BROOK HOUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17348, 13 May 1924, Page 11

BROOK HOUSE.

KING LOSES LONDON MANSION. LONDON, February 23. With the birth of a da tighter to Ladv Louis.Mountbatt-en the House of Windsor loses its claim to a very valuable piece of property in Mayfair. Under the will of the iat.© Sir Ernest Caasel, millionaire friend of King Edward VIC . Brook House in Park Lane, which was Gasset's mansion, was bequeathed to bis granddaughter. Lady Edwina Ashley, who later became the wife of Lord Louis Mount-batten. In the event of the death of his granddaughter without issue this palatial residence and grounds were to be offered ns a gift to the reigning sovereign. But the birth this week of e daughter releases the property from this stipulation. BEAUTIFUL BROOK HOUSE. Brook House is considered one of the most beautiful residences in London To erect it Sir Ernest had to buy the two lots adjoining, with their houses, and it took more than a year to quarry the 800 tona of ma-rhle required for tho magnificent hall and staircase, for which it is noted. Massive but graceful Corinthian columns, twenty-five feet tall, support the upper floors and gal leries beneath the central dome. J whose exterior dominates the scene. The dining-room. oblong, with rounded ends, whose ceiling is thirty feet high seats 100 persons. The inner halls are panelled with n rare blue marble brought specially from Canada. On either side of the fireplace, are superb Vandykes of Charles T. and Henrietta Maria. Sir Ernest was a close friend to King Edward, to whom he was a confidenj tial adviser. He frequently entertained the late monarch both in England and on the Continent. He floated immense national loans, and was prominent in the development of Mexico, Egypt and Argentina. He took an active part in the construction of Mexican railways, and raised the money to build the great Nile dam. He was also a philanthropist on a large scale, haring given 1.0Q0,000d0l to King Edward in 1902 for charitable uses, with which a tuberculosis sanatorium was established; purchased radium for the af flicted in the United Kingdom. and donated a fund of 1,000.00®d0l for the benefit of needy Englishmen in Germany and poor Germans seeking em plovment in England. This last was in 1910. GERMAN BY BIRTH. Notwithstanding his German birth (he was a native of Cologne, having come to England at the age of sixteen), which on more than one occa sion subjected him to attacks in Parliament, he professed to be n true Briton and lent his energies and his finances lavishly to help the allied cause in the war. subscribing 5,000.000d0l to the Anglo-French loan in the United States on the strength of his interests there. His loyalty to England he himself put in the following terms : “ Nearly half a century of my life has l>een spent in Fmgland. All my in terests, my family, my business and mv social relations are centred here. All my male relatives of military age are serving with forces of my King. % My unfailing loyalty and my devotion to this country have never varied, and have never been questioned. While affirming this. I desire also to express my deep sense of horror at the manner , in which the war is being conducted bv Germany.” That was in 1915. He was naturalised in 1878. Sir Ernest wa.s prominent on the British turf and a member of the Jockey Clnb. Ho was a Privy Council lor. a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George, Grand Cross of the Victorian Order, a mem - her of the Legion of Honour and of the Order of the Grown of Prussia. The inheritance tax on his estate of £6,000,000- being the maximum levy of 40 per cent, enriched the public treasurv by £2.400 000 when he died in 1923. Among bis legatees were Lord Reading. Lord Birkenhead, Winston Churchill. Mortimer Sohiff and Felix and Paul Warburg, but the larger part of the ©state went to his two grandchildren.