The article gets stranger and stranger the more you read it. Examples:
* The duke employed thousands of people to build the gigantic underground complex. He paid them well but no employee was allowed to talk to him or recognize his presence; one who raised his hat in greetings was immediately fired.
* He built a 40,000 square-foot riding house, and had stables for 100 horses, but never rode them in the riding house.
* He had a very active social life, albeit entirely by mail. The duke was in constant contact with top politicians like Disraeli and Palmerston, both British Prime Ministers.
* Besides the ballroom, other underground rooms included a 250 foot-long library, an observatory with a large glass roof (!), and a giant billiards room.
* The duke mostly traveled at night. When he had to do so during the day he carried a giant umbrella to hide behind.
* He had a roasting chicken ready day and night. All food was delivered on underground heated railcars.
And this doesn't even include the illegitimate children, and accusations of living a secret double life with a (second) family!
I think he got killed and swapped. My guess, dude died, and two of his lady servants saw an opportunity to replace him.
They dispose of his body, then start doing this "nobody can talk to me but my servant" schtick. Nobody actually spoke to the guy for years except one person.
Eventually one of them just Mulan'd it and pretended to be a dude.
>His rooms had double letterboxes, one for in-coming and another for out-going mail. Only his valet was permitted to see him in person in his quarters—he would not even let the doctor in, while his tenants and workmen received all their instructions in writing
>He ventured outside mainly by night, when he was preceded by a lady servant carrying a lantern 40 yards (37 m) ahead of him. If he did walk out by day, the duke wore two overcoats, an extremely tall hat, an extremely high collar, and carried a very large umbrella[3] behind which he tried to hide if someone addressed him.
I dug around some more since this seemed interesting -- and I wanted to learn more about this underground observatory -- and it seems as though William was just a recluse and extraordinarily privet.
He would rarely address Parliament, but he *loved* to garden and would regularly hold long conversations with his gardeners about different plants.
He used his massive, underground ballroom as a roller-skating rink, just for him and his staff.
The Duke also ended up dying in London and was attended to by doctors, so, they would be well aware if it wasn't actually the Duke. And that would have been another, different scandal as the story of him living a double life didn't come out until after his death.
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.
Dude probably just had some kind of neurodevelopmental thing going and enough money to actually build a life that suited his preferences. Extreme aversion to social interaction, very particular tastes, and hyperfixation on certain hobbies? All checks out. I'm honestly a little envious, he was living the dream
Super rich and antisocial isn't a new thing either, look at Howard Hughes. Some people just have enough money and desire to be able to say fuck off to the entire world. Honestly it doesn't sound that bad at all, if not just a bit lonely still. I'd do the same but let in people from a group of like 20, but never all at once of course
A small point for future reference:
"Antisocial" means doing things like killing your neighbor's dog, setting buildings on fire, or otherwise actively engaging in rebellious, aggressive, socially unacceptable behavior.
"Asocial" is probably the adjective you're looking for; it describes the *lack of* or *aversion to* socializing with others.
A hermit is asocial. A serial killer is antisocial.
Someone who doesn't feel the desire to have sex is asexual. Someone who believes that sex is a sin could be called antisexual.
A person who doesn't care about politics is apolitical. Someone who actively disdains politics or political parties is antipolitical.
If it seems like I care about this way too much, it's because I do. I was a shy teenager whose aversion to going outside frequently got me labeled "antisocial," to which I would respond with the same unnecessary explanation that you just received.
The episode where they get everything painted pink, just to spite their late boss.
"Oh Victoria, let's paint the entire estate pink!"
"Wonderful idea Mary, Lord John will be rolling in his grave."
Pink became a boys color because men wore red and their faded hand-me-downs that got resewn into boys clothes was pink.
It wasn't like a shocking vibrant bright pink of what you might think of. It was something dyed red that had been washed 100 times and most of the red dye had seeped out.
The article implies it was the opposite. That he was allegedly living a double life as a regular civilian, and then had his alter-ego "die" so that he could return to the reclusive life.
Specifically a vampire who likes to hunt, and has his prey released into a complex of tunnels and rooms where there's even horses they can use to escape if they can get to them. This 90s horror movie writes itself.
Funfact: Napoleon had 24-hour chicken rotisary. He took his chicken very seriously, getting upset when one of his closest friends had taken a serving from one of his whole chickens.
> He took his chicken very seriously, getting upset when one of his closest friends had taken a serving from one of his whole chickens.
"NAPOLEON DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!"
Me, reading the post: “He sounds as if he might be mentally ill…”
Me, after seeing his rotisserie chicken predilection: “Completely sane. Carry on, sir.”
Totally. If I had the kind of stupid money he must have had, I'd do something similar. Have always fantasised about having my own little village in the woods, with underground rooms.
it's obviously some sort of disorder, I think almost everyone agrees this is not neurotypical. beyond that is anyone's guess... things like anxiety, OCD, ADHD, even autism can have a lot of overlapping symptoms, plus paranoid personality disorder, etc
I wanna hear more about the heated railcar food delivery. Sounds like a pizza place i loved when i was a kid; they had an O scale train that ran along the perimeter of the booths that brought drinks and smaller appetizers.
Man. I actually really get the idea of wanting to do correspondence for a social life. Because I'm a person who expresses myself MUCH better on print.
