859
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
May 20, 1899.
Kensington, and they are still progressing via Olympian and other flats, towards the setting sun. But we know that there have been one or two big blazes in the West-end recently, and the best insurance against fire in the Metropolis would, I expect, be stricter supervision of those people who build with a reckless disregard to the public safety.
The University of Cambridge is hard up. The! alma mater of so many distinguished men wants a quarter of a million, and will not be happy till she gets it. I hope -she may get it, and, at any rate, I presume, it will be more easy for such a venerable and illustrious institution to collect that large sum, than it would be for a poor man to borrow £5 without security. Necessity has no law, but there have been times when Cambridge and its. colleges got what they required in a more “ genteel ” way than a public avowal of poverty. From a history of Queen’s College, by the: Rev. J. U. Gray, Which has׳ been added to the “ College Histories Series ” published by Mr. F. JE. Robinson, I see that that society obtained its share of monastic plunder in the days when bluff Harry turned the cowls adrift. In a letter ׳from the College authorities to the King’s Secretary begging to be allowed to appropriate seme neighbouring property belonging to a convent of Carmelites, the wily fellows pleaded their cause in the method best qualified to obtain the ear of such a monarch as Henry Yin. “ Whenever Royalty has come to Cambridge,” they wrote, “ it has almost invariably stayed in our College, because the College lies away from the noise of the town, because it is near the river, or because it is pleasantly situated. Accordingly if the ground (of the Carmelites) shall become the site of a granary or tanyard, if may be an annoyance to the College and a nuisance to Royalty. But if it is assigned to the College, we shall not only rejoice endlessly in the grant for our own sake®, but shall also be mightily pleased, because׳ we hope that Royalty will also reap some benefit from the grant.” This was practically “rushing” his Majesty out of the grant by an “odorous” comparison of future contingencies.
Some years ago the head of one of our largest■ private banking firms, by his last will and testament, deprived׳ his nephew of a share in the business “ because,” he stated in !the¡ document׳, “ I had desired that he should receive an education fitting him for such a position, instead of which (1 am not quoting the exact words) his parents chose to send him! to Eton and Oxford.” I expect that most men of experience would agree with the views thus expressed by the veteran financier. The practice of the business or trade for which a youth is designed is the right way to feach. it him, and the ׳sooner the training begins the better. I was ׳reminded of the anecdote I have quoted by seme ־words which fell from the Bishop of London, when distributing the prizes at the Philological School, Marylebone-road, a few days ago. He declared that “no education that boys got in schools would qualify them to get on. When they left school and went into business they were set to work and had to do׳ it, and they picked up the way of doing it by their own power of observation when they were at work. But school could not teach, them that. There could be no more useless notion of education than that a boy should be taught what would be useful for him when he left -school.” This is very true. When it comes to “getting on,” learning, as Congreve says, hurts none but those who ■have it. For the rest, Dr. Creighton remarked that he knew of no recipe for getting on. “ The qualities that made for success were entirely by themselves, and he could not say what was necessary to secure success in life. He could not advise them how to get on.” I expect that his lordship would admit that there is a good deal in luck and a good deal in prudence.
It is said that the inhabitants of Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks, are much exercised by the rumour that since the recent death of the lord of the manor the precincts of Newland Park are haunted There is a story that the gates at the entrance to the Park fly open at certain periods and that a four-horse coach gallops up the drive to the mansion, where the doors open and the passengers alight, merely to vanish into midnight air. It will not be an! agreeable thing for the owner if Newland Park comes to be regarded as an addition to the list of supposed haunted houses. There are several such places in England, and no doubt there are many people who would not feel comfortable if they had to reside in such uncanny habitations. Ghosts, though from one point of view respectable appendages to family mansions, are from another aspect trespassers and nuisances, which are difficult to be got rid of by process of law. I heard that the ghost of one of the monks of old was recently discovered in a house in Hammersmith, some Roman Catholic institution, if I remember rightly. The apparition always stopped in the same room, and was reported to be smoking and drinking all the time. I suppose there are few inhabitants of the “riparian village” who would remember 1 anything about the celebrated “Hammersmith
street. The three dwelling houses, numbered 10, 12 and 14, Leeds-road North, covering an area of 400 square yards׳, term 99 years, from September 29, 1859, ground rent £4 12s. 4d., were sold for £485 ; and two dwelling houses, numbered 17, Union-street, and 16, Back Union-street, containing an area of .118 square yards, lease 99 years from September 29, 1859, around rent o-f £1 9s. 6d., sold for £195.
