126 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



prestige. Look at a list of the House of Lords in the 

 official publications ; it is their country residences, and 

 not their town addresses, which follow their names. The 

 Duke of Norfolk is put down as residing at Arundel 

 Castle, in the county of Sussex ; the Duke of Devonshire 

 at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire ; the Duke of Portland at 

 Welbeck Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, and so on. Every 

 Englishman is familiar with the names, at least, of the 

 residences of the nobility, which are as famous even as 

 the names of the illustrious families who possess them. 

 Independently of the magnificence there displayed by 

 their possessors, some of them are connected with the 

 glory of the nation. The name of the Duke of Marl- 

 borough is inseparable from that of Blenheim, a magnifi- 

 cent mansion given by England to the conqueror of Louis 

 XIV. ; and a like origin associates the manor of Strath- 

 fieldsaye with the remembrance of the Duke of Welling- 

 ton's victories. 



It is the same with the members of the House of Com- 

 mons as with the Lords. All those who have country 

 houses take care to have them indicated as their habitual 

 residences. Everybody knows the name of Sir Kobert 

 Peel's country-seat Drayton Manor. Appearances in 

 this respect are quite consistent with fact, for members 

 of both Houses are scarcely more than visitors in London 

 during the sitting of Parliament ; they pass the rest of 

 their time in the country, or in travelling. Show and 

 splendour are reserved for the country ; and it is there 

 more especially that an interchange of visits, fetes, and 

 pleasure-parties, takes place. 



The national literature, as expressive of manners and 

 customs, contains throughout marks of this distinc- 

 tive trait in the English character. England is the 

 country of descriptive poetry ; almost all their poets have 



