First Duke Inc.

Lord Globule was a backward lad,

Round leaden eyes Lord Globule had. . . .

At ten years old he could not get

The hang of half the alphabet;

At twelve he learned to read his name,

At seventeen to write the same,

At twenty-one, his boyhood done,

He reached the age of twenty-one,

Which was sufficient reason why

His father's sturdy tenantry

Should gather in a large white tent,

Engulf some tons of nutriment,

And, freely primed with free potations,

Emit profuse congratulations

--John Collings Squire.

Eight months ago tart-tongued persons at Mayfair teaparties glibly quoted "Lord

Globule," by the premier parodist of England, Editor Squire of the London Mercury, when "sturdy tenantry" assembled at Norman grey Arundel Castle to celebrate the 21st birthday of the Premier Duke and Earl of England, shy, none-too-bright Bernard Marmaduke FitzAlan- Howard, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel, Baron Maltravers, Earl of Surrey, Baron FitzAlan, Clun and Oswaldestre, Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal and Chief Butler of England (TIME, June 10). The diffident Duke, who in addition to his titles is the chief Roman Catholic peer in Great Britain, has been schooled entirely by private nurses and tutors. He flunked the entrance examinations at Oxford, but served as a subaltern in-the Royal Horse Guards. He breeds horses as a hobby. His titles make him one of the Great Officers of State, ranking only fourth below the Prime Minister. Last week he appeared briefly in the news again, by turning himself into a corporation.

Definite concrete advantages come to the First Duke with his articles of incorporation. As Duke of Norfolk he is the owner of about 50,000 acres of land, some of it in London, all of it valuable. As an individual landowner he must pay taxes on all of this with only a small deduction for needed repairs to tenants' land. By forming himself into a regularly constituted corporation with an official board of directors, he need only pay income tax on dividends paid, in other words on his net income.

Other incorporated peers include: the 72-year-old Duke of Portland, whose ancestral Welbeck Abbey contains a half mile of subterranean secret passages; the large-toothed Earl of Harewood, formerly Viscount Lascelles, husband of Princess Mary; Viscount Astor, husband of Lady Nancy Astor.

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