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６月4日学习,美联社今日新闻
Castle Neighboring Queen's Open for Rent
By ED JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
June 4, 2003, 2:22 AM EDT
LONDON -- It's an offer so cheap that only the rich could be tempted: living in a castle next door to the queen -- rent free.
Invercauld Castle, a sprawling baronial mansion in the heart of the Scottish Highlands surrounded by thousands of acres of land, is in need of a tenant.
Capt. Alwyne Farquharson, chief of the clan that bears his name, has no male heir and is offering a 20-40 year lease for what the British call a "peppercorn" rent.
Here's the catch: Whoever moves in to this grand ancestral home, which borders the Balmoral estate of Queen Elizabeth II, must agree to spend $740,000 on renovations and operating costs of around $165,000 a year.
"There has been a lot of interest from all over the world. It is a truly splendid place," said Guy Galbraith, of the leasing agent FPD Savills in Edinburgh.
"The only fly in the ointment is that you are going to have to come up with a lump of capital to stay there," he said.
Farquharson, the 16th Laird of Invercauld, inherited the estate in 1941. His nearest descendant, a nephew, has no plans to live in Scotland and it will be years before that nephew's children are old enough to assume responsibility for the property.
"We are looking for someone to take it on until the next generation can assess what they want to do," said estate manager Simon Blackett.
"We have a number of people, from America, Europe, Great Britain and the Far East who have been to look and are revisiting."
The castle, which dates from the 1700s, sits on an estate of 108,000 acres and has three keepers' cottages. There are red deer in the forests, and tenants can fish for salmon on the River Dee or shoot grouse on the dramatic foothills of the Cairngorm mountains.
The castle, with its paneled dining room, ballroom, butler's accommodation and antique Victorian furniture, lies only nine miles from Balmoral, the queen's Scottish home.
Blackett said the $740,000 sum would be spent on installing central heating and upgrading furnishings such as carpets and curtains.
The castle, much of it styled on neighboring Balmoral, sleeps 17 adults and six children. It is rented occasionally for weddings or corporate meetings. A week there costs $27,900, fully staffed and catered.
Blackett declined to speculate on whether a prospective tenant could make money running the castle.
"That would have to be up to them. I would not want to prejudge their success," he said.
输入指定颜色的文本
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long arm of coincidence here~
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2003-06-04 15:47:04
