A Noble Thing

During the 20th century, there was an unprecedented and largely unforeseen transfer of property in Britain from private ownership into the hands of a single charitable institution, the National Trust. In 1945, the Trust owned 112,000 acres and had a membership of 7,850. By 2007 it had a membership of 3.5 million and the area of land that it owned had increased more than fivefold. Only relatively recently has the significance of this transfer begun to attract the serious interest of political and social historians. The National Trust and its donors have tended to be diffident about their generosity. Merlin Waterson’s new book, accompanied throughout by rare and unusual illustrations, sheds new light on the motives of some of the Trust’s most important donors. Through an eclectic and colourful series of portraits, he investigates what motivated the owners of these precious possessions – historic buildings, large estates, great works of art and treasured artefacts – to give them away.