The slight signs of neglect which a sudden rise in the cost of labour combined with a strangling land tax had induced upon the lawns and gardens had only succeeded in mellowing and softening the pretentiousness of the estate, and in the haze of the morning it looked kindly and inviting in spite of the fact that the doctor's venerable motor car stood outside the square doorway and the blinds were drawn in all the front windows.
(from The Gyrth Chalice Mystery, by Margery Allingham. If you are a reader of the comic writings of Sir P. G. Wodehouse, you will find more than once that he uses this financial fact ("strangling land tax") as the backdrop for the plot, i.e., noble families in castles or large manor houses who have become virtually impoverished because of the high rates of taxation in the period.)
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