Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-10-19
AMERICANS TO BUILD
HOTEL ON HOME PLACE
OF DEVONShIRE NOBLE
s5.0OO,000 Purchase Marks
Passing of Another London
Landmark.

London, Oct. 1S.-The sale of the
Duke of Devonshire's town house to :,
real estate syndicate for $5,OOO,COg
is the laest of the seats Of the old
nobility to pass into the hands of out
siders. The purchaser of this London
home of the governor general of
\ Canada is an American syndicate ana
' it is reported that a hotel will be
erected on the site.
Devonshire House was erected near
" two centuries ago, in 1888, at {,
cost of about $1,000,00u. It is one OF
the most important and historic of
the old London mansions with gloomy
exteriors and splendid interiors
which Thackeray anu the other
Victorian novelists made the stage
settings OF their most impressive
passages of London life. 1t stands
with characteristic British disregard
for display, it's back to London's chief
thoroughfare, Piccadilly, it's passage
facing d spacious garden worth somo
dollars per square inch. Lansdowne
House, the town place Of the Mar
uuis of Lansdowne, which commands
an even larger garden, is the nearest
neighbor and that is reported to be
in the market also.
The governor general of Canada
and the Marquis of Lansdowne both
own three or four country estates as
well. They are at the front of the
great landed proprietors of the king
dom, and the dukes palace named
Chatsworth in Derbyshire is one OF
the most magnificent private es-
IL IL, ho 4
by nothing in Britain except Windsor
Castle. &
Chesterfield House, owned by gen
erations of Lords Chesterfield, and
long considered the finest of the old
London residences, has been sold re-
Gently This had been rented for
some years by the Duke of Roxburge,
who married Miss May Goelet, the
daughter of Ogden Goelet of New
York Here the government enter
tanned Colonel House when he came
to London as special commissioner
after the United States entered the
war. The Duke of Rutland has just
parted with his town house which ro1
a time was tenanted by the Ameri-
can merchant, Gordon Selfridge Lord
Ebury's great country estate in Sur
rey near London has been purchased
by newly created peer, Lord Lever
hume, the soap magnate.
The newspapers ascribe various
reasons for these sales: The chief
one is that super-income taxes and
the general increase of the cost of
living make impossible the upkeep Of
such buildings and the necessary re-
tinue of servants; another that the
motor car makes it possible for peo-
pie to live in the country and still en-
JOY all the advantages Of town life.
Another writer credits the Duke Of
Devonshire with a belief that the
constant sight of such costly private
possessions by the bus-riding masses
who daily pass the iron gates of De-
vonshire House tends to promote boil
shevism."
England Changing Hands" is the
heading under which a weekly paper
groups long pages of notices of es-
tates for sale. Amberley Castle, one
OF the properties of the late Duke Of
Norfolk, is in the latest list. Also
Ruthin Castle, long in the possession
OF the Corvallis West family; the
Rothes estate, linked with the ancient
earldom of that name; and Burton
Pynsent, once inhabited by William
fit. Mathern Palace, Ashby- Saint
Legers, Creg-y-Neg, Castle Toward,
Graham Grange, Rushbrooke Hall,
Wlndlesham Park, Whatton Manor,
Barwell Court, Abbey Own Hir, these
are typical offerings on the real es-
tate market. They are described,
some some Of them as Jacobean, Tudor,
Queen Anne, Georgian; pictured with
meats, turrets, gargoyles, panelled
oak walls and carved stair rails; and
many have appertaining to them
lakes, deer parks, Italian and Georg.
ian, gardens, hunting with fou.
packs" and even "feuding land" in
such reading matter the knowing find
between the lines not few stories OF
family tragedies.
Apart from sales of whole proper
tles many great estates are beng
curtalled by placing a few thousand
acres on the markets here and there.
Inc aggregate Of these land transfers
mas amounted to millions of acres this
year The redistribution of the land
INTO smaller holdings, which has been
Inc principal reform of the past CEN
curry in Ireland, is generally consider
60 all for the good of the larger