ABSTRACT
The aristocratic aspirations of the British middle class are often proposed as an explanation for the persistence of the gentry's cultural influence in education and for the decline in entrepreneurial efficiency and innovation which became apparent before the end of the nineteenth century. This chapter focuses on the role of professionals and examine the relations between the emergent system of national education and a status hierarchy shaped by the ideals and conventions of the old ruling class. The specific aims of the professional project were, however, income security and social respectability. These aims were sought in a context where aristocratic status models and ideologies were available and never entirely defeated by the attacks of the rising bourgeoisie against idle property and the system of patronage. The lingering social and political influence of the old ruling class set upon the project of professional modernization limits that were both structural and ideological.
