A 'grass roots' cultural history of the English parish from the earliest times to Queen Victoria.

Through a study of horses, the book reveals how an important and growing aristocratic estate was managed, where the aristocrat at the centre of it - William Cavendish - travelled and how he spent his time, and how horses were oneof the means by which he asserted his social status.

An annual biographical dictionary, with which is incorporated "Men and women of the time."