The great period of agriculture was the period of the ducal estates.
Every week throughout each summer they fork out their half-crowns, put them into a ducal hand and are guided over the great ancestral home.
The big urban ducal estates can doubtless look after themselves.
Special messengers could walk up the gravel drives and through the ducal halls, bearing the ballot papers on silver salvers.
One-sixth of that would be £400, while a ducal mansion close by is rated at about £200.
To use a well-known ducal phrase, they will have to get their collective finger out.
I wondered what was taking place in that ducal building.
Not all freeholders are members of great ducal families or even charitable trusts.