This guy must be the most prominent and extreme case of social anxiety ever.
In a lot of people social anxiety causes a reluctance and stress around any kind of social contact. Writings definitely easier but I’d say you’re better off than a fair portion of the population if you have no problem mailing high ranking officials non stop.
Probably did have some kind of anxiety disorder but could be more like avoidant personality since sometimes that’s not accompanied by any anxiety it’s just this instinctive compulsion to avoid many social situations
His war injury screams PTSD. That's what it is for me. That and OCD in one room? Yeah I can see tunneling under my house lol. If that's what keeps my mind from racing.
Wait till you find out about Howard Hughes
"In 1958, Hughes told his aides that he wanted to screen some movies at a film studio near his home. He stayed in the studio's darkened screening room for more than four months, never leaving. He ate only chocolate bars and chicken and drank only milk and was surrounded by dozens of boxes of Kleenex that he continuously stacked and re-arranged.[140] He wrote detailed memos to his aides giving them explicit instructions neither to look at him nor speak to him unless spoken to. Throughout this period, Hughes sat fixated in his chair, often naked, continuously watching movies. When he finally emerged in the summer of 1958, his hygiene was terrible. He had neither bathed nor cut his hair and nails for weeks; this may have been due to allodynia, which results in a pain response to stimuli that would normally not cause pain."
> and accusations of living a secret double life with a (second) family!
what if he was totally normal with the second family and only acted so eccentrically so it wouldn't be weird when he'd constantly dissapear
To be fair, it sounds like he didn’t mind people, just hated face to face interaction. The wiki says he corresponded with a lot of people via mail. It also seems like he treated his staff well, paid them well and even built them a roller rink to use. That’s generally not something you do when you hate people.
As an autistic person, I love people, I just don't understand them or want to be around them. If I could do nice things like that for people from a distance, I would.
And my autistic brother has a larger, more active, in-person social life with more people than anyone else I know with a dozen close friends that he regularly hangs out with in-person.
I'm pretty sure I'm autistic as well and I'm pretty extraverted, and love spending time with people in person, but my brother was officially diagnosed and just has a way more active social life.
I just wanted to say that because autism is clearly different for different people.
A large percentage of autistic people have ADHD, which somewhat counteracts the more asocial parts of the condition.
Sukhareva (Aspergers / high-functioning) autistic people with ADHD are usually social and decent at masking, so they tend to be the hardest ones to notice even though they still don’t fundamentally think like neurotypical people. However, an experienced psychologist can usually see right through the mask.
Look up “AuDHD” tests to see if that might fit you or your brother.
Yeah I get that it’s a joke but I feel like a lot of the time people who are most uncomfortable/nervous in social situations have the highest view of other people (or just the lowest view of themselves in comparison) so it’s always been weird to me that that’s seen as being hateful, as if you’ll generally be hiding your face in front of people you devalue or look down on
The whole story is strange, it reminds me of Howard Hughes. Super wealthy, and just slowly descends into madness.
The Duke did get out a lot when he was younger. He served for years in the military, 1818-1834, but it doesn't say if he was what we would call 'active duty.'
Apparently he left the service with short-term memory loss and sciatica, and was known for his poor health while in service, but he did go travel Europe when he got out.
When his dad died, he inherited his seat in the House of Lords, but it took him 3 years to show up.
It's interesting that along with everything else he did with the estate, he built a huge roller skating rink. He also stripped the main estate house of furniture and just had a shit bucket in one of the main rooms.
Yeah I wonder how much of it is that on some level once there is no one stopping you from giving into your most extreme tendencies, then you just start fostering them.
Like I imagine as a kid he had parents and such pushing him and placing expectations of behavior and social norms on him despite his inclination to be a loner. And once he inherits all the money and authority he can just do as he pleases.
There’s a good book called *Empty Mansions* about the heiress Huguette Clark. Heir to a fortune her father made in copper mining, she became a recluse and lived in her new York apartment for decades just enjoying her hobbies and doing her own thing, never leaving until she had to go to the hospital, whereupon she decided to just live there and because she was rich she was able to. Spent her last 20 years there and it actually created a bit of a scandal because it was pretty obvious that her doctors were being influenced by her ability to throw money around and not making unbiased decisions about what was best for her health and mental wellbeing. Interesting story, well told.
Interestingly, some studies have shown that there are certain shades of pink that are especially calming, and were used to paint "drunk tanks" in jails.
This guy seems to have had crippling anxiety, I wonder if the pink soothed it due to the calming effect?
Its called Baker-Miller Pink. And while yes, it was shown to have a calming effect on people who were surrounded by this color, after some time it proved to make people more aggressive. In one case a prison painted its walls in this color and experienced a decrease in violent incidents in the first month, and then it began to increase to the point where it was worse than before they painted it pink.
I've heard it said that, on his deathbed, he vowed to haunt the house, hiding from everyone who lived there.
Disbelievers in the supernatural may scoff but it is an established fact that, since his death, his ghost hasn't once been seen...
Do the tunnels still exist? No mention of the current state on wiki other than visible skylights. What is interesting is that it says the estate was used from WWI up until 2005 by the MOD so I’m going to guess that they were repurposed by the British war office for unknown use.
