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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:19 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:19 -0700 |
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diff --git a/14371-h/14371-h.htm b/14371-h/14371-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f93d53d --- /dev/null +++ b/14371-h/14371-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2794 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Portland Peerage Romance, by Charles J. Archard. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + + .list {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .rom {list-style-type: upper-roman;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14371 ***</div> + +<h1><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1" />THE PORTLAND PEERAGE ROMANCE</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CHARLES J. ARCHARD</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="GREENINGS_NEW_NOVELS" id="GREENINGS_NEW_NOVELS" /><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2" />GREENING'S NEW NOVELS</p> + +<p>"The name <b>GREENING</b> on a book is a guarantee of excellence."</p> + +<p> +RICHARD THE BRAZEN<br /> +BY CYRUS BRADY AND EDWARD PEPLE<br /> +<br /> +THE TANGLED SKEIN<br /> +BY THE BARONESS ORCZY. <i>18th Thousand. 6s.</i><br /> +<br /> +THE MASCOTTE OF PARK LANE<br /> +BY LUCAS CLEEVE. <i>Third Edition. 6s</i>.<br /> +<br /> +THE DUPE<br /> +BY GERALD BISS. <i>Second Edition. 6s.</i><br /> +<br /> +THE WOMAN FRIEND AND THE WIFE<br /> +BY ETHEL HILL. <i>6s.</i><br /> +<br /> +THE PALM OIL RUFFIAN<br /> +BY ANTHONY HAMILTON. <i>6s.</i><br /> +<br /> +AND THE MOOR GAVE UP ITS DEAD<br /> +BY ERIC HARRISON. <i>6s.</i><br /> +<br /> +WHEN TERROR RULED<br /> +BY MAY WYNNE. <i>3s. 6d.</i><br /> +<br /> +THE BISHOP'S EMERALDS<br /> +BY HOUGHTON TOWNLEY. <i>6s.</i><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3" />THE PORTLAND PEERAGE ROMANCE</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>BY</p> + +<h3>CHARLES J. ARCHARD</h3> + + +<p style='text-align: center;'> +LONDON:<br /> +GREENING & CO., LTD.<br /> +1907<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" /><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4" />CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="list"> +<ol class="rom"> +<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">THE FIRST BENTINCK A HERO</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">HOW THE BENTINCKS BECAME POSSESSED OF WELBECK.—A FEMININE INTRIGUE</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE FARMER DUKE—WEDS THE RICH MISS SCOTT—HIS HIGH-SPIRITED SONS AND DAUGHTERS</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">THE FARMER DUKE'S DAUGHTER AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS' SPEAKER.—BECOMES A BENEVOLENT VISCOUNTESS</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">EARLY LIFE OF LORD JOHN BENTINCK, AFTERWARDS FIFTH DUKE OF PORTLAND.—THE ADELAIDE KEMBLE ROMANCE</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">LORD GEORGE BENTINCK'S RACING CAREER.—QUARREL WITH HIS COUSIN.—DUEL WITH SQUIRE OSBALDESTON.—"SURPLICE" WINS THE DERBY AND ST. LEGER.—ATTEMPTS TO POISON THE HORSE.—FRIENDSHIP WITH DISRAELI.—TRAGIC DEATH</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">THE ECCENTRIC DUKE AND HIS UNDERGROUND TUNNELS</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE PRESENT DUKE AND DUCHESS.—A ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE DUKE AND DUCHESS AT HOME.—THE DUCHESS AS PRINCESS BOUNTIFUL.—THE DUCHESS AT COURT</a></li> + <li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CLAIMS TO THE PORTLAND PEERAGE BY MRS. DRUCE AND MR. G.H. DRUCE</a></li> +</ol> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" />THE PORTLAND PEERAGE ROMANCE</h2> + +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>THE FIRST BENTINCK A HERO</p> + + +<p>What a delightful story is that of the Portland peerage, in which +fidelity, heroism, chivalry and romance are blended and interwoven in +the annals of the noble families of England. Who that has been to +Welbeck Abbey, that magnificent palace in the heart of Sherwood Forest, +with its legends of Robin Hood and his merrie men, with its stately oaks +and undulating woodlands, stretching away to fertile pastures, dotted +over with prosperous farmsteads, as far as the eye can reach, does not +feel interested in the fortunes of the noble owner; and who that has +seen the Duke and Duchess on some festive occasion at Welbeck, moving to +and fro among their thousand guests, a perfectly happy couple, in which +the course of true love runs smooth, and <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" />whose supreme delight appears +to be to spread happiness around them, is so churlish as not to wish +them long life, as types of the English nobility it is a delight to +honour?</p> + +<p>There is no affectation about this illustrious pair, the Duke never +poses in relation to affairs of State, and the Duchess has a natural +grace all her own, to which art can add no touch of dignity.</p> + +<p>Welbeck is now the home of peace and joy; but there have been times when +its history has been shrouded in tragic mystery, and even to-day there +is the Druce claim to give piquancy to its story.</p> + +<p>The family springs from the alliance of the Bentincks and the +Cavendishes. Theirs is a telling motto: <i>Dominus providebit</i> (The Lord +will provide) was on the crest of the Bentincks, and it befitted a +family not too richly endowed with this world's goods according to the +position of the Dutch nobility 250 years ago; but being of sterling +qualities devoted to the cause they espoused, their descendants have met +with their reward. <i>Craignez honte</i> (Fear disgrace) was another motto of +the family, and the fear of dishonour has been a characteristic trait +from the time when the first <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" />Bentinck set foot in England, till to-day.</p> + +<p>Before unfolding the drama of tragedy, love, and comedy of these later +years let us go back to the tale of heroism surrounding the character of +the first Bentinck to make a name for himself in this country. +Englishmen are apt to forget the debt of gratitude owing to men of the +past; had it not been for Hans William Bentinck this favoured land might +still have been under the Stuart tyranny, and the scions of the House of +Brunswick might never have occupied the Throne of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>James the Second had made an indifferent display of qualities as a +ruler, and the nation was tired of a superstitious monarch who was +fostering a condition of affairs which was turning England into a +hot-bed of religious and political plots and counter-plots. James's +daughter, Mary, had married William, Prince of Orange, who was invited +to come and take his father-in-law's place as King of England. That +invitation was extended in no uncertain way, and James having withdrawn +to the continent left the vacancy for his son-in-law and daughter to +fill.</p> + +<p>When William of Orange came over at the request of many of the nobility +and influential commoners in this country there was in his train, <a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" />Hans +William Bentinck, who had previously been to England on a political +mission for the Prince.</p> + +<p>Bentinck was of noble Batavian descent and served William as a page of +honour. His family had its local habitation at Overyssel in the +Netherlands and still is known there. At Welbeck a curious old chest, +made of metal and carved, is one of his relics, for in it he brought +over from Holland all his family plate and jewels.</p> + +<p>The Prince was delicate of constitution and his ailments made him +passionate and fretful, though to the multitude he preserved a +phlegmatic exterior.</p> + +<p>To Bentinck he confided his feelings of joy and grief, and the faithful +courtier tended him with a devotion which deserves the conspicuous place +given to it in English history.</p> + +<p>The Prince was in the prime of manhood when he was seized with a severe +attack of small-pox. It was a time of anxiety, not only on account of +the possible fatal termination of the disease, but in an age of plots, +of the advantage that might be taken to bring about his end by means of +poison or other foul play.</p> + +<p>It was Bentinck alone that fed the Prince and administered his medicine; +it was Bentinck who <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" />helped him out of bed and laid him down again.</p> + +<p>"Whether Bentinck slept or not while I was ill," said William to an +English courtier, "I know not. But this I know, that through sixteen +days and nights, I never once called for anything but that Bentinck was +instantly at my side." Such fidelity was remarkable; he risked his life +for the Prince, who was not convalescent before Bentinck himself was +attacked and had to totter home to bed. His illness was severe, but +happily he recovered and once more took his place by William's side.</p> + +<p>"When an heir is born to Bentinck, he will live I hope," said the +Prince, "to be as good a fellow as you are; and if I should have a son, +our children will love each other, I hope, as we have done."</p> + +<p>It was about the time of the Prince's perilous voyage to England to +fight, if need be, for the Throne, that he poured out his feelings to +his friend. "My sufferings, my disquiet, are dreadful," he said, "I +hardly see my way. Never in my life did I so much feel the need of God's +guidance."</p> + +<p>At this time Bentinck's wife was seriously ill, and both Prince and +subject were anxious about her. "God support you," wrote William, "and +<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" />enable you to bear your part in a work on which, as far as human beings +can see, the welfare of His Church depends."</p> + +<p>In November, 1688, the Prince landed in England, and with him was +Bentinck, accompanied by a band of soldiery, called after his name, as +part of the Dutch army. The Prince and his wife were eventually declared +King and Queen, and Bentinck experienced substantial proof of the royal +favour by being given the office of Groom of the Stole, and First +Gentleman of the Bedchamber, with a salary of 5000<i>l</i>. a year. Not long +after, in 1689, he was created Earl of Portland, and his other titles in +the peerage were Baron Cirencester and Viscount Woodstock; he was also a +Knight of the Garter and Privy Councillor. In 1689 he accompanied the +King to Ireland and commanded a regiment of Horse Guards, taking part as +a Lieutenant-General, in the battle of the Boyne, where his Dutch +cavalry did effective service.</p> + +<p>He was again at the battle of Namur when William's forces were engaged +in fighting the French for the liberties of Europe.</p> + +<p>That was in 1695, and in the same year the King once more gave evidence +of the affection he bore for his favourite. "He had set his heart," +<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" />said Macaulay, "on placing the House of Bentinck on a level in wealth +and dignity with the Houses of Howard and Seymour, of Russell and +Cavendish. Some of the fairest hereditary domains of the Crown had been +granted to Portland, not without murmuring on the part both of Whigs and +Tories."</p> + +<p>It was perfectly natural that William should wish to requite his +henchman with rich estates, and in doing so he was acting as other +monarchs had done before him, and not upon such good grounds as the +services rendered to the State by Bentinck.</p> + +<p>Jealousy was, however, aroused among the English nobility at the +favouritism shown the Dutch newcomer, and it found strong expression +when the King ordered the Lords of the Treasury to issue a warrant +endowing Portland with an estate in Denbighshire worth 100,000<i>l.</i>, the +annual rent reserved to the Crown being only 6s. 8d. There were also +royalties connected with this estate which Welshmen were opposed to +alienating from the Crown and placing in the hands of a private subject. +There was opposition to the grant in the House of Commons and an address +was voted, asking the King to revoke it.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" />Portland behaved with great magnanimity in the matter, his one chief +desire appeared to be to avoid a quarrel between his royal friend and +Parliament. Not many men would have had such self-abnegation as to +renounce an estate estimated to be worth 6,000<i>l</i>. per annum, besides +the product of royalties, when they had a King and a victorious army to +support them in its possession. The Earl had saved the King's life, he +had rendered invaluable services as a diplomatist and General in raising +forces to fight for the cause of Protestantism; but for him the +probabilities were that James would have retained possession of the +Throne and that red ruin would have spread itself over the land. Surely +he had won as great a reward as those of the nobility whose only +recommendation was that they were the natural sons of royalty.</p> + +<p>To have refused this immense estate simply because he was the victim for +the time being of racial jealousy is a rare and conspicuous instance in +English history of self-sacrifice to honourable motives. His uprightness +of character was again tried by the East India Company, who offered him +a £50,000 bribe to exert his interest on behalf of that Corporation; but +he was not to be tempted <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" />by the offer. It will be seen later how the +great families, such as Cavendish, became allied with that of Bentinck +when the pride of nationality had been reconciled.</p> + +<p>Once more in February, 1696, was Portland the means of saving the King's +life, through the information he had received of a plot for his +assassination by the Papists. The details of the scheme were eventually +laid bare and the conspirators brought to justice.</p> + +<p>Few men have had a life so full of activity and importance to the State +as this Hans William Bentinck. While the Ambassadors were tediously +endeavouring at Ryswick to bring about peace between England and France +and not making much progress, William took the unceremonious course of +sending Portland to have an interview with Marshal Boufflers as +representing Lewis. Both were soldiers and men of honour. The meeting +took place at Hal, near Brussels, where their attendants were bidden to +leave them alone in an orchard. "Here they walked up and down during two +hours," says Macaulay, "and in that time did much more business than the +plenipotentiaries at Ryswick were able to despatch in as many months."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" />It is odd," said Harley, "that while the Ambassadors are making war +the Generals should be making peace." In the end the terms these two men +negotiated were elaborated in the Treaty of Ryswick, which was the great +instrument consolidating William on the Throne, wresting England from +the Stuart ascendancy and completing the work of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>Such is an outline of the vicissitudes which this extraordinary man +passed through in the course of his exciting career. He died in 1709 and +was succeeded by his son.</p> + +<p>Henry, the second Earl, was Governor of Jamaica, and created Marquis of +Titchfield and Duke of Portland in 1716.</p> + +<p>His death took place in 1726, and he too was succeeded by his son.</p> + +<p>William, second Duke, was a Knight of the Garter, as most of the other +holders of the title have been, and he died in 1762. It was through his +marriage with the grand-daughter of the Duke of Newcastle that the +Bentincks became possessed of Welbeck.</p> + +<p>He was succeeded by his son, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, third +Duke, K.G., who had been M.P. for Weobley. This Duke became Prime +<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />Minister of England in 1783, when a Coalition Government was in office. +Again in 1807 he was Premier, and was at the head of the Ministry up to +shortly before his death in 1809. Other positions held by him were +Viceroy of Ireland, Secretary of State for the Home Department, 1794; +Lord President of the Council, 1801; Chancellor of Oxford University; +High Steward of Bristol and Lord Lieutenant of Notts.; he assumed the +additional name of Cavendish by royal licence in 1801. He received his +early education at Eton, but in after life declared that he got nothing +out of Eton except a sound flogging. It was not claimed for the Duke +that he was a man of brilliant attainments, but he was the soul of +honour, and for this reputation and for his conciliatory disposition, +was chosen to head the Government, which relied for its precarious +existence on the reconciliation of the contending parties among the +Whigs and Tories. He married the only daughter of the Duke of Devonshire +and the male direct line continued in the succession of his eldest son.</p> + +<p>The fourth Duke was William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, who married +Henrietta, eldest daughter of Major-General John Scott, a des<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" />cendant of +Balliol and Bruce, the heroes of Scottish history. There were four sons +and six daughters of the marriage, the succession being continued by the +second son. The fourth was known as the "Farmer Duke," and with his love +of country presuits he lived to the ripe age of eighty-five, dying in +1854.</p> + +<p>The most eccentric character in this ducal line was the fifth holder of +the title, William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, born in 1800. He was +M.P. for Lynn 1824-1826, and died in December, 1879. Of his +extraordinary predilections more will be related in succeeding chapters.</p> + +<p>The sixth and present Duke is William John Arthur Charles James +Cavendish-Bentinck, who was born on December 28th, 1857, and succeeded +to the title in 1879. His elevation to the Dukedom is an example of the +fortune of birth; the old and eccentric Duke died unmarried, or so it +was assumed, and therefore his honours in the peerage passed to his +second cousin.</p> + +<p>To trace the lineage of the present Duke we must go back to the third +Duke, who had a third son (Lord William Charles Augustus). This third +son, who was uncle of the eccentric Duke, had issue, Lieut.-General +Arthur Charles Cavendish-<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" />Bentinck, the father of the present Duke, his +mother being Elizabeth Sophia, daughter of Sir St. Vincent Hawkins +Whitshed, Bart. The name of Scott was not part of his cognomen; he +sprang from another branch in which there was no trace of the Scott +element, and the name having been borne by two Dukes for a lady's +fortune, there was no further obligation to continue it in connection +with the Cavendish-Bentincks.</p> + +<p>The marriage of his Grace took place in 1889 to Winifred, only daughter +of Thomas Dallas-Yorke, Esq., of Walmsgate, Louth, and their children +are: William Arthur Henry, Marquis of Titchfield, born March 16th, 1893, +Lady Victoria Alexandrina Violet, born 1890, and Lord Francis Norwen +Dallas, born 1900.