Evening star., 1923-05-30
BY THE MARaUfsE DE FONTENOY.

Hf THE MARC USE DE EONTENO1. .
Although Viscount Maidstone. who
has just arrived in this country from
England on board the Majestic with
his American wife. daughter of An
thony Drexel of Philadelphia, won
the distinguished service order. along
with other military honors, as well
a the rank of colonel by his services
at the front in France and on the
coast Of Flanders during the great
war, he is essentially a business man,
and has long been a member of the
London Stock Exchange, a partner in
the firm of kitcat & Aitken. one OF
the leading houses of Bishopgate
street.
While he has been very successful
in his commercial career. it was ne
cessity rather than inclination that
caused him to have recourse to life
in the city. For his fathers earl
doms of Winchilsea and of Noting
ham-there are two of them-while
ancient, are extremely impoverished
through no fault of their present
holder, but in consequence of the
we'll nigh insane extravaganza OF
the tenth earl, who was, in his young
er days, one of the boon companions
L
ures as such in many contemporary
memoirs.
The confusion in which he left his
affairs at his death was increased by
his elder son, the eleventh earl, so
renowned for his wit and for his
classical 1ore-probably the last peer
to indulge in the old-fashioned prac-
tice of interlading his speeches in
the house of lords with apt quota
tions from Horace. He had, how
ever, no business sense whatsoever.
and during his lftime the family
fortunes went from bad to worse, the
ruin being, so to speak, completed by
his only son, the late Lord Maid
stone, who pre-deceased him after a
most riotous career, which included
and repeated appearances in the court
of bankruptcy
The Horace quoting earl was sue
ceeded by one of his half brothers,
who endeavored in vain to restore
the. family fortunes by associating
Terah Hooley, sharing the latter's s
disasters. The latter was until re-
Gently quite frequently in Jail.
The present and thirteenth Earl of
Winchilsea. who is likewise the eighth
earl of Nottingham, is another of the
half brothers of the Horace quoting
earl, and is a very useful citizen. and
president of the National Agricultural
Union of Great Britain. For time
he was much in the public eye in
connection with his model farm at
Haverholme priory, in Lincolnshire.
where he experimental with foreign
crops to determine upon their avail
ability for adoption by the British
farmer.
But he was unable to make the
place pay. and with the terrible in
crease of imposts of every kind, espe-
cially on landed property. following
the great war, he was obliged to not
only abandon the enterprise, but like
wise to place Haverholme Park on
the market AS 1 have not heard of
its sale, / presume it still remains In
his possession.
1t is an estate of some 1000 acres,
was founded in 1887 as a dependency
OF the celebrated Fountains Abbey,
and, on the confscation of the prop
erty of the church by Henry VIII,
~as granted by that monarch to Ed
! ,sard. Lord Clinton, and finally came
through marriage. into the posses
sion of the ninth Earl of Winchilsea
1t is very beautiful place, the an
cient priory standing in q park OF
nearly 1000 acres, and includes
among it's features superb yew
neoSeS, GAZING from dnte-ISiophasicl,
times and planted by the monks, and
also a splendid herony, the largest
in the United Kingdom, which has
been fiourishing since the old monas-
tic days. There is excellent fishing
In the River Slea, which trayerses the
park, beneath the trees of which
there roams one of the finest herd of
deer in England.
AS Haverholme forms part of the
entailed estates of the family, the
old earl had to obtain the consent
of his son before placing 1t on the
market. The fact of the matter is
that neither Lord Maidstone, and still
less his American wife, care much
for English country life. The latter
lis too slow for Lady Maidstone. who
prefers the social restlessness of the
werId Of fashion In London. Paris
and On the French Riviera. or else
kAxnfAc kraRnl