Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/551

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In considering to what social classes the 902 eminent British men and women on our list belong, we naturally seek to ascertain the position of the fathers. In 262 cases it has not been easy to pronounce definitely on this point, and I have, therefore, classed these cases as doubtful. The remaining 640 may be classed with a fair degree of certainty. I find that they fall into the following groups: Upper Classes (or 'good family') 110 (12.2 per cent.), Yeomen and Farmers 39 (4.3 per cent.), Church 113 (12.5 per cent.), Law 49 (5.4 per cent.), Army 26 (2.9 per cent.), Medicine 26 (2.9 per cent.), Miscellaneous Professions 80 (8.9 per cent.), Trade 113 (12.5 per cent.), Crafts 63 (7 per cent.), Unskilled Workers 21 (2.3 per cent.), while the remaining 262 of doubtful origin constitute 29 per cent, of the whole. In a very few cases (not more than half a dozen) the status of the father is entered undt r two heads, but, as a rule, it has seemed sufficient to state what may be presumed to be the father's chief occupation at the time when his eminent child was born.

In the order in which I have placed the groups they may be said to constitute a kind of hierarchy. I place the Yeomen and Farmers immediately after the Upper Class group. Until recent years, the man who lived on the land which had belonged to his family for many centuries occupied a position not essentially different from that of the more noble families with somewhat larger estates around him. Even at the present day, in remote parts of the country it is not difficult to meet men who live on the land on farms which have belonged to their ancestors through several centuries. Such aristocrats of the soil, thus belonging to 'old families,' frequently have all the characteristics of fine country gentlemen, and in former days the line of demarcation between them and the 'upper class' must often have been difficult to draw. I have formed my 'upper class' group in a somewhat exclusive spirit; I have not included in it the very large body of eminent men who are said to belong to 'old families'; these I have mostly allowed to fall into the 'doubtful' group, but there is good reason to believe that a considerable proportion really belong to r the class of small country gentlemen on the borderland between the aristocracy in the narrow sense and the yeoman and farmer class. To this class, therefore, must be attributed a very important part in the production of the men who have furnished the characteristics of British civilization.

The same must be said of the clergy (including dissenting ministers of all denominations), whom I place next because they are largely drawn from the same ranks and have on the whole led very similar lives. The religious movements of the past century have altogether transformed the lives of the clergy, but until recent years the parson was