</p> + +<p>The Duke was formerly a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, then after +succeeding to the title, he became Lieut-Colonel of the Honourable +Artillery Company of London; he is also Hon. Colonel of the 1st +Lanarkshire Volunteer Artillery, and 4th Battalion Sherwood Foresters +Derbyshire Regiment. He is Lord Lieutenant of Notts. and Caithness, and +was Master of the Horse from 1886-1892 and 1895-1905. He is a family +<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" />trustee of the British Museum, and is the patron of thirteen livings. +The Portland estates comprise 180,000 acres, and his income is estimated +at 160,000<i>l</i>. a year from them alone.</p> + +<p>Besides Welbeck Abbey, he has country seats at Fullarton House, Troon, +Ayrshire; Langwell, Berriedale, Caithness; Bothal Castle, +Northumberland, and a London residence at 3, Grovesnor Square.</p> + +<p>There are still descendants of the Hon. William Bentinck, eldest son, by +the second marriage of the first Earl of Portland. The Hon. William was +born in 1704 and created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1732.</p> + +<p>The vast fortune of the House of Portland has been built up in a +remarkably short space of time, a little over 200 years, and no other +great family has received so many honours and acquired such wealth in +the same period. In the last century one of the Dukes held fourteen +different public offices at the same time, while a younger son was Clerk +of the Pipe, and a brother-in-law and nephew had 7,000<i>l</i>. per annum in +official salaries; a daughter too was the recipient of a State pension +for pin-money.</p> + +<p>One of the characteristic traits of the Bentincks <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" />has been that in +founding the fortunes of the family in the past their scions were +successful in capturing great heiresses. These brief genealogical +details will help to explain future developments in the history of this +noble family.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" /><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" />CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>HOW THE BENTINCKS BECAME POSSESSED OF WELBECK,—A FEMININE INTRIGUE</p> + + +<p><i>Cherchez la femme</i> is a French saying, which has somewhat of a cynical +ring about it. The female hand has to be discovered in the family +alliances of the Cavendishes and the Bentincks from which a tangle of +intrigue may be unravelled. There was in the first instance that +accomplished matchmaker, Bess Hardwick, a country squire's daughter, who +was married four times, and from her sprang children and grandchildren +with whom were intertwined the families of no less than five Dukes.</p> + +<p>To the north of the county of Nottingham, in the heart of England, is a +rich and fertile tract of country known as "The Dukeries," once embraced +by Sherwood Forest, and even now thickly wooded with magnificent oaks +and presenting charming forest scenery.</p> + +<p>Its fastnesses were the home of the romantic <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" />Robin Hood and his +"merrie" band of robbers, the subject of legend and adventure. To-day +there are in this beautiful region, within two or three miles of each +other, the seats of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck Abbey, the Duke of +Newcastle at Clumber, the Earl Manvers (whose family formerly had the +title of Duke of Kingston) at Thoresby, and Worksop Manor, formerly the +seat of the Duke of Norfolk. It was this cluster of the homes of the +nobility that gave it the name of "The Dukeries."</p> + +<p>Both Welbeck and Clumber belonged to the Dukes of Newcastle at one time; +but to elucidate their settlement upon these vast estates and the +subsequent division of the domains, through marriage, we must take up +the thread of Bess Hardwick's machinations.</p> + +<p>She was the daughter of the Derbyshire squire of Hardwick, and in 1534 +was married, when she was only 14 years of age, to Robert Barley, of +Barley, in the same county. It was not long before he passed over to the +majority, leaving his fascinating widow with a substantial jointure on +his property.</p> + +<p>For twelve years she was a widow, and then she was married to Sir +William Cavendish, <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" />who himself had been married twice before.</p> + +<p>He was a Hertfordshire magnate, but the strong will of his new wife +induced him to sell his estate in that county in order to provide money +for another scheme she had in view. It was the ambitious one of +purchasing Chatsworth and building the magnificent mansion which +tourists from all parts of the world find so much delight in visiting. A +house already existed at Chatsworth, but it was not pretentious enough +for the squire's daughter, and she prevailed upon her husband to have it +demolished. He had started to carry out her wishes when death overtook +him, and Bess was a widow for the second time.</p> + +<p>The new house at Chatsworth was not finished; but she had a penchant for +building, and continued the work after his death till its completion. +There were three sons and three daughters of this marriage, concerning +the future wedded lives of which there were deep schemes and plots.</p> + +<p>Another courtier fell beneath her wiles in Sir William St. Loe, Captain +of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth. He was so enamoured of her that he +endowed her with his estates, and disinherited his own kinsfolk. Then he +died, and Bess still went on conquering and to conquer.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" />Her fourth husband was the great prize of all, as far as rank was +concerned, for he was none other than George Talbot, sixth Earl of +Shrewsbury, one of whose seats at that time was Worksop Manor.</p> + +<p>It was not Bess's way to accept a suitor without a bargain being made, +having ulterior objects. The Earl had been married before, and had +children, so that Bess insisted upon two other matrimonial matches +before she would enter into the bonds of matrimony herself for the +fourth time.</p> + +<p>The stipulation was that her daughter, Mary Cavendish, should marry the +Earl's heir and his daughter was to marry her son. These alliances were +duly entered into, and brought with them new honours and additional +wealth. The building of Worksop Manor house had been commenced in the +time of the first Earl of Shrewsbury, but was not finished when the new +Countess became its mistress. Having built Chatsworth, here was another +opportunity for her to display her genius in architecture, and under her +direction it was completed, and became a sumptuous residence.</p> + +<p>The Earl must have been a nobleman of redoubtable and fearless +disposition, or a courtier whose <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" />pliant will was easily moulded by +accomplished and attractive women, else he would not have been involved +in the feminine intrigues that he was.</p> + +<p>Not only had he his imperious wife to consider, but he was appointed +custodian of Mary Queen of Scots when that unhappy personage was under +the ban of Queen Elizabeth and was sent prisoner to Worksop Manor. She +was kept strictly in durance vile, for the Earl was a rigid warder, and +did not even allow her to walk in Sherwood Forest.</p> + +<p>There is a portrait of Bess of Hardwick in the collection of the Duke of +Devonshire at Chatsworth. When Mary was in the custody of her husband +Bess first fawned upon her royal prisoner; but a new matrimonial scheme +filled her mind which led her to change her conduct into one of hatred. +Bess had a grandchild, Lady Arabella Stuart, for whom she planned an +alliance hostile to the Queen's interests, hence her smiles were turned +to frowns.</p> + +<p><i>En passant</i> it may be said that the Manor went by marriage to the Dukes +of Norfolk, who held it for generations and then sold it. Of Bess of +Hardwick's building enterprises it may be added that she built Hardwick +Hall, "more glass than wall" (according to an old rhyme), in 1587. The +Earl died in 1590, and the Countess had another <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" />long widowhood of 17 +years. Her second son, William Cavendish, was created Baron Cavendish +and his great-grandson Duke of Devonshire.</p> + +<p>Charles Cavendish was another son of this extraordinary woman, and he +bought the Welbeck estate, towards the end of the sixteenth century, +from two or three men of obscurity to whom it had passed, after Henry +the Eighth had ordered the monastic establishment at the Abbey to be +dissolved. His son became Baron Ogle and Viscount Mansfield, and +subsequently Earl, Marquis and Duke of Newcastle in 1644.</p> + +<p>This nobleman was devoted to the fortunes of Charles I. and was a +skilful General during the time of the Civil War. He also wrote a book +on "Horsemanship," which was regarded as a remarkable production of its +time, and he built a riding-school at Welbeck, where his theories in the +training of horses could be carried into effect; but the structure has +in recent years been devoted to other purposes, and a new and more +spacious riding-school erected to take its place.</p> + +<p>The dukedom became extinct for want of male heirs, but his daughter, +Lady Margaret Cavendish, married John Holies, Earl of Clare, who, in +<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" />1691, obtained a further step in the peerage by the resuscitation of +the dukedom, and once more there was a Duke of Newcastle.</p> + +<p>A valuable appointment by the Crown came in his way, for he was chosen +Warden of Sherwood, with which office went the privilege of enclosing +land at Clumber under the royal prerogative. Again there was no prospect +of male heirs, so the Duke left the Clumber property to his sister's +son, Thomas Lord Pelham, who traced his descent from Bess of Hardwick +through the Pierrepoints (Earls Manvers). Thomas Pelham assumed the name +of Holles, and was created Duke of Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1715.</p> + +<p>But to return to the Duke who was Warden of Sherwood Forest; he had one +daughter, Lady Henrietta Cavendish-Holles, who married Edward Harley, +second Earl of Oxford. Their only daughter, Margaret, married William +Bentinck, second Duke of Portland.</p> + +<p>Hers was a fortunate alliance for the Bentincks. She was a rich heiress, +and the vast property at Welbeck and Bolsover belonging to her +grandfather, John Holles, was her dowry. This was the first introduction +of the Dutch family into Nottinghamshire in 1734.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" />Having thus traced how this delightful domain passed by matrimonial +intrigues into the possession of its present owner, it will be +appropriate to glance at the ancient history of the Abbey and see how it +has been transformed from its original state to what it now is by +successive occupants, and especially by the eccentric fifth Duke.</p> + +<p>About the twelfth century a new religious order of monks came to settle +in England. They were called Premonstratensians, and wore white cassocks +and caps, by which they were known as white canons as distinguishing +them from black canons, attired in more sombre garb. About 1140, one +Thomas de Cuckney founded the Abbey at Welbeck, which was to become an +important centre for the Order, as in 1515 there were no fewer than 35 +Premonstratensian monasteries in England, all subordinate in importance +to Welbeck.</p> + +<p>Thomas de Cuckney was a <i>vir bellicosus</i>, and having built a castle at +Cuckney, was a formidable subject during the troublous times of King +Stephen's reign. John Hotham, Bishop of Ely, obtained possession of the +Manor of Cuckney in the 14th century, and devoted its revenues to the +Abbey, with an addition of eight canons to be supported from its wealth.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" />Then came the edict of Henry VIII., which suppressed monasteries as +being detrimental to the State. The abbots and their canons were +dispersed, and their lands and property given to royal favourites. +Richard Whalley obtained a grant of Welbeck from the King about 1539, +and in succeeding generations others who held it were Osborne, Booth and +Catterall, till it was purchased by Sir Charles Cavendish.</p> + +<p>This was at the beginning of the reign of James I., and Cavendish +inheriting the predilections of his mother, Bess of Hardwick, set to +work pulling down the old walls and transforming a house of religion +into one for the pleasure of the Dukes that were to come of his family. +In 1619, King James paid a visit to Welbeck, and Charles I. was +entertained there, when "there was such excess in feasting as had +scarcely ever been known in England," and Ben Jonson was present at the +invitation of the Duke to enliven the festivities with his wit.</p> + +<p>The main portions of the abbey and the abbey church became merged in the +new structure; but there are legendary stories that the bodies of the +Cuckneys and the abbots remain entombed upon the site, and that their +stone <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" />coffins form part of massive walls and hidden foundations.</p> + +<p>The remains of the ancient Abbey of St. James have been carefully +preserved, and the arched ceilings of two or three apartments are +interesting examples of the Gothic period. The Servants' Hall is a relic +of the monastic buildings, and three other rooms adjacent are in the +same style. There is a small doorway with Norman features of +architecture, and some roomy vaults and parts of inner walls on which +are the effigies of departed monks, indicating the original purpose of +the great house as an ecclesiastical establishment.</p> + +<p>Bess of Hardwick had a hand in building part of the present mansion, +when the domain came into the hands of her third son, Sir Charles +Cavendish. Her design, bearing the date 1604, was on the foundations of +the old abbey, and still another noble lady added her quota to its +architecture. There is the Oxford wing built by the Countess of Oxford, +whose daughter Margaret had Welbeck as her dower when she married into +the Bentinck family. The Countess had the date 1734 affixed to the wing +erected under her auspices. There is the Gothic Hall which was <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" />part of +her design, and by some is regarded as a gem of its particular style of +architecture, with an elegantly-adorned ceiling and fan tracery of +stucco on basket-work. The carving is rich and over the fireplace are +the Countess of Oxford's armorial bearings.</p> + +<p>A tradition exists that Bess acted under the spell of a fortune-teller +who predicted that death would be relegated to the distant future so +long as she kept on her building operations. It was in 1607 that her end +came when her masons could not continue their labours owing to a severe +frost, although the urgency of the task was such that they tried to mix +their mortar with hot ale. It was a fight with the spectre of death and +the spectre won the contest.</p> + +<p>She was immensely rich; but could not number a real friend in the world. +Chatsworth, Hardwick, Oldcotes, Bolsover and Worksop Manor were either +built or partly built under her auspices. Lodge says: "She was a woman +of masculine understanding and conduct, proud, furious, selfish, and +unfeeling, a builder, a buyer and seller of estates, a money-lender, a +farmer, and a merchant of lead and coals."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" /><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" />CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>THE FARMER DUKE—WEDS THE RICH MISS SCOTT—HIS HIGH-SPIRITED SONS AND +DAUGHTERS</p> + +<p>The fourth Duke was known as the "Farmer Duke," from his love of +agriculture and rural pursuits, though he was a D.C.L. and F.R.S. and +possessed the feudal dignity of Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. His father +had been Prime Minister; but the son made no effort to shine in politics +and contented himself with developing the resources of his estates and +adding to the wealth of his patrimony.</p> + +<p>He had the prescience to choose an heiress for his Duchess and went to +Scotland for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Major-General John Scott of Balcomie, Fife, had three daughters, the +eldest was known as "the rich Miss Scott," the second as "the witty Miss +Scott," and the third as "the pretty Miss Scott." The Duke selected +Henrietta, "the rich Miss Scott," who besides her wealth had coursing +through her veins the blood of Balliol and Bruce, the chieftains of +Highland chivalry.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" />Having secured the hand of the heiress, he assumed by royal licence in +1795, the additional surname of Scott.</p> + +<p>Well might the Duke be willing to couple that simple syllable with the +patrician accents of Cavendish-Bentinck, for by his marriage with the +Fifeshire heiress there came into the family an unexpected windfall of +60,000<i>l</i>. Among the bride's possessions was an island in Scotland, and +the Government of the day being desirous of improving the beacon-light, +paid 60,000<i>l</i>, for the island and spent about half that sum in addition +in erecting a new lighthouse.</p> + +<p>Their domestic life was happiness itself, neither was brilliant, but +both were honoured by those among whom they lived. The Duchess +interested herself in her husband's vast estates, as well as in her own, +and in the domestic welfare of their dependants. For a long period she +was a fitting companion for the Duke and pre-deceased him ten years, in +May, 1844.</p> + +<p>Two of their sons developed some remarkable traits and two of the +daughters became rich heiresses. The eldest son died young, which opened +the way for Lord John to become Marquis of Titchfield and eventually +fifth Duke of Portland <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" />of eccentric fame. The third was Lord George +Bentinck, born on February 27th, 1802. Of the daughters, Lady Charlotte +married Mr. Speaker Denison and became Viscountess Ossington and Lady +Lucy married Lord Howard de Walden. Clipstone forms part of the Welbeck +estate and with the Duke's practical knowledge of agriculture he ordered +to be constructed an irrigation system by which he reclaimed thousands +of acres of land, formerly rabbit-warrens and swamps, so that they +became productive farms. The Duke's flood-dyke, and diversion of the +little river Maun for the purposes of drainage, cost him £80,000. His +weather-beaten coat and huge leather shoes, extending above the knees, +were familiar to the labourers and were characteristic of the simple +attire he wore when among them giving instructions as to the laying of +his drainpipes.</p> + +<p>Many of the oaks on the Welbeck estate were transplanted thither under +the fourth Duke's direction, a mechanical appliance being used for the +purpose.