July 8, 2021 • 43 mins
We've all had those days where we just need a little solitude, a quiet place away from the clamor and chatter of other people. However, William John Cavensidh-Scott-Bentinck, the 5th Duke of Portland, took this to an extreme. He spent the majority of his life minimizing the chance that he might have to run into other people, and eventually honeycombed his estate with an elaborate network of tunnels, including a secret passage to the nearby train station. Tune in to learn more.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Quick question, not just for
our super producers Casey Pegram and our super producer Max Williams,
but a question for all our fellow Ridiculous Historians. What's
the weirdest thing you've done to avoid interacting with people? Hi?
(00:52):
I'm Ben, and I gotta tell you no, I've I've
gone to some cartoonist lengths, the greatest lengths to avoid
social inter action. You say, yeah, how weird have you
gotten with it? Well? Ben, Uh, and it's mean all
by the way, Well you know, the pandemic. I think
probably put us all on that boat in many ways.
And it really just involved not leaving the house. I
(01:14):
was just saying to to you and super producer Max
Williams off air, how I've started kind of easy my
way back to going into the office a couple of
days a week to record, and it has done wonders
for my mental state. I'm a people person, Ben, I
don't I like I like being around people. I don't
typically avoid uh, social interactions if if I can help it,
How about you? Yeah, I had a great time during
(01:36):
the pandemic because I was going to the office. I
loved it when no one else was there. And now
you know, my Fortress of Solitude has gone shout out
to any DC fans you get that reference, and it's
it can be kind of it can be kind of disappointing.
You know. I mentioned this often on another show Stuff
(01:57):
they don't want you to know. But one thing that
always baffles me about the human species is how quickly
things become normal. Uh, maybe the weirdest thing I did
because alone time and hopefully I'm not alone in this
alone time is incredibly important to me. I think it's
a resource that modern society often sort of avoids or
(02:22):
attempts to disincentivize. We're taught now that we have to
always be available, that one must always be plugged in,
or that you always have to be somehow online, somehow
participating in society, and that's simply not the case. It's
it's a really weird thing to do. And that's why
I have the back of the fifth Duke of Portland's
(02:45):
William John Cavendish dash Scott dash Bent. Such a duke
ly name, I gotta say, but we're gonna refer to
him occasionally in shorthand as the Underground Duke, which also
sounds like it could be the name of a really
cool like new wave or possibly early nineties uh you
know e d M type band. But I gotta just
double back with you really quickly. Been I think this
(03:07):
expectation that society has of always being on in quote
unquote participating in all of this stuff, it's not even participatory.
It's really just kind of a weird invisible leash that
we're all expected to wear and like be you know,
subjected to. Most of it's not even functional, are useful.
It's really just this kind of like um, you know,
burdens albatross for a lot of us. And you're right, Ben,
(03:30):
the Underground Duke um personifies this. We need to take
a lesson from the fifth Duke of Portland's I'm gonna
give it my best, John Kevin just Scott Bentink. Bentink
what a great name. Yeah, I I went Wold Bentink.
But because all the male children and his family were
named William, uh, this guy was usually called John and
(03:52):
and throughout the episode, we're probably gonna call him a
bunch of different things, but yeah, like those close to
him would would call him John and um he uh he.
Essentially it never wanted any of this. Um. He never
wanted to be a public figure. He never wanted to
be in in politics or in the ruling class. He
literally did not want to be a duke. He didn't, no,
(04:14):
not at all. In fact, it was supposed to go
the honor, I guess or the the what do you
call that? The position I was supposed to go to
his older brother who died unfortunately very young. And then
their father, who was the fourth Duke of Portland, also
died in eighteen fifty four, and that's when William John
(04:34):
Um became this unlikely and uh, you know, reluctant duke.
A couple of great sources we dug into for this episode.
An Atlas Obscure article, The Duke who loved tunnels so
much he was immortalized as a literary badger, Vintage News,
Gordon Blaski, the eccentric Duke who adored missanthropy. I am
(04:56):
not going to finish the headline because it has him spoilers. Uh.
