The subterranean secrets of Lord John Bentinck's English Country Home.
Let’s start with a simple but important point: All was not right in the mind of William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, an introvert and eccentric par excellence who built an elaborate tunnel system under his sprawling Victorian estate all so he didn’t have to talk to other people.
The fifth Duke of Portland, aka the Marquess of Titchfield, aka Lord John Bentinck, was a man of prestige. He was a captain in the British Army, as well as a politician who served in multiple houses of government. This was not the result of a particularly strong intellect or work ethic, but, rather, rarified socioeconomic stock: His grandfather, William Henry, served two terms as British prime minister, and Bentinck’s entry to the House of Lords was literally automatic when he inherited the dukedom at age 24, upon his older brother’s premature death.
From a young age, Bentinck suffered from the Victorian catchall known as “delicate health.” He quit the army on account of lethargy, and gave up his seat as MP (to his uncle, naturally) after just a couple of years on the job. Years later, in 1854, when he became the Duke of Portland, it took Bentinck a full three years just to take his oath and officially join the House of Lords.
Bentinck’s ill health appears to have gone hand in hand with his crippling social anxiety. While he was known for his private skills as a hunter and judge of horses, in public Bentinck struggled to get along with others. As the years went on, he turned more and more of his attention to Welbeck Abbey, his grand country house in North Nottinghamshire. The estate itself dated back to the twelfth century, but when Bentinck lived there, little of the original abbey remained—and by the time he was done with it, the estate would be a completely different animal.
On the grounds themselves, Bentinck oversaw the construction of an immense riding house that could hold a hundred horses, as well as a vast kitchen garden that included a thousand-foot-long wall just for growing and ripening peaches; when roller skating became a trendy leisure activity, he built an entire rink for his staff to use.
But the real story at Welbeck Abbey happened underground, as Bentinck commissioned a vast network of subterranean tunnels and corridors, the largest of which was wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side and led toward the closest town, which was several miles away. He also built a series of specialty rooms underground, including a library, a billiards room, and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom. In all, the work took nearly two decades to complete, and required a significant workforce not just to build it, but also to maintain it for the years to come.
Why did he do this? We don’t really know, but it sure wasn’t for the benefit of his guests—because he didn’t have any. Bentinck lived on his own and did not make a habit of inviting people over. He did, however, enjoy the quiet life in the countryside, and personally attended routine chores like emptying the lake and feeding the deer that roamed the estate. As he got older, Bentinck retreated even further from public life, occupying just a few of the many rooms in Welbeck Abbey and avoiding speaking directly even to his staff. According to some accounts, Bentinck carried around an umbrella to hide behind just in case someone tried to address him directly.
Bentinck was an odd guy—likely with some undiagnosed or at least untreated mental-health issues—and his biography comes with an equally odd coda. In 1896, nearly 20 years after his death at age 79, a woman came forward to claim that Bentinck had led a double life and was, in fact, her father-in-law. The woman petitioned the government for years to exhume her father-in-law’s coffin, which she believed would be empty. By the time the coffin was eventually dug up, where it was found to indeed contain the correct body, the woman had been committed to a mental institution.
The moral of Bentinck’s story is the same as it ever was: No matter your social defects, when you’re obscenely wealthy, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
Although truth be told, most of us would do something very different.