</p> + +<p>One of the lodges in the park was occupied by a porter whose duty was to +give beer, wine, bread and cake to any tramping man, woman or child who +chose to call.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" />The Farmer Duke was a lover of horses and racing, though there was +nothing mercenary in his connection with the Turf, for he never betted. +He took pride in rearing thoroughbred horses at Welbeck and had some of +them trained by R. Prince at Newmarket. In the course of his career he +had the satisfaction of winning the Derby in 1819 with Tiresias. It was +his custom to ride a cob led by a groom, and for the purpose of watching +the racing at Newmarket he had a structure placed on wheels which could +be moved from point to point, where he could gain a better view of the +running through a telescope.</p> + +<p>There is an anecdote of the Duke's agility when about eighty years old. +He was about to undertake a long walk from Harcourt House; upon which +the Ladies Charlotte and Lucy tried to persuade him to ride; but he +declined and challenged them to a race. They went into the garden for +the purpose and naturally Lady Charlotte won in high spirits.</p> + +<p>His death took place at Welbeck on March 27th, 1854, at half-past four +in the afternoon, at the age of eighty-five years, having been born in +London on June 24th, 1768. His remains were laid to rest in the family +vault in the school of St. Mary at <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" />Bolsover, the funeral being +conducted without pomp, as the executors were limited to an expenditure +of £100. The obsequies were not attended by the Marquis, who had not +been on friendly terms with his father.</p> + +<p>The venerable Duke was immensely rich, for not only had he the patrimony +of the Bentincks; but by his marriage with Miss Scott, there was brought +into the family another acquisition of wealth.</p> + +<p>He left his London property, so that if his son, the Marquis, had no +male heirs, it should pass into the female line, which it did, and the +first to inherit was the Viscountess Ossington.</p> + +<p>This London property was of fabulous value and included Portland-place, +Cavendish-square, Wimpole-street, Harley-street, Wigmore-street, and +other houses in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Lady Ossington died before her sister, so all this wealth came to the +Dowager Lady Howard de Walden, furnishing her with the splendid income +of 180,000<i>l.</i> per annum.</p> + +<p>The stake in the Druce claim is not only the Dukedom of Portland and the +entailed estates of the Bentincks in the male line; but in the female +line too, including this dazzling dowry of 180,000<i>l.</i> a year.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" /><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" />CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>THE FARMER DUKE'S DAUGHTER AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS' SPEAKER.—BECOMES A +BENEVOLENT VISCOUNTESS</p> + + +<p><i>Place aux dames.</i> Before relating some of the incidents in the careers +of the fourth Duke's high-spirited sons, the Marquis of Titchfield and +Lord George Bentinck, place must be given to the social triumphs of his +third daughter, Lady Charlotte Cavendish-Bentinck.</p> + +<p>With all the advantages that wealth and birth could give her among the +proud aristocracy of England the love affairs of Lady Charlotte did not +run smooth. Her lover was Mr. John Evelyn Denison of Ossington Hall, +about twenty miles from Welbeck in the same county of Nottingham. That +the young Squire—of well-born family though he was—should aspire to +the hand of a Duke's daughter showed no want of spirit on his part. But +after all he was only a Commoner, though he had in him the making of the +First Commoner of England leading to a still higher elevation on the +<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" />ladder of social distinction, until he became a peer of the realm, only +three degrees lower in rank than the head of the Cavendish-Bentincks +himself.</p> + +<p>The Farmer Duke, simple though his tastes were, did not view with +pleasure the courtship of his daughter by the young Squire of Ossington.</p> + +<p>Lady Charlotte had mingling in her veins the blood of the highest +nobility of three nations. The Cavendishes were among the flower of +English chivalry, the Bentincks were renowned in Holland and the Scotts +traced their lineage from the pride of Scotland.</p> + +<p>The Duke could not bring himself all at once to give Lady Charlotte away +to one who had no title.</p> + +<p>She was a little over twenty years of age and when her father refused to +hear of the suit of John Evelyn Denison she shed many tears in the +presence of her maid. Life to her at this time was by no means so full +of sunshine as is usually supposed to be the good fortune of Duke's +daughters.</p> + +<p>At length Lady Charlotte expressed her intention of eloping with Mr. +Denison, and at the prospect of indirectly creating a sensation in high +life the Farmer Duke relented.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" />Lady Charlotte's marriage was her first triumph. Her next was when her +husband rose to be Speaker of the House of Commons in 1857 and she +herself one of the most important personages at the Court of Queen +Victoria.</p> + +<p>She had become rich and influential, so that when her husband retired +from the Speakership he was in a position to tell the Government of the +day that he did not intend to take the pension of £5000 a year, to which +he was entitled as an ex-Speaker. His refusal was couched in the +following words:—"Though without any pretensions to wealth, I have a +private fortune which will suffice, and for the few years of life that +remain to me I shall be happier in the feeling that I am not a burden to +my fellow-countrymen."</p> + +<p>Such self-abnegation is not characteristic of many men. On being +elevated to the House of Lords he took the title of Viscount Ossington +(after the village of Ossington in Notts, which was his ancestral home) +and Lady Charlotte was henceforth known as the Viscountess Ossington.</p> + +<p>It was a step downward in rank for her, as her marriage with a Commoner +did not degrade her to his status. As a Duke's daughter she was still +Lady Charlotte and took precedence of <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" />Marchionesses, Countesses, and +Viscountesses in the etiquette of royal courts and drawing-rooms.</p> + +<p>When her husband became a peer she had to take his rank, and it was one +of those indefinable sacrifices associated with noble birth, that, as a +Viscountess, she had to give precedence to the wives of Marquises and +Earls.</p> + +<p>To one who had filled so high a position as Lady Ossington had done in +political and social life the descent in status involved by the adoption +of the new title was not of much moment. She had been honoured by +royalty and had done the honours to royalty, she had tasted all the +pleasures that aristocratic Society could provide.</p> + +<p>Like her brother, the eccentric Duke, Lady Ossington spent large sums of +money, intended, directly or indirectly, to benefit the wage-earning +classes.</p> + +<p>In a spirit of philanthropy she built a coffee palace at Newark, Notts, +a town nine miles from Ossington, at a cost of over £20,000. Her object +was to provide a hostel where travellers of humble means could find +accommodation for the night, at charges within their means, and that it +should be a centre of meeting for Friendly Societies and other bodies in +their business and social <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" />gatherings. The profits of the establishment +she directed to be paid to the hospital.</p> + +<p>Another coffee palace on similar lines she erected in Marylebone, +London, involving an outlay of several thousands.</p> + +<p>South African colonization found in her a sympathetic patroness in days +when South Africa was little more than a name to the large majority of +Englishmen. At her expense in 1886 a party of twenty-four families was +sent to the Wolseley settlement, an estate acquired by purchase, about +seventeen miles from King William's Town, where full preparations for +their reception had been made by a committee. Within two years and +a-half the settlement was closed, the cheapness of untaxed drink having +changed the settlers from abstainers into drunkards.</p> + +<p>The Viscountess was not daunted by this failure to realise her hopes, +and in 1888 another attempt at colonization was made under her auspices. +Twenty-five families, mostly from Hampshire, sailed for the Cape and +formed a new settlement, called by the name of the poet Tennyson. This +time the experience of the past was a warning, the enterprise was +attended by fairer prospects of success and before her <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" />death she had +the gratification of knowing that the settlers were contented and happy.</p> + +<p>Another of the Duke's daughters was the Dowager Lady Howard de Walden, +who became immensely rich on the death of Lady Ossington. Their father +had so willed it that if the fifth Duke died without male heirs the +London property was to pass to his daughters. Lady Ossington had no +children and her rich dowry passed to her sister, who thereby had a +double portion. Ossington Hall, after having been for so many years the +home of a Duke's daughter, reverted to the Denison family.</p> + +<p>From allusions made by Lord George Bentinck to his friends, when he had +lost heavily on the turf, it was understood that his mother and sisters, +especially Lady Charlotte, were always ready to help him over his +difficulties. It is surmised that they knew more of his secrets and of +the secrets of the Marquis of Titchfield than the old Farmer Duke who +frowned upon betting transactions and was not known to have been +involved in the excitements of a duel and gallantries to actresses, not +to mention a nebulous secondary existence as Thomas Druce.</p> + +<p>Ossington is within easy carriage distance of <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" />Welbeck, but the +eccentric brother rarely saw his sister and the latter was astonished at +the transformation of the Abbey and grounds brought about by him. Before +the alteration of her ancestral home she made an interesting sketch of +it, as it was in her father's lifetime.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" /><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" />CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>EARLY LIFE OF LORD JOHN BENTINCK, AFTERWARDS FIFTH DUKE OF +PORTLAND.—THE ADELAIDE KEMBLE ROMANCE</p> + + +<p>Lord John Bentinck was born in September 1800, the second son of the +fourth Duke. His name in its extended form was William John +Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, and for many years, till the death of his +brother Henry, he had no prospect of succeeding to the Dukedom. At +nineteen he was a lieutenant in the army, and in 1824 was returned as +Member of Parliament for King's Lynn; but the duties of a legislator do +not seem to have been much to his taste and he resigned in 1826, his +brother, Lord George Bentinck, being elected to take his place.</p> + +<p>The fourth Duke kept a large stud of race-horses and Lord John was +brought up in the atmosphere of the turf. When a young man he was a +horseman, fearless and even reckless in his equestrian exploits. There +used to be a gate six feet high at Serlby Hall, the seat of Viscount +Galway, which <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" />it was said he had jumped one day when hunting.</p> + +<p>The three brothers, Henry, John and George, formed a racing partnership +under the name of "Mr. Bowes" and were for a time successful in their +enterprise, their transactions bringing in considerable sums of money.</p> + +<p>The death of the eldest, Henry, in 1824 transformed Lord John into +Marquis of Titchfield, heir to the Dukedom and enormous estates of the +House of Portland.</p> + +<p>With all his splendid advantages of birth and fortune he does not appear +to have sought for a wife among the aristocratic families of the land, +and it is said that he only made one offer of marriage in his life; at +least that was known to his friends. This was to Miss Adelaide Kemble, +the celebrated actress.</p> + +<p>The tempting proposal was probably made some time between June and +October, 1834, when the lady was twenty-five years of age and the +Marquis thirty-four.</p> + +<p>Judge of his astonishment when she had to confess to him that it was +impossible for her to accept his offer as she was already secretly +married.</p> + +<p>She was at the height of her popularity on the stage, having achieved a +splendid triumph in redeeming the fallen fortunes of her family, and +<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" />though married to another, she cherished kindly remembrances of the +noble suitor who made her the proud offer of a ducal coronet.</p> + +<p>In reading the "Records" of Fanny Kemble (Adelaide's sister), it is +impossible not to be struck with her high ideals and lofty sentiments. +Now and then there is an allusion to the Marquis, which shows him in a +welcome light and how delicate were his attentions.</p> + +<p>On December 1st, 1842, writing to "My dearest Harriet," she says:—"Lord +Titchfield, who was here yesterday, begged me to ascertain from you +whether it is only my bust that you desire, or whether you would like to +have casts from my father's and from the two of Adelaide. Write me word, +dear, that the magnificent Marquis may fulfil your wishes, which he is +only waiting to know in order to send the one or the four heads to you +in Ireland."</p> + +<p>Then in a note she explains:—"The Marquis of Titchfield was employing +the French sculptor, Dantan, to make busts of my father, my sister, and +myself, for him, and most kindly gave me casts of them all, and sent my +friend, Miss St. Leger, a cast of mine."</p> + +<p>On January 6th, 1843, there is another letter to "Dearest Hal," +containing the following allusion:—<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" />"I have sent your wishes to Lord +Titchfield, and I am sure they will be quickly complied with. I have no +idea that he means otherwise than to give you my bust; any other species +of transaction being apparently quite out of his line, and giving his +especial gift. I have, nevertheless, taken pains to make clear to him +your intentions in the matter; I have desired him to have the bust +forwarded to the care of Mr. Green, because I thought you would easily +find means of transporting it thence to Ardgillan. Was this right?"</p> + +<p>"Blessings on Lord Titchfield" invokes Fanny Kemble, in a letter dated +from Liverpool, May 4th, 1843:—"I wrote to you last thing last night, +dearest Hal, and now farewell! I have received a better account of my +father. Dear love to Dorothy, and my last dear love to you. I shall +write and send no more loves to anyone. Lord Titchfield—blessings on +him!—has sent me a miniature of my father and four different ones of +Adelaide, God bless you, dear. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>This was not the character of an ogre, and though their marriage could +not be, Fanny Kemble evidently thought well of the man, who years +afterwards, it was alleged, was leading a double life at this time.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" /><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" />CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>LORD GEORGE BENTINCK'S RACING CAREER.—QUARREL WITH HIS COUSIN.—DUEL +WITH SQUIRE OSBALDESTON.—"SURPLICE" WINS THE DERBY AND ST. +LEGER.—ATTEMPTS TO POISON THE HORSE.—FRIENDSHIP WITH DISRAELI.—TRAGIC +DEATH</p> + + +<p>One of the great sensations in the middle of the nineteenth century was +the mysterious death of Lord George Bentinck, who for many years was the +prince of the turf, but who sold his race-horses in order to give more +attention to politics and the spread of Protectionist principles, of +which he was the leading exponent at that time.</p> + +<p>Lord George was born in February 1802, the third son of the Farmer Duke; +his elder brother, the Marquis of Titchfield, being that eccentric +personage who succeeded to the Dukedom.</p> + +<p>After going through the Eton College course and becoming an officer in +the Lancers and Life Guards, Lord George took the seat vacated by the +Marquis, as M.P. for King's Lynn, in 1826. His life was curiously +intermingled with all sorts and conditions of men. Having the hereditary +<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" />instincts of his family he was a keen votary of the turf and daring +early manhood had a partnership with his brother, the Marquis, in the +ownership of race-horses, and it was said that at a later time they were +both enamoured of Miss Annie May Berkeley, who was the cause of a +quarrel between them.</p> + +<p>That he was a nobleman of high spirits is evident from the strenuousness +with which he lived his short life.</p> + +<p>Lord George lost heavily by backing horses for the St. Leger of 1826; +the amount was shown to be £30,000, which his mother and sister (Lady +Charlotte) helped him to meet. The old Duke, his father, was too +cautious to bet, and in order to induce his son to settle down to +country pursuits he bought him an estate at Muirkirk, Ayrshire; but the +life of a farmer did not suit Lord George for long and he was soon +exploiting in horse-racing again, so that in 1833 he was a heavy loser +at Goodwood.</p> + +<p>He formed studs at Doncaster, Goodwood and Danebury, and at various +times his horses were run in the name of Mr. John Bowe, a publican, Mr. +King, the Duke of Richmond, and John Day.</p> + +<p>Lord George and his cousin, Mr. Charles <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" />Greville, were great friends +and partners in racing affairs for a time; but both were self-willed and +quarrelled, never to heal up their differences.</p> + +<p>In the intricacies of their partnership in horses Lord George became the +owner of a mare called Preserve, who gained a great reputation about the +year 1834.</p> + +<p>At the Newmarket meeting there was an attempt to wear down her spirit by +false starts, upon which Lord George visited his anger upon his cousin, +whom he held responsible.</p> + +<p>Years afterwards an attempt was made by Colonel Anson to bring about a +reconciliation; but Lord George said he would not have anything to do +with "the fellow."</p> + +<p>A great stroke was made in 1836 when Lord George won the St. Leger with +Elis, it was the first time a horse was conveyed in a van from his +training-stable to a race-course.</p> + +<p>A specially-constructed vehicle was made and caused consternation among +old trainers when they found out the secret of the horse's mode of +travelling. Elis was fresh for the race, his advent had been kept a +secret, and Lord George won a large sum, one bet being £12,000 to +£1,000.</p> + +<p>The sensational duel between Lord George <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" />and Squire Osbaldeston has +passed into the history of racing.