EARL’S LONG EXILE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19058, 10 July 1924, Page 10

EARL’S LONG EXILE

VISIT TO ENGLISH SEAT. ROMANCE OF THE COUNTESS. The Earl and Countess of Ash burnham arrived at Liverpool from Canada early last month. This is the earl’s second visit to his estate, Ashburnham Place, Battle Sussex, since he succeeded to the title in 1913. He is 69 years of age. He went to Canada in 1901. In 1908 he married Maria Elizabeth Anderson, second daughter of Mr W. H. Anderson, of Toredericton, New Brunswick, where he resides. To a Daily Chronicle representative the earl said:—“l over partly for pleasure and partTy for the purpose of looking into my private affairs,” adding, with a smile, “if the taxation has not swallowed up the whole of my estate. I have no idea how long 1 shall stay—it depends upon the state of my Sussex seat, but in all probability I shall bo here several months.” He mentioned that in New Brunswick he spent his time mostly in hunting, fishing, and shooting. The Countess of Ashburnham, who was a telephone operator in New Brunswick in 1903, now takes possession of one of the loveliest houses in England. Since the death of the fifth earl in 1913 the great house has been occupied Only by a servant. No sound of laughter or of merriment has disturbed its solitude. The farmers and labourers who live in the scattered homes which surround Ashburnham Place are looking forward to the return of the earl. They have a deep affection for the beautiful house with its wide woodland, now bright with primroses, its lakes, its bridges, and rolling land which is its setting. Lady Ashburnham-Clement, wife of Sir A. Ashburnham-Clement, a relative who has been managing the property, states that she believes that the carl does not intend to reside permanently in England. “I understand that he is coming only for a visit,” she added. If this is the decision of Lord Ashburnham it will be deeply regretted in East Sussex.

At a time when so many ancient estates have been sold to speculative the loyal country folk of Battle hope that once again Ashburnham Place will be the permanent home of its owner, which the family describe “as of great antiquity and of good account before the Conquest in the County of Sussex,” and will once more inhabit the lonely house on the hill. The countess, who was once a telephone girl, was greeted warmly when she drove through the iron gates of her husband’s home on May 3. Battle remembers the countess, fur after her husband inherited the title he brought his wife to his English seat, and for a period of six months oldtime hospitality given by the new earl and countess, garden parties and house parties, brought gaiety to the countryside.