So Death Duties were NOT the undoing of landed aristocracy –
‘It is not generally known that Wilde, by fitting the duchesses in his comedies with epigrammic minds, contributed to the decline of the privileged class in this country . . .
Duchesses in the ’nineties led lives of misery because Wilde had accustomed the public to believe that words of wit and even of wisdom incessantly fell from their lips, and a number of these unhappy women, almost distracted by ambition to live up to their reputation, hired impoverished and unscrupulous journalists to supply them a dozen assorted epigrams every day during the London season. The result of this subterfuge was the duchesses began to talk like leading articles, and have never since been able to hold up their heads.’
