As Prince of Wales, he had facilitated a process of assimilation, drawing parvenus into the patrician fold. By the turn of the century, only mid-Victorian relics like Lady Dorothy Nevill could lament the ‘mob of plebeian wealth which surged into the drawing rooms, the portals of which had up till then been so jealously guarded’. For the most part, the distinctions between old blood and new money had long since melted away. In any case, Lady Dorothy noted, ‘Not a few of that mob have themselves obtained titles, and now quite honestly believe they are the old aristocracy of England.’18
