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Press and Journal
6 days ago
- Press and Journal
Incredible £1.9m country estate in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park hits the market
A stunning country home in the heart of the Cairngorms has hit the market. Broomhill House is an imposing private Arts and Crafts house, constructed of solid granite, located south of Grantown-on-Spey. It has a storied history, having been built for Sir Alfred Booth of Liverpool, best known for his role as chairman of the Cunard Line. RMS Carpathia – a Cunard Line liner – was first on the scene to rescue survivors of the RMS Titanic in 1912. Broomhill House was completed in 1918 before being sold to the Aspen family in 1926 for their six-year-old pneumonia-stricken daughter Rosemary to live in. The Aspen family fled to the Moray countryside at the outbreak of WWII. The fresh air must have been good for Rosemary, who, despite having pneumonia, lived in Broomhill House for 85 years. The house is extensive, with more than 7,500 square feet of space, as well as a car port and indoor courtyard. The house was formerly for sale with the price being revealed on application. It is now listed with Fine & Country for £1.9 million. Entering the house via a door next to the car port, there is a cloakroom with toilet and study to the right. Along the hallway is the drawing room, featuring a huge bay window, which connects to the sitting room. A standout feature is the huge log-burning fireplace and dark wooden ceiling beams. The sitting room leads through to the covered verandah as well as the garden room. Further down the hallway is the formal dining room, pantry and store room. To the left is the kitchen, with larder and utility room connected. On the other side of the hall is a ground-floor bedroom and separate shower room. Disconnected from the rest of the house is a dairy and wine store room on the opposite side of the car port. While still connected to the main house, there is a separate annexe area for guests/visitors, and it is currently used as a holiday rental. It consists of a living room, dining room, kitchen, ground-floor bedroom and bathroom. There are two additional bedrooms upstairs. The first floor of the main house has seven double bedrooms, with three bathrooms and a linen room. There is also a small roof terrace, which overlooks the courtyard, accessed via one of the bedrooms. In addition to the bedrooms is one of the highlights of the house – the music room. The Aspen family commissioned the highly acclaimed architect Sir Basil Spence to extend the house, creating the barrel-vaulted music room. The courtyard encloses several store rooms, two toilets, as well as a separate Coach House. There is a large Siberian larch multi-functional building, which was built in 2016 for garden storage. Broomhill House is approached by a sweeping private drive through a quiet wooded area, with ample parking. The mature gardens are around six acres, with expansive lawns and magnificent views of the River Spey and its valley. These extend all the way to the Cairngorm Mountains. There is also the former lawn tennis court with its thatched pavilion. The house and gardens are surrounded by mature trees, which extend into ancient Caledonian pine forest to the rear of the house.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
History: How the Titanic's richest survivor enjoyed her time in Palm Beach
Not long before the famed ocean-liner Titanic sunk in the North Atlantic after plowing into an iceberg on a cold, dark April night in 1912, the richest passenger aboard helped his frightened bride into a lifeboat. Tall, lean and mustachioed John Jacob Astor IV wanted to accompany her in Lifeboat 4, but his social status and family fortune — born of the fur trade, then turbocharged by New York real-estate investments — ran up against the women-and-children-only dictum. What concerned the 47-year-old Astor most when he asked the ship's quartermaster to join her was her 'delicate condition.' Madeleine Talmage Astor was 18 and frightened. She also was five months' pregnant and had been feeling ill as the couple bunked in a double suite with a cadre of servants and Astor's Airedale named Kitty. After Astor was denied a lifeboat berth beside his wife, her cries joined the overall hysteria on the sinking ship. Seeking to comfort her, Astor promised he would 'see you in the morning, dearie,' according to survivor accounts. After the Titanic's final plunge into the icy North Atlantic, Astor went down with it. Madeleine survived. She was among hundreds rescued by the RMS Carpathia; one crew member said he'd never seen 'a sadder face or one more beautiful' than Madeleine Astor's. Months later, she gave birth to a son, who was named after his father. In time, the boy would learn of his parents' romance, begun in 1910 after they met in the Maine summer resort of Bar Harbor. That's where Astor owned an ornate home, one of several in the Astor portfolio, including a renowned manse on New York's Fifth Avenue. The press had feasted on the courting couple's every move, noting the 'scandalous' age difference and Astor's ability to bestow lavish gifts on an impressionable teenage Madeleine and her parents of lesser social status (William and Katherine Force were Brooklyn society leaders). Then there was the fact that Astor's first marriage had ended only months before in 1909, when his first wife filed for divorce. 