</p> + +<p>It was 1836, but had its origin in events occurring in 1835. Heaton Park +races, near Manchester, attracted a large number of aristocratic +jockeys, and Squire Osbaldeston got it into his head that the handicaps +were so adjusted as to give the immediate friends of Lord Wilton an +advantage.</p> + +<p>So the Squire laid himself out to be even with the Wilton party, and +when at Doncaster, for the St. Leger, discovered a horse called Rush +with powers of running unknown to the sporting clique he desired to +circumvent.</p> + +<p>The Squire mounted Rush himself and rode him over the St. Leger course, +having a mare belonging to Marson the trainer to make the running. +Finding that the colt could easily beat, Squire Osbaldeston held him in +so that the mare finished the trial a considerable distance in advance.</p> + +<p>Rush was consequently given the benefit of the handicapping at Heaton +Park and was backed heavily for the cup by the Squire, whose +commissioner was ready to meet the Lord Wilton party in any bets they +thought well to lay against the colt.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" />Two hundred to one against Rush" shouted Lord George Bentinck as +Squire Osbaldeston was riding Rush at walking pace past the stand to the +starting-post just before the race.</p> + +<p>"Done," replied the Squire.</p> + +<p>The loud tones of the two men were such as to attract particular notice +and the sequel was an exciting one.</p> + +<p>The race was brought off and the Squire on Rush won with ease. Then +followed a storm of argument as to how and why and wherefore had Rush's +powers, so greatly deprecated beforehand, developed to such an extent as +to leave all competitors behind.</p> + +<p>Another victory was achieved by Rush next day and Squire Osbaldeston +having defeated the Wilton clique on the race-course betook himself +hunting.</p> + +<p>Some months elapsed before the next scene was enacted. Lord George had +not settled the bet, and whether he intended to do so or not is an open +question. Probably the Squire had not asked him for settlement till the +Spring of 1836, when they were brought into contact with each other at +the Craven race-meeting.</p> + +<p>"My Lord," said the Squire, "May I ask <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" />you for the £200 I won from you? +You have had time to get over your beating."</p> + +<p>"I'm surprised you should ask for the money," replied Lord George, "the +affair was robbery; but can you count?"</p> + +<p>The Squire rejoined something to the effect that he could count when he +was at Eton, and Lord George then counted out a number of banknotes into +Osbaldeston's hand.</p> + +<p>"It will not end here, Lord George," said the Squire in high dudgeon.</p> + +<p>The conversation was at the entrance to the rooms of the Jockey Club, +and shortly after it had taken place the Squire sent a second to demand +an apology, or that Lord George would fight a duel. The challenge was +declined, but the fiery Squire returned to the charge.</p> + +<p>"I will pull your nose the next time I see you," was the message he sent +to his Lordship, who had no alternative but to meet in a duel or to be +subjected to continuous annoyance from the doughty Osbaldeston.</p> + +<p>Colonel Anson was named as Lord George's second and the meeting-place +was at Wormwood Scrubs at six a.m. The weapons were pistols and the +antagonists stood twelve steps apart.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" />The Squire was a real country sportsman, a fine horseman and a dead +shot, his skill with the pistol was such that he could kill pigeons +flying and rarely missed, whereas the elegant Lord George was more at +home in the boudoir and was unaccustomed to pistol-practice. Osbaldeston +had given it out that he would put a bullet through his opponent, which +was a rumour not pleasant to reach Lord George's ears.</p> + +<p>It was through the finesse of Colonel Anson that the affair ended as it +did. By agreement he was to count up to three and when he called the +last number both men were to fire.</p> + +<p>"One" was uttered with great deliberation.</p> + +<p>"Two, three" the Colonel called out in rapid succession, so that the +Squire was taken unawares and his shot went an inch or two above Lord +George's hair, piercing his hat.</p> + +<p>As for Lord George he fired skywards and so the duel ended.</p> + +<p>Colonel Anson and Lord George were friends for life, and years +afterwards the quarrel with the Squire was so far made up that Lord +George invited him to see his horses in training at <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" />Danebury. For the +greater part of the period between 1830 and 1846 he was regarded as the +Dictator of the Turf.</p> + +<p>In 1841 he removed his stables from Danebury to Goodwood where his +friend, the Duke of Richmond, allowed him every facility on his estate +for training horses.</p> + +<p>To his honour, be it said, he exercised a powerful influence in +endeavouring to rid horse-racing of some of its worst features, and +incurred the hostility of the cheats and rogues which have at all times +been associated with it.</p> + +<p>Finding that a check was being put upon their operations, the welshing +fraternity assumed a virtuous attitude and actually put into operation +an old statute passed in the reign of Queen Anne, which enabled any +private informer to sue and recover treble the amount of a bet made over +and above £10. Six writs were served upon Lord George and six upon his +partner, Mr. Bowes, in the year 1843, but the plantiff failed to prove +the making of the bets and it is obvious that the statute was +unworkable. The attempt to put it into force merely shows the condition +of racing at the time and the opposition <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" />which men who were honourable +in their motives had to meet with in their efforts to guard it against +reproach, as far as their sporting instincts allowed them.</p> + +<p>In 1844 Lord George had as many as thirty-eight horses running in races, +and his estimated expenses in 1845 for sixty horses in training were +about £40,000, while, the value of the stakes was about £18,000, so that +to make racing pay he had to rely upon the success of his betting +transactions.</p> + +<p>Disraeli called him the "Lord Paramount of the British Turf," which well +described his ascendency at the time.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the magnitude of his bets, Lord George was always cool +in temperament while other men who, though they might be quite able to +stand a loss, were full of nervous excitement when only a small sum was +risked.</p> + +<p>He kept on terms of affection with his mother and sisters and he could +always rely upon the Duchess for help when his racing extravagances had +led him too far.</p> + +<p>Lord George was over six feet in stature and his figure was handsome and +distinguished. His style of dress was according to the best canons of +fashion, <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" />elegant and fastidious. A long gold chain was looped upon the +breast of his waistcoat and with it he wore costly jewels. He had a new +satin scarf of cream colour every day, although the cost of each was +about a sovereign.</p> + +<p>A frock coat and tall beaver hat completed his costume. His race-course +attire consisted of a green coat, top boots and buckskin breeches.</p> + +<p>When in Nottinghamshire he used to hunt with the Bufford hounds and kept +his hunters at Welbeck.</p> + +<p>He was a Freemason, though he does not appear to have had time from his +devotion to politics and racing to take any high position in the Order. +As to some of his personal habits it may be said that he was not a +smoker; but he drank four glasses of wine at dinner-time.</p> + +<p>The figure of Lord George has been described by his friend Benjamin +Disraeli, afterwards Earl of Beaconsfield, in a few striking sentences +thus: "Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form +which was in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character. He +was tall and remarkable for his presence; his countenance almost a model +of manly beauty; the face oval, the complexion clear and mantling; the +<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" />forehead lofty and white; the nose aquiline and delicately moulded; the +upper lip short. But it was in the dark brown eye that flashed with +piercing scrutiny that all the character of the man came forth; a +brilliant glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of +deception or of being deceived."</p> + +<p>He was a dandy rivalling d'Orsay, his cravats made other young men of +his time envious, and his suits were in the highest style of taste. They +were indeed works of art worthy of the genius of Beau Brummell. As for +the House of Commons, until he turned serious politician, he treated +that old-fashioned assembly with haughty indifference, and when he was +pressed to record his vote in party division he entered the House on +more than one occasion at a late hour, "clad in a white great-coat, +which softened, but did not conceal, the scarlet hunting coat beneath +it."</p> + +<p>He was a breeder and backer of horses for twenty years, and the +recklessness of his wagers staggered the gamblers of his time.</p> + +<p>The training of race-horses was brought to a fine art in his day. It had +been the custom for owners to send their horses to and fro between +Newmarket, Epsom and Doncaster along the high-<a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" />ways, with the result +that although the road hardened their muscles, it militated against +their speed.</p> + +<p>Lord George raised a protest from some of the old-time patrons of the +turf by introducing an innovation in the construction of a large van in +which they could travel calmly, without fatigue, these long distances to +various parts of England.</p> + +<p>It was the precursor of railway travelling then coming into vogue, for +Lord George foresaw that the railways would revolutionize racing and +enormously increase the votaries of the turf.</p> + +<p>After having sat in the House of Commons for 18 years, and taking little +interest in the proceedings, Lord George, about 1844, suddenly attracted +attention by his attacks on Sir Robert Peel and the Free Traders. He +showed an aptitude for Parliamentary business that he had not been +credited with in racing circles in which he had held such a leading +position. His absorption in politics, which had newly aroused his +interest, led him to dispose of his race-horses.</p> + +<p>"In the autumn of this year (1846) at Goodwood races," says Disraeli, +"the sporting world was astonished by hearing that Lord George Bentinck +had parted with his racing stud at an <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" />almost nominal price. Lord George +was present, as was his custom, at this meeting held in the demesne of +one who was among his dearest friends. Lord George was not only present, +but apparently absorbed in the sport, and his horses were very +successful. The world has hardly done justice to the great sacrifice +which he made on this occasion to a high sense of duty. He not only +parted with the finest racing stud in England, but he parted with it at +a moment when its prospects were never so brilliant; and he knew this +well.</p> + +<p>"He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had +become the Lord Paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway, +and which requires, for its government, both a stern resolve and a +courtly breeding. He had them both; and though the black-leg might quail +before the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so +scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf, +too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his +betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its +character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other +connected with his sporting life. Notwith<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" />standing his mighty stakes, +and the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever +cared less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the +most generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf, +because there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after +a great race, as a victorious general counts his cannon and his +prisoners."</p> + +<p>Up to the time that he developed a new interest in politics, his great +ambition in life had been for one of his horses to win the Derby. And +one of the horses that he had owned did win it; but to his chagrin it +was no longer his property. That horse was Surplice, the winner in the +year 1848; but Lord George had disposed of it with his stud in 1846.</p> + +<p>Under any circumstances and whatever the prospects of political success +which opened up in Lord George's mind, his decision to dispose of his +stud must have caused him a pang as it created a sensation among all who +were attracted towards turf doings.</p> + +<p>There were two horses in Lord George's stables, which, if he could have +laid claim to the powers of divination would have kept him still "Lord +<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" />Paramount of the Turf." They were the yearlings Surplice and Loadstone, +and both were destined to make historic names in the classic races.</p> + +<p>But the die was cast and the immense establishment which his friend the +Duke of Richmond permitted him to keep on the Goodwood estate was sold.</p> + +<p>There were no fewer than 208 thoroughbreds, which all passed into the +hands of the Hon. E. M.L. Mostyn, for the small sum of £10,000.</p> + +<p>This was in August, 1846, and the light-blue jacket and white cap of +Lord George Bentinck were to be seen no more on a race-course.</p> + +<p>The stables had been on such an immense scale that the responsibility +was too much for one man to undertake, so that the monetary interest was +divided, and two or three turf celebrities of the day entered into +partnership, which accounts for the fact that when Surplice ran in the +Derby of 1848 he was entered in Lord Clifden's name.</p> + +<p>From that time to this the career of Surplice has always been of +interest to racing men. His trainer was John Kent, who faithfully +discharged his duty in guarding the horse from the machinations of +unscrupulous loafers and touts.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" />There was a dead set against the horse. He was naturally a lazy runner +and took a great deal of skill to ride. All sorts of rumours were +started about him; that he was not well, that he was lame and that he +was not the equal of Loadstone, although from the same stable. Up and +down went the betting respecting Surplice until the market was in such a +state that it was to the interest of an unscrupulous gang to poison or +lame him.</p> + +<p>Detectives, policemen, trainer and stablemen had to watch him night and +day and the excitement waxed intense as the date of the Derby drew near. +When the horse was taken from Goodwood to Epsom and from the stable to +the course a crowd of horsemen and pedestrians dogged his steps.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, with all the precaution taken, Surplice was got into the +paddock in fit condition. His jockey was Sim Templeman and after a +severe contest Surplice won, there being a neck between him and Springy +Jack, while Loadstone was well beaten, to the chagrin of those who had +tried to set him off against the better horse Surplice.</p> + +<p>The result of the race was £11,000 to the credit of Lord George; but +this was nothing compared with his regret that he had not <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />continued the +owner of his racing-stud, so that he might have had the honour of +winning the Derby in his own name, instead of seeing a horse that he had +bred win it in the name of another.</p> + +<p>Then came the St. Leger of 1848, and Surplice was again the winner, with +further pangs for Lord George. Barely does the same horse win both the +Derby and the St. Leger, and proud indeed is the owner who can carry off +the blue ribbon of the turf and the St. Leger too. The stars in their +courses seemed to be against Lord George at this time.</p> + +<p>This is how Disraeli relates the effect the Derby had upon his hero:—</p> + +<p>"A few days before, it was the day after the Derby, May 25th, 1848, the +writer (Disraeli) met Lord George Bentinck in the Library of the House +of Commons. He was standing before the book-shelves with a volume in his +hand, and his countenance was greatly disturbed. His resolutions in +favour of the colonial interest, after all his labours, had been +negatived by the committee on the 22nd, and on the 24th, his horse, +Surplice, which he had parted with among the rest of the stud, solely +that he might pursue without distraction his labours on behalf of the +great <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />interests of the country, had won that paramount and Olympian +stake, to gain which had been the object of his life. He had nothing to +console him, and nothing to sustain him except his pride. Even that +deserted him before a heart which he knew at least could yield him +sympathy. He gave a sort of superb groan:</p> + +<p>"'All my life I have been trying for this, and for what have I +sacrificed it?' he murmured.</p> + +<p>"It was in vain to offer solace.'</p> + +<p>"'You do not know what the Derby is,' he moaned out.</p> + +<p>"'Yes I do, it is the blue ribbon of the turf.'</p> + +<p>"'It is the blue ribbon of the turf,' he slowly repeated to himself, and +sitting down at the table he buried himself in a folio of statistics."</p> + +<p>In a personal allusion to the arduous political labours of Lord George +Bentinck, Disraeli says: "What was not his least remarkable trait, is +that although he only breakfasted on dry toast, he took no sustenance +all this time, dining at White's at half-past two o'clock in the +morning. After his severe attack of influenza he broke through this +habit a little during the last few months of his life, moved by the +advice of his physician and the instance of his friends. The <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />writer of +these observations prevailed upon him a little the last year to fall +into the easy habit of dining at Bellamy's, which saves much time and +permits the transaction of business in conversation with a congenial +friend. But he grudged it; he always thought that something would be +said or done in his absence, which would not have occurred had he been +there; some motion whisked through or some return altered. His principle +was that a member should never be absent from his seat."</p> + +<p>Disraeli thus describes the last farewell he took of Lord George and his +tragic death a few days afterwards:</p> + +<p>"He goes to his native county and his father's proud domain, to breathe +the air of his boyhood and move amid the parks and meads of his youth. +Every breeze will bear health, and the sight of every hallowed haunt +will stimulate his pulse. He is scarcely older than Julius Cæsar when he +commenced his public career, he looks as high and brave, and he springs +from a long-lived race.