The New York herald., 1921-08-21
STOWE HOUSE SALE
MELANCHOLY EVENT
Seemed Like Mean Last Act
to Pompous Play of
Centuries.
NATION MAY GET PLACE
Of Priceless Worth as Sum-
mary of Great Age in Art
and Letters.

LONDON, Aug. 2O-Stowe House, one
Of the show places of England. has been
sold recently. Here are the Impressions
of correspondent OF the Manchester
Guardian who attended the second days
sale:
The New Zealander I travelled with
to Stowe this morning, like Macaulay's s
New Zealander. contemplated the ruins
of an old civilization with complacency.
When the lordly facade came in view,
he said scornfully: I'D rather live on
my little farm. The day for these things
has gone. Make them all museums, as
In Italy All this" (sweeping his arm
across the soft ducal landscape) Ought
to be cut into small holdings. Back TO
the land"
This was common sense. maybe, but
one could not help dropping the pensive
tear, as Pope might have said, at Stowe
over the spectacle of the sale, then In its
second day. The auctioneer's table was
perched between the great columns of
the portico at the top of the steps where
Emperors and Queens were received in
state. and above the naughty stone lions,
the circle of chairs, was handful OF
village folk making holiday of 1t and
picking UP bargains from the loot of
seventy bedrooms. King George the
First, parodying laurelled Roman, rode
his leaden horse in the background.
1t was a mean last act to the ponpous
play of centuries We sat round in The
blazing sunshine while slowly vast ac-
cumulation of odds and ends was
knocked down for small sums. You
could buy a. bed complete for half a
sovereign or O chaste Victorian nyrnph
in marble for less. Nothing here to
tempt the dealers from London; they
are waiting for the days of Buhl cabi-
nets, Flemish tapestries. Romneys.
Gainsboroughs and all the gorgeous
lumber of the state rooms.
Scene Was Pitiful.
There was something pitiful in it ALL
BY the auctioneer's table sat the master
of Kinloss, the young heir of long line
of Grenvilles. carefully following the
dispersal of his ancestors goods. The
images of the terminal deities ranged
round gazed sadly over the auctioneer's
tickets that defaced them.
Stowe, an eighteenth century paradise,
has come under the hammer at last-tlra
most notable sale for many year. The
house and some 800 acres round 1t were
sold on Monday for the astonishingly
small sum of E50.000. This price is the
sensation of the country round. Peopla
talk of the fine italian marble mantel-
pieces and the Grinling Gibbons carv-
ings as worth the money alone. Still,
the point to be grateful for is that these
superb things that maas Stowe as splen-
did as any royal palace are not to be
torn out and sold abroad. The new
owner talks of giving the house and
grounds to the nation. 1t is of priceless
worth as a summary of a great age in
art and letters.
You reach IL along a renowned avenue
from the rosy red village of Bucking-
ham-an avenue broken by a tall
Corinthian arch in stucco. Thence you
make detour through woods Of beech
and pine, and suddenly the facade,
pompous as an Alexandrine, Is there,
colored the yellow of gold, its Ionic
portico flanked by long columned pa
vilions. As 1t stands the house is
early Georgian. and after ages have
added little that As significant. 1t
is perfect of its Augustan period out
side and in. Even the auctioneer in
his sumptuous catalogue laments the
necessity Of destroying its harmony.
The most potent spirit OF its past
is that Of Field Marshal Lord Gotham.
who fought with Marlborough. A por-
trait Of him Shippers at you in the
crimson drawing room, be1ying a rep
utation for ferocity. His campaigns
over. he came back TO Stowe and made
it-he and Lord Temple later In the
century-what Is still a fairly COM
plete reflection Of the classical fash
Ia, rOI,f
Vanbrugh and Kent worked at Stowe
and in the classic groves thronged with
temples the eighteenth century muse
sang decorously. Stowe earned the
formal compliment of Pope: IF any
thing under paradise could set me be-
yond earthly objects Stowe might dc
IT,"