Chapter 7: Tumultuous times, 1846-9

 

Item 75
The Bentincks and the acquisition of Hughenden
Letter to Disraeli from Lord George Bentinck, 24 Dec. 1847
Dep. Hughenden 89/1, fols. 145r-146r

Bentinck had pledged a loan of £25,000 towards the purchase of the 750-acre Hughenden estate which his family honoured after his death. Hughenden, finally acquired in 1848, was in effect Disraeli's constituency home - he was returned for Buckinghamshire in 1847. It connected him to the county network on the scale essential for major political figures right down to the last century. The Liberal H. H. Asquith (1852-1928), Prime Minister 1908-16, was the first not to own land. Disraeli had invented his own aristocratic past, defended and written about the British aristocracy, and moved in aristocratic circles; now he was living his dream.