ESTATE MUST GO

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1036, 29 July 1930, Page 9

ESTATE MUST GO

EARL OF EGMONT SELLS UP TO PAY DEATH DUES RANCHER COMES TO CASTLE LONDON, Monday. i The Earl of Egmont has decided to sell Avon Castle, Hampshire, also the family heirlooms, pictures and silver, in order to meet the death duties on the Egmont estates. Situated in Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire, the estates are estimated to be worth £500,000. The present Earl of Egmont was only distantly related to the ninth earl, who was born in New Zealand, and who died in England on January 11, 1929. Mount Egmont, in New Zealand, was named by Captain Cook after the second earl, a prominent politician in the time of George 11., and from 1761 to 1766 First Lord of the Admiralty. The earl was farming in Canada when he succeeded to the title early this year, and when he arrived at the family estate at Avon Castle, Hampshire, in March, 1929, a reporter was the only person who met him at the station at Ringwood. “Ain't there anybody here from the castle?” asked the earl as he stepped on to the platform. When told that there was not, he thrust his bands into his pockets and said: “Well, I daresay I ain’t wanted inucy here. Where will I stay?” The reporter conducted the earl to an hotel, where he said: “I want a lot of sleep. I hate people, men and women. I have, been too bothered.” Asked when ho was going to the castle he said: “Well. I guess I will not crowd in tonight. I will take a shack here until tomorrow ”