WEALTHY DUKES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1958, 29 March 1919, Page 3

WEALTHY DUKES.

SOME OF THE ACREAGES

There are no more dukes in the British peerage than could be accomodated in a small sitting-room,- remarks Tit Bits. Excluding royalties, they number only twenty-six, and yet these wearers of the straw-berry-leafed coronet own nearly 4,250,000 acres of British soil,, the equivalent of a slice of Great Britain eleven miles wide stretching from John o’ Groats to the English Channel.

Of this handful of nobles, nine are lords of 4,880 square miles —an area so large that, if it were in the form of a square to walk around, it would mean a 280 miles’ tramp. And each of these nine dukes owns land, on an average, greater in extent than twice the County of Middlesex.

The remaining seventeen are lords of 1,743 square miles; their average holding being represented by a square more than ten miles long and wide.

But all their acres put together, though they number over 1,115,000, are quite eclipsed by the broad lands of a single duke, his Grace of Sutherland, who is credited with possessing 1,358,000 acres. So many arc these Sutherland acres that you could make from them nine counties as large as Middlesex. They are eighteen times as many as the acres in the far-speed-ing County of London. So enormous, in fact, is (his ducal estate that its owner could give away a thousand acres every day for three years, and yet keep more than a quarter of a million in his own hands.

But although his Grace of Sutherland stands alone and unapproachable at the head oi ducal landowners, there are eight other dukes whose average holding covers 229,0(1(1 acres —representing a square more than eighteen miles in each dimension.

The Duke oi Bueeleuch, who takes second place on the list, is lord oi -1 (10,000 acres, lie owns, in fact, nearly as much land as there is in the whole of Surrey, three times as much as in the County oi Dumbarton, and nine times the area of Kinross.

The Duke oi Atholl claims a more, modest 202,000 acres oi British laud, a substantial estate enough, for it E as large as (wo Scottish counties (Haddington and Clackmannan) combined. He owns more square miles than there are days in the year, excluding Sundays. The Duke of; Argyll could not Jiud nearly enough room in Middlesex for his 175,000 acres; in fact, he would have more than 20,000 still on his hands. The Duke of Devonshire is still richer in land, with 180,000 acres, which yield a gratifying revenue of £IBO,OOO a year. His acres spread over an area of 291 square miles, and represent roughly a strip a mile and a-half wide, linking Loudon with Leeds. ” His Grace oi Portland is lord of 280 square miles; and the Duke of Hamilton could give away tin estate four miles long and three miles wide, and yet have as many acres as there tire in Aliddlcsex.