William
Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland
A recluse who
preferred to live in seclusion, he had an elaborate underground maze
excavated under his estate at Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in
North Nottinghamshire
The Duke was highly
introverted and well-known for his eccentricity; he did not want to
meet people and never invited anyone to his home. He employed
hundreds through his various construction projects, and though well
paid, the employees were not allowed to speak to him or acknowledge
him. The one worker who raised his hat to the duke was promptly
dismissed. His tenants on his estates were aware of his wishes and
knew they were required to ignore him if they passed by. His rooms
had double letterboxes, one for ingoing and another for outgoing
mail. His valet was the only person he permitted to see him in person
in his quarters - he would not even let the doctor in, while his
tenants and workmen received all their instructions in writing.
His business with
his solicitors, agents, and the occasional politician was handled by
post. The Duke maintained an extensive correspondence with a
wide-ranging network of family and friends, including Benjamin
Disraeli and Lord Palmerston. He is not known to have kept company
with any ladies, and his shyness and introverted personality
increased over time.
His reclusive
lifestyle led to rumours that the Duke was disfigured, mad, or prone
to wild orgies, but contemporary witnesses and surviving photographs
present him as a normal-looking man.
He ventured outside
mainly by night, when he was preceded by a lady servant carrying a
lantern 40 yards (37 m) ahead of him. If he did walk out by day, the
Duke wore two overcoats, an extremely tall hat, an extremely high
collar, and carried a very large umbrella behind which he tried to
hide if someone addressed him.
If the Duke had
business in London, he would take his carriage to Worksop where he
had it loaded onto a railway wagon. Upon his arrival at his London
residence, Harcourt House in Cavendish Square, all the household
staff were ordered to keep out of sight as he hurried into his study
through the front hall.
He insisted on a
chicken roasting at all hours of the day, and the servants brought
him his food on heated trucks that ran on rails through the
underground tunnels.
The 5th Duke of
Portland undertook the most substantial building works at Welbeck.
The kitchen gardens covered 22 acres (89,000 m2) and were surrounded
by high walls with recesses in which braziers could be placed to
hasten the ripening of fruit. One of the walls, a peach wall,
measured over 1,000 feet (300 m) in length. An immense riding house
was built which was 396' long, 108' wide and 50' high,'At the time it
was the second largest riding house in the world, exceeded only by
the huge Manege adjacent to the Kremlin in Moscow'.
Nearby was a tan
gallops of 422 yards (386 m). It was lit by 4,000 gas jets and was
heated to enable training at night and in winter. The 'Tan Gallops'
is named after the spongy oak chips that covered its floor. They were
a by-product from leather tanning and a good surface for the horses
to run on.
A tunnel, more than
one thousand yards in length, led from the house to the riding
school. It was wide enough for several people to walk side by side.
Parallel to it was another, more roughly constructed and used by
workmen.
A longer, more elaborate tunnel, one and a half miles long,
intended as a carriage drive broad enough for two carriages to pass,
led towards Worksop. This tunnel was abandoned in the late-19th
century when a section forming part of the lake dam failed. Remaining
stretches of tunnel survive on either side of the lake. The tunnel's
skylights can be seen from the Robin Hood Way footpath which follows
its course and a masonry entrance can be seen between two lodges at
the northeastern limit of the park.
The 5th Duke
excavated to create a number of extensions to the mansion. Although
cited as being "underground rooms", these apartments are
strictly "below ground", as they are not covered by earth
or lawn; their flat roofs and skylights are visible in aerial
photographs, although at ground level they are concealed from most
directions by shrubbery. The largest is a great hall, 160 feet (49 m)
long and 63 feet (19 m) wide intended as a chapel but used as a
picture gallery and occasionally as a ballroom. There is a suite of
five adjacent rooms constructed to house the duke's library.
Welbeck Abbey –
Picture Gallery by George Washington Wilson
The duke made many
alterations to the house above ground. Elaborate bathrooms were
added. New lodges were built at the park entrances.
The work cost
prodigious sums and employed thousands of men – masons,
bricklayers, joiners, plumbers. While there were disputes from time
to time (wages, hours) the duke got on well with his employees and
earned the nickname 'the workman's friend'. He created employment for
skilled and unskilled workers.
