Introduction : Aspects of aristocracy -- The making of the British upper classes -- Aristocratic indebtedness in the nineteenth century -- Nobility and mobility in modern Britain -- Lord Curzon as ceremonial impressario -- Lord Strickland : imperial aristocrat and aristocratic imperialist -- Winston Churchill as an aristocratic adventurer -- The landowner as millionaire : the finances of the Dukes of Devonshire -- Landowners, lawyers and litterateurs : the Cozens-Hardys of Letheringsett -- Portrait of more than a marriage : Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West revisited -- Conclusion : Beyond the country house.