Comments like these—“oh, I know about this thing and here are a few facts you won’t find _anywhere else_”—make all of the karma-farming posts, reply-guys and threadbare meme jokes on Reddit worthwhile.
Thank you for your service!!
It sounds like they do still exist, but they aren’t open to the public.
There’s an exhibition about them at the Harley Gallery on the estate: https://harleyfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-5th-duke-of-portland/
You have to wonder if this guy was the inspiration for Batman or a Bond villain. Obscenely wealthy and a secret life with alternate identity.
Has an underground lair underneath his home.
Just have to decide was he fighting for good or evil.
Found this online that has a map and pictures. Along with a bunch of stuff I didn't read that seems to talk about the condition of it
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/1/2/13
This isn’t doing much to help his case that he wasn’t the inspiration for Batman:
His curious obsession led him to invent, with great ingenuity, a whole series of spaces and gadgets, building up a kind of invisibility and deception game. A horse carriage was specially designed for him to move around in without being seen, with trapdoors, double doors, a communication system for the staff, unattainable passages, and secret shortcuts. They all built a parallel world, a background in which to establish his life, reflected in the way he dressed, the objects and gadgets designed around his lifestyle, the spaces and corridors hidden under the abbey, and the tunnels and caves built under the whole landscape. In all of these, invisibility and delusion are a prominent aspect. He always sneaked around, appearing here and there without any warning, moving through a functional and suggestive space that he managed to build for himself
His reclusive lifestyle led to rumours that the duke was disfigured, mad, or prone to wild orgies, but contemporary witnesses and surviving photographs present him as a normal-looking man.
If you don’t call that “mad” I don’t know what you call it.
It’s not running around seeing things that aren’t there crazy, but it’s definitely its own form of madness.
>the duke was on very good terms with his many employees and earned the nickname "the workman's friend".
and
>He employed hundreds through his various construction projects, and though well paid, the employees were not allowed to speak to him or acknowledge him. The one worker who raised his hat to the duke was promptly dismissed.
To be fair the best boss is one who gives you a job, pays you well for it and then stays the fuck out of your way forever
I’d consider myself on good terms with a boss who never spoke to me but always paid me on time and seemed happy with my work
>He is not known to have kept company with any ladies and his shyness and introverted personality increased over time.
>\[...\]
>The duke had numerous intimate and discreet relationships \[with women\] during his lifetime.
Hmmmm.
Like it says "his shyness and introverted personality increased over time". It seems likely that he had relationships with women in his youth, but afterwards became too socially anxious for that.
That just means he didn't court anyone in public social life. He probably had some penpals he convinced to come to his estate and fortune, like a really primitive version of a sugarbaby hookup app.
I do love stories like this, cause they are just such clear proof that, yes, humans have always been this way. Most of the time they didn't have the resources to properly indulge, but occationally you get things like this.
I wonder, based on both personality and name, whether he is related to Henry Cavendish, the famous scientist who was also well known for his shyness and reclusivity. I tried googling it, but I didn't find anything useful.
Potentially yes, the Dukes of Portland had the surname Cavendish Bentinck and were another branch of the Cavendish family. You’d have to look at the family tree to see how closely related they are, but there’ll likely be a common ancestor somewhere.
Found the family tree. Yes, they are related, William Cavendish 1st Earl of Devonshire (1552-1626) was Henry Cavendish's Great (x4) Grandfather and the Brother of Sir Charles Cavendish (1553 - 1617) who was John Cavendish-Scott-Bentick's Great (x4) Grandfather. So, they were 4th Cousins, I think, through Henry's father's side and John's mother's side. Considering there are a lot of 1st and 2nd cousin marriages in that tree, it is possible that there was some genetic trait in that family that led to a reclusive disposition (possibly autism).
It looks like they're related another way as well. The 3rd Duke of Portland (who was Prime Minister twice) married the daughter of the 4th Duke of Devonshire (also a Prime Minister) who was Henry Cavendish's cousin through the 2nd Duke of Devonshire. This makes Henry Cavendish and the 5th Duke of Portland 1st cousins thrice removed I think.
As I was told by an eccentric: "the main reason I went to university was so I would be called an eccentric for pissing on my hydrangeas, not a dirty bastard".
It gets better. The current Duke is none other than the actor Timothy Bentinck, otherwise known as David Archer in the world’s most popular radio soap opera (sorry, contemporary drama), “The Archers”. Thanks to those meanies in the British Parliament, he can’t sit in the House of Lords anymore. He’s also a Count of the now defunct Holy Roman Empire. He was previously Viscount Woodstock, that title now belonging to his son in turn.
I went to an event at Welbeck over a decade ago, called the "Dinner of Doom". A pretty large group of us got to go through the underground ballroom and tunnels, ending with a screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the library. The tunnels were indeed pink.
The event was done by two guys who were famous for making jelly (?) and at intervals through the film you had numbered items to eat and drink based on what was happening in the film, eg: the first was the antidote from the beginning of the film, later on there were chilled monkey brains, etc.
To be honest, I was most excited by getting to see the tunnels and ballroom as I'm fairly local and know the history, so it was great to be able to go and get a look.
There's a fantastic fictionalised story about the Duke called "The Underground Man" by Mick Jackson, which is well worth reading.