</p> + +<p>"He stood upon the perron of Harcourt House, the last of the great +hotels of an age of stately manners, with its wings and courtyard, and +<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />carriage portal, and huge outward walls. He put forth his hand to bid +farewell, and his last words are characteristic of the man, of his warm +feelings, and of his ruling passion: 'God bless you; we must work, and +the country will come round us.'"</p> + +<p>A few days after this interview Lord George returned to Welbeck.</p> + +<p>"Some there were who thought him worn by the exertion of the session, +and that an unusual pallor had settled upon that mantling and animated +countenance. He himself never felt in better health or was ever in +higher spirits, and greatly enjoyed the change of life, and that change +in a scene so dear to him.</p> + +<p>"On the 21st of September, 1848, after breakfasting with his family, he +retired to his dressing-room, where he employed himself with some papers +and then wrote three letters, one to Lord Enfield, another to the Duke +of Richmond, and the third to the writer of these pages. That letter is +now at hand; it is of considerable length, consisting of seven sheets of +notepaper, full of interesting details of men and things, and written +not only in a cheerful but even in a merry mood. Then, when his letters +were sealed, <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />about four o'clock he took his staff and went forth to +walk to Thoresby, the seat of Lord Manvers, distant between five and six +miles from Welbeck, and where Lord George was to make a visit of two +days. In consequence of this his valet drove over to Thoresby at the +same time to meet his master. But the master never came. At length the +anxious servant returned to Welbeck, and called up the groom who had +driven him over to Thoresby, and who was in bed, and enquired whether he +had seen anything of Lord George on the way back, as his Lord had never +reached Thoresby. The groom got up, and along with the valet and two +others, took lanthorns and followed the footpath which they had seen +Lord George pursuing as they themselves went to Thoresby.</p> + +<p>"About a mile from the Abbey, on the path which they had observed him +following, lying close to the gate which separates a water meadow from +the deer park, they found the body of Lord George Bentinck. He was lying +on his face; his arms were under his body, and in one hand he grasped +his walking-stick. His hat was a yard or two before him, having +evidently been thrown off in falling. The body was cold <a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />and stiff. He +had been long dead.</p> + +<p>"A woodman and some peasants passing near the spot, about two hundred +yards from the gate in question, had observed Lord George, whom at the +distance they had mistaken for his brother, the Marquis of Titchfield, +leaning against this gate. It was then about half-past four o'clock, or +it might be a quarter to five, so he could not have left his home much +more than half-an-hour. The woodman and his companions thought 'the +gentleman' was reading, as he held his head down. One of them lingered +for a minute looking at the gentleman, who then turned round, and might +have seen these passers-by, but he made no sign to them.</p> + +<p>"Thus it seems that the attack, which was supposed to be a spasm of the +heart, was not instantaneous in its effects, but with proper remedies, +might have been baffled. Terrible to think of him in his death-struggle +without aid and so near a devoted hearth. For that hearth too, what an +inpending future!</p> + +<p>"The terrible news reached Nottingham on the morning of the 22nd, at +half-past nine o'clock, and immediately telegraphed to London, was +announced by a second edition of the <i>Times</i> to <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />the country. +Consternation and deep grief fell upon all men. One week later, the +remains arrived from Welbeck at Harcourt House, to be entombed in the +family vault of the Bentincks, that is to be found in a small building +in a dingy street, now a chapel of ease, but in old days the Parish +Church among the fields of the pretty village of Marylebone.</p> + +<p>"The day of the interment was dark and cold, and drizzling. Although the +last offices were performed in the most scrupulously private manner, the +feelings of the community could not be repressed. From nine till eleven +o'clock that day all the British shipping in the docks and the river, +from London Bridge to Gravesend, hoisted their flags half-mast high, and +minute guns were fired from appointed stations along the Thames. The +same mournful ceremony was observed in all the ports of England and +Ireland; and not only in these, for the flag was half-mast high on every +British ship at Antwerp, at Rotterdam, at Havre.</p> + +<p>"Ere the last minute gun sounded all was over. Followed to his tomb by +those brothers who, if not consoled, might at this moment be sustained +by the remembrance that to him they had ever <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" />been brothers, not only in +name but in spirit, the vault at length closed on the mortal remains of +George Bentinck."</p> + +<p>Such was the conventional view which Society took of the sad +circumstances of Lord George's death.</p> + +<p>The old Duke was over eighty years of age and too infirm to attend the +funeral, but the Marquis of Titchfield and Lord Henry Bentinck were +present.</p> + +<p>As in most mysteries, there were other conjectures more or less +improbable.</p> + +<p>Years afterwards it was put down to the account of Palmer the poisoner, +who it was said had administered strychnine to Lord George as he did to +some other members of the aristocracy.</p> + +<p>But what was Palmer's motive?</p> + +<p>Had Lord George and he any betting transactions together in which Palmer +had lost, and finding himself unable to pay, destroyed his noble +creditor with diabolical secrecy?</p> + +<p>Yet Palmer in 1848 was a young doctor, aged about twenty-three, just +setting out on his professional career.</p> + +<p>It was not until a few years afterwards that Palmer commenced to turn +his attention to turf <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" />transactions, therefore it is difficult to find a +motive which should be some evidence against him as the perpetrator of +this crime.</p> + +<p>The case of Palmer was an extraordinary one. He was a medical +practitioner at Rugeley in Staffordshire, and having become infatuated +with betting had no scruples about removing those to whom he had +contracted debts of honour. It was not till the early months of 1856 +that light was shed upon some of his fiendish designs and after a long +trial he was sentenced to be hanged at Stafford gaol.</p> + +<p>Palmer boasted of his racing transactions with the aristocracy, and if +Lord George was one of his victims seven years before 1856, the +miscreant had had plenty of time to harden his conscience in working his +foul plots against others whom it was his sordid interest to destroy.</p> + +<p>Another wild theory was that there had been a quarrel between the +Marquis of Titchfield and Lord George.</p> + +<p>One reason for the dispute was alleged to be that Lord George had been a +heavy loser instead of a gainer by his gigantic gambling operations, +that he was in want of money, either from his brother the Marquis, or +his father, the Duke.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" />To allege that he was in debt is not consistent with the belief that he +had won large sums by backing horses of which he was so keen a judge.</p> + +<p>Again it was surmised that the reason for the quarrel—if there was +one—was Miss A.M. Berkeley, with whom they were reputed to be both +enamoured.</p> + +<p>The origin of this lady gives a glimpse of another romance. Her mother +was an exceedingly beautiful lady, the daughter of a tradesman, and she +became the wife of the Earl of Berkeley.</p> + +<p>Fanny Kemble writes of the Countess in terms of admiration; but alludes +to the marriage with the addition of the phrase ("by courtesy") and how, +on being presented at Court she was frowned at by Queen Charlotte, +though George III. did not share the unfavourable sentiments entertained +by his wife.</p> + +<p>The marriage with the Earl was the subject of a <i>cause celèbre</i> before +the House of Lords, with the result that the ceremony was held to be +illegal, which thus affected the position of Miss A.M. Berkeley.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Margaret Jane Louise Hamilton, a widow lady, the daughter of Mr. +Robert Lennox Stuart, made a startling statement which was widely +<a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" />reported in the newspapers at the time that the Druce case assumed a +new aspect in 1903. She said that she had been told the details of the +death of Lord George Bentinck by her father, who was an eye-witness of +the quarrel—if quarrel there was.</p> + +<p>Her father was a playmate of the Duke's when they were boys, and she +herself was a god-daughter of the fourth Duke.</p> + +<p>Not only was Mr. Stuart an eye-witness, but she said Mr. Sergeant, +another gentleman, was too.</p> + +<p>Lord George was violent in manner towards the Marquis (whom Mrs. +Hamilton identified as Mr. Druce) using threatening language towards him +and striking him repeatedly.</p> + +<p>At last the Marquis retaliated with one blow over the heart, and +although it was not a heavy blow, the position where it struck was +sufficient to cause death.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hamilton added that she had heard Druce say to her father, "You +know, Stuart, I never intended to kill him. I only struck in +self-defence."</p> + +<p>Druce was remorseful after the tragedy and spoke of surrendering to the +police, but Mr. <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" />Stuart and Mr. Sergeant persuaded him not to.</p> + +<p>Her father said that Druce was nervous and always afraid that the deed +would come to light.</p> + +<p>Whether the Marquis was there or not to quarrel with his brother, the +labourers who said they thought they recognised him, acknowledged that +they might have been mistaken.</p> + +<p>A point which the evidence at the inquest did not clear up was the +whereabouts of the Marquis at the time of the tragedy. The labourers +said they thought they saw him.</p> + +<p>If it was not he, where was he?</p> + +<p>That is a question unanswered to this day.</p> + +<p>Lord George was never married, and it has been said of him that "he was +notable for the purity of his life."</p> + +<p>It was believed that he entertained a deep regard for a highly-placed +married lady, whose virtue was beyond suspicion, and hence he lived and +died a bachelor.</p> + +<p>Three years after the death of Lord George it is said that the Marquis +married Miss Annie May Berkeley in the name of Druce.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" /><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" />CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>THE ECCENTRIC DUKE AND HIS UNDERGROUND TUNNELS</p> + + +<p>The story of the transformation of Welbeck enters upon a new stage with +the succession, in 1854, of the Marquis of Titchfield (William John +Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck) as fifth Duke, born in 1800. He it was who +designed and had constructed the mysterious underground apartments and +tunnels for which the Abbey and its environs are famous. There were +miles of weird passages beneath the surface of the earth, one tunnel +alone being nearly a mile and a half in length, stretching towards +Worksop, while others ran in various directions.</p> + +<p>Welbeck is nearly 4 miles from Worksop, and a stranger on approaching +the Abbey is likely to receive a mean impression of its vast extent. The +architecture is a mixture of the Italian and classical styles, and its +having been built at different periods, with so many of its adjuncts +under<a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" />ground, makes it wanting in imposing features.</p> + +<p>In various parts of the estate about 50 lodges were erected for the +occupancy of gardeners and keepers. They were of Steetley stone, all +similarly planned and pleasing to the eye, what there was of them above +ground; but the Duke had subterranean kitchens made at the side and +lighted them with bulls'-eyes at the top.</p> + +<p>He spent about 100,000<i>l.</i> a year in the development of his plans, and +employed as many as 1,500 workpeople in helping him to gratify his +hobby. When it is remembered that his reign as Duke lasted a quarter of +a century, from 1854 to 1879, it will be seen that artisans of all +descriptions found Welbeck a veritable gold-mine. Even so late as +November, 1878, a Nottingham newspaper correspondent, on visiting +Welbeck, was impressed with its appearance as that of the premises of +"some great contractor who had an order for the building of a big +village." There was the buzz of machinery, large areas were covered with +bricklayers', masons' and joiners' sheds, wherein any new mechanical +contrivance was put to the test. For more than eighteen years the +vicinity of the house resembled a builder's yard, in the centre of which +the Duke lived and moved and had his being, enjoying, in his <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" />way, the +piles of bricks and mortar surrounding him. After he had decided upon +the erection of a new building he had a model of it made for his +inspection, and if approved of, it was proceeded with.</p> + +<p>Any tramp or wayfarer who applied for work at Welbeck was put on the +staff, and the market value of his labour paid. The Duke seemed to find +grim pleasure in the society of the casuals who made their way to his +stone-yards.</p> + +<p>The wing built by the Countess of Oxford in a former generation had a +new storey put to it, with a magnificent suite of 14 new rooms furnished +in Louis XIV. style, richly gilded, and with mantelpieces of white +marble.</p> + +<p>An underground passage was made leading to the old riding school, built +by the Duke of Newcastle in 1623, but since converted to other uses, +such as a library and church, after the erection of the new riding +school. Beneath it are great wine cellars with subterranean +communications.</p> + +<p>The most wonderful of the underground apartments built by the Duke was +the picture-gallery, or as it was intended to be, the ball-room. It is +lighted from the roof by means of bulls'-eyes. An enormous sum was spent +in labour, excavating the <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" />solid clay in order that this magnificent +saloon might be constructed.</p> + +<p>Some choice examples of the great masters are contained in this palace +of art, which is 158 feet long, 63 feet wide, and 22 feet high. Here are +examples of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, de Mytens, Tintoretto, +Teniers, Snyders, Bassano, Wyck, de Vos, Greffier, Francks, Berghem, +Zucchero, Wootton, Breughel, Dirk Maas, Netscher, Gagnacci, Gerard +Honthorst, Van der Meulen, Rigaud, Vandyke, Holbein, Kneller, Lely, +Dahl, M. Shee, Knapton, West, Jansen, Verelst; in fact not only in the +picture-gallery, but in all parts of the Abbey are scattered treasures +of art and vertu. Among the interesting curiosities are the one-pearl +drop-earrings seen in the portraits of Charles I., and worn by him on +the morning of his execution; also the silver-gilt chalice from which he +received the consecrated wine on that fateful morning at Whitehall. The +chalice bears the following inscription; "King Charles the First +received the communion in this Boule on Tuesday the 30th of January, +1664, being the day in which he was murthered." In the library are +autograph letters from the Stuarts, including one from Mary Queen of +Scots, signed "Your very good friend."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" />There is a portrait of Adelaide Kemble, with whom the Duke is said to +have been in love in early manhood. The actress is in the pose of her +histrionic profession, and in another part of the gallery is a bust of +the Duke by H.R. Pinker (1880).</p> + +<p>The gigantic riding school is about 380 feet long, 112 feet wide, and 50 +feet high, and from it is a subterranean passage leading to the tan +gallop, designed for the exercise of horses. The length of this gallop +is 1270 feet, and it is all under a glass roof. He had about 100 horses, +and his stables extended over an area almost as large as a village.</p> + +<p>Of all his extraordinary hobbies that of planning subterranean passages +has excited the most wonder and satire. These tunnels, in which it was +possible for three persons to walk abreast in some parts, were lighted +with gas jets placed at intervals. One at least of the tunnels is large +enough for a horse and cart to be driven through.</p> + +<p>The drive from Worksop is a delightful one, but all at once the stranger +is surprised to find himself in a cavern, leading as might be supposed +to the catacombs. It was no uncommon thing for the Duke to rise up out +of a tunnel and appear in the midst of a gang of workmen when they were +little <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" />expecting him, and when, perhaps, they were idling their time, +or making uncomplimentary remarks about him.</p> + +<p>When the tunnels were in course of construction there might be seen a +procession of men on donkeys going to and fro. It was all in a piece +with his Grace's conduct that he should purchase donkeys for them to +ride upon; but the animals, when let loose, would gnaw at the trees, so +the services of the four-legged asses were dispensed with.</p> + +<p>His manner of dealing with a strike was a summary one. The wages of the +excavators of the tunnels were fifteen shillings a week regularly, +sunshine or rain; but the men thought their rich employer could afford +them an increase, so they struck.</p> + +<p>"You can strike as long as you like," was the message sent by the Duke, +"it does not matter to me if the work is never done."</p> + +<p>This cool attitude had its effect, the strike was at an end, and the +tunnelling proceeded.</p> + +<p>One reason given for planning the tunnels was that when he first desired +to withdraw himself from observation he tried to close the public rights +of way over the estate. This brought him <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" />into collision with the powers +that be, and he compromised matters to his own satisfaction by making +the underground roadways. His cynicism was rich.</p> + +<p>"Here have I had provided for you at enormous expense a clean pathway +underground, lighted with gas too, and you will persist in walking above +ground," was his salute to some astounded visitors. The idea that they +should prefer the sunshine, the delightful woodland scenery and +sweet-smelling scents wafted over Welbeck in summer-time, to the gaseous +tunnels, as if they were rabbits having natural affinities to the +burrows of the earth, was one only worthy of a ducal misanthropist.