LORD AMHERST.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9350, 20 January 1909, Page 7

LORD AMHERST.

A London paper of date Novembe: :28th gives the following report o: the losses of Lord Amherst, whosi death took place on Monday lasi Irgely owing. to the anxiety causec by his financial- situation;—Th« total losses which will fall on Lore Amherst of Hackney, owing to the defalcations by the late Oharlef Oheston, a prominent London •solicitor, were stated in Oonrt yesterday as probably amounting to ,£350,000, The particular action in whict Lord Amherst and other trustees are sued by the daughter and grandson of the late Mr Andrew Fountains, ;squire of Harford Hall, Swaffham, Norfolk, involves a sum of about £70,000, It was contended by Mr Underhill, on behalf of Lord Amherst, that the daughter dealt with Oheston direct, .and that Oheston paid her interest* He did not do this as Lord Amherst’s agent but in order to pre’vent his frauds being detected. Lord Amherst had done what •many merchants in the |Oity J|had dode—placed implicit confidence in Oheston, who was a member of the council of the Incorporated Law Society and director of ‘many comipS£tl6S> Mr Buckmaster, K. 0., who also appeared for Lord Amherst, said the case against him was not one in which he had been guilty of t any moral delinquency. The wrong he had committed was the wrong of a man who had deceived him. Whatever the trust might have suffered by Oheaton's defalcations, it was nothing to what Lord Amherst had suffered himself. If he put the amount at upwards of a quarter of a million he would probably not be over-stating the extent of the money Lord Amherst lost owing to the confidence he had put in Oheston. The hearing was again adjourned. LORD AMHERST’S ART SALE, The winter art sale season, which is usually unimportant, will this season be rendered noteworthy by 'the sale at Christie’s, on December 11th, of the magnificent collection of Lord Amherst.

His library, which is one of the finest and most valuable private [colJs lections of bibliographical treasures in *the world, is to be sold at auction at Sotheby’s earlier in the same month. Lord Amherst is an enthusiastic collector, and the necessity of parting with his treasures must have cost him many pangs. The works of art removed from Didlington Hall, Lord Amherst’s Norfolk seat, comprise 28 superb Limoges enamels, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century.

The old tapestries in the collection are of regal magnificence. A set of ■eight panels, made at the famous Gobelin factory, in France, reflects the interest shown in weaving by King Louis XIY. They are woven in colors of extreme brilliancy, and richly interwoven with gold and silver tissue, while the subjects chosen for their enrichment represent episodes in the monarch’s military career.