'i!ire not to tumper with this Of courlKl, they are shareholders of Vickers feuda'! in; They live beYCllld the reach of, He is one of those dukes of the worries, problems, and duties whom it is said in England that with which ordinary mortals t hey arc staggering under the Itave to cope. Even their mouey burden of their past. In order i.'5 the·irs by the grac'e of God. to obliterate the unfll\ orable impression created by t.he fact Bernard ~larmaduke* Fitzalan- that even after war had begun Howard. a thinskinncd, wcakly he, the premier dignitary of the young Illan with tired, swollen high nobility, could only be lured eyes, hu.'! been the Duke of frum his indiffer£'nce by horse Xorfolk since the age of ninC'. racing, he temporarily took up a He is the sixteenth in t.he line, public office. He became Parlia and his family is t·he oldest ducal mentary Secretary to tbe ~linW:lter house in Euglancl. He did not go of Agriculture in t.he House of to public tlchool because he failed The Duke of 'Noriolk Lords, and it is his business t,o his ent,rance cxaminat,ion. When answer incidental questions con he was fourtccn he was declared to be of age, cerning the supply of fertilizers, consumer and he was given full power over bis ilJherited prices, or artificial insemination of milch cows. fortune of £1 i million. Hit:! rt:aJ-estate pOlS8es As a rule, these questions are submitted in siOIl!! are harder to evaluate. They consist advance nnd dcalt with by the experts of t:lltl chielly of the family castle of Arundel, one of department in question; all the Parliamentary the mightiest castlcs of the island, and of other Secret,ary has to do is t,o read otT the required retiidences and country sea.t,s in Sheffield, SUtl8CX, information from 11 piece of paper. OerbylSbire, etc. The value of the art treasures • hoarded in thclSe manors is not availaule to Norfolk is not the richest of the dukes. He public knowledge. Only the family gold plate, is surpassed in this respect by the representative which was unpacked for the banquet to celebrat.e of the youngest ducal family: Hugh Arthur his coming of age, has been assessed. It weighs Grosvenor, second Duke of Westminster. But 1.5 ton and is worth £50,000. even his fatber, Hugh Grosvenor, upon whom The family's titl£' dat.es from 1483. At that Queen Victoria bestowed the coronet with the time, John Howard, one of the richest men in strawberry It:I1\"es and the ermine cloak in the kingdom, was rewarded by Edward IV 1874, was richer t.han any of the dukes of the with the dllcal coronet for his services in the kingdom. He had no particular military or war against the rebell:! of Lancll.ster. He was political services to his credit.. sinwltaneollsly appointed Earl Marshal, an The Westminsters are the descendant!; of one office that paid him an honorary fce of £20. Tom Grosvenor and a Miss Davies. In 1U80 Tbis slim had the purchasiJlg pOWN of £000 of this former Miss Davies inht:rited a little the prel:!ent cllrrency. All that can be said farm called Ebury. It was a piecc of land of about his descendants is that t,hey were always moderate size which brought in four shilfulgS among the richl"st mCIl of the kingdom, were a. year in rent. But it was this inheritance Earl Marshals, and received an allnual stipend w!{ich provided the chief if not the only cou of £20. None uf t.hem ever a,;,ked for an in dition for the grt:at-great-grandsons of these crease or exchange aJj mitment. modest people being raiscd to the peerage. Like almost all other dukes, they marril;d For some time now, the actual nL1ue of thc the daughtt'rs or /Sisters of their pecrs. It is former farm has been some £20 mi!lion, and possible that this is t.he reason for the sicldiness the rent income has risen from four shillings to uf Bernard Marmadllke. His father, the fiftecnth £20,000 per year. Ii'ate so willed it that t,he Uuk· of Korfolk, married for the "econd soil of Ebury was to become the London district I ime when he was fifty-six in of Westminster. ordf'r not to dic without direct It would, of course, he under i 'sue; his first wife and his first estimating the for~une of the lSon had died quickly one ufter Duke, who is now gixty-six years the other. Bernard Marmaduke old, if one were to regard these is the ofIt:!pring of tills lute mar £20,000 as his main UJcome. riage. He is the most colorless How lit.tle these would cover his personality ill the long series of needs is shown by t.he fuet alolle ~orfolkJs. His favorite pa.,·t.ime tJll1t he pays £10,000 a year to is to organizc hor"e racing, royal each of his two divorccd wives. lIHtrriagc.·, and ceremonial pro His free eapit.al is invested in cession. As Earl Marshal, he some of the largest real-estatc IJlayed a certain role at t.he last ;;peculations tbl'oughout the Coronation; his private expcnd world, where it was t.ransftwred it life for n'presentahon on this by his ancestors who, although occasion amounted to £4:0Q4.I. The Duke of Wc~tmiJlsl.e.r not dukes, were all the better THE DUKES OF ENGLAND 186 busine. men. It goes without saying that owe it to the "fortunate possession of 8. few it is nlso inveRted in industry, shipping, - residences in Bloomsbury," the oenter of nnd oversea trade. The income of Hugh London's intellectual and academic lifo. Even Arthur in the way of interest, dividends, llnd when he died five years ago, the duke did not re\'enucs is so veiled that no one has even at· have to leave his private sphcro: he had thought tempted to guc s at it. of everything and possessed two crematories of He is not niggardly. He hll..'