</p> + +<p>He was "The Invisible Prince," he liked to take men unawares, he enjoyed +a grim joke at their expense, though whether he ever showed signs of +merriment, at least in after life, is not so much in the memories of +those who knew him, as his eccentricities. He is more associated with +the character of an ogre and a cynic who shunned his fellow-men, yet +there are some of his employees still living who give him a good word as +a kind and considerate master.</p> + +<p>There have been various reasons put forth to <a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" />account for his withdrawal +from the society of his peers. It was said that he was smitten with +leprosy, that he had an incurable skin desease; then that his love +affairs had gone awry when he was a young man, with the result that he +became a woman-hater, then a hater of mankind generally.</p> + +<p>The Duke was moody and uncertain in his temper. Sometimes he would pass +pedestrians in the park without noticing them; at other times strangers +would be astonished to hear a shabby old ogre break out at them in +profane language because of their intrusion upon his domains, and they +would be still more astonished when making complaints about the conduct +of this disreputable person, to find that it was the Duke himself.</p> + +<p>At that time the use of a traction-engine in agriculture was somewhat of +a novelty, and because it was different from the appliances generally +used by farmers, was a recommendation to the Duke.</p> + +<p>It was nine o'clock one night when he said to his haymakers: "Take the +carts home and bring another load with the engine."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, your Grace," said one, "If the <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" />engine is made of steel and +iron I'm not. I'm tired out."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps you are, go home then," came the order, which is +testimony to the consideration he had for his employees when he was +addressed in a manly, straightforward way.</p> + +<p>There was a grotesque procession one day at a farm on the Welbeck +estate. It was a rainy summer, and the farmers were at their wits'-ends +to know how they were to secure their hay in anything like good +condition.</p> + +<p>The Duke was not a man to be beaten by the weather; he defied it; he was +determined to have his grass in the rickyard, wet or dry. So the order +went forth that his traction-engine and waggons were to be ready for +carrying it on a certain day.</p> + +<p>There was to be no shirking, for the Duke's intention was to be with his +men to see that the work was done. So he went to the farm in his long +brown cape and high silk hat and an umbrella which might have done duty +for Hans William Bentinck in the swamps of Holland.</p> + +<p>The harvesters filled the waggons in a downpour of rain and the +cavalcade started for the homestead. There were three or four waggons +<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" />behind the engine, and in the last, lo and behold, sat his Grace, grim, +silent and self-satisfied that the elements had no terrors for him.</p> + +<p>What a life his was to lead; he was a veritable prisoner, having himself +for a warder.</p> + +<p>The special apartment used by him in the daytime was fitted with a +trap-door in the floor, by which he could descend to the regions below, +and thus roam about his underground tunnels without the servants knowing +whether he was in the house or had left it. By means of this trap-door, +after walking to some distant part of his estate and astonishing his +workmen there, he could re-appear in the Abbey as mysteriously as he had +left it.</p> + +<p>The apartment with the trap-door had another door opening into an +ante-room, and here his servants received their orders.</p> + +<p>The "Prince of Silence" rarely spoke to his attendants; he wrote down on +paper what he required and placed it in the letter-box of the door +opening into the ante-room. Then he rang a bell, when a servant would +come and read what he had written and carry out the order accordingly.</p> + +<p>The Duke's bedstead was an immense square erection, constructed in an +extraordinary manner. <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" />There were large doors to it, so arranged that +when folded it was impossible to know whether the bed was occupied by +its owner.</p> + +<p>He was a lonely traveller, and even when he went to Paris would have no +companion with him. His arrangements were made by an <i>avant courier</i>, +and when it became known that he had arrived in the gay city, the +English aristocracy paid formal visits to him.</p> + +<p>These attentions were too much for his habit of loneliness, and he +vanished to St. Germains. A few weeks' stay here was enough for him, and +he came back to Paris, not lingering more than a couple of days, and +then proceeded by stages to Calais and on to London.</p> + +<p>One of the best authenticated stories of the fifth Duke relates to his +habit of riding alone in a carriage specially constructed to secure +privacy. As was natural the more it became known that he wanted to +escape observation the more was curiosity aroused to see him, so that a +considerable part of his life was spent in adopting stratagems to +prevent sight-seers from catching a glimpse of the aristocratic enigma.</p> + +<p>The carriage was so made that when the doors were closed no one could +see into it, though there <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" />were spy-holes arranged that the Duke could +look out on all sides and not be observed.</p> + +<p>One day the Duke had sent his usual written order for his carriage to +proceed by road to London.</p> + +<p>The postillions started quite oblivious that they had his Grace with +them in his mysteriously-constructed vehicle.</p> + +<p>It was a long journey, and as they passed stage after stage, their +delays for refreshments became longer and their stoppages more frequent.</p> + +<p>They had just pulled up at a country inn when they were horrified to +hear a sepulchral voice from the hearse-like chariot shouting,</p> + +<p>"What the devil are you stopping for?"</p> + +<p>These few words were enough. They came from the voice of the Duke whom +they saw not, but recognised by his tones from his tomb on wheels.</p> + +<p>The postillions sprang upon the horses and tarried not till they had +arrived before the portico of Harcourt House where the great myth +descended unseen to his room.</p> + +<p>Harcourt House, Cavendish-square, was a famous London mansion, for many +years in the possession of the Dukes of Portland. The building of this +stately town residence was commenced in 1722 <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" />for Earl Harcourt. It had +a noble courtyard facing Cavendish-square, and an imposing <i>porte +cochère</i>, with a large garden and wide-spreading trees, which were such +extraordinary features to be found as adjuncts to the old London palaces +of the nobility. Then there was a range of stabling enough to +accommodate the stud of a monarch.</p> + +<p>This noble mansion was gambled away at a card-party when the stakes were +high and the players were the third Duke, grandfather of the eccentric +peer, and Earl Harcourt. Thus it came into possession of the Bentincks.</p> + +<p>During the occupancy of the fifth Duke, the curious freaks of building +for which he was so famous at Welbeck were repeated at Harcourt House. +He had the garden enclosed with a gigantic screen of ground-glass, +extending for 200 feet on each side and 80 feet high. His object in +having this screen constructed was that the residents of +Henrietta-street and Wigmore-street might be prevented from seeing into +the garden and possibly catching a glimpse of his Grace when taking a +stroll.</p> + +<p>The gamble for Harcourt House was commuted into a leasehold tenancy by +the intervention of <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" />the lawyers, who declared that the ownership of the +mansion could not be separated from the rest of the estate.</p> + +<p>In more recent years the leasehold interest was purchased by the Earl of +Breadalbane, and on its expiration, it eventually came to Sir William +Harcourt, the statesman, and in August, 1904, was offered for sale. The +site of the beautiful garden, with its screen and stables, was purchased +by the Post-office authorities. <i>Sic gloria transit</i> of one of the +famous houses of London.</p> + +<p>Though he had such magnificent palaces, both in Sherwood Forest and in +London, the Duke was not given to entertaining guests after the manner +of a great noble. His father had sent the family plate to be kept by +Messrs. Drummond, bankers, and it was the current belief that the son +never had it from the vaults of the bank to grace his tables at Welbeck +or Harcourt House.</p> + +<p>His sisters seldom visited him, although one of them, Lady Ossington, +lived at Ossington Hall, about 15 miles away, in the same county as +Welbeck.</p> + +<p>The gossips of his lifetime would have it that his pet aversions were +tobacco, women, and anyone in the garb of a gentleman; but he had a +<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" />taste for drinking stout and lived on a simple dietary.</p> + +<p>These stories involve a tissue of inconsistencies. His correspondence +with Fanny Kemble when he was Marquis of Titchfield, already quoted, +shows his kind consideration, not only for her, but for other ladies who +moved in higher circles. There was his friendship with Lady Cork, who +was often seen by the workmen on the estate driving Shetland ponies. She +was a visitor at Cuckney Hall, which was part of the Welbeck domain. +Again there are instances on record of his courtesy to those of the +opposite sex whom he met in the park; besides which there were many +female servants engaged at the Abbey.</p> + +<p>"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast"; but among the other +idiosyncrasies laid to his charge, it was said that rather than soothe, +it irritated him.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hamilton's testimony is that Mr. Druce (assuming him to have been +identical with the Duke) was extremely fond of music, and that she had +played to him for hours at a time.</p> + +<p>"Sing me the old songs, Stuart" Druce would say to her father, who not +only sang, but played the violin.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" />Moreover the workmen at Welbeck were allowed to have a band which +performed at the Abbey on Christmas-eve and the bandsmen were given +refreshments.</p> + +<p>What a quaint figure the Duke's was. When away from home he wore a wig, +but not indoors, his tall hat had a broad brim, he wore a white tie and +high collar, his trousers tied round his legs, were of check, with a +frock coat and dark waistcoat.</p> + +<p>His habits were fastidious, and he would not handle bronze or silver +coins before they had been washed. Then he forbade persons to touch +their hats to him if they met him.</p> + +<p>His manner of dispensing benefactions was characteristic. Sometimes he +was lavish in his generosity, while on other occasions he replied in +burning words to those who appealed to him.</p> + +<p>An instance of the latter is afforded in his reply to the members of a +Friendly Society which was in straits for the want of 10<i>l</i>. He told +them that if it was a Club established on sound lines, it would be worth +their while to subscribe the money among themselves, and if not, he +declined to maintain a bankrupt organisation.</p> + +<p>He was a devourer of the contents of news<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" />papers, and took all the +principal London and provincial daily issues, as well as many weekly +journals, which were filed and bound. His bill for one year came to +1,300<i>l</i>. He had four sets of the papers he thought worth preserving, +one being at Welbeck, another at Fullarton House, a third at Bothal +Castle, and a fourth at Harcourt House. This collection of current +literature of the day is believed to be the largest private library +outside the British Museum.</p> + +<p>In January, 1855, the Crimean War was in progress, and the Duke having +given 500<i>l</i>. to the Patriotic Fund, further showed his bounty by +ordering that several fat bullocks, 100 head of deer and 1,000 hares +should be potted and sent out to the scene of action. Besides these +eatables he gave a quantity of unbleached cotton and flannel to be made +into shirts and other garments by the ladies of Worksop and district. In +that same month Major-General Bentinck, who had been wounded in the +right arm, arrived at Welbeck, intending to return to the war as soon as +his wound would allow him.</p> + +<p>It was formerly the custom for everyone who paid a visit to the stately +home in Sherwood Forest, whether on business or pleasure, not to <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" />come +away without tasting the Worksop ale. Its quality was renowned, and the +Duke sent 1,000 gallons of it to the Army fighting in the Crimea.</p> + +<p>The lake at Welbeck is three miles long, and its waters are supplied +from an irrigation system at Clipstone, costing the fourth Duke +80,000<i>l.</i> to carry out, draining a tract of marshy land and making it +one of the most fertile districts in England. After supplying the lake +at Welbeck the stream flows to that at Clumber.</p> + +<p>It was estimated that between two and three millions sterling were spent +by the Duke in putting his ideas into execution, and the one beneficent +effect of his expenditure was the employment of a large number of men in +work that was not altogether of a useless nature, as witness his great +improvements in agriculture, following up his father's ideas, adding to +the national wealth by the crops this hitherto uncultivated area was +made to produce.</p> + +<p>After his long and chequered career the Duke passed away in December, +1879, having nearly reached eighty years of age. Peace be to his ashes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" /><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" />CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>THE PRESENT DUKE AND DUCHESS.—A ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT</p> + + +<p>There must have been a thrilling sensation of delight at the good +fortune that had overtaken him when the present Duke found himself in +possession of the family honours and estates. There had been so many +vicissitudes in the Dukedom that any chance survival might have stepped +in to bar his claim. "There's many a slip between the cup and the lip" +is an old saying, and many a relation of a great noble is near the +succession of his honours, only to see them pass to some other branch +where least expected.</p> + +<p>The present Duke, or to give him his full family name, William John +Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck, was a long way off the fifth +Duke, in the table of consanguinity, he had no trace of the Scott blood +in him, and was in fact only second cousin of his eccentric predecessor +in the title.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" />His father was Lieutenant-General A.C. Cavendish-Bentinck, whose +descent was through the third Duke, so that the two branches had to go +back nearly a hundred years to find a common ancestor. His birth took +place on December 28th, 1857, and it must have seemed then a remote +possibility that in less than five and twenty years he would succeed to +one of the proudest Dukedoms in the land, with the opportunities of a +royal alliance.</p> + +<p>Two of the Duke's half-brothers were engaged in the South African war; +Lord Charles Bentinck was a Lieutenant in the 9th Lancers and was +slightly wounded in the siege of Mafeking; for his services he won a +medal and a brevet-majority. He was born in 1868 and was educated at +Eton; he married in 1897 a daughter of Mr. Charles Seymour Grenfell of +Taplow. In the East Midlands he has won considerable popularity as +Master of the Blankney Hunt.</p> + +<p>Lord William Bentinck was a Captain in the 10th Hussars and showed his +ardour in the war by endeavouring to form a body of Colonial Mounted +Rifles.</p> + +<p>Among the eccentricities laid to the charge of the old Duke it was said +that on his young <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" />heir going to visit him on one occasion at Welbeck, +he ordered him to stand in a corner of the room.</p> + +<p>When in 1879 the old Duke passed away from his world of mysteries and +escapades, the heir was a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. He was +not long in the Army, and when he came into the title there were too +many other engagements for him to attend to without troubling himself as +to the routine of military duty, though he kept up a connection with the +forces by becoming Lieutenant-Colonel of the Honourable Artillery +Company of London, Honorary Colonel of the 1st Lanarkshire Volunteer +Artillery, and of the 4th Battalion Sherwood Foresters Regiment.</p> + +<p>Welbeck soon began to assume a new aspect under his regime. Gradually it +lost its appearance of a contractor's yard and looked like one of the +stately homes of England.</p> + +<p>Looking back to the time when he first came into his noble heritage, the +Duke made a touching reference at the Welbeck Tenants' Show, in 1906, to +the death of his agent, Mr. F.J. Turner, who for 48 years was in the +service of the fifth Duke and himself.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" />When I first came to Welbeck, now twenty-seven years ago," said the +Duke, "I was a mere boy, very ignorant of the ways of the world, and +more ignorant still, if it were possible, of business habits and of the +management of a great estate. I shudder to think what might have been my +fate, and the sad fate of those dependent upon me, if Mr. Turner and +others, who guided my footsteps, had been different from what they +proved themselves to be. It was in his power to make or mar the +happiness and prosperity, not only of myself, but also of many of those +who live in this district and who farm my land."</p> + +<p>The Duke followed the traditions of his family and commenced to form an +expensive racing stud.</p> + +<p>In 1882 his attention was concentrated to a considerable degree upon +this object. He bought the famous sire, St. Simon, at the sale of the +late Prince Batthyany's horses. St. Simon could not compete in the +classic races in consequence of the death of his owner, and all through +his racing career he was not put to any severe test of speed, or most +likely his name would have represented the double achievement of being a +<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" />famous racer, and the sire of famous racers too. He was bought for +1,600<i>l.