3-052-380 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Earl of Rackland, 1880. 'There is not an old-established tradesman...at the west end of London who does not know Lord Rackland, and who is not proud to have the Earl's name upon his books, a judicious reverence for the hereditary nobility, combined with high prices and long bills, having ever been considered one of the truest principles of British commerce. There is no better customer than his Lordship, for he suffers his scores to accumulate without examination or remark, letting interest grow upon interest till they form quite a feature in the ledger of many a respected householder of Bond-street and Piccadilly. It is true that the Earl never pays in vulgar coin if lie can possibly avoid it, and that it would ruin any fashionable shopkeeper to go to law with him...The style and title of the Earl set out at full length are a joy for ever to conveyancers, who muse pleasantly on their bills of costs every time they recite it. "The Right Honourable Harry-Hotspur-Ellen-Heerman-Guy-Fox-Soccage-Smalsole-Petty-Smalsowle, Earl of Rackland and Mortmain, Viscount Escuage and Baron Advowson of Overall Manor, in the county of Middlesex," make up a considerable sum when engrossed many times in old English letters upon deeds and parchments'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.