FAMILY FIGHTS FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 11

FAMILY FIGHTS FIRE.

CONAN DOYLE'S RESIOENO&

THATCHED ROOF IN FLAMES.

BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY HOME,

Part of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's bean* liful old-world home, Bignell House, nestling among the picturesque New Forest oak 'trees off tho main road to Fordingbridge, was reduced to ruins by fire in August. Tho outbreak started in the thatched roof of tho older/ part of the building, in which there were two rooms dating back 200 years, and within a quarter of an hour the whole of the thatch was burning fiercely. Sir Arthur, who was walking in the forest, was quickly called back, and he and Lady Conan Doyle, their sons, Denis, aged 20, and Malcolm, aged 18, their 16-year-old daughter Jean, and the domestic staff attacked the flames with fird «Xr tinguishera until tho arrival, of tho fire brigade from Southampton 12 mile* away. They also saved much of the fur* niture. ' " „

A press representative virho visited the place later found Sir Arthur, wearing white flannels blackened by smoke; sadly contemplating the wreck of his home. But for a few, charred beams .which had supported the thatched roof, and-the walls nothing of tho older portion of the bouse remained.

"It is a. terrible affair," sajd Sir Arthur, "but luckily this t is. ; merely my country "homo and not my headquarters. That being tho case' our most valuable effects, Buch as my library, were'not endangered, iand we have managed to save a lot of tho furniture." , .

"What grieves me imost.is the loss suffered by my son Denis,". Sir Arthur said* "In his room were all tnan'Uer of souvenirs, photographs, ariimar skins and horns, which he brought back, with him from many parts' of the world"- which ha visited with me on my lecturing tours. He was so wonderfully unselfish that he never thought of saving, these things, though many of the skins were of animals he had shot. He busied himself assisting everybody else. I am vpiy proiid of the way my wife and y children' acted in these trying circnmstances. V

.."The modern part escaped damage except from water," Sir Arthur added. "It" is a tsagedy to sea such a beautiful horns as this devoured by the flames, for,a prettier dwelling I cannot imagine." , f r . ...

Lady Conan Doyle said there • was. no doubt that sparks from the kitchen range caused the fire. "It is curious," she said, 'that -there were two outbreaks of fire here before we came to in this place. These" also started in the thatch,. and - when -we wmje told about them T had a thin-mesh wire fitted over the tops of the chimneys to prevent similar trouble, but apparently this was not successful."