Britain’s Prince Charles is planning to buy a Cornwall estate for £10 million.
The 66-year-old royal is reportedly negotiating with Peregrine Eliot, the Earl of St Germans to buy his 123-room Port Eliot estate, the ancestral home the family has lived in since the 16th century.
A spokesperson for the Earl confirmed: "Lord St. Germans and his trustees have invited the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community to conduct a feasibility study, to explore the possibility of the purchase of Port Eliot House, some of its contents and its walled garden and stables."
The estate is currently home to the annual Port Eliot arts festival and sources claim Charles – whose Duchy of Cornwall estate bought more than 800 acres of land at Port Eliot for £4.7 million last July – wants to use it as a "hub" for the arts.
The plans would echo what Charles did to Dumfries House in Scotland, which he bought for £45 million in 2007, and the Earl’s third wife Cathy Wilson thinks it is a great idea.
She told the Daily Mail newspaper: "It will mean that the estate maintains its income and is relieved of the huge burden of running the house.
"Considering the alternatives, i.e. the National Trust, a fleeing oligarch or the house and contents being broken up, this is a sensational deal and a terrific turn-up for the estate."
Prince Charles to buy Cornwall estate
