LORD KITCHENERS NEW Home.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 139, 19 June 1911, Page 2

LORD KITCHENERS NEW Home.

Lord1 Kitchener has purchcused Broome Bark, an early 17th'.century mansion, and 550: acres, between Canterbury ■■~ and Folkestone. > Broome Park is about midwaybetween Canterbury and Folkestone.' The mansion is a, stately and well-preserved! building, erected in or about the year }636 by Sir Basil DisWell, after yfehe style,' if not from the actual design, of Inigo Jones. > It was enlarged and improved in 1778 fey James ,Wyatt, an Associate of the Eoyal Academy, who added tlie drawing-room with. vts fine semi-circular 6nd. T!he site is sheltered from the north aaid eassb, >and cdmmands magnificent views over >an, undulating ' park and woodlands. {The chief approach is- from the old, London and Dover coaching road •through 'what are ' locally known "as "the TBagJe, Gates." Th© haljl of the mansion is nearly 64ft. by; 21ft.:, .occupying the* whole fspace"/betwe^|(;tlie" eiast and the west wm^s. The paved floor is laid with wide;black marble borders and a: geometrically designed centre.;; Eight columns support the superstructure. Seven entertaining i room^ include, the ' 'Wyiatt"/ drawing- ! room, which is some 42ft. by 27ft. and | about 20ft. in height, and has a statuary marble mantelpiece of great beauty. The ceiling,: frieze, and walla are extremely artistic. The pleasuregrounds are chiefly laid1 out in lawns, and there is good stabling, and a kitchen garden and orchard of about three acres. The district is a good sporting one, and there is hunting with the East Kent Foxhounds, tho kennels of which, are only three miles away at Elham. Broome Park was for «, long period Ihe home of the Oxendon family, end it is in the heart of "the Ingoldsby country."