Evening star., 1923-03-01
Powis Castle Library, About to Be Sold,
Contains Many Literary Treasures

throughout all the last half Of the
nineteenth century it was largely due
to the cccentricity of the late and
may be said to have been over
shadowed by the fact that OH reach
ing manhood he had accidentally
killed his father, the second earl.
while out shooting. tragedy which
caused him to withdraw altogether
from society and live from thence
forth the life of recluse. He was
not on particularly good terms with
his nephew, the present earl. and
when the latter as George Herbert,
let Lane Fox, they had extremely lit
tie on which to live. In fact, their
circumstances were very straitened
Before many months had passed, how
the young couple found themselves in
possession of very large fortune
indeed.
The late earl's eccentricity had
taken the form, with other ways,
Of hiding things in the most out-of
theway places: Thus he displayed
the utmost ingenuity in contrivinG
secret cupboards and caches" and
even had rooms in the immense old
castle walled up in such a fashion
as to leave TO trace of their exist
ence. Much OF tho library which
is about to be placed on sale at
Sotheby's this month was in this
fashion hidden away from view. All
the first years of the possession Of
Powis Castle by the present earl and
countess were spent in hunting up
these various Caches Rooms that
had been unopened for half a century
which had been unsuspected. were
found, and many precious things be-
sides rare literary treasures, such 8
valuable old masters, literally tons
of old silver plate and a quantity of
superb jewels, some of Indian origin,
were brought to light.
1t is asserted that Lord Powis, and
especially his countess, were assisted
in their search by the apparition of
the second earl-of the one who had
been killed by his son-and who, ap-
pearing to them in their dreams, in
dicated successfully all the various
places of concealment- But it was
not only to the present earl and
countess that the spook of the second
earl appeared. The story goes that
one night he came to the bedside OF
the old family butler, who. being
strong minded and convinced that the
apparition meant no harm, arose In
response to the beckontng of the
specter and followed 1t. He was led
in this fashion to remote portion or
the castle, where the ghost pointed to
g. spot on the stone tagging of this
chamber in one of the most ancient
parts Of the building.
X x x x
On the following morning the but
| ler who had taken note of the spot,
summoned to his assistance the head
gardener, also an old family servant,
and, prying up one of the fiagstones
and digging down a little, came upon
an ancient looking iron box. Before 1t
was removed Lord Powis was notified.
BY his direction it was taken to the
| library and there opened. 1t contained
| a number of documents. all carefully
tied with red tape. What the docu-
ments were has never been definitely
revealed. There Is supposd to have
| been long missing title deeds to GER
| tain tracts of land and property. But
that they were valuable to the own
ers of Powis Castle is best shown by
the fact that the two servants. the
butler and the gardener, were hand
somely pensioned for life, each OF
: them with a cottage. rent free.