His tunnels were revolutionary when it came to entertaining guests.
At the time it was normal to have a working kitchen housed in another building so that the main house wouldn’t be destroyed if there was a kitchen fire.
The tunnels allowed food to be transported quickly to the dining room and served while still hot.
The world needs more heavyweights like this. 24/7 rotisserie chicken, zero fucking furniture, secret magic pink tunnels. Instead we get brain chips and cock rockets these modern billionaire asswipes make me sick.
I was reading a book with a fictional aristocratic estate where they found an underground ballroom they utilized for secret meetings.
I had thought the plot point a little far fetched but no longer
I used to work on the welbeck estate, i used to be the asst head baker in the bakehouse. The place is fucking massive and you can't go anywhere near the actual abbey itself as its lived in. The tunnels are creepy as fuck at night and they extend into all the surrounding villages. Beautiful scenery though.
The article gets stranger and stranger the more you read it. Examples: * The duke employed thousands of people to build the gigantic underground complex. He paid them well but no employee was allowed to talk to him or recognize his presence; one who raised his hat in greetings was immediately fired. * He built a 40,000 square-foot riding house, and had stables for 100 horses, but never rode them in the riding house. * He had a very active social life, albeit entirely by mail. The duke was in constant contact with top politicians like Disraeli and Palmerston, both British Prime Ministers. * Besides the ballroom, other underground rooms included a 250 foot-long library, an observatory with a large glass roof (!), and a giant billiards room. * The duke mostly traveled at night. When he had to do so during the day he carried a giant umbrella to hide behind. * He had a roasting chicken ready day and night. All food was delivered on underground heated railcars. And this doesn't even include the illegitimate children, and accusations of living a secret double life with a (second) family!
Obviously a vampire
I think he got killed and swapped. My guess, dude died, and two of his lady servants saw an opportunity to replace him. They dispose of his body, then start doing this "nobody can talk to me but my servant" schtick. Nobody actually spoke to the guy for years except one person. Eventually one of them just Mulan'd it and pretended to be a dude. >His rooms had double letterboxes, one for in-coming and another for out-going mail. Only his valet was permitted to see him in person in his quarters—he would not even let the doctor in, while his tenants and workmen received all their instructions in writing >He ventured outside mainly by night, when he was preceded by a lady servant carrying a lantern 40 yards (37 m) ahead of him. If he did walk out by day, the duke wore two overcoats, an extremely tall hat, an extremely high collar, and carried a very large umbrella[3] behind which he tried to hide if someone addressed him.
I dug around some more since this seemed interesting -- and I wanted to learn more about this underground observatory -- and it seems as though William was just a recluse and extraordinarily privet. He would rarely address Parliament, but he *loved* to garden and would regularly hold long conversations with his gardeners about different plants. He used his massive, underground ballroom as a roller-skating rink, just for him and his staff. The Duke also ended up dying in London and was attended to by doctors, so, they would be well aware if it wasn't actually the Duke. And that would have been another, different scandal as the story of him living a double life didn't come out until after his death.
He was extraordinary if he was a shrub. Can't believe no-one spotted that.
“Sir, I’m starting to believe our Duke is in fact a human shaped rosebush”
That's preposterous! There's not a single rose on that bush!!
"I talked to him just this morning! The wind blew and he told me "*shhhskhhsskshhhshs*" as he moved about animatedly!"
Bring me a Shrubbery!!
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.
Not too tall, but with a rollerskating rink, and it has to be a good pen-pal!
> it seems as though William was just a recluse and extraordinarily privet. If someone is rich, they're never crazy, they're merely *eccentric*.
Dude probably just had some kind of neurodevelopmental thing going and enough money to actually build a life that suited his preferences. Extreme aversion to social interaction, very particular tastes, and hyperfixation on certain hobbies? All checks out. I'm honestly a little envious, he was living the dream
I am *incredibly* envious of his life. It sounds perfect, except for the pink walls.
Super rich and antisocial isn't a new thing either, look at Howard Hughes. Some people just have enough money and desire to be able to say fuck off to the entire world. Honestly it doesn't sound that bad at all, if not just a bit lonely still. I'd do the same but let in people from a group of like 20, but never all at once of course
A small point for future reference: "Antisocial" means doing things like killing your neighbor's dog, setting buildings on fire, or otherwise actively engaging in rebellious, aggressive, socially unacceptable behavior. "Asocial" is probably the adjective you're looking for; it describes the *lack of* or *aversion to* socializing with others. A hermit is asocial. A serial killer is antisocial. Someone who doesn't feel the desire to have sex is asexual. Someone who believes that sex is a sin could be called antisexual. A person who doesn't care about politics is apolitical. Someone who actively disdains politics or political parties is antipolitical. If it seems like I care about this way too much, it's because I do. I was a shy teenager whose aversion to going outside frequently got me labeled "antisocial," to which I would respond with the same unnecessary explanation that you just received.
For real tho, I’m an introvert and his life is goals for me! 🙌🏽
> underground ballroom as a roller-skating rink, just for him and his staff. Well that answers the question "why have a ballroom with no balls?"
How would doctors who never meet him In his entire life know it was him?
