8./‘$5.


,-_ F;

Writers’ rural retreats go on the market

£800 rent
for home
of Virginia
Woolf

BY RACHEL KELLY
PROPERTY CORRESPONDENT

THE country retreats of two
20th-century novelists, Vir-
ginia Woolf and Joseph Con-
rat’ "e on the market.‘

"I nc Monk’s House, Virgin-
ia Woolfs home at the foot of
the South Downs, is up for
rent from the National Trust
for £800 a week, while Joseph
Conrad’s former Grade II
listed home Oswalds, in
Bishopsbourne, East Kent, is
for sale for £450,000.

New tenants will be expect-
ed to open the Monk’s House
to the public for two after-
noons a week in summer.

The house, in Rodmell,
near Lewes, East Sussex. has
fourfzedrooms, two reception
ro(.,_‘\. and a bathroom, plus a
garage with two rooms above
it. Virginia and Leonard
Woolf lived there from 1919
until their deaths. Much of
her personal furniture, books,
ceramics and pictures are still
there.

In 1931, she wrote that “the
house was luxurious to the
point of having electric fires in
the bedrooms.” She told her
sister that she was uncertain
how to decorate Monk’s
House. Eventually Woolf,
who wrote To the Lighthouse
and Orlando there, chose to
indulge her love of green
paint which still decorates the
sitting room. Much of the
furniture was bought in
France, while other items
came from Heal’s. Books
more than pictures complete
the rooms, but there are
wr by friends including
Vanessa Bell and Duncan
Grant

The garden was described
by Leonard Woolf as a “patch-
work quilt of trees . . . tending
to merge into cabbages and
currant bushes” and the
National Trust has tried to

 

Oswalds, the Grade II listed 18th-century rectory in East Kent where Joseph
Conrad lived and wrote from 1919 until his death

ERIC CRICHTON

The Monk’s House, Virginia and Leonard Woo1f’s home at the foot of the South
Downs, belongs to the National Trust. The conservatory was added in the 1940s

manage the garden in the
same way as the Woolfs.
Joseph Conrad lived at the
five-bedroomed, l8th-century
Georgian rectory Oswalds
from October 1919 until he
died there in 1924. His
writing desk and papers and
books associated with the
house are also up for sale.

The author of the Nigger of
the Narcissus, Lord Jim, and
Nostromo, wrote in 1919: “We
are camped here with a few
sticks of furniture without
carpets and curtains. Next
spring I hope we will take
steps to settle down to a more
civilised life.”

Conrad’s bay-windowed

study was a small, unpreten-
tious room, lined with books
and decorated by a few ship
photographs. Although he
was suffering agonisingly
from gout, he wrote novels,
short stories, and plays at the
house.

Both properties are avail-
able through Strutt & Parker.


f

f

. C)

THE TIMES SATURDAY OCTOBER 12 l99§

he nail-biting finale to the Lloyd’s of

London recovery has obscured one

blunt fact. People have made
money from the insurance market this
year and now they have to decide what to
do with it.

It is hard to look beyond the £8 billion
losses that Lloyd’s made between 1987 and
1992, but the three subsequent years were
lucrative. The profit for 1993, shared out
only 's year since Lloyd’s works three
years._.i arrears, was a record £1 billion.
Profits for 1994 and 1995 should be £1
billion and £880 million. As a result, about
12,000 names — the people who under-
write the insurance market’s deals —— will
receive cheques rather than bills as part of
the reconstruction package.

For thousands, the money will not nearly
cover losses — but a cheque is still a
cheque. Some recipients, like the Earl of
Mountcharles, can now revive long-de-
layed projects. The Irish aristocrat is one of
the names who paid all his debts to Lloyd’s
and continued underwriting after 1992. In
his finality statement he can expect £44,000
— his share of l993’s excellent results
minus his final payments for Lloyd’s
reconstruction. The figure is much less
important than the knowledge that he will

»_ eople will receive
cheques, not bills

be getting no more bills for the period up
to 1993. It means he‘ can free capital set
aside against possible future cash-calls
and plan the restoration of the family seat.

Slane Castle, in Co Meath, burned
down in 1991 and because it was
uninsured, and because of crippling
Lloyd’s losses, reconstruction was not
possible. A series of rock concerts,
featuring the likes of REM and Guns ’N
Roses could only fund day-to-day
maintenance.

Other names benefiting from the 1993
payout will have to consider the ways of
minimising the tax they pay. It’s not an
issue if a name’s historic losses continue to
be greater than the income earned since
the bad underwriting years began —
many will be in this position and they
won’t have to pay tax. But those names
who iaged to keep another significant
IHCOITR. source may have to give the
Inland Revenue a cut of the 1993 payment.

