•Middle class influence the definition: Social mobility facilitated by wealth.
•Imitated behaviors and customs of the Gentleman of Birth, and soon became “the real thing.”
•Education: Wealth could send sons to Cambridge or Oxford, which prepared younger sons for taking orders or going into civil service.
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–Wentworth? Oh, ay—Mr. Wentworth, the curate of Monford. You misled me by the term gentleman. I thought you were speaking of some man of property: Mr. Wentworth was nobody, I remember; quite unconnected […]
• Sir Walter Elliot (Jane Austen, Persuasion)