'Like celebrities of today, they (Madeleine and Astor) were … followed incessantly by reporters and photographers,' Karen Kamuda, president of the Titanic Historical Society, said. After their September 1911 marriage and extended honeymoon in Europe and Egypt, they boarded the Titanic on April 10 in Cherbourg, France. Before his 1912 death, Astor, who owned New York's Waldorf Astoria and St. Regis as well as rent-collecting buildings in the city, had been making winter visits to Palm Beach with his former wife. But after Astor drowned in the Titanic disaster, it was Madeleine who claimed a spot in Palm Beach, where she leased oceanfront estates, socialized and played golf and tennis. In 1916, Madeleine married Brooklyn-society childhood friend William K. Dick, who was wealthy in his own right, although not on the scale of the Astors. Remarrying meant forfeiting income from her trust fund, plus use of the Astor family's Fifth Avenue manse. But she could dip into her son's trust fund, which she did, as news reports liberally outlined. By the early 1920s, Madeleine and Dick, with whom she had two more sons, were regularly spending winters or springs in Palm Beach. Madeleine played tennis and hosted or attended parties. A noted fashionista, she preened even for a stroll along the now-gone pier off The Breakers. She wore 'a stunning frock of heavy flat crepe in white, with a double tunic' and a wide leather green belt edged with gold,' the local press reported in 1925, noting her wide-brimmed Milan chapeau and black-velvet pumps. But by 1932, 'one never hears, or reads, of Madeleine's joining this or that fashionable luncheon or dinner party, and her social appearances in Palm Beach are … nil,' a Palm Beach society columnist wrote. By 1933, the Dicks' marriage had ended in divorce. But what sent shock waves through society was that Madeleine, 40, months later married a middleweight Italian boxer 15 years her junior; they'd met on a cruise ship. She reportedly provided Enzo Fiermonte with a $1,000-a-month allowance for suits and entertaining her in a style to which she was accustomed. Madeleine's and Fiermonte's marriage was considered 'stormy,' with periods of estrangement and reconciliation. She divorced him in 1938 — the decree was handled in West Palm Beach — on the grounds of 'extreme cruelty.' While she alleged that Fiermonte hit her, he later told the press she was 'unstable' with mood swings and the need for attending nurses. Two years after her divorce from Fiermonte, Madeleine died in Palm Beach at 46. Heart failure was cited, but friends were said to wonder about a possible overdose of sleeping pills. The funeral took place in New York at the Episcopal Church of St. Bartholomew's. Some 1,500 people attended, according to the New York Times. As during her lifetime, onlookers and the press lined the street outside, hoping to glimpse the famed rich arriving and departing the rites of the woman who once was the Titanic's richest 18-year-old pregnant bride, then widow. M.M. Cloutier writes about history for the Palm Beach Daily News. This story originally appeared in that publication in January. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: History: The Palm Beach years of Titanic survivor Madeleine Astor
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Haunting letter written by Titanic passenger days before huge ocean liner sank sells for £300,000
A 'prophetic' letter by a passenger on the Titanic sent days before it sank has been sold for a record amount. Colonel Archibald Gracie - who survived the sinking but died months later from injuries he sustained in the freezing water - told his great uncle he would 'await my journey's end' before judging his experience on the 'fine ship'. The hauntingly eerie letter sold for £300,000 ($400,000) - five times higher than it was expected to. It is also the most expensive piece of correspondence from the Titanic bought after its sinking. The letter has been described as 'prophetic' as the 54-year-old was one of the 2,200 passengers and crew on board when the ocean liner struck an iceberg in the Atlantic five days into its journey. An anonymous buyer nabbed the moving artefact at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire today. The wealthy American wrote the letter on the first day of the Titanic's sailing, 10 April 1912, from the first class passenger's cabin C51. It was then posted when the ship docked in Queenstown, Ireland, the next day before the Titanic carried on with its journey to New York. The piece of correspondence arrived in London the day after. Colonel Gracie survived the tragic sinking that saw more than 1,500 die by clinging onto an overturned lifeboat. His accounts of what happened that fateful night are some of the most famous, detailing how more than half the man who also reached the boat died from exhaustion or froze. His book The Truth About The Titanic described his lifestyle in the luxurious first class accommodation where he was a chaperone for several unaccompanied women. He enjoyed squash and reading in the library during the first part of his trip and when the boat began sinking, the business man helped women onto the lifeboats. The former soldier was trying to free the trapped lifeboats when the front part of the ship dipped below the water. He was sucked down by the undertow but managed to free himself from the shop and surfaced near the lifeboat. Colonel Gracie and the other survivors began paddling away from the masses of pleading swimmers for help but no one gave him hardship for not letting them on. He wrote: 'In no instance, I am happy to say, did I hear any word of rebuke from a swimmer because of a refusal to grant assistance... [one refusal] was met with the manly voice of a powerful man... "All right boys, good luck and God bless you".' When dawn broke, an officer who survived the night clinging on began to blow his whistle so that the other lifeboats could find them. Colonel Gracie was so exhausted that he was unable to make the jump himself and was pulled onto lifeboat No. 12 before reaching the RMS Carpathia - the first ship to arrive. Although Colonel Gracie's perseverance that night saved him, the impact of being in the freezing water drastically affected his health. He caught hypothermia as well as suffered physical injuries the night of the sinking and fell into a coma months later. He died from complications from diabetes on 4 December 1912 two days later. Andrew Aldridge, auctioneer at Henry Aldridge & Son, said: 'It really was a fantastic sale that shows the appeal of one of the most important events of the twentieth century. 