In Titanic, Rose's mother found it difficult to get along with Molly, who had become fabulously wealthy through gold prospecting. This was not uncommon among the aristocratic circles. To "old money," inherited wealth was more respectable than wealth earned through hard work from scratch.
Take Duke Abel of Spain, for example. Almost all of their wealth had been inherited. The equally wealthy British dukes, meanwhile, had seen their assets multiply tenfold by investing in the Grand Canal connecting the two major cities of London and Birmingham.
Yet no one discussed such matters at gatherings. Only people from the New World would sit down and talk about making money. What concerned them was public welfare and charity work, serving as honorary chairmen of various charitable institutions, and the like. After the French Revolution, many Continental aristocrats had become impoverished and were forced to sell famous paintings and treasures from before the eighteenth century. British aristocrats and wealthy men took the opportunity to buy them up in great quantities, which was why British private estates contained such vast stores of wealth.
They called it "invidious consumption." When Georgiana had assumed that those aristocrats let their carriage lamps look grimy because they could not afford the upkeep, their true intention had been to remain inconspicuous. Now that they were among their own kind, their clothes had begun to grow luxurious once more.
Georgiana felt that the newly risen French military aristocracy would likely find it difficult to blend in with them. Main roads usually led to major cities, where there were comfortable inns or palaces to stay in, while small places often had meager conditions.
This did not merely mean sleeping rough and living on the road; it also required accurate maps. If the maps were inaccurate, they might take the wrong route