LEASE OF WHITE LODGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 16

LEASE OF WHITE LODGE.

HOME OF KINGS AND QUEENS. LIFE LEASE FROM KING GEORGE. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 4. White Lodge, in Richmond Park, recently vacated by the Duke and Duchess of York, has been a Royal residence for nearly two centuries. A life lease of this Georgian mansion near London has been granted by the King to Lord Lee of Fareham, who will always be known to fame as the donor of Chequers as a permanent country residence for the British Ministers. White Lodge has belonged to the King of England since it was built by George I. It was for a number of years the house of the Duke and Duchess of Teck, and there Queen Mary spent a

considerable part of her childhood. It is beautifully situated on the elevated ground between Sheen Gate and Robin Hood Gate, and command a magnificent view in front on to the Queen’s Ride and the Pen Ponds, and thence over the park to Richmond, while Beverley Brook and Wimbledon Common stretch away in the rear. Known first as Stone Lodge, the house was used by George II as a hunting box. There, too, a good deal of time was spent by his consort, Queen Caroline, after whom the Queen’s Ride is named. Horace Walpole, whose father had built the Great Lodge, indulged in some characteristic sneers in regard to the simple life that was led by the Court a White Lodge. Nevertheless, George 11 enjoyed hunting from there, and rounded off his expeditions in the park with many a merry dinner in the modest residence. Visitors to the place find a fascination in the Queen’s Ride, the long alley cut through the wood, and learn with interest that it was probably there that took place the interview between the Queen and Jeanie Deans.

The building has been considerably extended since the time of George I. Its long, low wings were added to by George IPs daughter. Princess Amelia, who becameßangerafter the death of Sir Robert Walpole. In the time of George 111, Addington, the first Viscount Sidmouth, went to live at White Lodge, and there he entertained many celebrities. Among them was Nelson, who, dipping his finger in wine, marked out for his host, on a table that is still preserved, the plan of attack which he afterwards carried out at Trafalgar. Here Addington had hie final interview with Pitt. After the death of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria took up her residence at White Lodge. King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, lived

there for a time before his marriage, and later tire house was presented as a residence for life to Queen Mary’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Teck. A few years later, when she had become Duchess of York, her Majesty went back to live in her old home, and there, oa June 23, 1894, the present Prince of Wales was born. Lively public interest in the lodge was again aroused three and a-half years ago, when it became known that a second Duke of York was to take his bride there. The Duke and Duchess, however, found Richmond to be too distant from London for their numerous winter engagements, and they ceased to occupy the lodge last year. White Lodge contains a rich store of artistic treasures, including many fine pictures. Among the furniture is a table on which Nelson, >vhen visiting Lord Sidmouth, marked out with his fingers the plan of attack which he eventually carried into execution at the Battle of Trafalgar. A former resident of the White Lodge on terms very like those on which it has been granted to Lord Lee, was the late Mrs Hartmann, the heiress of a German boy called Steiner, who came to England as a working lad and made a fortune in Lancashire by his invention of “Turkey red” dyeing. It was granted to her by' King Edward, who was a friend of her son. A soldier by profession in his earlier days. Lord (then Mr) Leo was one of the men ‘‘found” by Mr Lloyd George during the war. After experience at the Ministry of Munitions, he became Director-general of Food Production, Minister of Agriculture, and . First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1921 he went to the Washington Conference as second in command to Lord Balfour. Since then ho has been one of the country’s handy-men on Royal Commissions, over several of which he has presided. He is at present chairman of the Royal Commission on Cross-river Traffic in London. As yet, says a London journal, White Lodge has never sheltered treasures so fine as those which belong to Lord Lee. Settling in will be no easy task if much of their important art collection is to be arranged there.