Peabody was constantly exposed to the fierce snobbery of British aristocrats toward the American commercial class. This condescension was particularly flagrant during Commodore Vanderbilt’s trip to London in 1853. The Commodore—vulgar, profane, and lecherous—wanted to show London society the full splendor of America’s richest man. With his wife and twelve children, he had sailed to England aboard his ornate, two-thousand-ton North Star, equipped with caterer, doctor, and chaplain. Peabody squired the Vanderbilts about Hyde Park and installed them in his box at Covent Garden; meanwhile, the
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