"The Earl of Wilton's lackeys used to come round to our house for the ground rent when I was little. My dad used to save up pennies and ha'pennies and he'd throw the lot at the collector in the street."

Now if that was the truculent, boorish, ungracious and ill-mannered example you were set as a child it explains a great deal about you. That on reflection you boast about it and admire it even more. Having said that, the ground rent you refer to could not have been very much, or those you sneeringly refer to as "Lackeys" {What a good little "socialist" you are at heart} must have been of a much kinder and forgiving a disposition as there are limits defined in law as to how much you can legally pay for in coin. Had they adopted a harder line, your family could have been evicted for failure to pay ground rent and you might have been able to witness your father scrabbling about in the gutter picking up his loose change.