By 1879 Welbeck was
in a state of disrepair. The only habitable rooms were the four or
five rooms used by the 5th Duke in the west wing. All were painted
pink, with parquet floors, all bare and without furniture and almost
every room had a toilet in the corner.
The house was
repaired by 6th Duke, and became notable as a centre of late
Victorian and Edwardian upper-class society. The duke was a keen
horse-owner, and almhouses he constructed on the estate are known as
the Winnings, funded by money won by his horses in seven high purse
races from 1888–1890.
The Underground Man is the
fictionalised diary of a deeply eccentric English aristocrat.
The duke has just
completed a network of tunnels beneath his estate. His health is
failing, but his imagination seems to know no bounds. And while he
spends more time underground and retreats ever deeper into the darker
corners of his house there are some ghosts that demand to be
acknowledged and some memories which insist on making themselves
known.
The extraordinary
story of the Druce-Portland affair, one of the most notorious,
tangled and bizarre legal cases of the late Victorian and Edwardian
eras.
In 1897 an elderly
widow, Anna Maria Druce, made a strange request of the London
Ecclesiastical Court: it was for the exhumation of the grave of her
late father-in-law, T.C. Druce.
Behind her
application lay a sensational claim: that Druce had been none other
than the eccentric and massively wealthy 5th Duke of Portland, and
that the - now dead - Duke had faked the death of his alter ego. When
opened, Anna Maria contended, Druce's coffin would be found to be
empty. And her children, therefore, were heirs to the Portland
millions.
The extraordinary
legal case that followed would last for ten years. Its eventual
outcome revealed a dark underbelly of lies lurking beneath the
genteel facade of late Victorian England
In 1897, a widow,
Anna Maria Druce, claimed that the Duke had led a double life as her
father-in-law, a London upholsterer by the name of Thomas Charles
Druce, who had supposedly died in 1864. The widow claimed that the
Duke had faked the death of his alter ego Druce to return to a
secluded aristocratic life and that therefore her son was heir to the
Portland estate. Her application to have Druce's grave in Highgate
Cemetery opened to show that the coffin buried in it was empty and
weighted with lead was blocked by Druce's executor. The case became
the subject of continuing and unsuccessful legal proceedings.
When it was
discovered that Druce's children by a former wife were living in
Australia, Anna Maria Druce's claims were backgrounded, and she went
into an asylum in 1903. The case was taken up by George Hollamby
Druce from 1903 onwards, who set up companies to finance his legal
proceedings in 1905, and in 1907 even instituted a charge of perjury
against Herbert Druce, the elder son of Thomas Charles Druce by his
second wife for having sworn that he had witnessed his father's death
in 1864. Herbert had been born before his parents' marriage and thus
was not eligible to claim the Portland title even if his father had
been the Duke.
The photograph which
illustrates this article is that produced by the prosecution as being
of the Duke, but the defence denied this and said it was of Druce.
Evidence of a fake burial was given by a witness named Robert C.
Caldwell of New York and others, and it was eventually agreed that
Druce's grave should be opened. This was done on 30 December 1907
under the supervision of Inspector Walter Dew and Druce's body was
found present and successfully identified. Caldwell's evidence was so
unreliable that the prosecution disowned him during the trial, and it
transpired that he had habitually appeared in court giving
sensational, and false, testimony: he was found insane and died in an
asylum in 1911. Several witnesses were in turn charged with perjury.
The extraordinary
story of the Druce-Portland affair, one of the most notorious,
tangled and bizarre legal cases of the late Victorian and Edwardian
eras.
In 1897 an elderly
widow, Anna Maria Druce, made a strange request of the London
Ecclesiastical Court: it was for the exhumation of the grave of her
late father-in-law, T.C. Druce.
Behind her
application lay a sensational claim: that Druce had been none other
than the eccentric and massively wealthy 5th Duke of Portland, and
that the - now dead - Duke had faked the death of his alter ego. When
opened, Anna Maria contended, Druce's coffin would be found to be
empty. And her children, therefore, were heirs to the Portland
millions.
The extraordinary
legal case that followed would last for ten years. Its eventual
outcome revealed a dark underbelly of lies lurking beneath the
genteel facade of late Victorian England
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