Agricultural Lord Palfrey

Captain Nathaniel Perry has survived the Battle of Waterloo with some slight distinction, and finds himself respected in his fashionable mess on the regiment's return to England. That is a problem, for he has no private income. He had managed well enough on his pay on campaign, but could not do so in the Peace. Simultaneously with his promotion to major in acknowledgement of his actions at the Battle, he is called to London at the behest of a dying grandfather, a merchant who had disowned him, disapproving of his mother's marriage. Perry discovers he is the sole surviving heir . . . and rich.

Nathaniel Perry, once an officer living on his pay, is now becoming accustomed to being addressed as Lord Palfrey. His two grandfathers died in the same year, having separately bequeathed title and fortune, allowing Nathanial to show his face in London, and take a cousin as wife. He has a large estate, as is necessary to maintain the status of a lord, but soon discovers that his paternal grandfather had run it into the ground, screwing out every penny, putting nothing back.

Poor, mad, puzzled Farmer George is in his final decline and an Age is dying with him. He is to be succeeded by his perverse, erratic, deluded elder son, who believes still in the Divine Right of Kings, not appreciating that any respectable god would turn his face away from him. The country is in turmoil, everything changing since the long wars ended. Only the Land seems still to be the same. Major Nathaniel Perry, Lord Palfrey, believes even the fields of old Dorset must succumb to modernity. His tenantry seems to disagree. The scene is set for a long, slow dispute.