The wages of the Derbys’ uncompromising royalism were death, but they were not destitution

The downfall of the nobility, even that part of it that had fought for Charles I, had never been the goal of the republican regime. The Committee for Compounding’s overwhelming concern was raising money, not meting out political or social retribution, and in spite of the seismic shifts of the decade there was much by 1652 that was stabilizing. The majority of major landowners had kept their heads down during the wars, prepared to root for the royalist cause, to send arms or plate, but not to risk their patrimony for it. Perhaps a quarter of aristocratic and gentry landowners – some 3,000 families – had had their lands sequestered, but most would pay the fines to regain their property.

...

The wages of the Derbys’ uncompromising royalism were death, but they were not destitution. The Commonwealth regime was proving to be remarkably unvindictive in its treatment of its adversaries; the need for unity and reconciliation, not least given the tiny numbers who had actively wished for a republic, was obvious to many in positions of power.

A. Keay, The restless republic (2022), loc. 1,918 & 1,946

Supposing there are some other people somewhere, people we don’t know?

Once she had said to him, ‘Supposing there are some other people somewhere, people we don’t know?’
He had looked at her seriously.
‘What sort of people?’
‘Perfectly charming people. Really delightful, intelligent, amusing, civilized…And we don’t know them, and nobody we know knows them. And they don’t know us and they don’t know anybody we know.’
Bob had thought for a moment and then he had said, ‘It’s impossible. But if it were not impossible, then I don’t think I should want to know such people. I don’t think I should find anything in common with them.’ 

I. Colegate, The shooting party (1980), 120

He believed - of course he believed - that Renaissance man had been best embodied in the eighteenth-century English gentleman

He believed - of course he believed - that Renaissance man had been best embodied in the eighteenth-century English gentleman, and it was this figure, standing in his library, a book in one hand, the other resting on a piece of classical sculpture, gazing out over a landscape harmoniously ordered by himself and under his guidance his tenants, in the consciousness that from time to time he would be called upon to play a part in the government of his country or its defence, and that in due course his eldest son would take his place and stand at his library window and deal with his tenants and show his visitors the improvements  - it was this figure in Sur Randolph's mind accorded so ill with striking industrial workers, screaming suffragettes, Irish terrorists, scandals on the Stock Exchange, universal suffrage.  

I. Colegate, The shooting party (1980), 108-9

Epileptic royalty from their villas of exile

This was the first meeting since then, and from all over Europe old members had rallied for the occasion. For two days they had been pouring into Oxford: epileptic royalty from their villas of exile; uncouth peers from crumbling country seats; smooth young men of uncertain tastes from embassies and legations; illiterate lairds from wet granite hovels in the Highlands; ambitious young barristers and Conservative candidates torn from the London season and the indelicate advances of debutantes; all that was most sonorous of name and title was there for the beano.'

E. Waugh, Decline and fall (1928), 9

Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste

I heard the following blissful remark – one old count to another old count about a third: ‘Mon cher, très à gauche, il est Orléaniste’! And the same ones about the Dsse de Vendôme whose death has plunged the Faubourg into widows’ weeds, ‘Well she must be in heaven by now’ as if she had caught a tram. Oh how funny they are.

Nancy to Diana, 4 April 1948,  ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 265

An advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force

The Dowager Duchess, indeed, was there – she had promptly hastened to her son’s side and was living heroically in furnished lodgings, but the younger Duchess thought her mother-in-law more energetic than dignified. There was no knowing what she might do if left to herself. She might even give an interview to a newspaper reporter.

...

‘It’s no good, Murbles,’ he said. ‘Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.’

D.L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness (1926), 83 and 267

As a matter of course, young ladies do not eat cheese at dinner parties

'A member of the Aristocracy' recommended that young women should steer clear of the more highly seasoned dishes ('middle-aged and elderly ladies are at liberty to do pretty much as they please'). They should also avoid artichokes, because it was impossible to eat them elegantly; and 'as a matter of course, young ladies do not eat cheese at dinner parties'.

A. Tinniswood, The long weekend (2016), 278-9

The Golitsyns were in fact not descendants of Riurik, the mythic founder of the first Russian state, but of Gedymin, a fourteenth century grand prince of Lithuania

He aid they knew all about Sergei, that he was a strident monarchist and fascist, and he called him "Prince Riurik, a class enemy, a foe of Soviet power." (Here Sergei, unwisely, pointed out that the Golitsyns were in fact not descendants of Riurik, the mythic founder of the first Russian state, but of Gedymin, a fourteenth century grand prince of Lithuania. The stunned interrogator found this elucidation neither helpful or to the point.)

D. Smith,  Former People (2012), 288

One finds almost every type of our landed gentry

In Robert of Berkeley's long line of heirs and collaterals, one finds almost every type of our landed gentry - from the dull unremembered, the studious and devout, the plain country farmer and fiery squire, to the schemer, eccentric, cultured patron of the arts, military hero, rakehell and bounder. Many were fortunate enough to live lives of sylvan quiet. Others found their castle placed in the canon's mouth.

L.Lee, 'Lords of Berkeley Castle' Village Christmas and other notes on the English year (2015), 107

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