Shout out as well to Nottinghamshire history. Uh. This comes
from the Portland's peerage Romance by Charles j Archard. Right,
we've also got Elizabeth London writing for History Things in
an article entitled Histories Nutcases. The Prince of Silence also
(05:21):
a pretty epically cool nickname. Then we have one from
OMG facts dot com how an introverted duke pimped out
his house to avoid humans. So why don't we get
into the early days of William John Cavendish Scott Bentinck.
So there were a few things the duke did like though,
right we said he didn't want to be duke. He
(05:41):
kind of due to the tricky laws of what's called primogeniture.
His life didn't go the way he had planned. He
didn't really like talking to people, but he did like
some things. He liked watching horse races, he liked gardening,
and he was super into digging tunnels, like cartoonishly a
(06:04):
million percent into digging tunnels around his huge compounds. You know,
we're calling a state if you want to be classy
about it, if you will, sure, yes, Yeah. The seat
of his land he was located in an area of
the Midlands which is called the Dukeries. Yeah, and we'll
(06:26):
get into his life in depth. You know, spoiler alert.
I guess we should say the spoiler alert. Well, uh,
this guy was so done with social expectations that he
like he went. He literally went underground to avoid having
to hang with people he did. I think I threw
(06:46):
a little too early to his his youth, but there's
a lot of the things that lead to his eccentricities
and these badger like labyrinthine tunnels that he dug I
think happened in his youth. In his early days, he
is he was jilted by the love of his life,
at least in his mind. The love of his life
didn't seem like she reciprocated those feelings. But he was
(07:09):
in fact born William John Kavanish Scott Bentinck on September
dred in London. His mother was Henrietta Scott and his
father was It was Senior William Bentinck. He was the
fourth Duke of Portland, as we mentioned, and was very
much entrenched in politics. Uh, something that the young William
(07:31):
would look at as being pretty dull and not up
his street at all. The protagonist of our story, we'll
call him the young William, or the underground Duke. Um
was the second of nine children. He received his baptism
at St. George's Church in Hannover Square on September and
received a very high level education at home with the
(07:55):
best that that money could buy, the best tutelage that
money could buy. Yeah, yeah, Well also, you know at
this time, being from the noble class gets gets you
ahead of the game right in the military, and he
he starts off as an incident in the foot Guards.
He eventually becomes a captain just three years later of
(08:19):
the seventh Light Dragoon Guards. He didn't like the military.
There are several reports that youphemistically, you mystically say he's
not cut out for it, that he has quote lethargy,
and that his health is quote delicate, which means that
this guy was maybe more of an indoors cat. It's
(08:43):
almost like opinion of the military. It's almost like a
diplomatic way of saying he was lazy and weak. Right.
In eighteen twenty four, one of his elder brothers, also
named William, unfortunately passes away. So this is what we're
being too. At the top, John gets is elder brother's position.
(09:05):
He becomes the Marquess of Titchfield and then he takes up,
you know, everything that that entails, including becoming a Tory MP.
Uh in King's Lynn and King's Lynn l y N
is actually one of their traditional family seats. So he's
there for just like about two years, and he doesn't
(09:30):
talk much. He doesn't like he doesn't like doing politics either,
so he doesn't talk very much. He's never super active. Uh.
And then he's around twenty six when he says to
one of his uncle's here, I just I just can't.
I don't feel like doing it. Can you be the
(09:50):
Tory MP here and his uncle His uncle gladly agrees.
And now, now lest we seem that we're painting Will
as a you know, a wil Team lily of some sort,
we should note that he was an outdoorsman, right. He
really was a good hunter. People respected his opinion on horses. Uh.
(10:15):
He also, you know, he he also was a gentleman
of culture. He loved a good opera. He had some crushes.
He even proposed to one. And uh, this is where
things started to get real weird for him. Apparently that's
right at the time, one of the most famous opera
singers on the planet was Adelaide Kimball. I'm surprised I
(10:38):
haven't heard her. I think I maybe mentioned on the
show before that both of my parents were in the opera. Uh.
And my mother is a very interesting character. She's exactly
what she would think a retired, kind of aged diva
might be. She is also quite fond of fine things.
Not such a great judge of horses though. But Adelaide
(10:58):
Kimball absolutely ingenue, and he was totally smitten with her.
