56 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



February, 1908 





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White Farm 



at Crichel 



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Lady Alington's 





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Charming Hobby 



By W. G. Fitz-Gerald 



Two White Pets of the Household 



'VERY mistress of a country home loves to 

 have her pets around her — ponies and dogs, 

 birds and flowers. But I know of many 

 foreign women of rank and wealth who 

 maintain perfect zoological gardens on their 

 premises. Sarah Bern- 

 hardt, as all the world 



known, keeps lion cubs, monkeys and tiger 



cats, not to mention the snakes she used to 



fondle when touring in "Cleopatra." Then, 



too, many British women of noble birth own 



zoos of their own — the Duchess of Bedford, 



for instance, at Woburn Abbey, and Lady 



Edmund Loder, in Sussex. Both keep herds 



of deer, kangaroos and zebras loose in their 



parks, besides lions, tigers and bears in spe- 

 cially built houses, merely for the amuse- 

 ment of guests. 



But perhaps the most charming hobby of 



this kind is that of Lady Alington, whose 



magnificent country home at Crichel, in 



Dorsetshire, is famous all over the south 



of England for its "White Farm." Both husband and wife 

 detest town life, and are passionately devoted to animals and 

 birds. Lord Alington has bred race horses for many years — 

 among them the famous "Common," who was sold for 

 seventy-five thousand dollars after winning the Derby. In 



Some of the White Animals of the White Farm 



The White Mule Is a Gift to Lady Alington by the Sultan of Turkey 



the same week a couple of Lady Alington's 

 horses were likewise sold, and the three to- 

 gether fetched the record price of one hun- 

 dred and ninety-five thousand dollars. 



Crichel is seven miles off the railroad — 

 an enormous ancestral mansion standing in 

 a finely timbered park hundreds of acres 

 in extent. From the village gates one 

 drives up to the house along a road by a 

 long narrow lake, bordered with huge old 

 elms. And its waters are fairly alive with 

 wild fowl — widgeon, teal, water-hen, wild 

 duck, and scores of strange birds from Asia 

 and Africa which appear to be perfectly 

 at home. 



These timid visitors return year after 

 year at their appointed season, well know- 

 ing they will never be disturbed, for Lady 

 Alington will not permit any shooting of 

 wild fowl on her great estate. At the head 

 of the lake stands the old house itself, 

 whose upper windows command far- 