</i>, the purchase being effected on the recommendation of Mat +Dawson, the trainer, and the horse was then a two-year-old. That he +could go at a terrific pace is proved by an observation made one day by +Fred Archer to the trainer. St. Simon was at exercise when Archer's spur +touched him, unintentionally by the jockey. He bounded into a gallop—a +state of action rarely seen before—and Archer subsequently said that he +had never been whizzed through the air at such a terrific pace. In the +very pink of condition, fresh and strong, the Duke had to congratulate +himself on securing his bargain, for he was sent from the course to the +stud, with the result that the magnificent total of 246,000<i>l.</i> was won +by his progeny in stakes alone.</p> + +<p>At length, in 1888, the Duke reached the goal of his ambition in his +career on the turf, for he was the winner of the Derby with Ayrshire, +which also won the Two Thousand Guineas. Then he followed up his success +next year by winning the Derby again with Donovan, a horse that also won +the St. Leger.</p> + +<p>The names of the mares finding their habitation <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" />at Woodhouse Hall, +about a mile and a quarter from Welbeck Abbey, are identified with some +of the most remarkable successes of the turf. Here is a string of +animals through the veins of which ran purest blood. Amoena, Atalanta, +Battlewings, Danceaway, Golden Eye, Lady Mar, Larissa, Marquesa, +Mowerina, Modwena, Miss Middlewick, Shaker, Semolina, Staffa, Wheel of +Fortune, Tact, Ulster Queen, and many besides. The Goddess of Fortune +beamed on his Grace's colours whenever they appeared in the great races. +The long series of victories resulted in immense winnings. For instance, +Modwena was credited with 5,884<i>l.</i>; Ayrshire, 35,915<i>l.</i>; Johnny +Morgan, 4,067<i>l.</i>; Donovan, 55,154<i>l.</i>; Semolina, 12,686<i>l.</i>; Miss +Butterwick, 8,179<i>l.</i>; Raeburn, 8,374<i>l.</i>; The Prize, 3,134<i>l.</i>; St. +Serf, 5,809<i>l.</i>; Memoir, 17,300<i>l.</i>; Schoolbrook, 2,705<i>l.</i>; Amiable, +10,582<i>l.</i>; Other celebrated stock also bred by the Duke included Anna, +Charm, Catcher Clatterfeet, Elsie, Eisteddfod, Galston, Katherine II., +Little Go, Oyster, Rattleheels, St. Bridget, Simony II., The Task, The +Owl, The Smew, Troon, Ulva, and many more. Major Loder's Spearmint was +the winner of the Derby in 1906, and it was a bay colt by Carbine—Maid +of the Mint, so that <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" />a horse owned by the Duke was again associated +with the blue ribbon, Carbine having been imported from Australia by his +Grace some years before. Carbine had another name, "Old Jack," given him +because of his laziness, and a whip-stock, had to be used occasionally +to keep him up to the mark. An Australian picture of the horse was +painted by Mr. W. Scott, and after being in the possession of Mr. +Herbert Garratt for some years was sent to his Grace with a request that +he would accept it, which he did.</p> + +<p>All the time that the Duke was paying so much attention to horse-racing +it was being asked in Nottinghamshire whether Welbeck was ever to see +another Duchess of Portland. The palace of the magician in the heart of +Sherwood Forest had not had a mistress for forty years, and the gossips +were not diffident in expressing their opinion that it was time the +splendour of its hospitality was graced by the presence of a Duchess.</p> + +<p>The Duke was thirty-two years of age in 1889, and his name had been +coupled with that of a royal princess; but whatever foundation there may +have been for the rumour that he was going to marry into the royal +family, it was seen eventually that he was determined to wed for love +and not for pride of place.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" />Of the rich and well-born heiresses tracing their lineage through +generation after generation of English chivalry, and who would have +deemed it the prize of a lifetime to become Duchess of Portland, the +Duke's choice fell upon a young lady whose name was unknown to the +denizens of Nottinghamshire. She was Winifred, only daughter of Thomas +Dallas-Yorke, Esq., of Walmsgate, Louth, and came of an old Lincolnshire +family.</p> + +<p>She was a merry girl as she used to ride her pony in the Lincolnshire +lanes, indeed, she was regarded as somewhat of a tomboy, but a year or +two passed away, and she surprised those who had known her in girlhood, +to see her the most fashionable beauty in the Row.</p> + +<p>She had a wondrous type of beauty too, that made all those who admired +its style, fall beneath her spell, her complexion was delicate, yet with +the glow of health upon it, her teeth were pearly, her eyes full of +sweet reasonableness, her nose that of the classic heroines of Greece, +and her willowy form such as Sir Joshua Reynolds would have delighted to +paint in a portrait, that would have been one more justification of the +poetical phrase, "Art is long and life is fleeting."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" />Her lithe and graceful figure, nearly six feet in height, with a face +pleasing and mobile, and a voice that charmed in its tone, made her +distinguished in any society where she appeared.</p> + +<p>The story is that once when staying with some friends at Brighton she +went to the Devil's Dyke, a romantic place visited by almost every +tourist and resident in that neighbourhood. There she was prevailed upon +to consult a gipsy as to her future, and the fortune-teller prophesied +truth, for the oracular words came forth:—</p> + +<p>"You will carry off the greatest matrimonial prize in all England," the +gipsy said, as she went through the palmistry study of Miss +Dallas-Yorke's shapely hand; "but shortly after your marriage there's +trouble of some sort, for the lines become cloudy. I know what it will +be, young lady; a terrible illness must attack you, yet take courage and +have no fear, my dear, for all will turn out well in the end."</p> + +<p>The sequel to the story is that after the happy event of the marriage +the gipsy had a black gown and a purse of money presented to her by the +Duchess as a compliment to her sagacity as a prophetess.</p> + +<p>The latter part of the prediction was fulfilled <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" />also, for soon after +her marriage the Duchess was attacked by typhoid fever at Welbeck, and +her life hung in the balance for a short time during her illness. +Happily she recovered to take her place in Society, as graceful and +winsome as ever.</p> + +<p>She had been out, in the Society sense of the term, several seasons +before she became acquainted with the Duke. How the meeting came about +is thus related:—</p> + +<p>She was on a visit during the autumn of 1888 to a country house In +Scotland, and while waiting with her maid on the platform of Carlisle +station, she was noticed by the Duke, who was also northward bound for +sport on the moors.</p> + +<p>The Duke was waiting on the platform too, and was attracted by the +perfection of her appearance, her lofty carriage and the expression of +the true gentlewoman on her countenance.</p> + +<p>A few weeks afterwards an introduction took place at the house of a +friend, when they spoke of their recollection of having seen each other +on the platform of the railway station.</p> + +<p>Although the Duke must have known that he was the most coveted +matrimonial prize in England at that time, yet it is said he was shy at +proposing to this magnificent daughter of a Lincolnshire squire.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" />He must have done, however, for in a few months the marriage was +celebrated.</p> + +<p>Soon after the engagement the Duke bought a sable cloak of immense value +for his fiancée; but Mrs. Dallas-Yorke protested against the gift and +said that her daughter had not been accustomed to such costly attire.</p> + +<p>What was the Duke's observation upon this has not passed current; +suffice it to say that the priceless cloak was received and worn by Miss +Dallas-Yorke, who in Society was chaperoned by the Marchioness of +Granby, now Duchess of Rutland.</p> + +<p>Such a fluttering among Society dove-cotes was seldom seen, and sound of +wedding-bells rarely heard with such gleeful joy. It was a love-match, +and, therefore, a popular event all over the land. Only a few weeks +before, the Duke's horse had won the Derby, and the ovation given him by +the racing fraternity was unprecedented to any one, peer or commoner, +below royal rank.</p> + +<p>Then the bride was so full of smiles to all who had the privilege of +offering her congratulations.</p> + +<p>The Duke had earned the reputation of being a "good fellow," a phrase +carrying its own meaning in relation to a typical English nobleman. At +<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" />the zenith of his popularity there is no wonder that crowds lined the +streets on the wedding morning to catch a glimpse of the happy pair as +they drove back from Church. The Prince and Princess of Wales honoured +the ceremony with their presence, and such cheering there was as the +faces of the bride and bridegroom were seen at the windows of the +carriage. It was a smart equipage, and even the coachmen and footmen +were decorated with horse-shoes of flowers on their coats.</p> + +<p>Then there were the rejoicings at Welbeck, where the new Duchess soon +ingratiated herself with the tenantry. "The Good Duchess" was smiling +and approachable, and quickly found her way to the heart of the most +churlish country herdsman.</p> + +<p>It was apparent that the Duchess's mind was not solely occupied with +plans for reigning in London Society and dictating the fashions for a +select and fastidious circle. She knew her powers in that respect; she +had already conquered and was content to please the Duke, and fulfil the +duties of her station towards those who were her equals, and towards the +Duke's retainers on his estates and their dependants.</p> + +<p>Not that she ceased to dazzle with the radiant <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" />splendour of her jewels, +which adorned her natural gracefulness.</p> + +<p>Her coronet of diamonds contains in it a lustrous gem, called the +Portland stone, worth 10,000<i>l</i>., and her jewels altogether are of +fabulous value. Nothwithstanding the changing fashions of High Society, +she retains her preference for a Medici collar of lace and a spray of +Malmaison carnations.</p> + +<p>With the immense sums of money the Duke had won over the Derby victories +he was desirous of adding new treasures to his wife's jewel-case; but +she prevailed upon him to build some almshouses for poor old women at +Welbeck; moreover she is credited with having influenced him to moderate +his indulgence in racing.</p> + +<p>The almshouses, which were called "The Winnings," have upon them the +following inscription: "These houses were erected by the sixth Duke of +Portland at the request of his wife, for the benefit of the poor and to +commemorate the the success of his race-horses." They were not built out +of money made by betting, a habit not encouraged by the Duke.</p> + +<p>At a later period, addressing a meeting of young men, he said: "Turn a +cold shoulder to the book<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" />maker and those who would advise you to throw +your money into the lap of fickle Fortune If you want to be happy. You +might just as well throw the money into a pond."</p> + +<p>The Duchess always has a happy way of opening a Bazaar for some +philanthropic object, and her radiant and affable manner charm those +with whom she is brought into contact, perhaps for the first time. She +is a supporter of the Church Army Training Homes, Bryanston-street, and +she has had the courage to preside over a temperance demonstration in +Hyde Park. Swimming has become a fashionable accomplishment with Society +ladies, and she has shown her interest in extending the cultivation of +that exercise. This is only to mention but a few of the objects that +claim her time and attention, and no lady of high position is more ready +to aid a worthy charity where possible.</p> + +<p>The first child that came to the Duke and Duchess was Lady Victoria +Alexandrina Violet, born in 1890. She was highly honoured at her +christening, for Queen Victoria acted as sponsor person, and held the +baby in her arms. There is at Welbeck an autograph letter from the +Queen, congratulating the parents on their firstborn. The <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" />next was the +heir to the Dukedom, William Arthur Henry, Marquis of Titchfield, born +March 16th, 1893, and the third Lord Francis Norwen Dallas, born in +1900.</p> + +<p>The Duke was Master of the Horse from 1886 to 1892, and from 1895 to +1905; and the Duchess acted as Mistress of the Robes for a short time in +1905, she was also one of the "Canopy Duchesses" at the Coronation.</p> + +<p>The Duke's estates in Scotland include Langwell Lodge, which the family +has frequently visited for deer-stalking and grouse-shooting in the +autumn. Then there is Cessnock Castle, near Galston, Ayrshire, where the +Duke and Duchess had not stayed for many years till 1906. A considerable +part of the fifth Duke's Ayrshire estates, including the Kilmarnock +property, passed at his death to his sister, Lady Ossington, and at her +death to another sister, Lady Howard de Walden, and thence to Lord +Howard de Walden. The Duke has extensive shootings at Fullarton, near +Troon, and Fullarton House was for some time the residence of Louis +Philippe of France.</p> + +<p>The house of Langwell is situated on a beautiful grassy slope, with the +sea in front, while in the background are the silver-clad Scarabines, +rising <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" />with imposing grandeur. The Langdale and Berriedale rivers here +join and flow into the sea, and there are picturesque gorges, with +cave-dwellings and ancient ruins having historic associations. Frowning +cliffs rise precipitously from the waves, and weird caves, only to be +entered when the tide is low, add to the romantic character of the +scenery.</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of this favourite shooting lodge are some steep and +dangerous hills which presented great difficulties to the horses when +taking his Grace's guests to and fro to enjoy their sport. But having +become a votary of the motorcar, these stiff hills have been surmounted +with ease by the four or five vehicles which the Duke has acquired for +sporting purposes. Helmsdale is the nearest railway station to Langwell, +and the road over the Ord of Caithness includes several hills with rough +and loose surfaces, and gradients ranging from 1 in 2 to 1 in 16, so +that the journey is not without its stress both for horses and +motorcars. John o' Groat's is forty-five miles distant, but this, as +well as other places of interest in the neighbourhood, is within +visiting range by the cars, though such long distances were not +attempted with the equine species.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" />To capture the Master of the Horse as an automobilist was a great +achievement for enthusiasts in the advocacy of the new mode of +travelling. The Duke of Portland has been such a devotee to the horse, +as were his ancestors centuries before him, that it was not to be +expected all at once, that he would, give his countenance to any new +invention likely to supplant the noble animal in its position as the +servant and friend of man. Having been a cyclist, when that hobby seized +the fancy of the fashionable world, it was not a long step to +automobilism, and having proved the superiority of the motor vehicle, +the Duke gave orders for some of the best types of cars to be supplied +to him. One of the most luxurious is a Limousine de Deitrich, and his +interest in the new art of locomotion is such that he has had a perfect +track prepared at Clipstone, called "The flying kilometre."</p> + +<p>In 1907 the Duke became a member of the Royal Automobile Club and +submitted all his drivers for examination for the certificate. The test +took place at Welbeck, when there were shown several technical drawings +executed by the candidates, who all passed with merit and received their +certificates.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" />The Duchess on one occasion made some observations in public on motors, +and expressed a doubt as to whether any of her friends would forsake the +horse in favour of mechanical locomotion. That time, however, came +about, and now the Duchess is claimed as a patroness of the car, which +if prosy, compared with the delights of horsemanship, is, nevertheless, +useful for accomplishing distances which horses are not expected to +cover.</p> + +<p>In a speech in the House of Lords, the Duke said he considered the +advent of the motorcar could not but have a weakening influence on the +horse-breeding industry, and before very long several of the functions +which horses at present perform, both in the towns and country +districts, would be carried out by mechanical means. His object in +making these remarks was to call attention to what was impending in +order that some steps might be taken to foster the horse-breeding +industry.</p> + +<p>As far as a continuance of interest in race-horses is concerned, the +Duke had at the commencement of the season 1906 twenty-one horses in +training with W. Waugh at Kingsclere, including thirteen two-year-olds.</p> + +<p>Both King Edward and the Queen have been <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" />entertained at Welbeck since +their accession to the throne, and in 1906 there was a visit from the +Duke and Duchess of Sparta, the Crown Prince and Princess of Greece.</p> + +<p>The Duke's sentiments on "patriotism" may be gathered from some remarks +he made when opening a miniature rifle range constructed at the +Nottingham High School. He referred with approbation to the work of Mr. +Robins, Premier of Manitoba, through whose policy the Union Jack was +unfurled from the roof of every school in the province: "The man who +objects to perpetuating the glories of the flag, who declines to have +his children infused with British patriotism is undesirable." "These +words," said the Duke, "apply to the anti-patriot, the pro-Zulu, the +pro-Boer, the inciter to rebellion in Egypt, and to the stirrer-up of +strife in India. I do not see why rifle-shooting should not become a +popular national sport, equal in prestige to games like cricket and +football."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" /><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" />CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>THE DUKE AND DUCHESS AT HOME.—THE DUCHESS AS PRINCESS BOUNTIFUL.—THE +DUCHESS AT COURT</p> + +<p>Christmas is usually spent by the Duke and Duchess at Welbeck, and one +of the events of the season is the Household Ball to celebrate the +Duke's birthday, which falls on December 28th. It is held in the vast +underground picture-gallery, with the subjects of the old painters +looking down from their canvases upon the gay dancers.