®	WALES.
At the Royal Hotel, Swansea, on the 10th instant, Mr. Ernest Leeder (acting for Mr. Hill, who was indisposed) put up for sale by public auction the Black Lion Hotel, Orange-street, Swansea, on the lease of which, with a ground rent of £4, there were 28 years to run, which sold for £875 ; the beer and porter stores, the bottling premises and the private house, 65 and 65a, Argyle-street, Swansea, rental £46, were withdrawn at £2,275 ; and the West Gross Hotel, was withdrawn at £2,950. The solicitors were Messrs. Jenkin, Jones and Treharne.
agings anîr 1 flings.
I noticed in a provincial paper a day or two ago a paragraph recounting, the eccentric endeavour of a farm labourer to get rid of his wife by selling her to a friend for 7s. 6d. and a pot of ale׳. Such incidents recur periodically, and indeed the belief that the׳ sale of a wite operates legally as a divorce is still not uncommon in some of our rural and manufacturing districts (Whatever the price of the lady bv-the-bye it seems de rigueur that, a iibatory and sacrosanct pot of ■ale should also be paid for by her purchaser.) In this connection jfc may be interesting to knights of the hammer to know that the practice of selling marriageable girls by auction obtained at the great fairs of Nijni-Novgorod, and, going further back still, Herodotus informs us that wife auctions were, at a remote period, of annual occurrence in Babylonia. “ The wealthy Babylonians,” writes the father of history, “outbidding one another, bought !the most beautiful of the damsels ; but the common people who wished׳ to marry, being indifferent about beauty, would take the more homely maidens with a marriage: portion. For when the crier had sold all the comeliest ones, he put up the ugliest, or perhaps a lame one, and asked who would marry her for the lowest sum of money, and she was knocked down to the man who offered to do it for the■ least.” With reference to this׳ strictly business method of attaining domestic bliss, Herodotus expresses !the opinion that it׳ was “ the best of the Babylonian customs, but,” he: adds regretfully, “ it has fallen into disuse.”
He who possesses land possesses also that which is above it up to the heavens and that which is below it down to—well, as far as you can go. The above, I believe, is a fair rough translation of “ Coke upon Littleton’s ־’ Cujus est knlum ejus est usque ad ceelum et ad inferos. The maxim was curiously exemplified in a case in the Queen’s Bench Division recently. The defendant had formerly held land of the plaintiff at South C'roydon. A one-storv cottage in which he lived stood partly upon land׳ of the plaintiff, and partly upon 'and of the Corporation of Croydon. The plaintiff claimed damages on the ground that the defendant, when his tenancy was about to end, pulled down this cottage and removed most of the materials. The case for the defendant was that he was bound to do this under a covenant with the Corporation of Croydon who had given him notice to act as he had done. His counsel contended that the trespass charged was merely technical, and that that bugbear of plaintiffs, “ the smallest׳ coin of the realm,” would be sufficient damages. The jury took this view, but the laugh came in when it was stated that the defendant had paid£10 ׳ into Court. The Judge made an order allowing the defendant to take out of Court £9 19s. llfd. of thait sum, leaving the balance for the plaintiff. I confess׳ that I cannot understand how the plaintiff and his advisers could ever have thought that there was any chance of getting substantial damages and costs ou!t of the defendant׳ in this action. But the law and its practice are mysteries.