I mean, from what we understand from the research that
we've looked at for this story, I think he was
like a fan, but he was also wealthy and in
the upper class, which maybe there was a little entitlement there. Ben,
I'm not sure, because he was in love with her
(11:20):
and he proposed to her, but it's not like they
might have, you know, somewhat known each other socially. But
it seems very forward for him to have proposed to her.
You know, it checks out because she totally turned him down,
and this event or this um you know, heartbreak, seems
(11:40):
to have triggered his tunnel digging, you know, mindset. He
was already not the most talkative guy, and after this
opera singer turns him down, he becomes a known eccentric.
(12:02):
He is refusing to see people, including medical professionals. The
only person who is quote unquote allowed to see him
is his valet, so his like man servant. Basically, he
retreats to his home at Whelbeck Abbey, and he has
two letter boxes outside of his I guess, his suite,
(12:26):
his rooms, you know, and these two letter boxes are
his primary means of communication with other people. While this
is all happening, his father passes away March fifty four
and William becomes very much non consensually. The fifth Duke
(12:49):
of Portland's becoming duke. Right, you you enter into this
world of privilege, right, you are one of the elite
of this society, and you have a lot of agency
to do things that the average person could not do.
And so for William, when he becomes duke, he gets
(13:12):
more uh, he gets more room socially to be even
more reclusive. Now he doesn't have to go do stuff.
You know, there's so many obligations that our fellow ridiculous
historians or Max or me or you would have to
do that you just don't have to do if you're
no ability. So he just stops doing it. He just
(13:34):
stops doing it. He I can't recommend highly enough this
history things article. There's some really great photos of his uh,
his kind of cavernous a state, so highly recommend checking
that one out. But it's true. He um he has
been spurned by the love of his life. He essentially
goes underground in a very very real way. He takes
(13:58):
this a state, this the family seat, it's sort of
in the country, and he begins to undergo massive, massive,
massive construction projects. And it was lucky because the previous
Duke had been concerned that England was going to see
in the future a wood shortage, so he planted these
(14:20):
massive forests of oak uh and they, thankfully, we're just
starting to, you know, come into maturity when William became
the Duke himself. So he had just this this awesome
surplus of building materials um that he was able to
use to reinforce these tunnels and and build all of
these additions. And it gets a little bit nuts and
(14:42):
we don't quite know exactly, you know, what the timeline
was for some of these projects, but we do know
that during the eighteen years that he was in charge
of this estate, Wellbeck Abbey, he oversaw he didn't do
it himself. He basically, you know, higher these massive team
of people to dig around twelve miles of tunnels and
(15:05):
and and they weren't like deep belie the earth. At least,
they weren't deep beneath the earth. They were really just
kind of right under the surface of of the estate. Um.
But yeah, he they were big though exactly. He even
dug these tunnels that were topped with glass that were
large enough for fruit trees to grow. Yeah. Yeah, And
(15:25):
he also dug tunnels that well, he had tunnels dug
due to his delicate health. He had tunnels dug that
were wide enough for horses. He still loved animals. And
he had a hierarchy to his tunnels, like some tunnels
were for the working man, and then there were nicer
(15:47):
tunnels for the upper class, like the dukes and so on.
And he had he creates an underground compounds. We're talking
about a ballroom that's more than a hundred and fifty
eight beat long, and observatory of course, a billiards haul,
because what's the point otherwise, right, why would you have
(16:08):
a tunnel complex without a billiard's haul. He also had
plans that he didn't quite get to, so he wanted
to have this gargantlin kitchen, a riding house, and stables,
all underground, and a personal this is one of my favorites,
a personal roller skating rink, not just for him but
(16:29):
for the staff, because he was he was a good
boss in his opinion. He did have a underground library.
He tried to go under the estate had a lake
right on the grounds, and he tried to dig under there.
But you know, due to any number of problems you
can easily imagine, he eventually abandoned that. This was not
(16:52):
a dirty place. All the underground rooms where he did
they had gas lighting. This guy hung out there all
the time, like the way that the teenage mutant ninja
turtles hang out in the sewers of New York City.
