This edited collection of correspondence written by members of English landed gentry families provides insights into the formation, experience and practice of elite masculine identities. The source book examines continuities and changes in such processes within the male life cycle and across the early modern and modern periods.

This study explores the consumption practices of the landed aristocracy of Georgian England. Focussing on three families and drawing on detailed analysis of account books, receipted bills, household inventories, diaries and correspondence, Consumption and the Country House charts the spending patterns of this elite group during the so-called consumer revolution of the eighteenth century. Generally examined through the lens of middling families, homes and motivations, this book explores the ways in which the aristocracy were engaged in this wider transformation of English society. Analysis...