Here is a question for AT enthusiasts: As most have us have discovered by now, Trollopes novels are populated with people we might call wastrels, generally spoiled young aristocrats who use all the money they can lay hands on to indulge in drinking, gambling, and similar pursuits, and who fall into serious debt in the process. I am currently soldiering along in The Way We Live Now, which has as a main character just such a wastrel, Sir Felix Carbury. Another thing many of us may have encountered in our reading of Trollope is a preoccupation with property, especially landed estates. In The Way We Live Now, young Sir Felix Carbury has already almost run through his inheritance and is sponging off his mother. He does not own land. However, his cousin, Roger Carbury, is the squire of Carbury Manor. Roger is one of those dreary people, also somewhat common in Trollopes novels, who associates being a gentleman with owning the estate that came to him from his forebears. Roger Carbury cannot conceive of leaving his estate outside the family, so he has made a will leaving it to Sir Felix Carbury, even though he has no use for Sir Felix. I cant help wondering what would happen if Sir Felix Carbury knew that he was the heir to Carbury Manor. Could he borrow money from the money-lenders by giving his future interest in Carbury Manor as collateral? There are both pros and cons to this. On the plus side, Carbury Manor is apparently not entailed, so the creditors could force a sale of the estate to pay off the debts Sir Felix had incurred. However, the fact that the estate is not entailed also is on the minus side. The first objection is that, since Roger Carbury is only 40 years old, the creditor might have to wait a long time before he could get at the asset being offered as collateral for the loan. During that time, Roger Carbury could get an heir of his own, change his will and name someone other than Sir Felix to inherit Carbury Manor, or even sell the estate. If someone lent to Sir Felix Carbury based on such a speculative anticipatory inheritance, he would be quite a gambler himself. I thought about all this because I have read another one of Trollopes novels, in which the heir to an estate borrowed heavily against his expectations of inheriting from his father. Does anyone recall what novel I am referring to?
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 19:56:04 +0000
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