Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1909-07-24
LoNDoN's TREASURE HOUSES.
Many Private Mansions Could Rank
as Museums Elsewhere.

Many Private Mansions Could Rank
ms Museums Elsewhere.
The men who built the great man
sions of London which endure to this
day prepared them for the reception
year after year of the most beautiful
objects, so that now hardly anything
remains to add to them. There are
hundred great houses in London Of
which the least important could be
taken to any other great town and
proclaimed a wonderful museum.
Dorchester House. the present home
of the American ambassador; Bridge
water House; Chesterfield House,
built by the great author of polite
letter writing; Apsley House. the
home of the Duke of Wellington;
Devonshire House; Grosvenor House,
the custodian of a vast treasure in pic
lures, manuscripts and sculptures
Lansdown House, with its great gall
lery of busts and statues; Stafford
House. whose great staircase alone Is
worth a kings ransom; Wimborne
House-these are only a few of the
number. There are many other houses
OF minor importance which would be
starred in the first line II they were
anywhere else.
There, for instance. In Airing street.
a small. narrow thoroughfare close be-
! hind the Ritz Hotel, where Wimborne-
House casts its great shadow, are a
dozen mansions which contain treas
ures almost beyond belief. The Mar
Quis of Salisbury lives there in mag
nificent palace-magnihcen as to in
terror, insignificant as to exterior.
Sir Alexander Henderson, great
railway magnate, hides the nobility OF
his possessions behind modest street
frontage. At No. II, house built 100
years ago by Lord Carteret and now
owned by Lord Marlborough. lives H
Gordon Selfridge, late Of Chicago. Ii
is simple-looking London residence.
but the vast interior, spreading out az
you progress, is perfect storehouse
OF beautiful objects of antiquity.
Here are the most wonderful Van
Dycks, Greuzes. Rembrandts, Reyn-
oldses, Lelys and Gainsboroughs; gal
lery after gallery, room after room
filled with them; books Of great rari-
ty. bindings that would make the Gu
rators of most museums giddy with
delight and furniture that one only
finds usually surrounded by chains to
keep on the curious public; and this
IL only one OF the dozens upon dozens
OF old London houses.
As matter OF fact. this does not
apply to London alone. All over the
country, north. east, west and south,
there are strewn country houses dat.
ing back to other centuries where
great treasures are stored and jesi
ousy guarded. There is no other coun.
try In the world which contains &c
many.
The French chateaux suffered toe
much during the troublesome times OF
the revolution. They were burned and
sacked and hacked about and their
treasures scattered to the four winds
Germany never had many. The
italian works of art were kept mostly
In cities like Venice, Florence. Verons
and Genoa and In Its numerous mon
asteries. But in England. where the
country houses have hardly been dis
turbed since the time of Cromwell, tn,
work of collecting has gone on unmo
Tested. generation after generation
There are. still many undiscovered
finds scattered about here and Their,
In spite of the cry that nothing NOR,
is to be purchased.