The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-11-14
Expensive English Homes.
Estates That it Takes Fortunes to Main
tain

Estates That it Takes Fortunes to Main.
| tain.
1t is a pathetic fact that there are
several men in the United Kingdom
who would consider themselves on the
brink of bankruptcy if they were re-
duced, says London Tit Bits, by any
evil stroke of fate to mere pittance of
81, 900 week-who would find it sim
ply impossible to rub along anyhow on
the income of simple millionaire,
which would be barely sufficient in
some cases to pay the expenses of the
lordly pleasure houses which they have
Inherited from their ancestors.
The Duke of Devonshire, for ex.
ample, has no fewer than seven of
these stately h0mes-six in England
and one in Ireland-each of them fit
for the reception of king and not one
of which, as he confessed, he has
yet lived i'll long enough to explore
thoroughly. Probably he h i m elf
does not know within 81 900 how much
these palatial homes cost yearly to
maintain, but the annual cost has been
said to make very big hole in e1OO. 900.
In Wentworth Woodhouse, which is
only one Of his four palaces, Lord Fitz-
william owns the largest private house
IN England. 1t has frontage of 600
rect, Its hall is SO enormous that four
suburban villas could be built inside it.
and its owner could live in different
room every day for six weeks and still
leave several rooms unseen. The Duke
OF Portland owns five regal homes in
England and Scotland, the value of
into
with the attached gardens and estates.
keep hundreds of servants employed.
AT " elbeck he has over thirty acres of
kitchen gardens alone; in the glass
houses and garden proper he employs
about seventy men and boys, and his
horticultural bill for this one house is
said to exceed $4,000 year.
Blenhelm Palace, the Duke of MARI
borough's Oxford seat, is SO colossal
that the late Duke used to declare he
spent $500 year on putty alone for his
window panes. 1t actually cost $780,
600 to build, in days when money was
more valuable than it is today; it is 34S
feet long, has fifteen staircases, and
when it was repaired some time ago his
Grace found it necessary to sell his
pictures and books to pay the cost,
which amounted to more than $500, 600. |
The Duke of northumberland owns
five stately seats, at one alone of which |
-Syon House, Brentford-a staff of |
thirty or forty men is kept busy, large |
ly in the magnificent kitchen garden |
and fruit houses. And yet the Duke |
spends only small portion of the year |
in this princely home the rental value |
of which probably exceeds the Lord !
Chancellor's official income.
EnN Of p,fn hnr 60
in England, Scotland and Wales, and !
covers an acre of ground, has $50 rooms
and has actually cost over 100000
even at modest 4 per
cent, a value of 100000 year. One
can easily understand that his lord
ships income of $3.50, 900 a year is not
a penny too much for the demands of it.
OF Lord Londonderry's four seats,
Wynyard Park (Stockton-on- is
100 yards long. and boasts a sculpture
gallery 100 feet long and IS feet high,
while GOodwood, one of the Duke of |
Rlchmond's four mansions, measures,
with its two wings, 37S feet, and re-
quires about sixty domestics to keep it
in order
Castle Howard, the splendid York
shire seat of Lord Carlisle, has 1875 |
rooms; Raby Castle stands on two
acres; Stafford House, the town resi-
dence of the Duke of Sutherland, gives
to some sixty servants and |
costs about 100000 a year to keep 60
ing, and Eaton Hall cost over 81 900, 600 !
to build.
Such are but few of the stately
homes of England" some of which are
not seen by their lordly owners for
more than few weeks, if at all, in
year, although each of them costs many
thousands a year to maintain.
1t is said that there are at least sixty j
country houses in the United Kingdom i
which require staff of from $50 to 500 !
servants and involve an annual bill for
wages ranging up to 100000, and in
count for more than $4,000 year. How
ployed in connection with these houses
and estates is shown by the following !
example-that of a relatively modest ,
in Suffolk. The total |
Of servants employed is 173, |
and of these the home farm and stables
require tifty-four and the gardens forty; |
indoor servants humber seventeen, keep |
ers and night men sixteen; the parks !
and lakes employ ten; the brick kilns |
nine, while there are seven carpenters, |
four bricklayers, four warreners, three
lodge keepers, three painters and half a
dozen engineers, blacksmiths and wheel
wrights.
This, it should be remembered, is but |
a second class establishment, although |
its wages bill reaches $4,000 a year. Of |
still smaller establishments there are !
about 600 in the United Kingdom, en-
ploying between fifty and hundred
servants, with wages bills averaging at
least $4,000
Expensive as country seats are to
maintain, with a few exceptions such |
as those mentioned they are little more
costly than town houses. For tiny |
house in Park L ne, such as would be
procurable in London suburb for $50
year, rental of e3, 900 is asked, while |
some of the larger houses command a
rent running into five figures. In Gros-
venor Square the rents range from el,-
600 to $4,000 year; in st. James's |
Square you may pay as much as an
annual 10000: 100000 has been paid
for house in Carlton House Terrace,
and Lord Burton gave e150,000 for
house in South Audley street.
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