Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
As for Brideshead, it definitely had been left to Julia because the estate wasn't entailed (i.e. it didn't automatically go to the eldest son) but what on earth she was to do with it, who knows! I think the debts were resolved by selling Marchmain House, in London.
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There was the older title of Baron (Lord Brideshead) which, as a non-modern title, could be inherited through the female line (Julia) when Marchmain's son Brideshead died without issue; his wife was probably too old to provide heirs for Brideshead ("She's a good forty-five. I can't see her providing an heir."). Leaving the estate to Julia would provide the seat and money to support the title. ("the barony descends in the female line; when Brideshead is buried - he married late - Julia's son will be called by the name his fathers bore before the fat days...")
I got a sense that for Waugh/Ryder (for in some ways Ryder is Waugh), it was appropriate to revert to the older title from the days of Catholic England ("...before the fat days; the days of wool shearing and the wide corn lands") - the lands taken from the Church in the time of Henry VIII.