Emotive exhibition

lusters seek to holiday like wealthy but miserable romantic Tanya McQuoid­Hunt and her put­upon assistant, Portia. Whilst the premiere season of House of the Dragon, has inspired die hard ‘Thronies’ to flock to the Spanish city of Granada, which has seen a 132 per cent increase in searches. Similarly, the iconic capital of France is seeing unwavering interest year on year as hopeful romantics yearn for their own Emily in Paris experience, recording a 143 per cent increase.

Anna Ellis FOR the first time, the history of the 5th Marquess of Anglesey is shared throughout the house at Plas Newydd through an emotive exhibition.

All that was left tells the story of Henry Cyril Paget and the Great Anglesey Sales which saw all he had owned, sold to pay his debts.

Henry Cyril Paget (1875 ­ 1905) succeeded the title of the 5th Marquess of Anglesey and inherited Plas Newydd in 1898 along with about £110,000 a year, which is the equivalent of about £18£20 million today. He renamed it ‘An ­ glesey Castle’ and spared no expense in making it his own.

He surrounded himself with luxurious clothing, costumes, and jewellery; he staged performances and fancydress balls in his own theatre for local people and he indulged in new technologies including motor cars and photography. However, the world the 5th Marquess created was unsustainable.

Due to his mismanagement of money, the Marquess was eventually declared insolvent, such that everything he owned had to be sold to pay off his debts.

Locked down in security alert

LATEST figures show that visitors donated more than £2.5 million to the National Trust through purchasing second­hand books at Trust properties in 2022.

Record-breaking

This record­breaking income for the Trust in this area could in part be reflective of the growing awareness amongst society of the need to reduce and reuse in a bid to cut consumption. This has been seen particularly strong amongst those with small children, with books aimed at this audience making up a higher proportion of donations. The rapid growth in the pre­loved economy that was reported by the Centre for Economics and Business Research last October as a result of the cost of living crisis could also be a factor.

The Centre said that Britain’s pre­loved market grew to approximately £6.5 billion in 2022 and it is expected to double to £12.6 billion over the next five years. The Trust has also seen an increasing number of rare and high­value books making an appearance.

FOLLOWING reports of a mysterious package, security officers had to place roadblocks around Whitehall in London.

On Wednesday, June 7, officers were placed on high alert when they received reports of a mysterious package at 12.13, in a tweet from MPS Westminster.

Very few details about the incident were available at the time, but an online statement said: ‘Road closures are in place around Whitehall while officers assess a suspicious package. We were called at 12.13hrs and remain in the area.’

The area swarmed with police as the area was locked down while the package was investigated.

The police then posted an update at 1.48pm which reassured: ‘The item has been assessed as not suspicious and road closures are being lifted.’

This latest security alert follows a recent incident in which a car crashed into the gates at Downing Street.