MANSIONS A-BEGGING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 199, 24 August 1931, Page 8

MANSIONS A-BEGGING

STATELY HOMES NOT WANTED THE IMPOVERISHED NOBILITY The old mansions of the English iristocracy, both in town and country, ire disappearing. As far as country seats are concerned, it may be said that they are going begging. There are Norman castles. Tudor timbered houses and Georgian mansions, all in the market, but finding no buyers. A Norfolk landowner offered to let his house with 15 bedrooms for £2 a week if the tenant would pay overheads. There was a Queen Anno mansion in Kent with 23 bedrooms standing in 200 acres, which only fetched £9OOO. A house in Dorset with 15 bedrooms and a park of 35 acres went for £<>•»<»o. Such houses are seldom bought nowadays as private residences, for they would need from 15 to 20 servants and £lOO a week to maintain them. Those that find purchasers generally become schools, orphanages, convalescent homes, monasteries, convents or country clubs A London firm dealing in real estate estimates that there are 200 of these big houses, standing secluded in their own grounds, miles from stations and towns, which have been empty for years, and which cannot be sold. High taxation and heavy death duties are blamed for making it impossible for rich people to maintain the old style of living. A similar development can be seen in the ease of town houses, though it cannot be said that London properties are going very cheaply.