ABSTRACT
Anglo-American marriages became a controversial issue for aristocratic society in Edwardian Britain. Apart from the unease about so many alliances taking place between peers and businessmen’s daughters, there was a growing alarm about the effect of American women upon the physical well-being of the peerage. Two views, which were diametrically opposed, were voiced at this time. For some, American brides were a source of much-needed new blood for an ingrown elite:
one should look upon the frequent marriages of American heiresses with effete British nobles as the carrying out of a wise and timely dispensation of Providence. New blood — fresh sap, is sorely needed to invigorate the grand old tree of the British aristocracy, . . . 1