In reading the report of the Fire Brigade Committee of the London County Council dealing with the great Cripplegate fire and the question of the more efficient protection of the northern part of the City from similar outbreaks, one cannot help being struck with the idea that the risk of fire in that part of the “ square mile ” must have much increased in recent times. Fires there were neither so frequent nor so disastrous fifty or sixty years ago. This is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that the population of the City, especially in the district• referred to, was largely residential; the buildings were not so׳ large, and they were not occupied in floors by persons engaged in various occupations as many of them are at the present time. The residential tide, in fact, has long flowed outward. Rich traders and famous doctors and lawyers no longer live “over the shop.” They have passed from the City and Lincolh’g-iftn' to Mayfair and South
8s. 5d., for £750 ; two long leasehold houses, Nos. 71 and 72, Cheapside, Birmingham, gross rental £75 3s., for £430 ; and a long leasehold house, No. 13, Inberman-street, and three houses in the rear, gross rental £48 15s., ground rent £8, for £440. The total amount realised was £4,260. On the 11th instant Messrs. Grim-ley sold the following :—Four freehold houses, Nos. 35, 36, 37 and 38, Runeorn-road, Moseley, gross rental £88 8s., for £1,360 ; six long leasehold houses, Nos. 7 to 12, Arbhur-place, gross rental £124 16s., with manufacturing premises at the rear, gross rental £219, ground rent £47 Es. 10d., for £1,140 ; two long leasehold houses. Nos. 35 and 36, Cuckoo-road, Aston, gross rental £33 16s., ground rent £3 8s., for £250 ; two similar houses, Nos. 37 and 38, Cuckoo-road, gross rental £33 16s., ground rent• £8 8s., for £265 ; six freehold ground rents of £6 per annum, secured on houses in Woodstock, Cadbury and Auderton-park roads, with the reversion-infee ■in 1892, for £1,080 ; a freehold ground rent of £21 13s. 8d., secured on houses with rack rentals of £143, reversion-in-fee in about 73 years, for £610 ; and a freehold ground rent of £35, secured on 14 houses, with rack rentals of £185 8s., for £970.
At the Queen’s Hotel, Hertford-street, Coventry, on the 12th instant, Messrs. Burton and Grimes sold a freehold cottage, Bubbenhall, let at £4, chief rent 4s., land tax 2s., for £115 ; a freehold cottage, Bubbenhall, let at £4, land ■tax Is. 9d., for £105 ; a freehold farm. Mount Pleasant, Bedworth, containing about 37 acres׳, apportioned rent £67, tithe rent charge 15s., for £1,825 ; a piece of garden ground, Woodland-lane, Bedworth, containing about lr. 16p., apportioned rent £1, for £100 ; and a close of pasture land, Hob-lane, Bedworth, containing about five acres, apportioned rent £10, for £410. The solicitors were Messrs. Kirby and Sons, Coventry, and Mr. T. L. Grimes, 3, Finsbury-circus, E.C.
WILTSHIRE.
On the 13tli instant, at the Bath Arms Hotel, Warminster, Mi*. F. R. Ravenhill sold a freehold family residence known as Heronslade, with gardens and paddock of rich pasture, having an area of a trifle over six acres, let at a rental of £80, for £3,150 ; a small close, of pasture adjoining Rock Villa, area la. 2r. 31])., for £160 ; a paddock of 2a. 3r., for £200 ; and an accommodation close of pasture land at Sutton. Veny, rather over two acres in extent, let at £4 per annum, for £140. Messrs׳. Wakeman and Son were the solicitors acting for the vendors.
YORKSHIRE.
