15
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
January 7, 1899.
being compelled to buy liquors, etc., from his brewery landlord ; thirdly, any other condition which may be valued. “Add these together,” he continues, “and you have his real rent.” But there may be as tenant a retired jockey, or a once celebrated cricketer or football player, who may do twice as much business as the average tenant, and if he were assessed on the basis laid down it would be rating his profits.
Just before explaining his method of arriving at rent, Mr. Wragge lays down the true principles of rating which should be applied to such property. The position he takes up in the following sentences is a strong one. “ It ds not,” he said, “ an uncommon feature in this class of property for the brewer to let the house to a tenant at a mere nominal rent, say £15 per annum, for a house which, if in the market as a ‘ free house,’ would fetch £50 or £60. How is the value to be arrived at ? My rule has been to consider what such a house (in that locality, judging its capacity and opportunity for doing trade) would be worth if it were a free house.”
Probably no other place in England, the City of London alone excepted, has played a; more active part in the scenes of English history than the Border city of Carlisle. Even to-day it is one of the most important cities in the country, and boasts, among other things, a central railway station, one of the largest in England, wherein no less than eight different lines of railway converge. Altogether, Carlisle is a prosperous and busy city, and withal beautifully situated. A well-known old-established inn, the Old Queen’s Head, situated in St. Albans-row, in this city, is to be submitted to auction at the Red Lion Hotel there, by Messrs. Thornborrow and Co., on the 16th instant. The sale includes the extensive stables and other out-offices and yard, together with the warerooms adjoining the premises and fronting to Rosemary-lane ; as well as the dwelling house and oyster shop on the north side of and adjoining the Old Queen’s Hotel.
Few towns have so many royal and romantic associations as the ancient borough of Wood-stock. For centuries it possessed a royal palace, and it enjoys the enviable reputation of having had the poet Chaucer as a resident. Situated most advantageously in the centre of the town, at the corner of Market-street and the main road from Oxford to Chipping Horton, is the valuable leasehold fully-licensed and well-frequented premises, known as the King’s Arms Hotel and Assembly Rooms, which Messrs. Franklin and Jones will sell by auction at the Roebuck Hotel, Oxford, on January 21. The sale includes bar-tap, billiard room, stables, etc. The property is leasehold of the mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Woodstock, for a term of 64 years from September 29, 1871, leaving, therefore, 37 years from September 29, 1898, still unexpired, at an annual rent of £1 13s.
At the corner of Goat-lane and Pottersgate-street, Norwich, is an old public-house known as the Blue Bell. If this house is identical with the Blue Bell described as being situate in the parish of St. John Maddermarket, it is the place where “the gentlemen of the Norwich Sportsmen’s Society” held their periodical meetings. Presuming the present house to be the one referred to as the headquarters of the society, writes Mr. Facey Romford, what kind of a place was it nearly a century and a half ago 1 Was it larger and more pretentious, or, if not, were old-time siportsmen content with the circumscribed surroundings which it now presents? “ The Sportsmen’s Society ” was evidently an association to which men •of some position belonged, for the secretary bore the name of Le Neve (Peter Le Neve to be precise), and the sport that the members followed was the chief of all sports—hunting. The notice issued to the members on December 13, 1758, reads as follows : —“ The gentlemen of the Sportsmen’s Society are desired to meet their brethren at dinner at the Blue Bell in St. John Madder-market, on Thursday, the 21st instant, at four o’clock precisely, being the day appointed for the anniversary. N.B.—The hounds will meet them at Lakenham at nine o’clock that morning, and ’tis desired that gentlemen will give in their names at the Blue Bell aforesaid, that a proper entertainment may be provided.—Peter Le Neve, secretary.”
It is remarkable how sportsmen combined different pastimes in those old days. For instance, there was a hunt ball—or “hunters’ ball,” as it was described—at Fakenham, on January 5, 1758, and the advertisement which announced it also stated:—“A main of cocks between the Right Hon. the Earl of Orford and the Hon. George Townshend, for 4 guineas the battle, and 100 the main, will be fought on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, at the house of James Bray, the Red Lion, at Fakenham. There are two matches on two of those days, to be run over the course at Fakenham.” Dancing, cock fighting, and horse racing —a fairly good programme for the dull month of
The Red Lion is also noticed by Jesse in the “Angler’s Rambles,” who says“Amongst the rest I must not omit to mention Henley-on-Thames, where good trout are frequently caught. The mutton chops of my old friend Mrs. Dixon are altogether unrivalled.” (George IV., when Prince of Wales, dined at the Red Lion and ate 14 of these celebrated small dhops). “She has the art of making all her guests-happy and contented. I !always enjoy myself greatly at her house, not only with reference to the beautiful scenery which I see all round, but from the real comfort and cleanliness of everything about me. Her !Sheets repose hi lavender till they are wanted, and her beds are neatness itself ; added to this, a large and respectable looking Bible is placed on the dressing table of each bed room, a practice which I wish was more generally followed, and which, in my opinion, adds greatly to the character of the inn and hostess.”
