The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-07
some EXPENSIVE
english HOMES
Estates That It Takes
Great Fortunes to
Maintain.
SEVEN GREAT HOUSES.
Largest Private House in
England-Cost of Keep
ing Blenheim Palace.
SEVEN GREAT HOUSES.

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who would consider themselves on the
brink of bankruptcy if they were re-
drced, says London Tlt-Bits, by any
evil stroke of fate to a mere pittance
1000 pounds week-who would find
| II simply impossible to rub along any,
| how on the income of simple mill
| lionaire, which would be barely suffi-
cient in some cases to pay the expenses
of the lordly pleasure houses which
they have inherited from their ances-
| tors
The Duke of Devonshire, for exam
pie, has no fewer than seven of these
stately homes-six in England and one
! Ireland-each of them fit for the re-
coptlon of king and not one of which,
as he confessed the other day, he has
yet lived in long enough to explore
thoroughly. Probably he himself does
not know within 1000 pounds how
much these palatial homes cost yearly
I to maintain, but the annual cost has
been said to make very big hole in
100000 pounds.
In Wentworth Woodhouse, which Is
only one of his four palaces, Lord Fitz-
william owns the largest private house
in England 1t has a frontage Of 600
feet, its hall is so enormous that four
suburban villas could be built inside It,
and its owner could live in a 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 which runs into millions, and
which, with the attached gardens and
estates, keep hundreds Of servants en-
ployed At NWelbeck 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 5000 pounds a
year.
Blenheim Palace, the Duke Of MARI
borough's Oxford seat, is so colossal
that the late Duke used to declare he
81 ent 500 pounds a year on putty
alone for his window panes. 1t actually
cost 100000 pounds to build, in days
when money was more valuable than
it Is to-day; it is 34S feet long, has
fifteen staircases, and when it was re-
paired some time ago his Grace found
it necessary to sell his pictures and
books to pay the cost, which amount
el to more than 100000 pounds.
The Duke Of Northumberland owns
Eve stately seats, at one alone Of
which--syon House, Brentford-a staff
of thirty or forty men is kept busy,
largely in the magnificent kitchen gar
den and fruit houses And yet the
Duke spends only a small portion of
the year in this pripcely home, the
rental value Of which probably exceeds
the Lord Chancellor's official income.
The Marques of Butte has five seats
in England, Scotland and Wales, and
one of them, Mountstuart Rothesay,
covers an acre of ground, has $50
rooms and has actually cost over 2,000,-
600 pounds, representing, even at
modest four per cent, value Of 3d.
600 pounds year. One can easily I'M
derstand that his lordship's income of
100000 pounds a year is not a penny
too much for the demands Of it,
OF Lord Londonderry's four seats,
Wynyard Park (Stockton-o -Tees) is
100 yards long, and boasts sculpture
gallery 100 feet long and So feet high,
while Goodwood, one of the Duke of
Richmond's four mansions, measures,
with its two wings 37S feet, and re-
quires about sixty domestics to keep 1t
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
employment to some sixty servants
ard costs about 10000 pounds year
keep going, and Eaton Hall cost
over 100000 pounds to build.
Such are but a few of the stately
homes of England some of which are
not seen by their lordly owners for
more than a few weeks, If at all, in a
wear, although each of them costs
many thousand a year to maintain.
1t is said that there are at least six
ty country houses in the United King
dem which require a staff of from $50
to 500 servants and involve an annual
| Dlll LUZ Nd5CS hanging up W -ptVVV
pounds, and in may of them the gar
dens alone account for more than 5000
pounds a year How large are the
numbers of servants employed in con-
nection with these houses and estates
is shown by the following example
that of a relatively modest establish
ment in Suffolk The total number of
servants employed is 173, and of these
the home farm and stables require "a
and the gardens 40; indoor servants
number II, keepers and night men 16;
the parks ana lakes employ 10, the
brick kilns nine, while there are sew
en- carpenters, four bricklayers, four
warreners, three lodge keepers, three
PAINTERS and half dozen engineers
blacksmiths and wheelwrights.
This, it should be remembered, is
but a second class establishment, al.
! though its wages bill reaches S,O0t
pounds a year. OF still smaller estab.
1nshments there are about 600 in the
\ United Kingdom employing between
fifty and a hundred servants witt
wages bills averaging at least 4,O0t
pounds.
Expensive as country seats are t.
maintain, with a few exceptions sucl
4 as those mentioned they are LITTLE
mere costly than town houses. For {
Z tiny house in Park Lane, such a.
4 would be procurable in a London sub
\ urb for so pounds a year, a rental O
\ 5000 pounds is asked, while some O
q the larger houses command a rem
n rnnning into five fienres II Grnr,-nr,n q.