 The 7th Baronet 's son , Sir Edwin Dashwood , 8th Baronet , arrived from New Zealand to claim the house , only to find Lady Dashwood 's heirs claiming the house 's contents and family jewellery , which they subsequently sold . As a consequence , Sir Edwin was forced to mortgage the house and estate in 1892 . He died suddenly the following year , and the heavily indebted estate passed to his brother , Sir Robert Dashwood , 9th Baronet . Sir Robert embarked on a costly legal case against the executors of Lady Dashwood , which he lost , and raised money by denuding the estate 's woodlands and leasing the family town house in London for 99 years . On his death in 1908 , the house passed to his 13 @-@ year @-@ old son Sir John Dashwood , 10th Baronet , who in his adulthood sold much of the remaining original furnishings ( including the state bed , for £ 58 – this important item of the house 's history complete with its gilded pineapples is now lost ) . In 1922 , he attempted to sell the house itself . He received only one offer , of £ 10 @,@ 000 ( £ 492 @,@ 000 in 2016 ) , so the house was withdrawn from sale . Forced to live in a house he disliked , the village of West Wycombe was sold in its entirety to pay for renovations . Not all these renovations were beneficial : painted 18th century ceilings were overpainted white , and the dining room was divided into service rooms , allowing the large service wing to be abandoned to rot . 
