章 49: Chapter 49 Repair Plan
Saturday, July 7th.
On this morning, the Rolls-Royce painted with the family crest of the Duke of Devonshire picked up Bonnie and drove to Chatsworth House.
When they got close to Chatsworth House, Bonnie saw the familiar scenery with a smile on her face:
"Barron, look, there's a little deer over there... no, there's a group of them, they're in the woods, they're so cute!"
It can be seen that Bonnie is in a very good mood when she comes here again.
For Barron's personal assistant Wang Wanting, who was sitting in the passenger seat, this was her first time to visit such a magnificent aristocratic manor.
It's not like she had not visited such English aristocratic manors before, but those manors pale in comparison to Chatsworth.
With more than one hundred rooms, Chatsworth House is the second largest house in the UK in terms of size.
As for the first place, it is Blenheim Palace, also known as Churchill Manor, owned by the Churchill family of the famous British Prime Minister Churchill. It is the only manor called Palace in England.
Churchill Palace was built by Queen Anne in order to thank John Churchill (ancestor of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill) for his military exploits in the Battle of Blenheim. She set aside land from the royal hunting grounds to build the manor, and gave it to the first Duke of Churchill as a state gift after it was completed. Therefore, it was named Palace to show sincerity.
A gift from the Queen. Does it sound sincere?
Unfortunately, the Queen died halfway through the construction, and the funding chain was broken. The first Duke had to continue the construction for many years at his own expense, and the family almost went bankrupt.
"Your Excellency the Duke, you are finally back..."
The Rolls-Royce stopped at the gate of the mansion, the gilded iron gate of the manor house opened wide, and the butler Sean and a group of servants greeted Barron at the door.
Barron gave Sean a warm hug:
"Butler Sean, you look very good today."
Although he was slightly startled by Barron's hug which was not in line with traditional aristocratic etiquette, the butler Sean could not hide the smile in his eyes.
"Hello, Mr. Sean, we meet again."
Bonnie bowed to Butler Sean and said happily.
"Welcome to Chatsworth, it's nice to see you again."
…
Entering the Chatsworth mansion, both Bonnie, who had been there once, and Wang Wanting, who was visiting for the first time, were shocked by the luxury inside.
As soon as you enter the hall, you can see magnificent murals around and on the top, depicting the life of Caesar.
After passing through the hall, you will enter the gallery filled with sculptures...
The most eye-catching one among them is a sculpture of a girl wearing a tulle on her head.
This sculpture is extremely famous. It was created by the 19th-century Italian sculptor Raffaelle Monti and is called "A Veiled Vestal Virgin".
The veil on the girl's head is as thin as a cicada's wing, and the craftsmanship of the entire sculpture is amazing!
Barron called the butler Sean to the study to discuss something. Bonnie, who had been here once, took Wang Wanting to continue visiting the Chatsworth mansion.
Including the bedroom and dressing room of Queen Mary when the ancestors of the Devonshire family were ordered to imprison her...
When Queen Victoria was 13 years old and still a princess, she attended her first formal dinner in the North Wing Restaurant, marking the princess's official entry into the adult social world...
The bedroom where the first Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, stayed when he visited Chatsworth House with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - this was carefully prepared for him by the 6th Duke of Devonshire at the time. The walls were decorated with exquisite Chinese-style wallpaper, which was very fashionable at the time...
It can be said that many famous British historical figures have left their marks in Chatsworth.
…
"Butler Sean, have you asked someone to calculate how much it would cost to completely renovate our Chatsworth estate, including the mansion and gardens?"
This was one of the main purposes of Barron's return to Chatsworth this time. When he came here before, he had already discovered that many parts of the manor were obviously old.
And although the manor had undergone some modern renovations, only some of the rooms were equipped with electrical wiring and networks. It was still far from the convenient modern transformation that Barron had hoped for.
After understanding Barron's meaning, Butler Sean said:
"Your Excellency, in fact, over the years, our manor has only undergone some partial repairs and renovations. The entire mansion has more than a hundred rooms. If, as you said, all the rooms and the interior of the hall, as well as the outer walls, gardens and some roads were completely renovated and decorated, it would probably cost tens of millions of pounds, or even more... The specific figure needs to be estimated by a professional agency."
"Then let's make an estimate first, Butler Sean."
"Are you really prepared to do this? Your Excellency, this will probably be a very large expense..."
"Yes, but we need to get specific figures before we can decide whether to do it right away. After all, Chatsworth is too old and needs a thorough renovation. I hope to keep it in the best condition."
"As you command, Your Excellency the Duke."
Since 1894, the British government has imposed heavy taxes on the nobility, with inheritance tax reaching as high as 80%.
This turned the manor from a symbol of power in the past into a hot potato for the old nobles.
In addition to the high inheritance tax, the daily maintenance of the manor also costs a lot of money. Many nobles had to sell their manor houses and artworks to make up for the financial deficit.
The heirs who choose to stick with the manor are often miserable. They live in a mansion with a lot of treasures, but are burdened with huge debts and live a poor life. Some even claim to be poorer than beggars.
Since life is so difficult, why not sell the estate? Perhaps this is the commitment of the British aristocracy to their ancestors and their adherence to tradition.
Since 1900, 1,200 manors have been demolished in England alone!
In 1950, the rate at which manors were demolished reached its highest level in history, with one manor disappearing every five days across England.
Some lucky manor owners handed over their properties in full and converted them into museums, schools, hospitals, or prisons, which was a not-too-bad explanation to their ancestors.
Most of the manors were demolished or abandoned.
At first, the awareness of cultural relics protection in Britain was not strong, and the people did not feel sorry for the demolition of the manors - perhaps they even felt happy that the old landlords were overthrown.
However, in 1974, an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum entitled "The Ruined Manor" made the British begin to realize the historical significance of the manor.
In this atmosphere of public opinion, the National Trust, a charity that protects Britain's cultural heritage, has become a refuge for British manors.
However, there are only a few estates that can generate income by opening for tours or conducting other activities. Most estates require continuous investment in repairs and maintenance, and therefore become a burden on these related non-profit organizations.
If someone is willing to buy it, they will often sell it to the other party at a low price, requiring only that the other party ensure the maintenance of the manor - there is even a situation where it is sold for 1 pound, but the person needs to bear hundreds of millions of dollars for repairs.
It can be said that compared with most estates, Chatsworth House is lucky.
In addition to the fact that the Devonshire family has always been here and has not given up its ancestral property, as the second largest manor in England, it has many shining deeds in British history, which makes it easier to attract tourists...
Now Barron hopes to make Chatsworth House more talked about through the novel "Downton Abbey" based on it and subsequent film and television works.
At the same time, a thorough renovation was carried out here so that it can be presented to the world in a more perfect posture.
Of course, the funds required for such repairs are not cheap, that is, the purchasing power of the pound is still very strong, the exchange rate is also at a high level, and the cost of raw materials and labor - including the cost of experts for such ancient buildings - is not particularly exaggerated...
Otherwise, if it were twenty years later, the cost of completely renovating and remodeling a manor of this size would easily reach hundreds of millions - for example, the ten-year renovation of Buckingham Palace twenty years later was estimated to cost 369 million pounds.
Of course, Buckingham Palace is much larger than Chatsworth House, with nearly 800 rooms...
However, even now, if you want to carry out large-scale renovation and modernization of Chatsworth House, it will probably cost at least 15 million pounds.
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