Before party-loving aristocrat Jago Eliot was found dead in
the bath at the age of 40, he feared his father the Earl of St Germans was
putting his inheritance at risk by selling a small farm on their Port Eliot
estate in Cornwall to buy a London townhouse for his new wife.
So Jago would be turning in his grave if he knew that his
bohemian father Peregrine is negotiating with Prince Charles about selling him
the 123-room house, where the annual Port Eliot arts festival is held, for a
rumoured £10 million.
For it will mean Jago and his widow Bianca’s son Albert,
ten, will inherit the 74-year-old Earl’s title but not the ancestral home his
family has lived in since the 16th century.
‘Lord St Germans and his trustees have invited the Prince’s
Foundation for Building Community to conduct a feasibility study, to explore
the possibility of the purchase of Port Eliot House, some of its contents and
its walled garden and stables,’ confirms the Earl’s spokesman.
Last July, Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall estate bought more
than 800 acres of land at Port Eliot for £4.7 million.
A royal source tells me the historic house, which boasted
paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds and Van Dyck, would become a ‘hub’ for the
arts in the same way as Dumfries House in Scotland, on which Charles splurged
£45 million in 2007.
‘It will mean that the estate maintains its income and is
relieved of the huge burden of running the house,’ says the Earl’s 45-year-old
third wife, former magazine journalist Cathy Wilson.
‘Considering the alternatives, i.e. the National Trust, a
fleeing oligarch or the house and contents being broken up, this is a
sensational deal and a terrific turn-up for the estate.’
No comments:
Post a Comment