This guy was always under a manhole and he was
kicking it. And it was a pretty nice place. Nice tunnels,
Oh my god, so nice. I mean, this really was
(17:14):
like the most bespoke, luxurioust like clubhouse. And you know,
he seemed like he was surrounded by more horses than
he was people. Um. I mean, he did have a staff,
but it didn't seem like he was much of an entertainer.
He had this massive kitchen that he had designed. He
even like he participated in the designs of these things,
by the way, as well, he was always sketching designs
(17:36):
or at least the kind of like early ideas for
designs for various rooms and and creations around this this uh,
this compound. And he wasn't without style, you know, he
had his own kind of aesthetic. Um. It turns out
that every single wall in this underground cavern uh and
it was a cavern. Makes it sound like it's dank
and and and spooky, but it seems like it was
(17:58):
pretty bright, especially since all the walls were at a
pink um. And it's not something that really comes up
in the history of this dude, Like he was a
massive fan of the color pink. There is in this
OMG Facts article about the introverted duke who pimped out
his house to avoid humans, which also has some excellent pictures.
Kathor Jensen was also unable to find any indication that
(18:21):
this was a thing over a running theme, this fondness
of the color pink. So it's it's a little bit odd, right,
but there was like every single room in the underground
portion of his estate had this pale rose or like
pink color. And like I said it before, the tunnels
weren't incredibly deep. Some of them even had skylights, right.
(18:42):
We talked about some of the glass top tunnels that
would allow sun to come in so that the fruit
trees could grow underground, because obviously without sunlight they would
be toast. But uh, he just wanted to make sure
that he had essentially what amounted to like the most
expensive privacy fence ever created. He just didn't want to
be snooped upon any of his neighbors. Yeah, yeah, that's
(19:06):
that's that's the thing. He's not trying to journey to
the center of the earth. This is not for scientific purposes.
He just doesn't want to feel like other people are
watching him. He also had, you know, earlier I mentioned
this kind of hierarchy of tunnels, some for the common folk,
some for uh, the fancier folk. He had in addition
(19:30):
to this, his own set of small tunnels that were
just for him and would go through a trapdoor. The
point of this was to keep everyone, including his servants,
from knowing exactly where he was at any given point
in time, so he could make trips to his other
estate without anybody knowing one of the tunnels stretched all
(19:56):
the way to the local train station, so the duke
may have just popped down his trap door and disappeared.
It's strange because there are so many like rumors or
anecdotes about this guy, and you have to search kind
of carefully for some proven stories. So we know for
(20:17):
a fact that we know for a fact that Will
liked to ride alone in a specially constructed carriage that
was like windows tented kind of style for the time.
And the more that people knew this guy wanted to
avoid scrutiny, the more they wanted to see him. And
(20:40):
so he kind of created his own problem by attempting
to solve it. By by being perceived as mysterious and
retreating from the public eye, he sort of enticed the
public and people wanted to like catch a glimpse of
the weird duke. But anyway, the carriage was made so
(21:02):
that you can't see inside of it, and he had
spy holes so he can look out like all over
the carriage he could look out and see people. It's
it's very weird. It's almost it's almost like a like
a shoe box for your pet. Frau we have like
holes poked in it or something like that. Odd dude.
And people knew that he was an odd dude because,
like you know, a lot of the looky lose that
were kind of trying to catch a glimpse of him,
they were not in his employee necessarily, whereas like the
(21:25):
staff at his London state, they didn't want to be
seen when he arrived because they knew that that would
like freak him out or that would maybe even put
their jobs in jeopardy, so they would like dart, you
know into darkened corners or you know, like when they
saw him coming, they probably there's probably like a call
of life easier. I Yeah, like like how Max, when
Max joined on this show, you know his MAXI no offense,
(21:48):
but your contract is crazy. We had to side to
things saying we wouldn't make eye contact with Max. Yeah.
