WEALTHY ENGLIPHMEN, AND HOW THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 294, 10 December 1881, Page 4

WEALTHY ENGLIPHMEN, AND HOW THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY

[New York Sun.]

If rich people in Fngland should see fit jo bring down their domestic expenditure to that usual among familiei ot similar means here, they would very iood be able, not merely to recoup themtelves for tke lessee of several bad harvests, hut to ssve vast sums of money. Id our large Eastern citipe, family men wi'b anything under £5,000 a-year 8p f nd mote freely tban EDgliihmen with the same income ; bat as regards those with incomes over that amouo?, it is quite another matter. Wrier MaC'mlay, brfcre proceeding to loui*. consnUed Sydney Smuii'a experienced brother, the faaioue "Babue," os to <x pecses at Caleuus, ho w«s £n];t thm ?..- coald not hp coT.?or>nMe uni:-r £30J0 8-y as r, c' (\ h-' cou d not possibly athrong !• £5000. This is, in a r]ie*suie true of th*- Uuiie< Sate?. It mijjJ)-: !■■ safely 88«c-r»fd tbat io the whoie ot this country !frif-re arc not fiv-* p rgons, if hi many, »hn sent on their estatvlis'n mrD'i £20 009 A .ardul estimate ma 'c a ytar or two a^o, by peteoi.r eminently quniinV* to mukp i', broachsuch expendiure up to £19.000. It ioc!udH<) h town hous", a yach?, a viila ai Kfwnorr, nnd a country ee»f. "What r«ns awa' with incomes of from £10,0 0 to £50,000 in England ia the keeping up of country seats, hounds, hospitality, and game preserves. At Drumlanrig Castle, for instance, one of its owner's ten residences, there are«ighty miles of grass dri?e kept in order ; at Gridge. more than forty. Add to this acres of garden and grass, and expenses of park-keeper 3 and game-keepers, it is easy to see where the money goes. If there is a hunting establishment on a liberal scale, at least £4 000 a-year must be added. Again, while the hospitality of an average well-to-do American favourable compares with that of an Englishman of bimilar means, that of the broadacred Englishman is immensely greater than that of the American millionaire. The latter gives some dinner parties, and, perhaps, an annual ball, and keeps a dozen servants ; the Englishman, on the other, hand besides constantly entertaining in town, often sits down to dinner for weeks at a time with twenty guests, staying, with their servants, in his conntry house, and feeds from fifty to sixty every day in his servants' hall, with as much beef and beer as they please to consume. More than this, he at times entertains whole schools and parishes, besides giving away hundreds of pounds in the shape of beef and blankets at Christmas. He subscribes, too, to every public charity in the county ; sometimes in two or three counties. Merely to take a single example, there is Lord Derby, with ten men servants in his house, and about forty more domestics feeding "daily at his board. Supposing tomorrow he and bis wife should agree to struggle on £20.000 a-year, be could save at least £160 000 a-year; while were the Dukes of "Westminster, Devonshire, and Bedford to do likewise, their savings would be still greater. Supposing Lord Derby to save at this rate for 30 years, what an arch-millionaire he would become. Twenty years ago there died a queer old bachelor, Led Digby, who owned Baleigb'f ill-fsted home of Sherboce Castle. He was a most liberal landlord but did nr.t care to spend more than some £7000 a year, and le*^ his money go on rolling np. investing it all in the 3 per cents. His income was not a fourth of Lord Derby 'p, and he left in the funds £900.C00. As a rule a peer leaves comparatively little behind him ; £200 000 would be regarded an unURnally large sum for a man with £80.000 a year to have, and there is bnfc one ease on record — that of IJcrd Dysart, an eccentric recluse — of a peer leaving over £1 500 000 personalty. On very large properties the sur-plus-income is chiefly expended in very costly improvements. Thus the Duke of Devonshire has built Eap.tbourne and much at Buxton. The Duke of Buceleuch has expended thoueands at Gratton, and both have put large sums in the enterprises connected with Barrow-in-Purness. About £2,000,000 of Lord Bute's has gone into docks at Cardiff. The late Lord "Westminster bnilt and rebuilt probably no lees tban 1000 houses in London, and Northumberland and Sutherland reflect on all aide's the generous expenditure of the Dnkes of tbeir name ; while beautiful churches, commodious schools, and handsome homesteads soon inform the traveller in "Wiltshire and Bedfordshire that be is on the broad domain of the Earfc of Pembroke or the Duke of Bedford. Had the vast sums thus spent been mainly pat into stocks, or bonds and mortgages, the present owners might have been richer men, but the country would have been in many retpects' the loser, and it would be a widely different region from what it is to-day. — New York hun.