! the full face of his own. n bon viva,nt, goes to the best tailors, and u ually But in spite of all this, the Royal House and wears a bow tic with white polka dots. It is his peers liked the somewhat querulous old llis ambition to be regarded as aeosmopolitan eccentric better than his son Hastings William pl8yboy, a reputation he maintained in peace SackviUe Russell, twelfth Duke of Bedford and time by an almost morbid chasing from one Marquis of Ta\ristock, Earl of Bedford, Baron intemational plell..'!ure resort to another. He Russell of Thombaugh and Baron Howland of was nlways moving about betwccn Eton Hall, Streatham, to give him his full nsme. Having l\lonte Carlo, and the Scottish shooting grounds. sen'ed until 1913 as an officer of the Middlcsox If you did not meet him there or in Paris, he Regiment, Hastings then resigned his com was cruising in the Adriatic with his yacht the mission and began to annoy his environment uUy Sark. As he hates to be alone, he always with an importunate pacifism. That has re loaded his yacht wit.h a swarm of guest-s whom mained more or less his main activity. He he invited by telegraph, wiring their airplane eXll..'!perates the Go,'emment, the Upper 'House, far to Yenice. and the Lower House, nor does he mi s any Westminster is a spendthrift on a grand chance to provoke everybo<.ly else against him scale. Skillful propaganda sometimes surrowlds self. With a watchful look he studies every him with the auriole of the be,,· one he comes int.() contact with, daetor. Thus, on the occasion and as soon as he has diseovered of his third marrillge, he waived a weakness in his partner he one month's rent from hill poorer does not shrink from any wanton tenants. insult. • In this war, too, he has been 'fhe Be<1fords, one of the encouraging tbo antiwar party, olde'lt families, arc difficult. The proposing one compromise peace ('Ie\'enth duke of this line, who after another-much to the an· <.lied in 1940, lived alone in noyance of the British cabinet "Vllrbun\ Casll('. He bought lip and refusing to pay any famous paint.ings at t he big l:lubsidies to the Church because auctions to let them disappear it was making propaganda for int.() the rooms of his manor. He militari m. His intrigues have owned one of the most valuable Tho Duke of Bedford attracted such unfavora.ble at· collections, but people onl.v have t ..ntion in London th~t> th an approximate itlea of what it contains. He Lord Chancellor had recently to declar made his purchases through agents who were in the House of T..nmR: "RMford'R opinionA not allowed to reveal the identity of the actual are pestilential." Herbert Morrison, the Home buyer. We are told that a sin~le little room Secretary. whom he ill particularly fond of contains eighteen Canalett.os. Warbum Castle provoking, warned him in public of "Regula. has n hundred 811d twenty rooms. The old duke tion l~b," by power of which the Government lived in sixty of them: the other sixty wero arrcl:lted Sir Oswald Mosley. This outsider always kept in readiness for guests, but, stood policy of the duke originates less from any empty throughout his lifetime. He also always fanatical conviction than from the whole familY'li ate alone, being served by soven footmen. recurrent inclinat.ion to display an eccentric In addition to his art gallery, he also main· originality. His mother insisted at the age of i.aiDed a private zoo. His favorites were a ai.xty-aeven on learning to By and getting her number of giraffes with whom he spent several pilot's license, She actually got it and soon hours every day. In a separate park he raised after crashed with her private plane. he was llamas. These were looked after by guards killed instantly. At her funeral the duke, then wearing green uniforms and hats with cockades. only l\larqui!l of Tavistock, appeared in a lounge In another enclosure he kept wild animals. In suit and a green cloth cap. order to be able to move about among them, What he has in common with his father is a he had rails laid in aU directions on the terrain, certain liking for animals; he is chieny in· on which he had himself driven around in an terested in parrots. On his estates no game armored train. What he enjoyed more than may be shot; fox hunting. 