Seduction in Mind (38 page)

But of the three props that supported the ruling elite—money, land, and title—it was the possession of a hereditary peerage that was the clearest determinant of class and the most obvious focus of ambition. In the mid-Victorian period, the House of Lords remained a difficult hurdle for new money. Not until the 1880s did both Liberal and Tory governments surrender their patronage to the market. By 1890 the proportion of business and commercial families achieving peerages was twenty-five percent and rising. Between 1886 and 1914 about two hundred new peers were created, at least half from nonlanded backgrounds.

This rise of the bourgeoisie to titled status did not occur without resistance. Many of those in power were offended by "the rustle of banknotes," and native English gentry took affront that social control of London "is now divided between the Semite and the Yankee." Anti-Semitism ran high, as did mockery of the "trans-Atlantic Midases," referred to as peltry or pork kings. But by 1899, the peerage included fifty American ladies; by 1914 seventeen percent of the peerage and twelve percent of the baronetcy had an American connection, frequently through marriage to an heiress. "Failing the dowries of Israel and the plums of the United States," noted Escott with realism, "the British peerage would go to pieces tomorrow."

I became aware of the disdain directed toward American heiresses not only in the memoirs of numerous heiresses who had been treated abominably by their husbands' families, but in particular while touring the Duke of Roxburghe's family seat in Kelso, Scotland, when I was researching
Outlaw
. In 1902, May Goelet of New York, co-heir to a twenty-five-million-dollar fortune, noted that Captain George Holford had hopes of marrying her: "Dorchester House, of course, would be delightful and I believe he has two charming places [Westonbirt and Lasborough, Gloucestershire]. Unfortunately, the dear man has no title…" She settled for the Duke of Roxburghe. And apparently he settled for her as well, because in the Roxburghe palatial home in Kelso, as we walked through room after room adorned with priceless antiques, exquisite furniture, carpets, and beautiful paintings, we eventually came to a kitchen hallway, where a collection of fishing gear was displayed on the walls—along with the full-length portrait of the American duchess. Her rating in the hierarchy of the Roxburghe family was eminently clear.

Be sure to look for the next sizzling

SUSAN JOHNSON novel from Bantam Books,on sale in Summer 2002.