The Arizona sentinel., 1890-05-03
ESTATES OF LORDS.
AGLIMPSE OF THE GREAT COUNTRY
HOMES OF TITLED ENGlISHMeN.

a GLIMPSE OF THE GREAT COUNTRY
HOMES OF TITLED ENGLIsHMeN.
How q Palace IN the Town and Para
disc In the Country Are NIaintained-
Warnings to Trespassers-A Few Crit
fcisms.
The great country homes of rich and
titled Englishmen are something stagger-
ing. Almost anybody has sense enough
TO know that dukes AMI lesser gentry live
IN better style than most folks, but how
many who have not seen one of these es-
tates realize their immensely: How many
chance to know that an English nobleman
often resides in an ediiice whose main door
IS two miles from the front gate? Do not
begin comparing such q place mentally
with single holdings in America like the
old Sullivan farm in Illinois. There isn't
even this JUNCTION for Yankee pride, for
these homes are not farms at all, but vast
Enclosures of garden. field, hill, vale,
meadow, copSe, and forest solely for the en-
1oyment Of the owners and their families.
Nothing is usually raised on them ex-
Eepl WnslG ElilI De uSeQ Dy the immaculate
residents, their servants, and stock.
The income for the maintenance of
such a home comes from outside rents,
for the possessor Of Il castle set in the
midst of a private park ten SQUARE miles
in extent may also own huge slice in the
heart of London, half dozen villages in
the neighborhood of his home and two
thirds of a county in Ireland. 1t is with
the enormous rentals squeezed out of
these that palace in town and paradise
In the country quite rs large and probably
much finer than the original Eden are
maintained. have driven through parks
owned by plain misters: one actually be-
1onged to q Smitll--it was 'tColebrook"
near Tunbridge Nells-Iargcr than Lin
coin park, while | have also been i'll the
domains of more distinguished parties
whose grounds. with the adjoining de-
mesne, would afford more than room
enough for the whole city of Chicago.
Fridge Park, in the heart of Kent, home
of the Marquis of Abergavenny, just seen,
Is, with the accompanying contiguous
property, seven miles long by five wide
The pleasure part alone contains $500
acres.
NOT FOR THE PUBLIC.
This and similar estates are not open to
the public, though portions Of many Of
them can be seen on stated days. They
are entirely for the Comfort of my lord
and family and spch friends as they may
choose to invite TO walk, ride, drive, shoot
and otherwise disport therein. Some of
the cunning grounds, left wild only that
his iordship and cronies may in fall and
winter pop over the tenderly preserved
pheasant and grouse, are extensive
enough to build towns upon. How would
the American sportsman, accustomed to |
ramming right into any farmers woods |
and fields in quest Of his prairie chicken /
and partridge, like that? A little figuring 1
and inquiry make it pU.sible to learn who /
Is the steward in charge of almost any
one Of these grand Enclosures, and from !
hjR admission to the parks is usually OBJ |
tainable. But otherwise boards duly let |
tered are up everywhere, warning away
the trespasser and giving him careful no. /
tice that if he is a man he viii be prose
euted; if a cat, destroyed.
The buildings in the vicinaCe belonging
TO the estate are often marked by the
crest or else the initial Of the owner, and
sometimes the "A'' for Abergavenny, "B''
for Beaufort, ''C'' for Cairnes, 'ED'' for
Deyonshire, and so on through the whole
peerage alphabet, may be seen upon q
majority OF the cottages, ale houses and
other structures for miles around.
friend was telling me that on his first
visit 10 the English country lie struck into
q "G7' neighborhood-a Grafton, Green
vile, Gainsborough or Cover, it doesn't
matter which. He didn't know at first
what it stood for, but from the magnitude
and splendor of the estate, the universal
Difference accorded to its unseen owner
and the initial letter, all combined, he
thought perhaps he had at last reached
the place where God lived.
FEW CRITIcIsNs.
OF the extent and beauty Of such an
estate as Fridge, for instance, its scores of
servants IN castle, gardens, parks and
fields, its imposing residence and magnif-
cent surroundings, it is next to impossible
to tell. II seems ungracious to return the
courtesy of admission with criticism. but
few who behold it's vastness and grandeur
can help thinking of this and like domains
that they ere too much to be held in per-
petuity for the personal delectation of
single families. No one household has the
capacity To enjoy such colossal homesteads
while rent racked tenants fight their hard
lives on pincled Irish farms or in the
crowded slums Of London.
why not cut up these gigantic home
steads and rent or sell the bulk of them to
other people before the 81, 600 900 souls of
now living on an area not much
larger than the state of Illinois, weary of
such inequality? OF all brutes the Anglo
Saxon, once convinced that he is wronged,
Is the worst al inscrutable Providence is
known TO have yet fashioned. Who can
say that some day, sick Of grinding a
hopeless life along in the country hOrel
or with crowd of wretched families like
his OVID IL the murky tenement CT a Lon
don alley, Willie my lord keeps merely for
bis pleasure grounds fertile hills and val
Ieys which can only lie seen across with a
spy glass or cor:i5assed by hard days
walk, this s;ine brute may not rise in his
agly might and scrawl new page Of his
tory beside which the bloody record Of the
French revolution shall read like pas
Ioral poelr---London Cor Chicago Tri-
bune.
Hoa. \. q. Thurnan's Father
An carly friend ~ H., All.