80 popular among anyt.hing else was to tryout new methods from England's landed gentry and aristocracy, is his safe cover to make the animals furious. prohibited on hid land. The Bedford fortune amounts to £4,650,000. • According to tho old duke's own words, they Excess, eccentrioity, bored incapability, that 186 THE XXth CENTURY is generally the atmosphere of It might be said that" althou b tho ducal manors. Almost all the dukf's are of no particular UIlO the dlLkes went to Eton. But to the people, they do not causo whether they finished the cur any particular harm, because the.v riculum or not, they became, are passive and without political with few except,ions, no more ambition,thus showing a restraint than their fathers' eccentric rarely to be found ill reactiouary spendthrift.s or smart nonentities. castes. Going one step further, the Among the cxceptions are the opinion ea·n even be heard that it Duke of Abercorn, who has been is not a bad thing if a country can serving his country as Governor afford t.he luxury of an exclusive of Northern Ireland since 1922; upper class whose luster serve. to the Duke of Buccleuch, who ha.s raisetheiriternational r puteoft.ho frequently shown understanding whole country and which, more and lack of prejudice in foreign over, represents 0. standard for political discussions in the Tho Duko of Portland the ha,ppiness aU,aina.ble on eart,h. Upper House, particularly those This f.lattering interpretation ii'l concerning Germany (l~ fact which led to like too thick makc-up under which t.he wrinklcd his detention in bis OWlI home for some fa.ce appears all the more clearly. Just as tho time in HHO, in spite of his bcing related dukes can only play their human roles becau 0 by marriagc with the Royal Hou eJ; and the others see to it that none of their egocentric Duke of Devonshire who, before acc~cling whims remains unsatisfied, so does their patriar· to his title, carried on for many years the chal economic system continue to exist solllly Parliamcntary traditions of his old Whig becau'e more capable and clever people profit family in the House of Commons and who from it. Tbe social history of England ill the hna since filled scveral minor ministerial posts. twent.icth century proves t,hat all attempt.~ at The . evonth Duke of Portland, who has reform foundered in the last resort on the borne the title only since I !H:l, is still a more immlltab.leness of landed property. or less IInknown factor. His grandfather's There has been no lack of attacks. When hobby had been to play "catacombs," for Lloyd Gcorge was Prime M.inistcr, hc bclieved which purpo e hc hllU ballrooms, kating rinks, that the Grcat \0\ 11.1' was the rigbt moment,. and a riding school built undergroullu. His It is characteristic that the dukes only made a. fathcr's main ambition was to shoot a thousand pret,en e of defending themselves; t.hey did not stags, one which ho succeeded in fulfilling. really have to defend themselves. The Prime Thc prc ent Duke ha bcen ascribed Rtatesman Min ister was beating wit b u11.1'e fists against tL like aspirations, since he proposed ill the House wall. A little mortar crumuled, but otherwise of Lords that a tax be placcu Oil lipsticks. everything remained as it was. He demanded Thill, he explalllcd, wOlllu, in contrast to land increased taxation of the ducal revenues. 110 taxes, be one of the few forms of taxation won: in I{HS the dukes had to pay ten shillings reconcilable with C~reat Britain's principles of on every pound of inoomc to thc state treasury. frecdom, as it would lcave it up to the judgmcnt But wha,t did this mean to them, mea ured by of those affccted whet.hcr to pay it 01' not. their capital? Later governments tightened tho The mothcr of the present Duke of Portlanu screw of taxation even more, and today nino is n. devotee of tbc port of all duchcsses, pre tenths of tbeir income goes in taxation. At vention of cruelty to animals. It is n. well best a further increase of capital is prevented known fact that in circles which are, so to in this way, but evcn that is not certain. speak, beyond the reach of Rocial questions, The mammoth estates still remain, as they there is 1\ sentimental concern for homeless cats have for many centuries, unt.ampered in the lind mangy dogs. Immediately after the Allied hands of a few. This is the stumbling block to landing in North Africa, the Duchess of Port aU settlement projects; this is the rcason why land founded a "Societ,v for the Prevention of nothing can be done about the misery of th melty t.o Animals in North Africa," becau e slums. And because the dukes always offer a "she had I al'l1ed that tbe mulcs were u ual.ly precedent in the treatment of large fortunes overloaded." She presides over this society and thus of aU high finance-they are auto with great energy. Thc Dnchess of Hamilton, matically the protectors of the unscrupulous who hcld 11 corner of the canopy over t he Queen speculation which has its ccnter in London, an I at tho last coronation, is also a member; she at the same time thc patrODS of 1,11(' most out is a pa~sionatc supporter of the Auti- Vivisection dated social constitution known to any mod rn Leaguo; shc is a vegetarian, tames foxes, and has industrifll state. That i the fundion tho artificial furs made for hcr at enorrnolls cost. dukes fill within the Empirc. As long as thi.::! Other duehc 'ses go from abattoir to l~battoir to function i~ left to them, all projects for a re cleo that tho animals IIrc not, maltreated. l\[am' of form of labor legislation, of agricultural poJicic3, them eat no meat but only trout and halibut. and of honsing are doomed to remain empty • talk lile the Beveridge plan.
The Dukes of England
