Talk:Country squire

Do not confuse

• With county squire, an old title of a county official in American South.
• With Russian pomeshchik (sometimes translated into English as "country squire")

--Викидим (talk) 10:36, 3 October 2026 (UTC)

Public-domain sources and page references

The draft was adapted and condensed from P. H. Ditchfield's The Old English Country Squire (1912), with material from T. H. S. Escott's Social Transformations of the Victorian Age (1897), Richard Jefferies's Hodge and His Masters, volume I (1880), and the eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911).

Scope and treatment of the sources

• Grouping of evaluative passages: Ditchfield's ideal of personal management, inherited attachment, village philanthropy and lament over estate sales were moved into a single "Idealisation and criticism" section. The literary portraits and the Macaulay–Ditchfield dispute were retained in that section. The section could be trimmed or deleted without removing the accounts of estate business, public duties or institutional change elsewhere in the article.
• Definition and manorial status: Britannica's "Squire", p. 747 called the squire the chief landed proprietor, usually the lord of the manor, and also recorded the word's application to some smaller freeholders. The qualification was retained.
• Geography and chronology: the article was confined principally to England and to the historical periods discussed by the sources. The American use of squire, the Irish squireen, attendants upon women and highwaymen in Britannica's p. 747 entry were omitted as outside this scope.
• Ditchfield's ideal landlord: Ditchfield described inherited loyalty and personal acquaintance with tenants on pp. 2–3 and p. 14. These were presented as his account. His school, charity and public-service portrait was expressly called an ideal on pp. 8–9. His praise of the class as England's backbone, claims of universal affection, defence of arbitrary conduct and insults to new owners were omitted. His discussion did not establish uniform relations between squires and villagers.
• Estate sketches: Jefferies's "The Squire's 'Round Robin'" and "An Ambitious Squire" were identified as sketches. Jefferies's claim that landlord and tenant interests were identical (p. 313) was omitted as an over-the-top generalization.
• Literature and historical controversy: Sir Roger de Coverley and Fielding's contrasting squires followed Ditchfield, p. 245 and pp. 250–251. They were treated as literary figures. Proposed identifications with real people and Ditchfield's claim that Sir Roger was a faithful historical likeness were omitted. Macaulay's portrait was cited through the extract printed by Ditchfield on p. 88. Ditchfield's rebuttal and use of family papers were supported by pp. 92–93. Neither author's assessment was adopted as the article's verdict.

Bibliography and page numbering

• Ditchfield: the title page (PDF page 9, Internet Archive leaf n11) read P. H. Ditchfield, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. Its verso (PDF page 10, leaf n12) stated "First Published in 1912".
• Jefferies: the original volume I scan's title page (PDF page 9, leaf n9) shows Richard Jefferies, London, Smith, Elder, & Co., 1880.
• Escott: the Gutenberg transcription's title page shows T. H. S. Escott, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897.
• Britannica: "Squire" occupied volume 25, printed p. 747, reproduced at DjVu page 769.

Викидим (talk) 10:04, 3 October 2026 (UTC)