From: History Today | Date: November 1, 1995| Author: | COPYRIGHT 1995 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information) Copyright information

Pace David Cannadine, serious scholarship on the fortunes of the modern British landed elite began over half a century ago with the trailblazing articles of H.J. Habakkuk. These articles patiently explored the emergence and development of the estates system, Britain's unique pattern of landownership, whereby four-fifths of the land of the United Kingdom came, by the middle of the nineteenth century, to be owned by fewer than 7,000 persons (and, at the top, a quarter of the land of England by 360 great landords).

In particular, Habakkuk revealed in exquisite detail the workings of ...

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