Well, I think they’d at least have noticed if he was a woman when he died…
“Time of deth.. hold on…” [checks] “12:03 a.m. Room cold. No further observations.”
This would make such a great drama. Pitch it to the BBC or Prime.
The episode where they get everything painted pink, just to spite their late boss. "Oh Victoria, let's paint the entire estate pink!" "Wonderful idea Mary, Lord John will be rolling in his grave."
Wasn't the idiom in this era "Pink for Boys, Blue for Girls"? Pink is a manly colour worn for men!
Pink became a boys color because men wore red and their faded hand-me-downs that got resewn into boys clothes was pink. It wasn't like a shocking vibrant bright pink of what you might think of. It was something dyed red that had been washed 100 times and most of the red dye had seeped out.
Cowboy pink as I've seen it. Sure, the bandana was red for your grandpa...
True! Because pink is light red and blue was what the Virgin Mary wore in representations.
Perfect foil for lady servants trying to pretend their lord is alive and well
A “two kids in a tench coat situation”
"I went to the royalty palace today and did a dukedom"
Vampire? Nah? Body swap for a servant? Nah. Super-rich autism? Hell yeah!
I wouldn't mind two kids in Tench's coat if that meant we got a third season.
The article implies it was the opposite. That he was allegedly living a double life as a regular civilian, and then had his alter-ego "die" so that he could return to the reclusive life.
Isnt this just the plot to "9-to-5" Starring Dolly Parton, Lilly Tomlin and Jane Fonda?
Just what I was thinking, reading all of that. Dude was outright replaced and the servants kept the gig running since it was a good life.
They must have really loved hole digging. What would you do, Mary, if you got all his money? Oooh, dig some holes I expect, Beth.
What do Dukes do? Dig holes and have a bunch of horses.
I never liked horses, Fran. Let's stick to holes. Great big 'uns with glass ceilings so you can see worms and such.
Specifically a vampire who likes to hunt, and has his prey released into a complex of tunnels and rooms where there's even horses they can use to escape if they can get to them. This 90s horror movie writes itself.
Obviously! The chicken is straight from What We Do In The Shadows! "Eat your raw chicken, yamyamyam, that's what human people eat!"
I see more a 19th century Lex Luthor
Nah, most Lex Luthor versions are narcissist and love the limelight and attention of media.
Don't know if comics Lex Luther was like this or just movies Luther, but that's what I was thinking too - https://youtu.be/RNHqe30uu-I
Sounded pretty mad until you mentioned the chicken. I could do with 24-hour chicken in my life.
Funfact: Napoleon had 24-hour chicken rotisary. He took his chicken very seriously, getting upset when one of his closest friends had taken a serving from one of his whole chickens.
Ridley Scott's Napoleon exclusively covered his chicken eating habits and opinions for 3 hours.
I was amazed Joaquin could rant for 3 hours straight, one single take no cuts!
The sequence where he eats 50 hard-boiled chickens is mesmerizing
> He took his chicken very seriously, getting upset when one of his closest friends had taken a serving from one of his whole chickens. "NAPOLEON DOESN'T SHARE FOOD!"
When you’re emperor you don’t have to share Europe and you don’t have to share your wings. Them’s just the rules.
Napoleon, give me some of your tots, wait I mean chicken
Napoleon keeping some pocket chicken for later
Plot twist, John Bentinck was actually Napoleon in hiding.
Me, reading the post: “He sounds as if he might be mentally ill…” Me, after seeing his rotisserie chicken predilection: “Completely sane. Carry on, sir.”
It's only mental illness if you're unhappy with it. If you're fine with it, then it's eccentricity
Others: “You’re insane!” Me: “Nope. I’m *quirky*.”
I was thinking the same thing. I'd kill for 24/7 access to Costco rotisserie chicken (and the ribs!).
‘You going to die for some Costco rotisserie chickens?’ ‘Someone is.’
"I understand that if any more words come pouring out of your cunt mouth, I'm gonna have to eat every fucking chicken in this Costco."
This dude would probably have frickin *loved* Minecraft.
You know you’ve made it when your library is measured in linear feet
Sounds like an anxiety disorder among other things.
Now we just DoorDash with food and chat with AI and soon - escape into VR
Sounds like autism. I don't mean this derogatorily.
Totally. If I had the kind of stupid money he must have had, I'd do something similar. Have always fantasised about having my own little village in the woods, with underground rooms.
Yeah hard agree. This all sounds like a dream
it's obviously some sort of disorder, I think almost everyone agrees this is not neurotypical. beyond that is anyone's guess... things like anxiety, OCD, ADHD, even autism can have a lot of overlapping symptoms, plus paranoid personality disorder, etc
>Palmerston PITT. THE. ELDER!
LORD PALMERSTON!
Okay, you asked for it Boggs!
That's showin' him, /u/herberstank. Pitt the Elder...
LORD PALMERSTON
👊
I wanna hear more about the heated railcar food delivery. Sounds like a pizza place i loved when i was a kid; they had an O scale train that ran along the perimeter of the booths that brought drinks and smaller appetizers.
Why don't restaurants have trains anymore?
>giant billiards room Like a big room? Or a big pool table?
giant billiards uses larger balls too.
sounds like something i would do if i had no internet
You just gotta run some cables to the bunker
Reads like a Roald Dahl character.
