Chapter 212: Gray Manor

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On the right hand side are two rows of stout and tall trees, including ginkgo, triangular maple, oak trees, etc., and through the gaps in the trees, you can vaguely see a large lawn and a large lake in the background.

On the left side of the flower bed on the main road is a flower wall about two meters high, and the leafy Lingxiao flowers and wisteria cover the skeleton and also cover more scenery behind. However, from the information provided by the intermediary company, Guo Shouyun knew that there was a plant maze behind it, a landscape that often appears in an English-style manor.

The car drove along the main cobblestone road, and after about 50 meters, a stone bridge about 10 meters wide appeared. Below the stone bridge is a meandering river that connects to the lake on the right on one side and to a larger lake behind it, bypassing the main building of the estate.

After crossing the stone bridge and passing through the shrub isolation zone, a marble-paved square of about 500 square meters appeared in front of Guo Shouyun. In the center of the square is a large fountain with a diameter of more than forty meters. In the center of the fountain are three marble sculptures about two meters high standing on a flower bed, each with a different image.

One of them is a young woman with a topless body and a clay pot in her arms, the other two are a female sculpture holding a conch aloft and a female marble sculpture carrying a flower basket. The clear water gushes out of the clay pots, conch shells, and flower baskets, and falls into the fountain in three different drops. At the same time, eight fish-shaped sculptures with open mouths in the corners of the fountain spew out eight crystalline columns of water and fall into the marble parterre at the feet of the three female sculptures, forming a loop.

You can imagine how heart-wrenching it is to be under the bright spring sunshine when the water reflects the sunlight and emits a beautiful rainbow of light.

Of course, at this point, it's just imagination. Because, there is no water flow in the entire fountain for a long time, and the traces of wind and rain erosion on the three sculptures are even more obvious.

The fountain is further inward, and the main building of the entire manor house is located. It has a typical English style, with pale yellow facades, marble walls that are not as ornate as the sculptures of French architecture, and roofs, with the exception of a few pitched roofs, are mostly flat shapes, unlike the Gothic with its impressive spires.

The whole main building is probably in the shape of a 'convex', with three floors, which is a bit similar to the Lime Manor that Guo Shouyun once visited.

After the car stopped, the representative of the intermediary company waiting in front of the main building immediately greeted him. After Guo Shouyun and Neil Mori got out of the car, they enthusiastically stretched out their right hand.

"Mr. Murray, Mr. Guo, welcome to you. I'm William Hills, a representative of Kenton Realty. ”

"Hello, Mr. Hills!"

After a simple handshake and a greeting.

"Two gentlemen, this is Simpson Ward, the butler of Gray Manor. Mr. Ward, who has worked here for thirty years, is very familiar with every plant and tree on this estate, so please do not hesitate to ask him if there is anything you need to know. ”

Guo Shouyun looked at this typical British butler in a black suit, a red bow tie around his neck, gray hair, and a hint of seriousness in his expression. After a moment's thought, he asked, "Has Mr. Ward been at Gray Manor?"

Glancing at him, "My grandfather, my father, and up to me, three generations of the Ward family have dedicated their time and years to Gray Manor. ”

Guo Shouyun's expression had a touch of respect. There is no high or low position, and people who can work in one position for decades with peace of mind are worthy of admiration.

"I beg you to show us around the whole estate. ”

Old Ward nodded, and after hearing the respect in Guo Shouyun's tone, his expression softened a lot.

"Are the two gentlemen going to go inside first, or are they going outside now?"

"What do you think, Bruce?" said Neil Morrie.

"Let's go inside first!"

"Please come with me!"

Old Ward nodded, and led the group to step on the quaint steps that had been washed by the rain for hundreds of years, and walked into the interior of the main building.

After crossing the threshold, what appeared in front of Guo Shouyun was a magnificent hall of more than 300 square meters. The hall is nearly 5 meters high, with no pillars in between, and is topped by a chic ceiling and ornate crystal chandeliers. In particular, the largest group of chandeliers in the middle is more than one meter up and down and more than 1.2 meters in diameter, which is particularly luxurious.

Under the bright lights, the whole hall looks brilliantly lit. The reliefs, tapestries, and oil paintings on the surrounding walls are also shining with a different kind of charm under the lights, setting off the extraordinarily luxurious and elegant whole hall.

In addition, directly opposite the hall is a large staircase that connects to the second floor. The staircase is flanked by a three-meter-wide, domed gallery.

"This hall was the place where the Gray family held banquets, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the family was at its peak, it was a frequent visitor to the famous gentlemen of British politics, even Edward VII. The paintings on the walls are portraits of the ancestors of the Gray family!"