</p> + +<p>Choice exotics, stately palms and seasonable shrubs add to the variety +of the decorations. The band is almost hidden in a bower of foliage in +the centre of the great saloon, and there are 500 guests of all ranks of +society from peers and peeresses to the humblest domestic servant.</p> + +<p>About ten o'olock the Duke and Duchess appear with their house party, +and dancing commences with a Circassion Circle. The Duke has the +housekeeper for partner and the Duchess the house-steward, while the +aristocratic guests find partners among other <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" />chiefs of departments in +the Welbeck household.</p> + +<p>With midnight comes supper, served in two adjacent underground rooms, +that owe their excavation to the grim hobby of the old Duke. All the +festive party sit down to supper at the same time, the Duke's French +chef providing the menu. The house-steward presides and proposes the +health of the ducal family. This is welcomed in the manner it deserves +and then dancing is resumed in the picture-gallery.</p> + +<p>On another evening the children on the Welbeck estate are invited to a +party when the head of a giant Christmas-tree is reared in the centre of +the ball-room, laden with toys for distribution to them, and the +pleasures of the entertainment are varied with the tricks of a conjurer +and ventriloquist. Thus is afforded a glimpse of the happy relations +existing between the Portland family and their retainers.</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Cresswell, and the mining +district between Mansfield and Worksop the Duchess is regarded as a +Princess Bountiful in reality, rather than a creation of fairyland. Her +visits to some of the homes of the miners are generally unexpected; for +instance one Monday morning in the late autumn she rode up to the +unpretending dwelling of a collier to enquire <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" />about "an old friend," as +she called him, who had worked in Cresswell pits. A few years before he +had met with an accident and injured his spine. The occurrence came to +the ears of her Grace, who arranged for the patient to visit London to +undergo an operation, which he did, with favourable results. A +bath-chair was obtained for him and since then she had evinced +sympathetic interest in his condition.</p> + +<p>As may well be imagined appeals to the Duchess's sympathies are made +from all quarters. One day she is taking the chair at the annual meeting +of the Children's Hospital at Nottingham. On another day the Nottingham +Samaritan Hospital for Women is having her support in the opening of a +bazaar in its aid.</p> + +<p>Not only suffering humanity, but suffering brute creation has found in +her a sympathetic chord. The Bev. H. Russell, who is well known in the +county for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Society for the Prevention +of Cruelty to Animals, told two interesting stories of her Grace in her +presence at the opening of the bazaar.</p> + +<p>A show of cab-horses and costermongers' donkeys was being held in +Nottingham, when Mr. Russell called the attention of the Duchess to an +old rag-and-bone dealer, who had won no prize, <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" />but who was known to +treat his donkey humanely.</p> + +<p>"What shall I give him?" asked the Duchess.</p> + +<p>"Half a sovereign will be enough, I should think," replied the +clergyman.</p> + +<p>She then handed the money to the man, but she had to borrow it though, +"and," added Mr. Russell, "I do not know whether she ever paid it back +but the result was the same."</p> + +<p>When in Scotland once she found that a man with a cart-load of herrings +had been using a piece of barbed wire to flog his horse with.</p> + +<p>He was taxed with the barbarity, but denied it.</p> + +<p>The Duchess thereupon walked back and found the wire. She and the Duke +then bought up the horse, cart, harness, and herrings, rejecting the +only worthless part of the lot—the man.</p> + +<p>Sandy's greed and Sandy's conscience were most likely on a par in their +flinty qualities, and the dour Scot would be glad to bargain with the +Duchess again on similar terms, eliminating the factor of +humanitarianism.</p> + +<p>On another occasion she is presiding at the annual meeting of the local +branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at +Grantham. "Such meetings as these," she told her audience, "are valuable +because they call <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />attention to the cruelty which exists in such forms +as the decrepit horse traffic, of which the general public has little or +no knowledge. To be ignorant may save trouble; but if it makes us +indifferent and lethargic with regard to suffering, when we ought to be +helpers in the cause of humanity, the sooner we increase our knowledge +the better we shall be able to stop this great evil and rouse public +opinion on the valuable work done by the officers of the Society."</p> + +<p>Again she is a visitor at Mansfield to distribute the prizes in +connection with singing, needlework, and other competitions organized by +the girls' clubs in the district. She spoke of these competitions as +promoting a healthy spirit of rivalry, and promised to give a silver +shield for proficiency in physical drill among girls.</p> + +<p>Her catholic spirit was evinced on her attendance one day early in +February, 1907, at the Mikado Café, Nottingham, when the members of a +Sunday afternoon Wesleyan Bible Class, numbering ninety men, assembled +for dinner. She expressed her interest in the aims of the Bible Class +and in all efforts for the encouragement of right living. A bouquet was +presented to her from the members.</p> + +<p>The Duchess as a flower-seller was a delightful <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />attraction at a Church +bazaar at Sutton-in-Ashfield, a town where there is considerable ducal +property. In a graceful little speech declaring the bazaar open she +said: "I know you are all tired of bazaars and desirous of adopting some +better method of collecting money, if such could be devised, but until +some brilliant or practical mind finds such a way, you are forced to +move in the old groove and repeat the same efforts."</p> + +<p>The story of borrowing half a sovereign is not the only +well-authenticated instance of her Grace having to negotiate a loan in +consequence of her liberal instincts having prompted her to outrun the +resources of her pocket.</p> + +<p>After opening a bazaar for the Newark Hospital she passed round the +stalls and made purchases freely, so that by the time she had made the +round she had completely exhausted her purse. It was necessary that she +should have enough to pay her railway fare to London, whither she wished +to travel, and the honour of tending her the amount she wanted, fell to +one of the stewards. The loan, I believe, was promptly repaid.</p> + +<p>A Court of exceptional, splendour was held by the King and Queen at +Buckingham Palace in May, 1905, and as the then Mistress of the Robes, +<a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" />the Duchess of Buccleugh, was unable to attend through being in +mourning, her place was taken by the Duchess of Portland, none eclipsing +her in that brilliant throng of English nobility. She wore a gown of +ivory velvet, brocaded round the skirt with bouquets of flowers and +trimmed with Italian lace and cream chiffon; the train of superb +Brussels lace belonged to Marie Antoinette. Her jewels were diamonds, +pearls and emeralds.</p> + +<p>A brilliant Chapter of the Garter was held in November, 1906, and was +followed by a banquet. The regal appearance of the Duchess may be +gathered from a description of her dress of cloudy white, embroidered +with mother-of-pearl, a high diamond tiara on her dark hair and a +magnificent bouquet of flowers, surrounded with a wealth of glittering +diamonds on her corsage.</p> + +<p>Miss May Cavendish-Bentinck was married to Mr. John Ford on November +3rd, 1906, when Lady Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck made her appearance for +the first time as a bridesmaid. Mr. Ford was secretary of the British +Legation at Copenhagen and the bride was one of the Duke's cousins. Lady +Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck, the Duke's only daughter, will probably be +presented at Court next season.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" /><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" />CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p style='text-align: center;'>CLAIMS TO THE PORTLAND PEERAGE BY MRS. DRUCE AND MR. G.H. DRUCE.</p> + + +<p>Full of romance as the Portland peerage was up to recent years, there is +still another chapter to be added, in relating some of the statements +made in connection with the claims put forward by Mrs. Druce and Mr. +G.H. Druce to the honours and wealth of the Bentincks. It must be stated +emphatically that there is no intention whatever to comment upon these +claims or to prejudice their fair consideration, in the tribunals of the +land. No literary sketch of the great House of Portland would be +complete without it summarised the salient points in the Druce claims as +they have appeared from time to time in newspaper reports and in the +narratives of those who knew the fifth Duke in his lifetime. This +compilation is intended to epitomise the history of the illustrious +family of Bentinck in consecutive order of the events as they have +occurred, in such a manner as is not found in any other publication; but +in no way to influence opinion either on one side or <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" />the other. It was +in 1898 that public attention was called to the case, when Mrs. Druce +set up a claim to the Portland peerage on behalf of her son.</p> + +<p>The ground on which it was based was that her father-in-law, Mr. Thomas +Charles Druce, and the fifth Duke of Portland were one and the same +person; that in fact the Duke had a double existence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Druce was in a large way of business at the Baker-street Bazaar, an +enterprise opened about 1834 or 1835, with a capital estimated at +100,000<i>l</i>. At that time the Duke had not succeeded to his family +estates, but was Marquis of Titchfield. It was known that he and his +brothers had been successful in horse-racing and if, as Marquis, he +could spare 100,000<i>l</i>. to open this London business, some indication is +given of his winnings.</p> + +<p>In the construction of the Bazaar it was said that there was an +underground passage leading from the back of the premises. By this means +of ingress or egress Druce could appear in the midst of his shopmen when +they least expected him and as suddenly vanish, possibly into an +underground passage, which it was believed was no myth, leading from +Baker-street to Harcourt House.</p> + +<p>While conducting this important business at Baker-street, Mr. Druce +married in 1851 Annie May Berke<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" />ley, daughter of the Earl of Berkeley. +The Earl's marriage with this lady's mother had been disputed, and was +held by the House of Lords to be illegal.</p> + +<p>That, however, has no bearing on the Portland romance, the question that +arose in 1898 was whether the Duke, under the alias of T.C. Druce, +married Miss Berkeley. The strange part of the contention is that Mr. +Druce died, or there was a mock burial of his body in Highgate Cemetery, +in 1864, whereas the Duke lived on till 1879. The allegation is that +there was no death of that particular person in 1864, and that the +coffin at the sham funeral was filled with lead or stones.</p> + +<p>Mr. Druce had a residence at Holcolmbe House, Hendon, and it was here +that he repaired to die.</p> + +<p>The funeral was on December 31st, 1864, and the vault was prepared in +Highgate Cemetery. There was a stately hearse accompanied by six +bearers. The coffin was noticed to be of enormous weight, and the +strength of the men were taxed when their duties came to carrying and +lowering it into the grave.</p> + +<p>From this circumstance arose a curious idea that it did not contain the +body of Druce, who was not stout and heavy; but that it was filled with +stones or lead. There were no burial certificates forthcoming, but the +owners of the <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" />cemetery accepted the coffin for burial.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Druce died there were two sons left of the alliance with Miss +Berkeley, one of whom continued the Baker-street establishment.</p> + +<p>But what was the astonishment of some of the frequenters of the purlieus +of Baker-street to see the man who was supposed to have been buried +visiting the same haunts where they had seen him before.</p> + +<p>To have witnessed or heard of the funeral of a man, and then to meet +that same man in his customary sphere of business afterwards, is of the +nature of a ghost-story. "What did the coffin in Highgate Cemetery +contain?" was the riddle.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Druce's husband was a son of the late Mr. T.C. Druce, and it was on +behalf of her son that proceedings were commenced. She made an +application to the Consistory Court for a faculty granting her power to +have the coffin in Highgate Cemetery opened in order to see whether it +contained a body or only some heavy substance such as lead.</p> + +<p>It was asserted that T.C. Druce had been seen alive some years after it +was supposed that he had been buried; that he was identified as the Duke +of Portland, and that there were persons cognisant of the fact that the +Duke and Druce were one <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" />and the same person before 1864. Dr. Tristram, +the judge, granted the faculty, but notice of appeal was given to +prevent the coffin being opened.</p> + +<p>The case then came before the Divisional Court, which ruled that the +London Cemetery Company was right in resisting the order of Dr. +Tristram, and that the grave could not be opened without the licence of +the Home Secretary. The decision was in effect that Dr. Tristram had no +jurisdiction to make such an order, except as conditional on the +authority of the Home Secretary being obtained.</p> + +<p>At length the case reached the Court of Appeal in December, 1899, when +Mrs. Druce made no appearance to support the faculty she had obtained, +and the appeal was dismissed with costs against her.</p> + +<p>In the course of the proceedings the statements of two or three persons +who knew Mr. Druce were published in the Press.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hamilton's narrative was to the effect that from a girl she had +known the same gentleman both as Mr. Druce and the Duke of Portland, her +father, Mr. Robert Lennox Stuart, being a great friend of his from +boyhood days, and, it was averred, distantly related. There were +frequent visits both to Cavendish-square and to the Baker-street Bazaar, +and on one occasion, about <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" />1849, Mrs. Hamilton says she was taken by +her father to Welbeck where they were met by Druce. Then, in 1851, her +father attended the marriage of Druce and Annie May Berkeley. At length +the time came when Druce determined to be dead to the outer world. "I +must die," he said to Mr. Stuart.</p> + +<p>The arrangements for the death were duly carried out and there ensued a +sham burial, at which Mrs. Hamilton says her father was present.</p> + +<p>Two years passed away and Mrs. Hamilton was greatly astonished one day +to see Mr. Druce enter the house where she and her father were staying.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were dead," she said naïvely.</p> + +<p>Druce was not well pleased at the remark and continued the conversation +with her father.</p> + +<p>On another occasion Druce took Mrs. Hamilton, then a girl, to Madame +Tussaud's, at which her father was angry; he also gave her money for +sweets and flowers.</p> + +<p>A great many transactions took place between her father and Druce +relative to a lady whom they spoke of as "Emmy," and who was eventually +sent to France, by Druce, who gave her 5,000<i>l</i>. This was in 1876, and +Mr. Stuart went to Welbeck to arrange for the departure with her two +children. She died not long afterwards. The last <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" />time that Mrs. +Hamilton says she saw Druce was in 1876, when he called at her father's +and complained of being unwell. He spoke of his visits to his old friend +Stuart as being the happiest hours of his life. Some little time after +the sham burial Mrs. Annie May Druce came to Mrs. Hamilton's father's +house, and was introduced to Mrs. Hamilton as "Mrs. Druce." Another +statement was made by Mrs. F. M. Wright, nee Robinson, nee Weatherell, +who said that when she was 20 years of age she lived near the +Baker-street Bazaar, owned by Mr. T.C. Druce, and frequently saw that +gentleman. After the supposed death and burial of Mr. Druce she saw him +often, and in her mind he was identical with the Duke of Portland. As to +her knowledge of the Duke her father was in the service of his Grace +when she was a young girl, and she was familiar with his features. Mr. +Druce had a large bump on the left side of his forehead, which appeared +to have been caused by a blow. The Duke also had a bump, and in her +opinion this resemblance was evidence that the owner of the Baker-street +Bazaar and the Duke were one and the same person. While these statements +were causing some amount of public interest there was a new development +in this extraordinary case. The legal pro<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" />ceedings commenced by Mrs. +Druce were widely reported in the Press and accounts of them reached +Australia, where they were read by a man pursuing the calling of a +miner. His name is Mr. George Hollamby Druce, who put forward a prior +claim to the Dukedom than that urged by Mrs. Druce on behalf of her son.</p> + +<p>His contention is that the Duke, as T.C. Druce, married in October, +1816, Miss Elizabeth Crickmer, of Bury St. Edmunds, by whom he had a son +named George. This youth took to a sea-faring life and eventually +settled in Australia, where he had a son, namely Mr. George Hollamby +Druce, whose claim to the title takes precedence of that set up by Mrs. +Druce for the offspring of the second marriage with Annie May Berkeley.</p> + +<p>The question of the exhumation of the body appears to be involved in +legal technicalities as to the ownership of the vault. At one time it +was vested in the son of Mrs. Druce who commenced the litigation. Then +there appeared this other claimant, Mr. George Hollamby Druce, and it is +said that the present owner of the vault, Mr. Herbert Druce, is not in +favour of complying with Mr. G.H. Druce's wish to open it, therefore the +secret of the grave remains unrevealed.</p> + +<p>THE END</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>The Anchor Press, Ltd., Tiptree Heath, Essex.</i></p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14371 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |