The Cordova daily times., 1919-10-27
FAMOUSHOMES
 OF MOBILES ARE
 ON THE MARKET

LONDON, Sept. "A Correspondence of Associated Press) The sale of the Duke of Devonshire's town house to a real estate syndicate for $3,0O0000 is the latest of the seats of the old mo- bility to pass into the hands of out siders. The purchaser of the London house of the governor general of Can ada is an American syndicate, and it is reported that hotel will be erected on the site. Y.
 Devonshire house was erected nearly two centries ago, in 173S, at cost of about $1,000,O00. It is one of the most important and historic of the old London mansions, with gloomy ex- teriors and splendid interiors which Thackeray and the other Victorian novelists made the stage settings of their most impressive passages of Lon don life. It stands with characteristic British disregard for display, it's back to London's chief thoroughfare, Picca- dilly, it's porches facing a spacious garden worth some dollars per square inch. Lansdowne house, the town place ,of the Marquis of Lansdowne, which commands an even larger gar den, 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 fronta of the great landed proprietors of the kingdom, and in Derbyshire, is one of the most mag nificent private establishments in the world, surpassed 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 Roxburgh, who married Miss May Goelet, the daughter of Ogden GOelet of New York. Here the government enter tained Colonel House when he came to London as special commissioner after tue United States entered the war. The Duke of Rutland has just parted with his town house, which for a time was tenanted by the American merchant. Gordon Selfridge. Lord Ebury's great country estate in Sur rey, near London, has been purchased by a newly-created peer, Lord Lever hulme, the soap magnate.
 The newspapers ascribe various req sons for these sales. The chief one is that super-income taxes and the general increase in the cost Of living make impossible the upkeep of such buildings and the necessary retlnue of servants: another that the motor car makes it possible for people to live in the country and still enjoy all the advantages of town life. Another writer credits the Duke of Devonshlre with a belief that the constant sight Of such costly private possessions by the bus-riding masses who daily pass the iron gates of Devonhire house tends to promote Bolshevism.
 England Changing Hands" is the heading under which weekly paper groups long pages of notices of estates for sale. Kimberley 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 Corn wallis-West family the Rothes estate, linked with the ancient earldom or that name; and Burton Pynsent, once inhabited by William Pitt. Mathern palace, Ashby St. Legers, Crag-y-Nos, Castle Toward, Graham Grange, Rush. brook hall, Windlesham park, Whatton manor, Barwell court, Abby-CWm-Hlr- these are typical offerings on the real estate market They are described, some of them, as Jacobean, Tudor, Queen Anne, Georgian; pictured with meats, turrets, gargoyles, paneled oak walls and carved stair rails; and many have appertaining to them lakes, deer parks, Italian and Georgian gardens, hunting with four packs" and even s'feuing land"
 Tn such reading matter the knowing find between the lines not few stories of family tragedies.
 Apart from sales of whole proper ties, many great estates are belng cur tailed by placing few thousand acres