Looking at those oil paintings, Guo Shouyun felt a heavy history, and couldn't help but think of Liu Yuxi's "Wuyi Lane": the wild grass and flowers by the Vermilion Bird Bridge, the sunset at the mouth of Wuyi Lane, and the former swallow of Wang Xie Tang in the old days, flew into the homes of ordinary people. No matter how prosperous the family is, there are times when it declines.

"It's been a long time since we've cleaned it carefully, right?" asked Guo Shouyun, noticing the dust on some of the sculptures and tapestries.

Old Ward nodded, "The entire Gray Manor, including me, is only five old servants who are over fifty years old and reluctant to leave, and barely keeping this place from falling is already our greatest ability." ”

"What about the original people of the Gray family?" Guo Shouyun frowned.

"Dead die, go. The only person who could inherit the estate was still in a prison in London. Old Ward sighed in frustration.

Looking at his appearance, Guo Shouyun frowned, and his gaze turned to William Hills next to him.

"Mr. Hills, there won't be a dispute over ownership of this manor, right?"

Mr. Kwok was relieved that the inheritance of Grey Manor was in the hands of Bowen Grey, a descendant of the Grey family, who had been imprisoned in London's Prison No. 7 for theft three years earlier. He commissioned us to sell the estate two years ago, and we have the full deed of entrustment and proof of the property. ”

"There is such a big manor in the name, and it is still stolen?" Guo Shouyun said in surprise.

Who knows, he broke into the vault of a Swiss bank anyway and is said to have stolen a priceless oil painting of Raphael. William Shears shrugged.

"Raphael's paintings?"

After secretly being surprised, Guo Shouyun attributed it to the bad taste of the children of the broken nobles, and did not ask too much.

Later, under the leadership of Old Ward, the group went through most of the rooms in the main building, except for a few rooms, most of them were piled up with thick dust, and many beds and soft linings needed to be replaced. This situation makes Guo Shouyun not too satisfied, because the decoration takes a lot of time, and the formaldehyde problem is also what he is worried about.

However, all dissatisfaction vanished when he reached the three storage rooms located underground. Although the red wines in the wine storage room are not as famous as Margis and Lafite, they are also the main brands of Bordeaux second- and third-class wineries, and the key is that the vintage is good. Coupled with some champagne, brandy, etc., the number of thousands of bottles is enough for Guo Shouyun to use for a long time.

Compared to the wine storage room, one of the storage rooms of about 380 square meters is the biggest surprise. Looking at the shelves, a dazzling array of Chinese porcelain, plates, bowls, bottles, cans, all kinds of shapes are readily available, I am afraid that there are no less than 10,000 pieces.

These are all collections of the Gray family, from James Gray to Wells Gray, three of the Gray family served as British consuls in the Qing Dynasty, five people were in business in the Qing Dynasty and later in the Republic of China, and they were all madly obsessed with Chinese art, especially porcelain, which they had accumulated over the years. Old Ward explained.

"Can I take a closer look?" Guo Shouyun said in surprise.

"Of course!"

Guo Shouyun, who was allowed to do so, picked up a plum vase about 20 centimeters tall with a blue and white entwined branch lotus pattern from the nearest shelf. Of course, his level of porcelain appreciation is only at the entry level, and it is impossible to tell whether it is true or not. So, after a brief look, I turned the bottom open. The six-character regular script of the "Jiaqing Year System of the Great Qing Dynasty" came into view.

Put down the plum vase, and then he took some general jars, large plates, Gezun, porcelain pots, etc., and found that most of these porcelains are the porcelain of the Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, and Guangxu dynasties, and there are very few in the Qing Dynasty, and even fewer in the Ming Dynasty. However, this is also a matter of course, if it is really a porcelain with a higher price, I am afraid that it will have been traded on the auction market by the descendants of the Gray family.

But even so, Guo Shouyun did not have the slightest disappointment in his heart, but was very happy. Don't look at these porcelains nowadays, most of them are between a few hundred and one or two thousand pounds. Even if it all adds up to millions to tens of millions of pounds. But ten years later, when the Chinese economy develops and the collecting boom rolls in, the price of these porcelains will be dozens or even hundreds of times that of now.

Thinking of this, Guo Shouyun's determination to buy this manor instantly became firm.

"Mr. Ward, if I buy this estate, will these works of art also belong to me?"

"Yes!" the latter nodded, "According to the power of attorney from Master Bowen, after the transaction of Gray Manor, everything here belongs to Mr. Guo!"

In fact, the truly valuable part of the Gray family's collection was gradually auctioned off in the fifties when the family began to decline. The rest are defective products in all the collections left because of the high fees of the auction house, the large number and low value of the collections, and the limited market. Simply sell it to a latecomer, at least without paying a high fee to the auction house.