At the Auction Mart, No. 2, High-street, Sheffield, on the 9th instant, Messrs. Nicholson, Greaves, Barber and Hastings sold a freehold farm at Yarncliffe, near Ringmglow, with farm buildings and several closes of land, containing in all about 53 acres, for £1,850 ; a beerhouse, known as the Woolsack, Nos. 277 and 279, Upper Alien-street, Sheffield, with six cottages, rental £67 13s. 4d., for £2,100 ; a corner sale-shop and beerhouse, No. 1, Walkley-street, and No. 2, Fulton-road, Walkley, for £2,300 ; a plot of freehold building land, Fulton-road, for £130 ; a grocer’s shop, with beer off־licen׳se, Portland-street, let at £15, and six houses let at £59 16s׳., for £2,200 ; grocer’s shop, with beer ■off license, 67, Eastwood-lane, Rotherham, let at £15 12s., and two houses, rental £28 12s., for £1,650 ; five cottages, Nos. 67 to 75, Hoole-street, rental £63 14s., for £810 ; long leasehold villa residence, known as Norfolk House, Claremont-crescent, Sheffield, let at £50, for £800 ; eight long leasehold ;houses, Eldon-street and Wellmgt'on-street•, with saleshop and dwelling house, rental £129 9s., for £1,230 ; a grocer’s shop with beer off license, and 14 dwelling houses, Wellington-street arid Trafalgar-street, Sheffield, ground rent £3 15s. 6d., rental £153 6s., for £1,310 ; and three long leasehold houses, Nos¡. 7, 9 and 11, Sandon-place, Wharncliffe-road, rental £88, ground rent £23 5s, 9d., for £930.
On the 9th instant at their Saleroom, St. James’s-street, Sheffield, Messrs. W. H. and J. A. Eadon offered the following eight lots of property for sale :—A copyhold estate, called Base Green, at Gleadless:, comprising farmhouse, cottage, etc., and containing 81a, 2r. 22p., sold for £3,220 ; a house in Endcliffe-crescent, was passed at £1,850 ; two freehold shops in London-road (Nos. 122 and 124), together with three cottages and eight freehold houses in Broom Close, which produce £226 a year, were disposed of for £1,525 ; a block of freehold property in West-street, consisting of five shops and houses, and 12 houses in Portland-plaee, Cha׳rl׳otte-lane, with a court at the back, rental £258 16®. 4d., sold for £4,100 ; a freehold building estate, containing 8a. 2r. 30p., at Millhouses, for £4,300 ; eight- leasehold houses, Nos. 48 to 62, Spital-hill, which produce £130 13s. 6d. a year, for £450 ; a leasehold house, with aerated water manufactory, No. 305, St. Ph׳ilip’s-road, let at £27 10s., realised £395 ; two leasehold houses, Nos!. 216 and 218, Crookesmoor-road, which produce £56 9s. a year, sold for £900.
On the 9th instant Messrs. Eddison, Taylor and Booth offered for -sale by auction, at their Mart, Huddersfield, three lots of residential property, situate in Leeds-road North 33d Umon-
a cottage adjoining, gross rental £45, for £1,000. The solicitor was Mr. C. H. Cowlishaw, Ut-toxeter.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Messrs. Miller and Abbott® sold several freehold properties at the Red Lion Hotel, Banbury, on Thursday. An estate of 97 acres at Thutford !Vest, rent £87, was sold to Mr. F. Hayward Field, estate agent■, Oxford, for £1,900 ; a close of land adjoining, let at £1 a year, for £16 ; la. 3r. 17p. of ¡meadow land, for £43 ; farm building in Thutford, £102 ; 50¿ acre® at Ep-well, let at £75 a year, £1,450 ; Epwell Mills and cottages were withdrawn. The solicitors concerned were Messrs. Stocton and Son ; Mr. W. L. Whitehorn, and Messrs, Fortescue and Soil*
At the Spread Eagle Hotel, Thame, on the 9th instant, Ml׳. Edward Bond sold three enclosures of pasture land at Thame, containing about 29 acres, for £1,300 ; and a brickyard, known as Christmasehiil, Thame, containing about two acres¡, for £220. The solicitor was Mr. Edward B. Wannop, Chichester.
SURREY.
Messrs. Folker and Horton sold, at the White Lion Hotel, Guildford, ■on the 13th instant, a copyhold house and premises, No. 12, Mount-street, Guildford, for £295 ; and a pair of freehold cottages at Ea-stwood-road, Bramley, for £565.
SUSSEX.
At the Castle Hotel, Hastings, on the 9th instant, Messrs. Dawson and Harden sold a freehold dwelling house, No. 1, Beaconsfield-terrace, Battle-road, Hollington, and the house adjoining, each iet at 10s. per week, for £600 ; and a freehold house and shop known a׳s No. 1, Wind-sof-houses, Hollington. let at £25, for £400. The solicitor wa׳s Mr. W. Neve, St. Leonard’s-on-Sea.