It's definitely very strange and awkward at times, but I
think we've figured it out. Something we have, We've we've
navigated these strange waters. We wouldn't have any other way, Max,
we wouldn't have it any other way. But he um,
so let's see what's next. Um. Hardcourt House was his
(22:11):
other estate in London, and he started to kind of
incorporate some of these weird designs into that estate as
well eventually, Right, not exactly the underground kind, but certainly
the very very over the top privacy measures. Yeah, it's
weird because he One of the things he did at
(22:34):
Hardcourt House, probably the most extreme example of his eccentricity,
was that he created a gigantic screen, a glass screen
that was eighty feet high, two something feet on each side.
He made this screen entirely so that his neighbors could
(22:56):
not see into the garden. This was specifically round glass,
so it's a glass wall, but it wasn't transparent, you
know what I mean. It was like speak of like
frosted glass, right, And this was entirely just to keep
his neighbors from knowing what was going on, which, again
(23:17):
I argue, just makes it more enticing for people to
try to catch a glimpse of this guy. And everybody's
everybody's treating him like that Tom Waite's song. They're like,
what's he building in there? You know, like, what is
he up to? Why is he hiding? There must be
a reason. He becomes the butt of a lot of
jokes and some people call him the mad Duke of
(23:41):
Portland's According to a Worshop resident quoted on worshop web
dot co dot uk t k S, who grew up
hearing stories about how weird this dude is, and people
tried to make reasons. They like tried to explain where
this guy was coming from or what his motivation was.
(24:03):
They said, you know, he's probably he's probably a bit
of a litario. You know, he's got a bunch of
different lovers sneaking through the tunnels. Other people say, no, no,
he makes secret trips, sure, but they're to church, not
two dalliances. He's he's going to pray in peace and
you guys gotta stop bugging him about it. That's why
(24:25):
he went underground. Literally, other people are like, no, he's disfigured,
he's got a weird face. He's got a face thing
going on. And then you know, he's he's got to
use the tunnels so that you jerks will stop laughing
at him. Or maybe he's got a disease and he's contagious.
Like people were just throwing stuff out there. Yeah, none
(24:50):
of this was backed up by literally anything. Yeah, that
he was having dalliances with God though. That's that's a
fun one for me. Yeah, yeah, but it was it
wasn't that at all. He was just shy. He wasn't
even like a monster or anything, right, Like, I mean,
all of our all indications, like, I mean, he certainly
had to have been a bit of a stern taskmaster
if he was commanding these you know, legions of like
(25:11):
workers to dig these crazy tunnels, and he certainly had
a vision, but he really just wanted to be left alone.
We don't really have any indication that he was ever
cruel to any of his staff. I think he was
just kind of a sad, like heartbroken dude that kind
of just didn't want to mix with society. And I
mean I think we all have moments where we can
understand that, right yeah, I mean have you seen society lately?
(25:35):
Can you really blame people for not wanting to be
tintoes down on that concept? I I get it. I'm
just saying I I I get it. And you know,
honestly a lot of people then and probably now, I
I think and see the appeal right of solitude, But
this person is coming from enormous privilege. They can make
(25:58):
that desire real because they have the money and the
power in the position to do so. And there's nothing
wrong with being shy, you know, you don't again, you
the moral of the stories. You don't always have to
interact with people. You don't have to feel obligated to.
He just took it so much further than the average
(26:19):
person could. He when when he first tried to kind
of occlude himself from society, he tried to close the
what are called the public rights of way across his estate.
So a public right of way means, you know, hey,
you might not be the duke who owns you know,
(26:42):
uh Schroppenham, fart sure on Sandwich or whatever the name
of the estate is, but you have the right to
cross at certain points because you have to get from
point A to point B. He tried to shut that down.
He was like, I don't no new friends, as Drake
would say. And this is what led him to creating
his Warring of tunnels, because the other the other members
(27:05):
of the ruling class were like, hey, can't you can't
stop people from walking here, And then he responded, you know,
by going subterranean totally. I mean it's like any you know,
super wealthy area in in whatever city. I mean, you
don't have the right to pull into someone's driveway. I
mean maybe he could flip a uie or something like that,
(27:26):
but they could probably still yell at you, and rightfully so.
But it's not like they're gonna be able to close
Mulholland Drive, you know, in in Hollywood. Um, that would
be a nightmare because it's like one road in, one
road out. Um, So this totally makes sense. There would
be some beef behind that, and it's kind of funny
indication of his slight out of touchness that he was
so in his own head and just wanted to be
(27:46):
alone that he didn't even really think of others. So
while he doesn't seem like he was a monster, he
probably was a little bit self involved. Let's just say that.