'It is impossible to overstate the rarity of the Gracie lot. It was written by one of the highest profile survivors, with excellent content and on the rarest of mediums a lettercard and for it to bring £300,000 is an amazing result. 'It really was a sale full of museum-quality items.' Also at the auction was a gilt silver and brass watch that was found among the possessions of Danish second-class passenger Hans Christensen Givard. The ladies pocket watch was recovered from the 27-year-old's body, who had been travelling to the US with two friends who also died. 'The watch's movement is frozen in time at the moment the cold North Atlantic waters consumed not only its owner but the most famous ocean liner of all time, Titanic, on 15 April 1912,' Mr Aldridge said. His other belongings, like a savings book, some cash in his wallet, his passport, keys and a compass were sent back to his brother in Denmark after the disaster. Th descendants of his family decided to put the items on sale and was set to fetch £50,000. Other auction items included the violin used by the bandmaster in the iconic 1997 epic film Titanic. British actor Jonathan Evans-Jones played Wallace Hartley in the movie that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Tomlin's immigration inspection ticket that revealed how he was moved from the RMS Adriatic to the Titanic at the last moment due to a coal strike sold for £90,000 Some of Tomlin's letters were also recovered that he had sent to his family Ernest Tomlin's body was among the few that were recovered but he was buried at sea after his possessions had been recovered The instrument - which sold for £50,000 - was used in one of the most poignant scenes, as the band famously played on while the luxury liner sank. A Titanic-related archive that belonged to tragic passenger Ernest Tomlin was also sold, including his water-stained immigration inspection ticket that revealed how he was moved from the RMS Adriatic to the Titanic at the last moment due to a coal strike. The item, that was recovered days later from his drowned body, sold for £90,000. His meal ticket for the third-class restaurant was also found in his pockets. It sold for £65,000. Other items in the Tomlin collection included two US dollar notes he had intended to use in America sold for a combined £25,000. A collection of items belonging to first-class passenger Erik Lind sold for £38,000. The archive included a hand-written letter by Erik, who was sailing to New York to escape loan sharks in his native Sweden.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
On This Day, April 18: Patriot Paul Revere begins midnight ride
April 18 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1506, the cornerstone was placed for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 1775, U.S. patriot Paul Revere began his famous ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out "The British are coming!" to rally the minutemen. In 1906, an earthquake estimated at magnitude-7.8 struck San Francisco, collapsing buildings and igniting fires that destroyed much of what remained of the city. Researchers and historians concluded that about 3,000 people died in the quake and its aftermath, and roughly 250,000 were left homeless. In 1912, three days after the sinking of Titanic, her survivors arrived in New York City aboard the RMS Carpathia. In 1923, the original Yankee Stadium opened in New York. The stadium was demolished in 2010 after it was replaced a year prior by the new Yankee Stadium. In 1942, Lt. Col. James Doolittle led a squadron of B-25 bombers in a surprise raid against Tokyo in response to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. In 1945, U.S. journalist Ernie Pyle, a popular World War II correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific. In 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain. In 1968, McCulloch Oil Corp. paid $2.24 million to buy London Bridge, which was sinking into the Thames under the weight of 20th century traffic. The oil company rebuilt the bridge bloc by block over Lake Havasu in Arizona. In 1980, Rhodesia became the independent African nation of Zimbabwe. In 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was severely damaged by a car-bomb explosion that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans. In 1992, an 11-year-old Florida boy sued to "divorce" his natural parents and remain with his foster parents. The boy eventually won his lawsuit. In 2002, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., revealed that at least 13 civilians were killed by his U.S. Navy unit in a Vietnamese village in 1969. In 2007, more than 125 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb explosion near a Baghdad market. In 2014, an avalanche on what is known as a particularly dangerous route to the top of Mount Everest in the Himalayas killed 16 Sherpa guides. In 2018, the first movie theaters in Saudi Arabia opened with a public screening of Black Panther. In 2024, police arrested more than 100 protesters at Columbia University for refusing to leave a large pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. The incident sparked more protests at the school and other campuses across the country.
