Farewell to Hugh Hamilton, the doyen of the country house market, who is bowing out of the estate agency business after about 40 years. Hugh has specialised in the very top end of the country homes and fine arts market for Hamilton Osborne King and was chairman of the company for eight years. He previously worked for his father's company, Hamilton and Hamilton, before it merged with Osborne King and Megran in 1987. He capped a distinguished career by handling the most prestigious sale for decades - Farmleigh, the Guinness mansion in the Phoenix Park which the Government took off his hands for a tidy £23 million.