Walford's County Families is the short title of a work, partly social register, partly "Who's Who", which was produced in Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries, initially under the editorship of Edward Walford. It served as a guide or handbook to the British upper classes and landed gentry (in this case referred to in the title under the term, county families, for which see county family). Its coverage encompassed many of the most important rich, aristocratic or politically powerful of the people of the period, thereby serving to document to an extent the "cream of society", sometimes referred to loosely as Britain's upper ten thousand.
From edition to edition, the title of the annual volumes making up the series varied: the 1899 edition, was, for example, called Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom, or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Volumes in this series are also sometimes referred to simply as Walford or Walford's. According to the British Library catalogue, the works bearing this title were published from 1860 to 1920.
Famous quotes containing the words county and/or families:
“I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,—if ten honest men only,—ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ideal of the self-sufficient American family is a myth, dangerous because most families, especially affluent families, do in fact make use of a range of services to survive. Families needing one or another kind of help are not morally deficient; most families do need assistance at one time or another.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)