Mrs. Dixon was succeeded by her son Mr. James Dixon, whose extensive business induced him to add to the premises the buildings and grounds at the back, which he purchased from the trustees of the Grammar School. He died in 1849. Mr. Richard Dixon was a descendant of the Rev. J. Dixon, the chaplain and personal friend of Charles II., who made him prebendary of Rochester. Mr. BaTrett March,
THE RED LION, HENLEY-ON-THAMES.
Henley Regatta almost ranks with Ascot as a meeting place of the fashionable world, and it is universally admitted to be the event of all others which serves to make the name of the beautiful riverside “ and most ancient town of the county ” famous. Ever since the institution of the aquatic festival as the Oxford and Cambridge boat race in 1839, it has continued to increase in popularity, taking place, as it does, about the beginning of July, and attracting the gayest society and the best amateur oarsmen of England, and occasionally some from the continent. The crowds of visitors by carriages and by the special trains, the gay occupants of the boats, moving up and down, the bands of music, the church bells and the firing of cannon, and the usually fine weather on the regatta day, make the scene one of great beauty and excitement. The sylvan views from the handsome stone bridge are particularly fine, comprising one of the most beautiful reaches of the river Thames, flanked by gentle bills. On the Oxfordshire side a rich spread of meadow, ornamented with the noble mansion of Fawley, forms the foreground of a lovely range of wooded hills. The Berkshire margin rises boldly to a loftiness of elevation which nature and art have united to
THE BED LION HOTEL
who kept this inn, died there about 1816, leaving a fortune of £120,000. The inn was reopened on May 1, 1859, as an hotel, by Mrs. Williams, of the Catherine Wheel, another ancient inn with a signboard representing the saint and her wheel.
In the old days the inn was approached under an archway, decorated with flitches of bacon, hanging from hooks. There is a wonderful capacity of comfort about the many bed chambers and parlours which the Red Lion contains, whilst its gardens and lawns give it a rare charm.
LICENSED PROPERTY NOTES.
We cannot conscientiously say that there are many acts of the reign of George IV. which are deserving of public gratitude, but, as Thackeray says, “What myriads of Londoners ought to thank him for inventing Brighton! ” In the very centre of this most popular of seaside resorts is situated the valuable leasehold family and commercial hotel, known as the Royal Pavilion, which Mr. Charles Bacon will offer for sale at Masons’ Hall Tavern, Basinghall-street, E.C., on the I2th instant. The hotel has been successfully carried on by the present family for over 43 years, and bears a wide and well-known reputation as one of the most comfortable and best-appointed commercial hotels in the country. The sale will include the well-known vaults called the Royal Pavilion Shades, with	entrances	from Castle-
square and Steine-lane, with the lofty billiard room, for two tables. The whole of the property is held on lease, with an unexpired term of 20 years, at the exceedingly low rent of £343 per annum.
Mr. Wragge, barrister-at-law, and chairman of the York Board of Guardians, read a paper the other day at the Yorkshire Poor Law Conference on the assessment of property. As he has obtained most of his knowledge of the subject by experience at meetings of the assessment committee, what he says is of much practical value. As to the assessing of public-houses, which has excited some attention lately, he urges that if the tenant of one which is tied to a particular brewery comes before the assessment committee, he ought to be required to give the following information :—Firstly, how much does he actually pay in rent ; secondly,- how much he loses in discounts by
adorn. The extensive domain of the Earl of Malmesbury engrosses this portion of the view, and the plantations on every swell and fall of the scene are disposed in aid of picturesque effect. The beauty of the situation has induced many private families to construct ornamental mansions, and the prosperity of the town is evinced by !the improvements progressively taking place.
The attractive riverside hotel, known the world over as the Red Lion Inn, which is im- j mediately contiguous to Henley bridge on the ( Oxford shore, has a history of its own. The hotel, which was to have been offered to aue- j tion on January 19, by Messrs. Simmons and Sons, but has been sold privately, has always been the resort of strangers led to visit Henley by its reputation for beauty, and of the throngs who stay for the regatta, and of the inhabitants, both of town and county. It is beautifully situated at the foot of the fine stone bridge of five arches (which has sculptures over the central arch representing ideal heads of the rivers Thames and Isis, executed by the Hon. Mrs. Darner, in 1786), is near the parish church, and overlooks the renowned regatta course, while commanding a glorious view of the beautiful river. The house evidently dates from early in the 17th century. Here it was that Charles I. stayed in 1632, on his way from London to Oxford, and the royal monogram and coat of arms exist in one of the upper rooms. Again, in 1642, Charles stayed at the hotel, together with Prince Rupert, whose brigade was quartered in Henley. George III. and his Queen, with the Princess Royal, the Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth, had breakfast at the Red Lion, on July 12,1788. Fanny Burney in her “ Memoirs,” refers to the hotel as at “ Henley-on-Thames, an inn beautifully situated.”
