Postcard view of the Rex Whistler mural at Plas Newydd ("New Place"), Isle of Anglesey, Wales, country seat of the Marquess of Anglesey and now a property of the National Trust.  

Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, was a young man in 1898 when he inherited the title which came with extensive estates and an annual income of 110,000 GBP.  He then proceeded to squander this fortune on lavish entertaining and a generally extravagant lifestyle which involved converting the chapel at Plas Newydd into a theater where he staged and starred in his own elaborate productions.  His wife disapproved and had their marriage annulled in 1900 for non-consummation, which freed Paget to pursue even greater indulgences, incurring debts of 544,000 GBP by 1904 when he was declared bankrupt.  He died a year later, in Monte Carlo.  

As you know, of course, inheriting a fortune and a title can be a recipe for disaster.  How many times have you heard someone say, "It's only when I got that big raise I started doing coke," or, "I was fine until I had so much equity in my house I could take out a loan and blow it all on drugs and hookers."  Or, "I couldn't afford to pursue my career as a porn star until my parents died and left me a little money."   And so forth.  You know who I mean.    

Unfortunately, the reverse does not always hold true: suffering is not necessarily ennobling, nor is Poverty a virtue, contrary to what you may have heard.  Thrift in fact may be simply indicative of lack of ambition.  But I must confess that in my experience, the fellow who goes in pursuit of fame and fortune and the acquisition of worldly goods solely in order that others will love him generally finds himself envied, which is something altogether different.  In fact, although in our society they are frequently confused, Envy and Love tend to manifest as quite the opposite of each other.  Those who envy you because of your house and car and hot boyfriend are not rejoicing in your good fortune but rather wishing your house and car and hot boyfriend were not yours but theirs; in other words, they wish you were dead.  Hardly a loving attitude, is it.  Also something of a vicious circle, if you think about it. 

I would be very surprised if we were not living in a very different world entirely if more people were more aware of this simple distinction. 

The mural shown here, the largest work by the artist Rex Whistler, was commissioned in 1937 by Sir Charles Paget, the 6th Marquess of Anglesey, who had inherited the title and massive debts from his childless cousin in 1905.