ROMANCE OF RENT ROLLS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7047, 8 February 1910, Page 12

ROMANCE OF RENT ROLLS.

COMING OF AGE OF THE MARQUESS OF TAVISTOCK. In December the Marquess of Tavistock, only child of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, reached the ago of 21. _ His father is a strong opponent of the land taxes; and it is a little unlucky that by coming of age at thin psychological moment the heir should attract public attention to the enormous possessions of the dukedom. The event, however, cannot fail to remind us that the - young Marquess .i* heir to some 84,000 acres; comprising large estates in Devonshire, Bedfordshire, Scotland, and elsewhere, the whole of the .Bloomsbury region, and the area that includes Oovent Garden; Ho will thus succeed to one of the richest ground rent-rolls in London. The income from Covent Garden and Bloomsbury alone represents' a princely revenue. CHURCH TREASURE!. Attached to all this property are foutcountry residences—Woburn Abbey, with a park enclosed by 12 miles of wall; Endsleigh, near Tavistock, where are over 60 miles of grass rides and gravel walks; Thorney, near Peterborough; and Oakley House, Bedfordshire. In addition there is, of Course, a town house. The story of the dukedom provides a beautiful illustration of how our hereditary legislators obtained the power which to-day they use so largely for the tliwarting of the people's will. Practically the whole of the Bedford property represents plunder taker* from the graet monasteries at the instance of Henry VIII, and Edward VI., and bestowed upon a Dorsetshire squire named John Russell. This gentleman's, luck came to him by a curious accident. In 1506, the Archduke Philip of Austria was driven by a violent hurricane to take shelter in Weymouth; and at the house of a Weymouth gentleman, where he was hospitably entertained, took a fancy to Squire Russell and carried tun to the Court, at Windsor. , THE WIND. OF 1506. Here he became a favourite of royalty* and when the rich monasteries -were sacked he received grants of the abbeys of Woburn, Tavistock, Duukeswell, St. A 1 bans, • and Thorney, the preccptory of Melchburn, Bedfordshire; the priory of-Castle Hymel, Northants, part of the Carthusian -priory of Mount Grace. Yorkshire; and . finally the estate ' of. Covent Garden and Long-aore. It is a good wind that blows nobody any ill—the gale that introduced the powerful Austrian Archduke to the founder of the Bedford fortunes in 1506 had no small part in killing the Budge of 1909. .