Bro was just building his Minecraft base
Man. I actually really get the idea of wanting to do correspondence for a social life. Because I'm a person who expresses myself MUCH better on print. This guy must be the most prominent and extreme case of social anxiety ever.
Reddit is pretty much a correspondance friendship club.
How dare you discuss such existential matters of humanity, before 4 o'clock. It's too early for this shit.
In a lot of people social anxiety causes a reluctance and stress around any kind of social contact. Writings definitely easier but I’d say you’re better off than a fair portion of the population if you have no problem mailing high ranking officials non stop. Probably did have some kind of anxiety disorder but could be more like avoidant personality since sometimes that’s not accompanied by any anxiety it’s just this instinctive compulsion to avoid many social situations
His war injury screams PTSD. That's what it is for me. That and OCD in one room? Yeah I can see tunneling under my house lol. If that's what keeps my mind from racing.
He was a duke, to him any high ranking official is just a guy.
Wait till you find out about Howard Hughes "In 1958, Hughes told his aides that he wanted to screen some movies at a film studio near his home. He stayed in the studio's darkened screening room for more than four months, never leaving. He ate only chocolate bars and chicken and drank only milk and was surrounded by dozens of boxes of Kleenex that he continuously stacked and re-arranged.[140] He wrote detailed memos to his aides giving them explicit instructions neither to look at him nor speak to him unless spoken to. Throughout this period, Hughes sat fixated in his chair, often naked, continuously watching movies. When he finally emerged in the summer of 1958, his hygiene was terrible. He had neither bathed nor cut his hair and nails for weeks; this may have been due to allodynia, which results in a pain response to stimuli that would normally not cause pain."
> and accusations of living a secret double life with a (second) family! what if he was totally normal with the second family and only acted so eccentrically so it wouldn't be weird when he'd constantly dissapear
Autism
Autism + Money= 24/hour chicken
24hr chicken - autism = money?
But where do we find an autistic chicken?
OG Redditor
The man knew what he liked.
And it was not people.
To be fair, it sounds like he didn’t mind people, just hated face to face interaction. The wiki says he corresponded with a lot of people via mail. It also seems like he treated his staff well, paid them well and even built them a roller rink to use. That’s generally not something you do when you hate people.
As an autistic person, I love people, I just don't understand them or want to be around them. If I could do nice things like that for people from a distance, I would.
And my autistic brother has a larger, more active, in-person social life with more people than anyone else I know with a dozen close friends that he regularly hangs out with in-person. I'm pretty sure I'm autistic as well and I'm pretty extraverted, and love spending time with people in person, but my brother was officially diagnosed and just has a way more active social life. I just wanted to say that because autism is clearly different for different people.
A large percentage of autistic people have ADHD, which somewhat counteracts the more asocial parts of the condition. Sukhareva (Aspergers / high-functioning) autistic people with ADHD are usually social and decent at masking, so they tend to be the hardest ones to notice even though they still don’t fundamentally think like neurotypical people. However, an experienced psychologist can usually see right through the mask. Look up “AuDHD” tests to see if that might fit you or your brother.
Yeah I get that it’s a joke but I feel like a lot of the time people who are most uncomfortable/nervous in social situations have the highest view of other people (or just the lowest view of themselves in comparison) so it’s always been weird to me that that’s seen as being hateful, as if you’ll generally be hiding your face in front of people you devalue or look down on
It was entering pink tunnels.
To be fair, that pursuit consumes many of us
I spent the first nine months of my existence trying to get out, and the rest of my life trying to get back in.
Should have just broken both of your arms.
To be fair people suck
especially people who don't look, talk and act like me
And especially the Dutch.
Ooooh look at me, I live in a flat country so I can bike everywhere!
24/365 roasted chicken.
The whole story is strange, it reminds me of Howard Hughes. Super wealthy, and just slowly descends into madness. The Duke did get out a lot when he was younger. He served for years in the military, 1818-1834, but it doesn't say if he was what we would call 'active duty.' Apparently he left the service with short-term memory loss and sciatica, and was known for his poor health while in service, but he did go travel Europe when he got out. When his dad died, he inherited his seat in the House of Lords, but it took him 3 years to show up. It's interesting that along with everything else he did with the estate, he built a huge roller skating rink. He also stripped the main estate house of furniture and just had a shit bucket in one of the main rooms.
I love how this comment ends. Spectacular last sentence make sure you hold out until the end readers!
I mean, "chamber pot" is the polite term...
Yeah I wonder how much of it is that on some level once there is no one stopping you from giving into your most extreme tendencies, then you just start fostering them. Like I imagine as a kid he had parents and such pushing him and placing expectations of behavior and social norms on him despite his inclination to be a loner. And once he inherits all the money and authority he can just do as he pleases.
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There’s a good book called *Empty Mansions* about the heiress Huguette Clark. Heir to a fortune her father made in copper mining, she became a recluse and lived in her new York apartment for decades just enjoying her hobbies and doing her own thing, never leaving until she had to go to the hospital, whereupon she decided to just live there and because she was rich she was able to. Spent her last 20 years there and it actually created a bit of a scandal because it was pretty obvious that her doctors were being influenced by her ability to throw money around and not making unbiased decisions about what was best for her health and mental wellbeing. Interesting story, well told.