At the Auction Mart, 57, Terminus-road, Eastbourne, on׳ May 4, Mr. J. C. Towner sold the following local properties and ׳shares : —The business premises, No. 5, Cornfield-road, for £1,800 ; freehold business premises, No. 13, Pevensey-road, for £1,710 ; No. 51, Church-street-, Old Town, for £550 ; 18 “ B ” shares in the Eastbourne Gas Company, at £25 10s. to £25 12s. 6d. per share: ten Ordinary £10 shares in the Devonshire Park Company, at £3 15s. per share ; and one £100 Debenture in the Eastbourne Pier Company, for £102.
On the 15th instant, Mr. L. F. St. John, of Hastings, offered for sale the following local properties:—Three houses, Nos. 24, 25 and 26, St. Peter's-road, sold for £395 each ; Nos. 23, 27, 28 and 29, in the same road, for £400 each ; No. 11, the Croft, for £515 ; No. 55, Hughen-den-road, for £255 ; and six houses in Old Humphrey-avenue, realised from £280 to £315 each. The total amount realised was £5,300.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
At the Union Inn, Darlaston׳, on the 15th instant, Messrs. Belcher and Son, of Darlaston and Wednesbury, sold four freehold dwelling houses, Nos. 14, 14a, 15 and 16, Queen-street, OldMox-ley, Wednesbury, for £120 ; a freehold dwelling house, No. 27, High-street, Moxley, Bilston, for £220 ; and nine freehold dwelling houses, Nos. 53 and 54, Higli-street, Moxley, Darlaston, together with Nos. 1 to 7, in Court 4 at the rear, for £420. Messrs. Page and Flewker, of Wolverhampton, were the solicitors concerned.
WARWICKSHIRE.
At the Castle Hotel, King-street, Coventry, on the 5th instant, Messrs-. ¡Burton and Grimes sold a fully licensed freehold inn, known as the Castle Hotel, at the corner of Bishop-street and King-street, Coventry, let at £90, for £4,000. The solicitor was Mr. M. Iv. Pridmore, Coven-try.
At the Grand Hotel, Colmore-row, Birmingham, on the 9th instant, Messrs. Grove and Baker sold two long leasehold houses in Ilar-borne-lane, Selly Oak, gross rental £42 18s., ground rent £4 15s., for £395 ; three long leasehold houses adjoining, Clifton House and Laurel Cottages, gross rental £50 18s. 4d., ground rent £3 18s., for £475 ; a chemist’s shop and house adjoining, Nos. 107 and 109, High-street, Selly Oak, gross rental £49 16s., ground rent £7 13s. 9d., for £755 ; the Prince of Wales, High-street, Selly Oak, let at £30, ground rent £5, was withdrawn at £1,590 ; long leasehold shop, with two cottages at the rear, No. 46, High-street, Selly Oak, ground rent £3 7s. 6d., gross rental £45 14s. 4d., sold for £585 ; the Harvest Home, Camp-hill, Bordcsley, let at£45 ׳, for £2,000 ; two long leasehold houses, No®. 48 and 50, Al-fred-road, Handsworth, gross rental £35 2s., ground rent £8, for £275 ; the Paul Pry, New Summer-street, let at £60, for £1,550 ; the Globe Tavern, New Summer-street, let at £27, for £1,000 : and the Stag’s Head, Newtown-row, let at £28, for £905. The solicitors were Messrs. G. F. James and Barton, Messrs. Jeffery, Parr and Hasell, Mr. A. Caddick, and Messrs. Tyler and Deighton, all of Birmingham.
At the Grand Hotel, Birmingham, on the. 3rd instant, Messrs. Grimley and Son sold 16 freehold houses, Nos. 463, 465. 457, 469 and 471, Dudley-road, and Nos. lto21, Halberton-street, Cape-hill, gross rental £221, for £2,640 : seven long leasehold houses, Nos. 1 to 7, Edith-road. Cape-hill, gross rental £109 4s., ground rent £22