One way of reducing this tax burden is to
put the money into a special reserve created
by Lloyd’s. A name can put half the
underwriting profits into this reserve.
Income tax on the gains is thereby deferred
until the name resigns and the money is
withdrawn, when it is charged at the

Adam Jones on the options at Lloyd’s as profits return
Names in the m   
  and back in the game 

   

prevailing rate. But if the name makes
underwriting losses in the meantime, the
money in the reserve pays the deficit — the
original income tax is never paid. The
disadvantage of this arrangement is
common to all tax-deferral schemes: when
the money is withdrawn, the prevailing
rate of income tax may be greater.

Nor can the money in the special
reserve be used as “funds at Lloyd’s”, the
money each name has to lodge with the
market as a symbol of willingness and
ability to pay potentially larger losses. For
names who don’t want to continue
underwriting at Lloyd’s, the special
reserve is no use because it doesn’t allow
them to pick up the profits and leave.

But there is another option. From the
1993-94 tax year — the most recent year for
which Lloyd’s has paid out —— names have

Motchrles: settlement ans he n revive long-delayed projects

 

l
E
t
l
a l
l
l
l
I
1

CRISPIN RODWELL

been able to put profits into a personal
pension. Depending on their age, between
17.5 per cent and 40 per cent of underwrit-
ing income can be put into a scheme as a
one-off premium offering tax relief up to 40
per cent. The underlying investment
accumulates free of income tax. As with all
personal pensions, the income eventually
drawn will be taxed, but a quarter can be
withdrawn as a tax-free lump sum. *
One advantage is that the money
earned by funds deposited at Lloyd’s as a
surety — the so-called “unearned income”
achieved by normal lump-sum invest-
ment — can also be pensioned. . The
maximum amount of Lloyd’s income that
can be contributed for 1993-94 could the
restrictive, though: between £13,125 and
£30,000. But these allowances may in-
crease for subsequent years. ‘_

if

'~1/.:'- - ,»‘_  ;j

   
    




BY NICHOLAS WATT
CHIEF IREIAND
CORRESPONDENT

SMQULDERING anti-Eng-
lish sentiment has ignited in
the_ Irish’ Republic after an
Anglcrlrish earl failed to win
selection to represent the,gov-
eming Fine Gael party at the
next general election.
The‘Earl of Mount Charles,
whose family fought with the
Protestant William of Orange
during the Battle of the Boyne
in 1690, has been accused by a
Fine Gael colleague of being
an “absentee lord” and of
having a ‘ftally-ho” attitude.
The “Brit bashing” has prin-
cipally been associated with
Bertie Ahern, the vehemently
republican leader of Fianna
Fail, Ireland's largest political
party. But: John Bruton,-‘the

" Irish Prime‘7Minis’t‘er~and Fine A
. Gael leader,'_-Chas become in-

bTvo,lved,_ after Lord Mount

‘ Charles failed to.  selected in V

.,'-  I.outl31,'Wl1L,:r’<5: lie: 4,161
:v0t‘es at the la$t»P01l- 1 . ‘

The earl’s strongest ally in

i f Fine Gael said that'Mr Bruton

 
    

7'r§11y-ho‘fauiitsstrengthen political
determination

The Earl of Mount Charles outside hishom his

oAnglo-Ir

ambition is to sit in the Dail and the House of 

was not living up to his public
commitment to respect the
English heritage in Ireland.
The \ Taoiseach won wide-
spread praise when he said on

the fiftieth anniversary of VE-

Day last year that the Repub-

lic should" “harness all the -

strands that go _into the mak-
ing of the Irish tradition”.
Frank Smith, the earl’s ally,

said: “John Bruton won’t face

_up"‘,to."the republicanism in
‘Fine Gael. There is hidden

agenda. in the party, in com-
mon with_all parties in this
country that still see things as

v Ireland versus England.”
Lord Mount C,ha'r1es,, 45,  V

furious about comments by

Fergus O’Dowd, who won the‘

Fine Gael nomination in Co

ish earl”

Louth. Mr O’Dowd said ofthe ‘

earl, who» is known in the
Republic as Mr Henry Mount
Charles: “It’s a case of very

sour grapes, mixed ‘with a-

liberal dash of tally ho_...
How long is it ‘since’ Henry
attended a Fine Gael meetin_g?,
An absentee-lord can expect no
special treatment.” .

There is‘ speculation that
Lord Mount Charles may now
stand, in Mr Bruton’s constitu-
ency of Co_ Meath, the earl’s
home county, despite previ-

- ously giving an undertaking

"not to do ‘so. ,
The earl, a colourful figure
who hashosted rock concerts
- at his Slane Castle estate, is
determined one day to sit in
both the Dail and the House of
Lords. He is the heir to his
father, the 7th Marquess
Conyngham. “It is healthy to
‘have people in the Dail who
come from a mixed back-
ground,” he said.‘ “Until we
understand the contradictions
on island we cannot move
forwar  t

_ Ixaidingjartide; page 19