Houses into History

At 84, the Gloomy Dean, Britain's Very Rev. W. R. Inge, stepped out of retirement to write a cherrily gloomy piece for London's Evening Standard. His theme: the "Passing of the Country House," that spacious, gracious institution as British as the Marble Arch, mutton pie, or Boxing Day. Wrote Dean Inge:

"We are in the midst of a social revolution quite as drastic as the rebellion of the French against Louis XVI. It is more important than the war, now that we are no longer fighting for our lives.

"The great houses which are scattered over the whole country will never again be lived in by their owners. Like the ruined castles and the abbeys, whose skeletons are so carefully preserved, they will be the tombs of a social order which has passed away forever. . . .

"We cannot help sighing over the end of 700 years of English history. For these great houses, next to our cathedrals and parish churches, are the most beautiful things we have to show to a visiting stranger, and they are a moving picture, of our island history. . . . What is to become of these pathetic white elephants which can neither be kept up nor sold?"

For Escape. Perhaps, he suggested, some country houses might be kept up as national monuments, and others turned into public schools or country clubs. Then he added: "But I predict that we shall see a great revival of community life, and if so, many large country houses may be bought up cheap and turned into monastic or collegiate institutions.

"In times of trouble a great many people long to escape, not from useful work but from worry and anxiety. The Dark Ages were not abnormally religious, but they were extremely uncomfortable and dangerous. That is why Europe was covered with monastic houses. By entering religion, men and women were assured a prison ration of the necessaries of life, and could exist in peace and safety.

"The next hundred years is likely to be a very uncomfortable time, not I hope for everybody, but certainly for the class to which I have the misfortune to belong. It is the educated middle class, in which many may be glad to escape to the new communities, which need not be celibate. Some will be on a religious basis, others devoted to research, et cetera. . . . The park surrounding the house may be turned into farms and gardens, to be worked by the inmates. In this way the institutions may be selfsupporting. . . ."

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