Pattis Castle.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 326, 19 December 1888, Page 6

Pattis Castle.

Signojia Nicomni — better known, perhaps, as Adelina Patti — and her husband have been entertaining a succession of visitors afc Craig-y-Nos, their castle in Wales. The imagination of poefc could not conceive, nor Ihe brush of ' artist depict, a more.p^ctureesque or romantic spol than that which the famous diva has chosen for her retreat. Perched high up on a lofty mountain, above which still loftier, mountain ranges tower, the castle looks down on a broad expanse of valley Through which a sparkling stream roars and foams. Signor Nicolini is aw ardent sportsman, and sallies forth every morning with rod and gun. An operatic tenor wading up to his waist in a river or breasting a heather-clad hill is an incongruous combination, but it is one which is united in the person ot Madame Patti's husband. Large sums of money have been expended on building and decorating the interior of the castle, and the drawing-room resembles nothing so much as a museum of royal gifts. In one corner may be seen an armchair embroidered by the fair hands of a Bourbon princess, in another a footstool worked by imperial fingers. Here is a casket contain ing an offering presented by the Czar of All the Ru&sias ; there the gift of the fair chatelaine's fervent admirers in youth America. Every room in the house contains a memento of one of fche royal progresses which Patti has made throughout the civilised world, but perhaps the most curious object in the castle is a magnificent barrel organ, built at a cost of £7,000, which plays, irom beginning to end all the operas in which Patti has taken i part. klt k It is as well, perhaps, that this costly makeshift is present, as Madam Patti will sing nothing ' «eriou.% ' in her own house. She only amuses her guests with a selection of nigger melodies. The way in which Craig-y-Nos was acquired is strange. Madame Patti and her husband were staying in "Wales some years ago. They were asked to lunch by the owner of the cattle, which was then a tumble-down dwelling. But Madame Patti was so delighted with the situation that she asked the owner if he would not part with his house. Negotiations were entered into over the luncheon table, and before the meal was over the castle had changed hands.