Gorehambury, a beautiful mansion on a large estate near St Albans, Hertfordshire, is where James Walter Grimston, son of the seventh Earl of Verulam, was brought up with his two brothers and a sister.
The family wealth is based on investment trusts created in the Twenties and an art collection - one painting, by Petrus Christus, is worth £20m alone. Over the years the family has been prominent in Hertfordshire politics and represented the area for many years in the House of Commons. The 1,500-acre estate is worth about £4m, but some of it has development potential, which would greatly increase its value given that one such acre near St Albans is worth £850,000.
22 Hon Robert Other Ivor Windsor-Clive, 19
Head of family: Earl of Plymouth
Will inherit £30 million
The Plymouth title is an unusual one. Technically the title is 'of the second creation', the first Plymouth earldom having become extinct in 1843 (it started with a knighthood for one of Henry VIII's distinguished soldiers).
The second Plymouth earldom was established in 1905. But when Robert Other Ivor Windsor-Clive - that is a mouthful - finally inherits, he will receive a fine landed estate near Ludlow in Shropshire which runs to over 7,500 acres and is worth £26m on the Inland Revenue's valuation, plus a house in which he and his family have lived since the earl moved to a cottage on the estate.
23 Hon Edward Hope-Morley, 19
Head of family: Baron Hollenden
Will inherit £30 million
Having succeeded to the title last year, Baron Hollenden's two estates can be found around Tonbridge, Kent and Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. The 4,000 and 6,000 acres, respectively, are valued at a combined £28m based on Inland Revenue valuations. Both areas are rich with development prospects (an acre of development land in Bucks goes for £700,000 and in Kent for £750,000). Hope-Morley, descended from a family of city financiers who bought the estates in the early Nineties, could be sitting on a huge nest egg, if the land is given over to development.
24 James Evan Baillie, 24
Head of family: Lord Burton
Will inherit £25 million
The family seat is near Burton-on-Trent, the home of the Bass brewing empire which laid the foundations for the family fortune - Sir Michael Bass MP was the first of the Burton barons. Baillie will also inherit the 5,000-acre Dochfour estate in Scotland which belongs to his grandfather. He will also collect some very valuable art treasures when he becomes the fifth Lord Burton.
25 Hon Edmund Hugh Burke, 28
Head of family: Baron Fermoy
Will inherit £25 million
The main estate is at Rugby, Warwickshire, and the 6,000 acres would fetch £18m. Burke is the brother of the Baron but, as the Baron has no son, it will all fall into his possession if anything untoward happens to his elder brother. There is art, but the Fermoys are more noted for their investments and their royal connections.
26 Hon Hugh Crossley, 29
Head of family: Lord Somerleyton
Will inherit £25 million
Hugh Crossley was a page of honour to the Queen from 1983 to 1984. He now stands to inherit a Suffolk estate near Lowestoft, which runs to about 5,000 acres, making it worth at least £15m at the going rate of £3,000 per acre - ignoring the development potential. There is a member of the Hoare banking family in the ancestry and there are extensive family trusts going back several years.
27 Viscount Newport, 20
Head of family: Earl of Bradford
Will inherit £25 million
Other than a brief spell of work experience at the Birmingham Express and Star - which includes Shropshire and therefore his estate in its coverage - Alexander Newport has remained very low profile. Newport's father, the Earl of Bradford, is a Tory and has the right to appoint priests to several Church of England parishes around the family seat.
The Earl and his heir live in a house on the estate, which is owned by a charitable trust and runs to about 3,000 acres. There are notable treasures also held by the charity - the Weston Park Foundation, set up as a limited company in 1986. Newport's reduced valuation is a reflection of the impact the charitable trust has had on the family finances. Unusually for a hereditary peer, the earl has made a notable success of a new business, Porters restaurant in London, and the family is important historically, having played a major role in the creation of Britain's canal system.
28 Lord Buckhurst, 21
Head of family: Earl de la Warr
Will inherit £25 million
The earldom - which will be his family's 12th when William Sackville inherits it - is just 238 years old. But before the earldom came peerages and knighthoods, going back to the 14th century.
Sackville's mother is the former wife of the Marquess of Lothian, and he is related to about half the aristocracy through marriages over the past 700 years. With the title comes a 6,000 acre estate in Sussex worth about £17m, some very large family trusts and a racing stud. Although the aristo set now prefer easy-going Edinburgh university to Oxford, Sackville plumped for Newcastle university after spending a post-school year in South America. But he is more likely to be found at the races with his brother, the Hon Edward Sackville, than in a lecture theatre.
29 Hon Robert Shirley, 16
Head of family: Earl Ferrers
Will inherit £25 million
The title goes back to 1108. His father is Viscount Tamworth, and though granddad Ferrers only reached the rank of lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, he was a director of several heavyweight companies, including Norwich Union. There are estates in Suffolk, Stafford and Derby; their total value stands at £25m plus an art collection. Earl Ferrers kept his seat in the House of Lords, coming top of the list of elected Tory peers.
30 Viscount Wolmer, 29
Head of family: Earl of Selborne
Will inherit £20 million
The estate includes at least 6,000 acres around Selborne, Hampshire (valued at £2,863 per acre), including the extensive orchards of Blackmoor Apple Farm which supplies fruit to supermarkets. Earl Selborne also owns property in Southampton and Portsmouth. William Palmer's aunt is Minette Palmer, the local Conservative county councillor. He has made no great break with tradition, attending Eton and Christ Church College, Oxford. Like Earl Ferrers, Selborne kept his seat in the House of Lords.