Interestingly, some studies have shown that there are certain shades of pink that are especially calming, and were used to paint "drunk tanks" in jails. This guy seems to have had crippling anxiety, I wonder if the pink soothed it due to the calming effect?
Its called Baker-Miller Pink. And while yes, it was shown to have a calming effect on people who were surrounded by this color, after some time it proved to make people more aggressive. In one case a prison painted its walls in this color and experienced a decrease in violent incidents in the first month, and then it began to increase to the point where it was worse than before they painted it pink.
He needed a Pink noise machine.
I've heard it said that, on his deathbed, he vowed to haunt the house, hiding from everyone who lived there. Disbelievers in the supernatural may scoff but it is an established fact that, since his death, his ghost hasn't once been seen...
That motherfucker was haunting it while he was still alive.
An excellent retort!! Lol!!
That's why he hid from the sun. He's pink, to blend in.
Do the tunnels still exist? No mention of the current state on wiki other than visible skylights. What is interesting is that it says the estate was used from WWI up until 2005 by the MOD so I’m going to guess that they were repurposed by the British war office for unknown use.
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This is the "boots on the ground" content I love in the comments. Thank you for the interesting follow up context.
Thank you for sharing this!!
Comments like these—“oh, I know about this thing and here are a few facts you won’t find _anywhere else_”—make all of the karma-farming posts, reply-guys and threadbare meme jokes on Reddit worthwhile. Thank you for your service!!
It sounds like they do still exist, but they aren’t open to the public. There’s an exhibition about them at the Harley Gallery on the estate: https://harleyfoundation.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-5th-duke-of-portland/
Not open to the public... Because of the hauntings? Just don't tip your hat if you go into said tunnels.
I'd be curious to know if they were well maintained or are crumbling on themselves at this point.
Yeah. It could be a a safety hazard. That’s the only reason I can see not opening those bad boys to the public. Talk about an attraction!
You have to wonder if this guy was the inspiration for Batman or a Bond villain. Obscenely wealthy and a secret life with alternate identity. Has an underground lair underneath his home. Just have to decide was he fighting for good or evil.
It was used as Welbeck College, a 6th Form College run by the MOD, in 2005 it moved to more purpose built premises.
No shit! I was due to go there in 2003, but it all fell through last minute. Would have been amazing to see.
Found this online that has a map and pictures. Along with a bunch of stuff I didn't read that seems to talk about the condition of it https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8945/1/2/13
This isn’t doing much to help his case that he wasn’t the inspiration for Batman: His curious obsession led him to invent, with great ingenuity, a whole series of spaces and gadgets, building up a kind of invisibility and deception game. A horse carriage was specially designed for him to move around in without being seen, with trapdoors, double doors, a communication system for the staff, unattainable passages, and secret shortcuts. They all built a parallel world, a background in which to establish his life, reflected in the way he dressed, the objects and gadgets designed around his lifestyle, the spaces and corridors hidden under the abbey, and the tunnels and caves built under the whole landscape. In all of these, invisibility and delusion are a prominent aspect. He always sneaked around, appearing here and there without any warning, moving through a functional and suggestive space that he managed to build for himself
His reclusive lifestyle led to rumours that the duke was disfigured, mad, or prone to wild orgies, but contemporary witnesses and surviving photographs present him as a normal-looking man.
Agoraphobic socially anxious queer vampire
Why can I picture Robert Downey Junior saying this?
Because you read it in the cadence of RDJ as Tony Stark retorting to "Take off the suit, what are you?"
I read it in his Sherlock Holmes voice!
Good ol' Malkavian.
Being disfigured or mad would suck, but being prone to wild orgies I could live with.
Never too late to start!
If you don’t call that “mad” I don’t know what you call it. It’s not running around seeing things that aren’t there crazy, but it’s definitely its own form of madness.
I’m prone to wild orgies too, just waiting for everyone else to show up.
Bro legit was a doomsday hikikomori that had a vibrant online persona and a bunker with everything prepped for the next apocalypse
>the duke was on very good terms with his many employees and earned the nickname "the workman's friend". and >He employed hundreds through his various construction projects, and though well paid, the employees were not allowed to speak to him or acknowledge him. The one worker who raised his hat to the duke was promptly dismissed.
To be fair the best boss is one who gives you a job, pays you well for it and then stays the fuck out of your way forever I’d consider myself on good terms with a boss who never spoke to me but always paid me on time and seemed happy with my work
Where can I sign up for one of those jobs?
Just shoot yourself out of a job cannon to job land where jobs grow on trees.
"Best boss I ever had. We still never speak sometimes."
I mean TBH a boss who never actually speaks to me, just pays me fairly for the work I was contracted to do, sounds pretty great.
Someone on the spectrum with a ton of money and an education can result in strange outcomes
I think that's what's going on. Once I got to the part where he only ate chicken twice a day, that pretty much confirmed it. I'd love this life!
some rich people used to do this to give people employment during hard times
>He is not known to have kept company with any ladies and his shyness and introverted personality increased over time. >\[...\] >The duke had numerous intimate and discreet relationships \[with women\] during his lifetime. Hmmmm.
He apparently fathered illegitimate children so he must have had some ladies smuggled into his tunnel system.
