Astor Words
The August issue of Quest magazine, a New York glossy, featured one Vincent Astor on its cover. Were he still around, Astor would not have been pleased, because the cover story by David Patrick Columbia was not exactly flattering. Nor was it a hatchet job, however, something I regretted because Astor was not a nice man. Snubbing those born less rich and less posh is something no real aristocrat does—plutocrats, perhaps, but not real aristos. Astor was known for his rudeness toward those he deemed beneath him, and that included guests of his. He was a bully and a snob, neither being aristocratic trends, characteristics probably inherited by his German ancestor who began as a butcher. Here I will take a parenthesis that deals with my own Astor story.
Forty or so years ago, in the green and pleasant county of Oxfordshire, England, I took a long lease on Bruern Abbey, a stately pile of about twenty bedrooms, five grand drawing rooms, a ball
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