§ Mr. Russell Kerrasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement about the acquisition of Mount Stewart House, Greyabbey, County Down, by the National Trust.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesFollowing negotiations extending over the past few years, the owner of Mount Stewart House, Lady Main Bury, has conveyed the house, together with its contents, to the National200W Trust. An endowment grant of approximately £370,000 is being made from the Ulster Land Fund towards the future maintenance of the property.
Mount Stewart House will be of considerable interest to the people of Northern Ireland and visitors to the Province, in view not only of its architecture and furnishings but of its historic associations with Lord Castlereagh, Foreign Secretary during the Napoleonic wars. The house, some 15 miles from Belfast, stands in fine gardens which are already in the care of the National Trust.