HILDA LEZARD'S LANDLORD, THE 9th DUKE RUTLAND, LETS HER LIVE IN A MANNER HOUSE RENT FREE

THE SECRET ROOMS by CATHERINE BAILEY

page  86

EXCERPT/NOTES by Missy

Using rent books, the author was able to learn that Hilda Lezard had moved into "The Hall"  a property owned by the estate in one of the close-by towns owned by the estate, in 1939. 

It was a stone and slated 17th century manor house in the center of the village at Eastwell and included a stable, gardens, and lawns on about four acres of property.  It had five bedrooms, servants quarters, dining, drawing, smoking, and billard rooms.

Don't know what her living situation was with her husband, perhaps they also had a manor house, but somehow, I don't think so.

Rent was about 350 pounds, (about 14,300 pounds in today's money).  HIlda had paid, upon moving in, an additional 10 pounds for the installation of electric light.  At John Henry Montagu- Manners - 9th Duke of Rutland's death,  Hilda owed the estate 370 pounds, a year's rental.  The implication was that she could not afford to live there or had been allowed to fall behind in payments (while her husband was absent abroad) and let me, Missy, say, the implication is that as a mistress she no longer had to pay rent.  If indeed she ever had actually taken money out of her own pocket.

Possibly more interesting is that the current family living at Belvoir, who allowed Catherine Bailey allowed into the Muniment Rooms, also pays an archivist to work with all those family papers left behind.  He helped the author find the 1919 sale catalogue of the estate when John's father, the 8th Duke of Rutland, had to sell a large portion of the estate due to financial problems keeping it.  "The Hall" had been up for sale bit was withdrawn at the last minute. 

This was twenty years before Hilda moved in, but it seems to me that this property was considered too special to sell.  Might it have been the house used by more than one Duke for his mistress?