The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-09-03
PROPERTY IN LONDON.
The Vast Possesstons of the Nobility iri
the Metropolis.

ness of houses, says Mark Twain
like the central square of chess
board and, as the hordes that inhabit
it daily dwell miles away on the out
skirts, it has a ridiculously small
population In the night compared to
what it has in the day time--sOO, 900. in
the day and $4,000 at night.
Anybody, q mechanic, or anybody
else, who rents or OWLS a house, has a
vote-that is to say, man who pays
rates, or taxes-for there is no law here
which gives useless idler the privilege
of disposing of public money furnished
by other people. The City" has it's
own police, and its own government.
The rest of the metropolis is composed
of a great hive of once separate villages,
which still retain their own names-as
Charing, Holborn, etc.--but they are
welded together into compact mass
of houses nOT, and no stranger can tell
when he passes out Of one of these
towns and into another.
The estates of the nobility are strictly
entailed, and cannot be alienated from
the family. The town property which
these great landlords own is leased for
long terms-from half century up to
ninety nine years in Scotland nine
hundred and ninety-nine years. was
visiting house In the West End, the
quarter where dwelling house property
is the most valuable. My host said he
living in Ga three-story brick, with
basement) twenty years ago, for seven
thousand five hundred dollars, when it
had forty-one and quarter years to
run. Every year he has to pay one
hundred and fifty dollars ground rent.
But in these days property has so
greatly advanced in value all over Lon
don, and especially at the West End,
that If this lease were for sale now it
would require something like fortune
to buy it, and the ground rent would
be placed at one thousand dollars year,
instead of the one hundred and fifty
dollars the present owner will go on
paying for the next twenty years. The
property belongs to the Duke of Bed
ford, and when he reflects upon what
that property will have scared to, ten
or fifteen years from now, and still pay
ing him only the trife of one hundred
and fifty dollars year, he probably
wants to go and dig up his late ancestor
and shake him.
This house is one of seventy-fve Just
like it that surround beautiful square
containing two or three acres ofground
ornamental grounds, large old trees,
broad, clean-shaven grass-plots, kept
scrupulously swept free from twigs,
fallen leaves, and all other eye-sores.
His grace the Duke owns oil those sew
enty-tive houses, and he owns the orna-
mental square in the middle also. To
each house he leaves a key that will
open any of the numerous gates (there
is an iron railing all around) to the
square, and nobody can get in these but
the occupants of the seventy-fve houses
and such persons as they choose to in
vite. They do deal of croquet. The
seventy-fve pay q small sum yearly to
keep the square in repair.
1t was pleasant day, and we walked
along down the street. Every time we
crossed new street my host said:
"This property belongs to the Duke
of Bedford also-all these stately blocks
of buildings-bot sides of the street..
By-and-by we came to another orna-
mental square like the other, and sur
rounded by large dwellings.
"Who owns this square and these
houses?"
"The Duke of Bedford"
We turned and walked about half
mile in another direction. Still the
same. All the way it was, "This all
belongs to the Duke of Bedford this
ornamental square is his this is the
statue of the late duke /; all the smoky
statues we have seen represent dukes
of the line, of former generations. We
are pretty we'll tired out by this time,
else we might go on till we could show
you the great Covent Garden Market
one of the sights of London"
"Who owns it?"
"The Duke of Bedford"
&C I suspected as much. Does he own
the property around it?
"He does"
Does he own any in the country?"
"Whole counties.
took cab and drove about seven
teen miles, or such a matter, to my
hotel. No candels in my room-no
water-no towels. L said to the land
lord, 81 have very serious notion of
complaining to the Duke of Bedford
about the way you keep this hotel"
He said, "What has he got to do
with it ?"
I said, "He probably has a good
deal to do with it /; I suppose he owns
it ?"
"Well, he don't do anything of the
kind own it myself"
The item was worth something, any
way, and so I entered it in my diary
"London is owned by the Duke Of
Bedford and one-horse hotel-keeper.
But found afterward that the Duke
of Portland, the Marquis of Westmin-
ster, and other noblemen, own as large
ly here as Bedford does. Indeed,
Westminster is much the richest peer
in England-perhaps the richest man
in the world. His income is some
twenty thousand dollars day, count
ing Sundays. But what it will be next
year or the year after, battles arithme-
tic, for the old cheap leases and ground
rents are constantly running out, and
the property being let at more than
quadruple prices. The Duke of Port
land owns the huge piece of ground on
which the British Museum stands.
1t is no hardship here to own real
estate, for the taxes on it are trifing, as
they are also on foreign wines and
luxuries which only the well.to-do in
dulge in. The revenues come from
the manifold things which Tom, Dick
and Harry of the great middle and
working classes have got to have and
cannot do without.