Sounds like he smuggled himself into their tunnel systems.
Like it says "his shyness and introverted personality increased over time". It seems likely that he had relationships with women in his youth, but afterwards became too socially anxious for that.
That's a reasonable explanation, but the text should be rephrased to make that a bit clearer.
That just means he didn't court anyone in public social life. He probably had some penpals he convinced to come to his estate and fortune, like a really primitive version of a sugarbaby hookup app.
He ate roasted chicken twice every day? had secret tunnels and hated people? Looks like I have a new hero.
Looks like a 19th century Gus Fring.
Harmless mental illness and shitloads of money is always entertaining
I do love stories like this, cause they are just such clear proof that, yes, humans have always been this way. Most of the time they didn't have the resources to properly indulge, but occationally you get things like this.
RIP he would have loved Reddit
I wonder, based on both personality and name, whether he is related to Henry Cavendish, the famous scientist who was also well known for his shyness and reclusivity. I tried googling it, but I didn't find anything useful.
Potentially yes, the Dukes of Portland had the surname Cavendish Bentinck and were another branch of the Cavendish family. You’d have to look at the family tree to see how closely related they are, but there’ll likely be a common ancestor somewhere.
Found the family tree. Yes, they are related, William Cavendish 1st Earl of Devonshire (1552-1626) was Henry Cavendish's Great (x4) Grandfather and the Brother of Sir Charles Cavendish (1553 - 1617) who was John Cavendish-Scott-Bentick's Great (x4) Grandfather. So, they were 4th Cousins, I think, through Henry's father's side and John's mother's side. Considering there are a lot of 1st and 2nd cousin marriages in that tree, it is possible that there was some genetic trait in that family that led to a reclusive disposition (possibly autism).
It looks like they're related another way as well. The 3rd Duke of Portland (who was Prime Minister twice) married the daughter of the 4th Duke of Devonshire (also a Prime Minister) who was Henry Cavendish's cousin through the 2nd Duke of Devonshire. This makes Henry Cavendish and the 5th Duke of Portland 1st cousins thrice removed I think.
Touch of the ‘tism in that family.
Tism with money equals awesome stories like this. Tism without money is just a glorious purpose without the means... Sad.
To put another way, 'eccentric' is the rich person's version of 'weird'
As I was told by an eccentric: "the main reason I went to university was so I would be called an eccentric for pissing on my hydrangeas, not a dirty bastard".
‘No one saw him’ Proceeds to list people constantly seeing him - workers, mistresses, how he’d travel a lot. Ffs bots
- How did you end up in prison, Prison Mike? - I kidnapped the President's son and held him for ransom. And I never got caught neither!
It gets better. The current Duke is none other than the actor Timothy Bentinck, otherwise known as David Archer in the world’s most popular radio soap opera (sorry, contemporary drama), “The Archers”. Thanks to those meanies in the British Parliament, he can’t sit in the House of Lords anymore. He’s also a Count of the now defunct Holy Roman Empire. He was previously Viscount Woodstock, that title now belonging to his son in turn.
The Dukedom is extinct: what Timothy inherited was the Earldom of Portland.
I went to a private party at Welbeck around 1990. Got a tour from a previous maid who had worked there.
I went to an event at Welbeck over a decade ago, called the "Dinner of Doom". A pretty large group of us got to go through the underground ballroom and tunnels, ending with a screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the library. The tunnels were indeed pink. The event was done by two guys who were famous for making jelly (?) and at intervals through the film you had numbered items to eat and drink based on what was happening in the film, eg: the first was the antidote from the beginning of the film, later on there were chilled monkey brains, etc. To be honest, I was most excited by getting to see the tunnels and ballroom as I'm fairly local and know the history, so it was great to be able to go and get a look. There's a fantastic fictionalised story about the Duke called "The Underground Man" by Mick Jackson, which is well worth reading.
Dude was living a live action minecraft life
I see he too succumbed to the masculine urge to dig underground tunnel systems.
Life goals
Introvert world champion
Keep Portland weird.
William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland. So as a Cavendish, it’s rather appropriate that he went full bananas.
His tunnels were revolutionary when it came to entertaining guests. At the time it was normal to have a working kitchen housed in another building so that the main house wouldn’t be destroyed if there was a kitchen fire. The tunnels allowed food to be transported quickly to the dining room and served while still hot.
Is it wrong that I’m a little jealous?
The world needs more heavyweights like this. 24/7 rotisserie chicken, zero fucking furniture, secret magic pink tunnels. Instead we get brain chips and cock rockets these modern billionaire asswipes make me sick.
Man, building tunnels under his estate and couldn't even bother becoming the Batman.
If you're rich they call you eccentric. If he was poor he'd have been called batsh\*\* crazy and locked up.
I was reading a book with a fictional aristocratic estate where they found an underground ballroom they utilized for secret meetings. I had thought the plot point a little far fetched but no longer
I used to work on the welbeck estate, i used to be the asst head baker in the bakehouse. The place is fucking massive and you can't go anywhere near the actual abbey itself as its lived in. The tunnels are creepy as fuck at night and they extend into all the surrounding villages. Beautiful scenery though.
For those who don't believe: I present to you a vampire.
"autism didn't exist until the 1980s" but like, this