30 MAY 1914, Page 3

On Friday week a Select Committee of the Lords found

that the preamble of the Bill to confirm the Order made by the Commissioners of Works to preserve No. 75 Dean Street, Soho, as an ancient monument was not proved. The Order was the first made by the Commissioners under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1913. The Commissioners were required to pay the costs incurred by Mr. H. H. Mulliner, the owner of the property. We have more than once described the beautiful early eighteenth-century architecture of the house, which, by a long and circumstantial tradition, is known as the home of the painter Thornhill, and is associated with his son.in. law, Hogarth. The effective mural paintings may even have been by Hogarth. We regret that the Commissioners have not been successful in their first endeavour to make use of the Act. Mr. Mulliner has announced that he will keep his offer to sell the house open for a month. Is there not an opportunity here for some enterprising newspaper to buy the house and make it available for meetings, while itself enjoying the advantages of a standing advertisement P