Whether it was the project of compiling simple English textbooks, or the acquisition of Reuters and the establishment of the telegraph, it did not cost much, and the real big expenses finally came, and the honorable Duke of Buckingham came to the rich man, hoping that he would buy his estate, Stobe Garden. The title of duke is second only to the prince, and the nobles are basically known for their luxurious life.

Under normal circumstances, the Duke owns a large amount of land, and the income from ground rent alone can be tens of thousands of pounds a year, however, the value of agricultural land has been shrinking since the Industrial Revolution. In order to bring the newly enthroned queen and her husband Prince Albert to live in the estate for a while, the duke, who would not die, borrowed money to buy a large number of expensive furniture and famous paintings, well, face is earned, and the queen and her husband lived here happily for a long time, and then ...... The Duke was miserable, accumulating huge debts over the years, reaching 1,464,959 at its peak, and was called "the most bullish debtor in history". At the height of his life, he had to flee to a foreign country to avoid creditors.

1848 was the year of the European Revolution, the year of the revelry of the commoners, the year of the sorrow of the aristocracy, and when the sad Duke returned to London, he found that his son had almost sold out of his real estate, the Buckingham House in Bellmeier Street in London, and the 36,000 acres of land in Ireland, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Middlesex were all sold. Countless painstaking selections of precious furniture, works of art, 21,000 bottles of red wine and 500 bottles of white wine could not escape the doom of sale, and all this raised a total of ?75,400, a fraction of the amount of debt, and the huge debt was like a breeze blowing on the mountain.

When the auction ended, the land of Situo Manor shrank to 10,000 acres, and the number of garden workers was reduced from 40 to 4. The Duke himself had already lived in the "gentlemen's club" to be in the company of the "poor".

The down-and-out Duke of Buckingham finally couldn't find the buyer of the most important property, the Situo Manor, and he was too cheap and reluctant, until the news of the birth of the British Telegraph Company worth 3 million pounds came to Parliament, and he "deigned" to come to Downing, the super buyer who donated 1.5 million without frowning. Life needs to be happy, and buying a manor is inevitable. He saw Downing's house in the eastern suburbs of London, and asked, it was still rented! He is more confident - to slaughter the rich man well.

These days, there are all kinds of investment opportunities to come to the door, but it is the first time that such a precious manor is still very famous, this Situo Garden is still quite famous, Tang Ning has heard of it, and he is even more impressed by this "largest debtor in history".

There is a "creditor's prison" in the UK, which is dedicated to debtors like the Duke of Buckingham, but nobles are nobles, and he is fine! It may also have something to do with the fact that he once spent a lot of money to fund the Royal Buckinghamshire Volunteers, not all debts are owed because of a luxurious life, he also contributed a lot to the country, he once participated in the great battle with the French Emperor Napoleon under the command of the Duke of Wellington, it was a life-and-death battle between Britain and France, and our Duke who is not good at financial management is also a nobleman who has made war achievements.

Considered one of the most elegant gardens in England in the 18th century, Stowe Garden is a testament to the skills of the era's top landscape architects. The park is dotted with gentle mountain peaks, woodlands and lakes, and its natural beauty is dotted with magnificent neoclassical buildings and statues.

10,000 acres is really vast, and this is still the land after the "reduction", and what is more divine is that the garden designer's wall scheme for the Situo Garden is "hidden wall", well, the hidden wall, the Situo Manor is divided into an independent world by the hidden wall composed of a small river, but you can't see the physical wall at a glance, for the people who live in the garden, the vision and scenery are greatly expanded.

In order to distinguish it from the whole estate, we called the magnificent building in the center as the Situo Palace, and the main entrance of this golden palace is very imposing with six Roman columns standing in front of it. Much similar, but less than the 8 giant columns of the Pantheon in Rome. In front of the Roman columns is a huge lawn, and beyond that, there is a wide lake. It's November, and the lotus flowers on the lake are gone, and there is no one to clean them up, but it is conceivable that this will be a beautiful and pleasant sight in the summer.

The first hall entering the palace is the south hall, which is strange, and inside, is the largest room in the building, the marble salon. Its style is also based on the famous Pantheon in Rome, with an oval dome rising 17 meters above the ground, with a large oval glass in the center, covered with a space of 19 x 14 meters, and this dome alone cost £12,000 when it was built. There are many plaster casts in the salon, several valuable Roman statues were sold off by his "unscrupulous" son, and the reliefs of 280 humans and 14 animals are still alive.