Here Shenstone wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass the verses ending with—
Whoe'er has travelled life’s dull round,
Where’er his stapes may have been,
May sigh to think he still has foun^
The warmest welcome at an inn.”
The pane of glass has long since disappeared.
The Red Lion was, in ■the •anoient days of slow travelling, the resting place of the Duke of Marlborough, on his way from Blenheim to London, and he furnished one room with bedstead and bedding, to be at his command in his stately journeys through Henley. This furniture remained in the house from the reign of Queen Anne until Mr. Dixon’s death in 1849, above a century.
remote possibility of their milk developing consumption in delicate children, whilst dens of dirt and other impurities are allowed to remain in the homes of those children.
F. R.
WILTSHIRE.
We have to report, as our experience of the past year’s business, a decided improvement all round, and a slight improvement on “ times ” prices. There is now a demand for both large and small properties, and a disposition (which has been absent for some years) to invest in agricultural land. We have sold chiefly at the auction, but several properties have locally changed hands privately. The prospect of the land and property market here is decidedly better. We can scarcely say that farms and agricultural land have sold freely, but there was last year a demand we have not experienced for several years. There is no tendency to divide farms into smaller holdings, but smaller holdings are more saleable than large, probably because they are within the means of a larger number. The question as to the average value of land is difficult to answer, for so much depends upon local circumstances. Arable agricultural land would be worth from £11 to £15 per acre; but the tithe and distance from railway are very important points with us. Building land is in limited demand except in parts of our city, where it has sold at from £3 to £5 per foot frontage by a depth of from 100ft•. to 150ft. In our valuations we have put elm at 6d. and oak at Is. 3d. per cubic foot; but elm is difficult to sell at the price named. The revival in the disposition to purchase arable farms is in our opinion partly owing to the low price of dairy produce, which on dairy farms in our agency has reduced annual and sale values generally.
Waters and Rawlence.
Salisbury.
Yorkshire (Central).
The prosperity of the city of Leeds and district during the year now closing is strongly written over all our business records, in the almost entire absence of everything which denotes depression of trade, and in everything which indicates buoyanov and prosperity.
We may well, therefore, write this report in a spirit of congratulation and hopefulness, and especially as there are no local signs of diminution of business in the near future.
The estate market has been very active, but a greater bulk of property was offered in the first six months than in the second half of the year; and we believe that, taking Leeds as a whole, there has not in our long experience been so large a proportion sold out of that offered. Our register of property submitted by auction by us has been carefully kept since 1865, and during all these years our present year s realisation has been exceeded only once, with a difference of about 12¿ per cent. But the proportion sold out of that offered this year is 84.8 per cent., being 12¿ per cent, above the previous highest record. Properties, both residential and trade, which have been in the market for several years, have found buyers ; and not within our knowledge has there been so little unoccupied property in Leeds as now. Extensively as building has proceeded, it does not appear to have overtaken the demand, and consequently rents have stiffened, houses of all classes have been selling better, manufactories have been erected in increasing number, because the older empty ones have been filled up, eligible building land has found ready sale, shops are in extraordinary demand, and are commanding rents which four or five years ago would have been pronounced impossible, and nowhere does there appear to be any abatement in inquiry or purchasing power. It seems probable that the supply will decrease, which will have a tendency to increase prices, especially as the cost of building being so great, many will try to purchase and adapt the older properties rather than incur the cost, delay, and vexations of building.
He !׳per and Sons.
Leeds.
Shrewsbury Agricultural Show.—The 1899 meeting of the Shropshire and West Midland Agricultural Society will take place at Shrewsbury on July 13 and 14 next.
Messrs. Wyckoff, Seamans and Benedict, of New York, the makers of the well-known Remington Standard Typewriter, have issued a neat little handbook entitled “ The Remington Typewriter Afloat.” Within its pages are to be found an extensive list of vessels belonging to the United States Navy, and it is stated that the equipment of many of the great battleships illustrated includes one or more Remingtons. For years this typewriter has been most extensively used, but hitherto on land, and on peaceful occasions only. There is now provided ample evidence of the ability of the machine to do continuous good service under difficult and unusual conditions.