William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland

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William John Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (12 September 1800 – 6 December 1879), styled Lord William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck before 1824 and Marquess of Titchfield between 1824 and 1854, was a British aristocratic eccentric who preferred to live in seclusion. He had an underground maze excavated under his estate at Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire.

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[edit] Life

His father was the 4th Duke of Portland and his sister was Charlotte Denison, wife of John Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington.

In his youth Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck frequented London society and had a commission in various British regiments. From 1824 until 1826 he was MP for King's Lynn but never took an active part in politics. He inherited the Dukedom of Portland in 1854. Although the title also gave him a seat in the House of Lords, it took him three years to take his seat.

He stripped all the rooms of Welbeck Abbey of their furniture, including tapestries and portraits, and stored them elsewhere. Then he moved to 4 or 5 rooms in the western wing of his mansion, furnished them as little as possible and began his plans for underground chambers. As for other rooms, he had them painted pink and installed a commode in all of them.[1] One of the rooms was full of green boxes, each containing a dark brown wig.[1]

The Duke was very introverted - he did not want to meet people and never invited anyone to his home. His rooms had double letterboxes, one for ingoing and another for outgoing mail. His valet was the only one he permitted to see him in person in his quarters - he would not even let the doctor in. His tenants were told to ignore him if they saw him. All the other business with his solicitors, agents and an occasional politician he handled by mail correspondence. He maintained some correspondence with 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. He did, however, have a wide-ranging network of family and friends with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence. He undertook major developments at Welbeck, and was actively involved in the management of the Portland estates, both of which activities are reflected in his papers.

Such an enclosed lifestyle was prone to cause rumours of disfigurement, madness or wild orgies. However, contemporary witnesses and surviving photographs present him as normal-looking man.

He created a complex of underground rooms with an army of hundreds of workmen. They included a large ballroom 174 by 64 feet (53 by 20 metres) wide, a library 250 feet (76 metres) long, an observatory with a large glass roof and a vast billiards-room. The ballroom had a hydraulic lift that could carry 20 guests from the surface and a ceiling that was painted as a giant sunset. However, he never organized any party in this ballroom.

The eight tunnels under his estate were reputed to have totalled 15 miles (24 km) and connected various underground chambers and above-ground buildings. The longest of these was even alleged to have emerged at Worksop railway station, though there is no evidence for this claim. A 1¼ mile (2 km) tunnel runs north-east from the coach house, emerging at South Lodge. This tunnel was supposedly wide enough for two carriages. It had domed skylights and by night it was illuminated by gaslight. This and other tunnels are shown on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map of the area, though only the largest can be readily seen on aerial photographs (Multimap).

If the Duke had business in London, he would take the hearse to Worksop and had the whole carriage loaded onto a railway truck. Upon his arrival to his London residence in Cavendish Square, all the household staff was ordered out of sight when he hurried into his study through the front hall.

Like many other contemporary British aristocrats, the Duke was fond of horses — his stables held 100 horses but he never rode them in his above-ground riding school.

His workmen were given an order not to recognise his presence (one who saluted him was reputedly dismissed on the spot) and they received all instructions in writing. Otherwise he paid good wages, and his workmen received an umbrella and a donkey to come to work. Roads, farms and schools in his estate were kept in good condition and he created a large vegetable garden.

He ventured outside mainly in the night and was preceded by a servant lady carrying a lantern 40 yards before him. If he did walk out at day, the Duke wore two overcoats, an extremely tall hat, an extremely high collar and carried a very large umbrella[1], which he tried to hide behind them if someone addressed him.

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 in the house.

The Duke died in December 1879. His cousin William Cavendish-Bentinck succeeded him as 6th Duke of Portland. He was buried in a simple grave in Kensal Green cemetery in north London.

Later, a widow, Anna Maria Druce, claimed that the Duke was also her father-in-law, a shopkeeper by the name of Thomas Charles Druce, who had died in 1864. The widow claimed that the Duke had faked the death of his alter ego to return to secluded aristocratic life and therefore her son was heir to the Portland estate. This "Druce Affair" dragged on in courts until 1907 when Druce's body was exhumed - the widow had claimed that the coffin had been filled with lead. Two witnesses were charged with perjury, and another witness and Anna Maria were confined to asylums.

The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds a number of papers relating to the 5th Duke: the 5th Duke's personal and political papers (Pw K) are part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection; and the Portland (London) Collection (Pl) contains papers relating to the estate business of the 5th Duke, and to the "Druce case".

The Portland Estate Papers held at Nottinghamshire Archives also contain items relating to the 5th Duke's properties.

In 1997, Mick Jackson published a book loosely based around his life called The Underground Man, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

[edit] Titles

  • Lord John Bentinck (1800–1824)
  • William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, Marquess of Titchfield (1824–1854)
  • William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland (1854–1879)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/collections/family-estate/collections/portland/5th_duke_portland_full.phtml

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Walpole and
Marquess of Titchfield		 Member of Parliament for King's Lynn
with John Walpole
1824–1826		 Succeeded by
John Walpole and
Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck		 Duke of Portland
1854-1879		 Succeeded by
William Cavendish-Bentinck
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