Now this is not just remarkable, it is royal. Public bodies sit paralysed, and the Prince of Wales acts. In the darkest part of Ayrshire lurks Dumfries House, a mid-18th-century miracle thrown up for the Marquess of Bute by Robert Adam, our most inventive architect and furnished by Thomas Chippendale, our finest maker. It is a jewel of the British heritage. For three years it has been on offer to the nation by Lord Bute, whose family has owned it since 1754. Nothing has magnificently happened.

Mr Bute, as he prefers to be known, lost patience earlier this year. He called in Christie’s, who printed resplendent catalogues for a multimillion-pound auction on July 12 and 13. It promised to be the most serious total loss of an important country house since Mentmore, sold at auction 30 years ago today. And still nothing happened.

And then, two weeks ago, the Prince of Wales stepped in. With a resounding smack of firm government, he put together a private-public rescue of Dumfries House in just two weeks. Just like that. He guaranteed a £20 million loan himself. It is extraordinary. The Prince should move in to the Deputy Prime Minister’s office and do more of the same.

Rejoice! But it should never have had to happen. Britain ought not to care for its heritage in the 21st century with brown-paper-and-string, nick-of-time rescues like this. This may be how we won the Second World War but it is a shame and a disgrace in a mature country that holds, in private hands, more great art treasures before 1800 than the rest of the world put together.

Prince seals £20m deal to save stately home

The Prince of Wales has stepped in at the eleventh hour to save an important Scottish stately home for the nation

BACKGROUND

• Charles's vision expands

• National appeal for spurned Scots pile

• Earl ‘Johnny’ causes a stir with family silver

What the Prince has done is a terrible indictment of museums that did nothing and of our heritage bodies – the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

The NHMF is a wonderful 60-year-old fund with a specific remit to the arts heritage. But the Government gives it a tiny £10 million a year. That speaks for itself.

The HLF, however, has about £330 million a year to spend. In better times it provided £20 million to save Tyntesfield in Somerset and £11 million for Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks in the National Gallery. It is now possessed, with a few exceptions, of misguided trustees and alarming priorities. Out of its £330 million, it spent on art acquisition, between 2003 and 2005, £110,000, £0 and £62,000. Out of £330 million! If actions speak louder than words, this is contempt for the arts.

The HLF trustees have told themselves, in their radical democracy, that one man’s “heritage” is as good as another’s – that a railway engine matters as much as a Raphael. This is not what we learnt at school and no sane person should believe it. Dumfries House was at the top of HLF priorities.

As a former King proclaimed, something must be done.

Times Recommends

• It’s the beginning of the affair
• Afghanistan: still a price worth paying
• Heroes of the downtrodden