Large tracts of town property [are] more than Norman blood

Ancestry has never counted for much in England. The English lord knows himself to be such a very genuine article that, when looking for a wife, he can rise above such baubles as sieze quartiers. Kind hearts, in his view, are more than coronets, and large tracts of town property more than Norman blood. He marries for love, and is rather inclined to love were the money is; he rarely marries in order to improve his coat of arms.

N. Mitford, 'The English aristocracy', ed. N. Mitford, Noblesse Oblige (1956), 45