x, 370pp, fold out in pocket on rear pastedown. Brown cloth-covered boards; gilt titles on spine. 8vo. Sun-faded spine, rubbed corners and spine ends. Top text block edge dusty, remaining edges starting to tan. Endpapers starting to tan; bookplate on front pastedown; previous owner's name pencilled on front free endpaper; gutters strained, volume loose; pages starting to age. Otherwise, internally neat and clean.
The author states in the preface: "Some years ago the Duke of Bedford gave me leave to use part of his collection of household accounts as the basis for a study of the working of a great household during the seventeenth century. It was then my intention to insert two preliminary chapters, the one dealing with the rise of the Russell family and the other incorporating such household papers, sadly few in number, as have survived from the days of Francis, second Earl of Bedford, the Elizabethan statesman. These two chapters have now expanded into the present volume, which it seems better to present separately. It is intended only as a study in social history. No attempt has been made to discuss the parts played by the first and second Earls of Bedford in affairs of state".
