Kings can titles give, but honour can’t,
So title without honour’s but a barren Grant.
At the height of his prosperity Baron Grant built his princely mansion at Kensington Gore. It was never occupied, except for one night, when the “bachelors of London”—in other words, the smart young men of London Society—hired the house from the Baron’s creditors and gave a ball of exceptional splendour.
The Baron was unable to pay the contractor, and the mansion, known as “Grant’s Folly,” was pulled down because no one could afford to buy or rent it. The magnificent marble staircase, which cost £11,000, was bought by Madame Tussaud’s for £1,000, and placed in our Exhibition.
The beautiful iron railings and gates of the “Folly” were purchased for the Sandown Park Club, where, I understand, they may still be seen.
Baron Grant was a keen collector of works of art, and once obtained the honour of being voted the thanks of the House of Commons for presenting a picture to the National Gallery.
It came about in this way:
On the 18th of May, 1874, a very valuable portrait of Sir Walter Scott was put up to auction at Christie’s, and was eventually secured by Baron Grant for 800 guineas. The same evening Sir Stafford Northcote, the Leader of the House, was asked by a private member why the Government had not purchased so fine a work of art for the nation. He replied that the Treasury had no funds available for the outlay. Thereupon the Baron rose and stated that he had already written offering the picture to the Trustees of the National Gallery.
Sir Stafford immediately proposed a vote of thanks, and this was carried with much enthusiasm.
Eight hundred guineas, however, was far from being the largest sum which the Baron spent on a single picture. He gave £10,000 for Landseer’s “Otter Hunt,” and the value of his collection may be judged from the fact that it realised £106,000 when the inevitable crash came and his art treasures passed under the hammer to pay his creditors.