The newly married Maria, now with a greater income than that of her father, gains her London home in fashionable Wimpole Street at the heart of London society, a region where many very rich West Indian plantation owners had established their town houses. This desirable residence is the former home of Lady Henrietta Lascelles whose husband's family fortune came from the notoriously irresponsible Henry Lascelles. Lascelles had enriched himself with the Barbados slave trade and had been a central figure in the South Sea Bubble disaster. His wealth had been used to build Harewood House in Yorkshire, landscaped by "Capability" Brown.