To the east of the Marble Salon is the National Concert Hall. You read that right, it is the National Concert Hall, the National XX Hall is a popular name in the 17th and 18th century aristocratic mansions, with magnificent and gorgeous decorations to attract attention and entertain heads of state, you see, Queen Victoria was served here for so long, and the heartless queen also bought a lot of family heirlooms when they went bankrupt and auctioned.

There are still many plaster statues in the concert hall, and even the bricks of the mantelpiece are gilded, which is an auction-quality work of art. Two words - exquisite.

Further east of the National Concert Hall is the largest of the three libraries, which is called the Great Library, 23*7. 6 meters. The huge mahogany bookcase, which had 500 bookshelves on the lower level and 240 bookshelves on the upper level, has now withered, and in the 1849 auction more than 20,000 books, mostly from the collection of the first Duke of Buckingham, were sold, which lasted for a total of 24 days.

Because it is a library, there are busts of some intellectuals, such as: Homer, Bacon, Newton.

After walking around the east side, we returned to the Marble Salon and headed north to the North Hall, the main hall at the entrance of the palace. On the ceiling is the famous 18th-century architect and garden artist William? Kent's gray painting with gold as a background. There are five gods of Roman mythology, introduced by the Count, namely Mercury, the messenger and merchant of the gods, Jupiter, the king of the gods, Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, Saturnus, the god of agriculture, Apollo, the god of the sun, and Diana, the goddess of the moon and the hunt.

Downing smiled, "Maybe Mercury is the deity I should worship." ”

The Duke replied, "I'm afraid you've been blessed by Mercury!" Even the Duke in his heyday, he envied the million-dollar net worth of this local tyrant, and now he owes millions of debts, and his words are even more sour. If he remembers correctly, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the newly established British government had no credit and established the Bank of England in order to raise £1.2 million! Got money now? actually spent 3 million to buy the stock of a telegraph company, and it was only 25%! Indissoluble!

Back at the salon, to the west, the "National Painting Hall", for well-known reasons, is empty and has nothing to admire.

Further west of the painting hall is the "National Restaurant", where the mural on the ceiling is still there, and the painting is quite interesting, the goddess of youth feeds Jupitt's eagle, Cupid plays with two goddesses of grace who dance for the gods, Cupid sleeps with two goddesses of grace, Diana and her hound. These four paintings occupy the east, north, south, and west, respectively. The decoration between them is an animal painting, with swans and their babies, pigeons, rabbits.

To the west of the National Restaurant, there is also a cosy show-and-curtain restaurant. I'm afraid this is the place where the host often eats, who can stand going to the national restaurant every day?

When Queen Victoria came to stay, the room she lived in was on the west side of the small restaurant, called the Garter Room.

The aristocrats are all tasteful, and there are as many as three light studios and two small studios in the Situo Palace. There is a Japanese-style closet for the Duke's treasures, but unfortunately only shelves remain, and a closet with a portrait of Shakespeare, called the Shakespeare closet. Well, the portrait of this era is likely to be a face-to-face portrait of the painter and Shakespeare, so it is a treasure.

In addition, there are the Rembrandt Room, the Chapel, the Gothic Library, the Egyptian Room (for the entry and exit of the carriages, probably famous for the Egyptian chariots), the Ante Library, and so on.

In short, although it has withered, you can still vaguely feel the extravagance and taste of the life of the great aristocracy, which is estimated to be not cheap.

In order to kill the bargain, I had to pinch it and say, "Finally finished reading!" Whew, that's good, it's a pity...... It's a bit of a conflict with my plan. I have a factory in the eastern suburbs of London, and I've been thinking about buying a big piece of land there to build a large shipyard, and Buckinghamshire is a bit far to the northwest. ”

The Duke smiled: "Geographical location is not a problem, how can all the homes be arranged near London?" Don't you hate dirty London too? I used to have a property in Ireland! Hey, it's all ...... now."

Tang Ning: "Well, then you can make a price, if I still have a lot of surplus after the construction of the steel mill and shipyard, I will discuss with you." ”

The duke was going to offer a sky-high price of 300,000 pounds, but he didn't dare to open it too outrageously because of Tangning's bargaining, and after thinking for a long time, when Tangning was about to leave, he reluctantly opened the price: "200,000 pounds, my bottom line." ”

Tang Ning nodded: "Okay, I'll go back and think about it, and then discuss it with my friends, thank you very much for taking me to visit Situo Garden, no matter what, it's an unforgettable experience!" ”

The Duke did not receive an immediate positive reply, and disappointed sent the God of Wealth into the carriage, admiring himself in the colorful late autumn colors of his gorgeous garden, which he might never again admire as a master.