So you do rather get the impression that the priorities of the people who decide these things - and their notions of what constitutes "heritage" - are more than a little skewed. "Threatened" country houses have a quite bizarre grip upon Establishment thinking. And of course Tyntesfield in turn was not the last. There was soon another: Apethorpe in Northamptonshire. I'd never heard of Apethorpe, but apparently this too was priceless, the last of its kind, etc. It was owned by an absentee Libyan, had been empty for years and was ravaged by dry rot. Once again, a private buyer was interested in taking it on, but heavens above, it was a Maserati-driving millionaire trader with a foreign-sounding name, even if he was British. So the sale was stopped by the Government, which in August compulsorily bought the crumbling house for £3m. Another £9m will have to be spent by English Heritage on putting it to rights. I would not be surprised to find that figure rising.

And I almost forgot to mention William Morris's 1859 Red House in Bexleyheath, Kent, by Philip Webb. It is relatively small, though still a handful, with unfinished Pre-Raphaelite decorations (Morris and family quit after only six years). It existed over 140 years in private hands perfectly happily, having been restored over the last 40 of those years by its previous owner, architect Ted Hollamby. On his death it was bought by the National Trust "to save it from an uncertain future". You can go and see it. But then, you could go and see it before the National Trust stepped in. The "uncertain future" was presumably the horror of an unsuitable private owner, perhaps a pop pixie, driving a Maserati.

I'm not at all sure what is the point of all this intervention. Is there a Government policy of nationalizing country houses by stealth? I can't help noticing that there is yet another priceless gem sitting around on the market now: the 1702 Easton Neston House, a magnificent early work and the only country house by Nicholas Hawksmoor, master of the English baroque. It has been put up for sale by Lord Hesketh, the conservative party treasurer. Why is he selling? Because he is seeing his family's wealth being eaten away by the maintenance cost of the old place. "It's a bit like owning a very beautiful yacht. The costs of managing it are very significant," Hesketh is quoted as saying.

The Easton Neston estate has been in the family for 470 years, covers 3,300 acres and includes Towcester Racecourse among much else. The reported asking price is £50m. Which would be a snip for a Russian oligarch, as would the annual maintenance costs quoted by Hesketh at between £500,000 and £1,500,00. But for the average cash-strapped aristocrat it is better, he avers, to sell up, pocket the money and make your children heir to an investment trust, than to let them be the heir of what he describes as "an unsupportable problem". Just rewiring Eaton Neston's north wing to fit fire alarms after a 2002 fire cost £220,000.

So: will the Government step in and buy up Easton Neston for £50m? Presumably not. The NHMF vault is still echoingly empty after the Tyntesfield raid while English Heritage has had its piggy-bank emptied by Apethorpe. And yet a case could certainly be made for Eaton Neston as yet another "last great house". And it has never been open to the public, which is of course positively disgraceful. Had Hesketh waited a few years, he could presumably have got the Government to step in. As it is - I hear the distant growl of Maseratis closing in. To quote Ms. Minogue - he should be so lucky.

The fact is, we have an incredibly vast supply of such places. There are a thousand good ones open to the public in England alone, and lots of others that, like Easton Neston, are not. There will always be yet another "last great house". But next time, the cry should go up: remember Tyntesfield! If the distressed house must fall into ruin, let it: England has many fine ruins and people love to visit them. But if instead some nouveau-riche business tycoon, footballer, hotelier, developer, obscure religious cult or pop diva shows some interest, don't think twice. Sell it to them. And let them pick up the tab.