It is what I do with it, rather than what I am worth, that I believe is more important.” I am only a mere flicker in the process of time. It doesn’t belong to me,” he told an interviewer, adding, when he appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 1995: “In the context of eternity, if I am lucky I might live 70 years, but this estate has been with us for 3, 4, 5, 600 years. “Given the choice I would rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving it up. He suffered from depression and in 1998 had a nervous breakdown caused by the stress of business and public appearances. Yet the 6th Duke’s great wealth appeared to be more a responsibility than a pleasure to him. There are also estates in Oxfordshire, Cheshire – 10,872 acres around the country seat at Eaton Hall – 110,000 acres in Sutherland, and shopping malls and other property as far afield as Los Angeles and Australia.
They still hold 300 acres of it, including Grosvenor Square, where they are the landlords of the American embassy, part of Oxford Street and other now desirable addresses, many bearing family names. Photograph: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images The Duke of Westminster greets the Prince of Wales during the celebrations for The Queen’s Own Yeomanry’s 40th anniversary in 2011.
