FIRE AT A MANSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIRE AT A MANSION.

PRINCESS MARY'S PART. WARNING OF A CRASH* : t ESCAPES IN NIGHT ATTIRE, Princess Mary and her husband, Viscount Lascelles, were among a number of house party guests who had to beat a hurried retreat when a destructive fire broke out early on the morning of November 9 at Bretton Hall,, Yorkshire, the home of Lord and Lady Allendale. All the guests, included Lord Ridley, Lord and Lady Wharncliffe, the Hop. Agatha Beaumont and Mr. Buchnan Jardine, the racehorse owner, were obliged to leave wearing coats over their nightclothes. The Princess had hurriedly put on a fur coat and she played a leading part in saving objects of art from the burning library. Bretton Park is a large, old-fashioned mansion midway between Wakefield and Barnsley. It was shortly after five o'clock when the firing of maroons

woko up the countryside with the startling message that fire had broken out. Farm hands and servants rushed to the hall and the agent telephoned for the Wakefield and Barnsley fire brigades.

" Fortunately, there are two lakes in tha grounds," afterwards said an officer of the Wakefield brigade, "so we were soon able to direct strong jets of wiiter on the flames. When wo arrived servants were trying to cope with the outbreak, which threatened the wing that includes the library on the. ground floor and a nursery above. We were able to confine the damage to this part and the library did not suffer so much as the nursery, although a valuable gilded ceiling was destroyed. Our belief is that the fire was caused by a wooden beaifi near the fireplace in the nursery catching alight." The outbreak was discovered by Lord Allendale. He dashed through • thick smoke in the nursery to the adjoining room where his three infant children — the eldest a boy of five —were sleeping, and carried them to safety. Guests and servants concentrated on tha task of saving furniture, pictures, books and antiques.

One of the helpers, Mr. W. Parkinson, had a narrow escape. He was working in the library and, owing to the dense smoke, was unable to find his way out. Rescuers with wet'towels over their mouths succeeded at a second attempt in reaching him and bringicg him into the fresh air, ■ Princess Mary, on hearing the ahrm, huvried in the direction of the nursery. When she learned that the children were safe sh© entered the library, where the fire was then smouldering. "After a time," said a member of the household, "Princess Mary expressed the opinion thai the ceiling was in a dangerous condition and we all left. Some minutes later—just after Mr. , Parkinson had been led out—the ceiling collapsed. The insistence of the Princess on getting everyone to leave undoubtedly _ saved many of us from afc least eerioiis injury. The Princess never tired in her efforts to help the fire-fighters." Later in the day the .children were out, with their nurse and <he guests enjoyed ail afternoon's shooting Hoyland Bank*