ABSTRACT
First published in 2006. This book is based on research into estate records and studies around the three broad categories of landowners: peers, gentry, and freeholders. Landed property was the foundation of eighteenth-century society. The soil itself yielded the nation its sustenance and most of its raw materials, and provided the population with its most extensive means of employment; and the owners of the soil derived from its consequence and wealth the right to govern.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |16 pages
Introduction
chapter |14 pages
Landownership and Society in the Eighteenth Century
part |91 pages
Structure
chapter |31 pages
The Structure of the Landed Classes
chapter |30 pages
The Growth of the Great Estates
chapter |28 pages
The Lesser Landowners
part |93 pages
Functions
chapter |20 pages
The Landlords and Politics
chapter |32 pages
The Landlords and Society
chapter |26 pages
The Landlords and Agriculture
chapter |13 pages
The Landlords and Industrial Development
part |86 pages
Country Life