That's just my guess. But he has a quote as
to We have a quote from him from Notts History
uh dot org dot uk that sort of sums up
his attitude about all this, and that is how he
describes his precious underground dwellings. Uh quote. Here have I
(28:10):
provided for you, at enormous expense, a clean pathway underground,
lighted with gas too, and you will persist in walking
above ground. Uh, that is what he would say to
visitors when they came to his estate. And it's almost
like he was doing them a solid right because he
was like, you know what the above ground is for
(28:31):
you enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the gardens, enjoy the lovely woodland,
scenic views and all of the flowers and all of that,
while he all the while stayed undergrown in what likely
you know, I mean, we're talking about gas lamp span.
I want to ask your opinion here underground like that.
I know, when they burn, it burns off the gas,
(28:53):
but one, if one one was left on, wouldn't it
be a fire hazard. I can kind of imagine like
just a pillar, like backdraft style, a flame just filling
these tunnels. If there was a mishap with some of
these gas lamps. Yeah, it goes back to what I
was saying earlier regarding the concept of privilege. This guy
was able to do this because he wasn't doing a
(29:15):
lot of the work, a lot of the maintenance. So
there were people monitoring these gas lamps. There was someone
continually checking on these things, cleaning the tunnels, making sure
that they were in good repair. So when he says, here,
I have provided for you at enormous expense. He probably
(29:36):
paid for it. But it's not like he was digging
these holes. It's not like he was lighting these lamps.
He did get a kick ass nickname out of it, though,
the Invisible Prince. He also This is something I was
wondering for a while. I wondered if he was the
type of person to jump out and try to spook people,
(29:56):
you know, like in Um Tim and Eric, where there's
the spaghett guy who just jumps out of spaghett. He
he was. He. I would I proposally cast Tim Hidecker
as the Invisible Prince or the underground Duke, because Will
liked to jump out and surprise people, and he liked
(30:20):
to make the environment increasingly off putting for folks. He
you know, he was. He was called a misanthrope, but
perhaps that's unfair in a way because he primarily just
didn't want to have to interact with people. I don't think.
I don't think not feeling obligated to hang out with
(30:42):
everyone all the time makes you a hater of humanity. No,
but I do feel like he could be like the
patron saint of Zenniel's you know who will do everything
in their power to avoid human interaction outside of like
the Internet, And I think that's why things like food
ordering apps are so popular. Like my kid and some
of her friends will do absolutely anything they can to
avoid having to speak to someone they don't know super well.
(31:05):
And I think this is this checks out, This tracks
with the duke here. Um. Yeah, it's almost like there's
the accounts, like I've been kind of indicating, like we
don't really have accounts of him being cruel to workers,
but some of the accounts, like there's there's sort of
a divide, right and in the way that he's described
as treating his workers, like he definitely did the thing
(31:25):
where you like to jump out and spooked them, you know,
I am assuming for his own amusement a little bit.
It's it's not clear if he was trying to catch them,
you know, not working and and punish them in some way. Uh.
It could certainly have been that at times, but it
really feels more like you described to been like the
Spaghette kind of vibes. Um. But historians disagree a little
(31:48):
bit on whether he was a very forward thinking duke
and that he housed his workers, you know, on his property.
He gave them access to what could be considered now
like an employer health plan. Uh, they gave them regular
doctor visits and all that. But then there are other
um also he fed them of course, and provided them
with all of the amenities they needed to live, and
(32:10):
also made sure their families were comfortable as well, and
also would continue to house the widows of workers who
had passed away, whether through imagine there had to have
been We don't have stories of this been, but I
can't imagine this. All these tunnels were dug without some
calamitous cavan at some point. Luck Yeah, luckily they were
just under the surface. That's that's another big part of it.
(32:33):
That's a very good point also, glad to report as
far as we know, there wasn't a specific like widow tunnel.
I don'tunderstand, but we have the other accounts been the
of of him not of these things being largely exaggerated,
and that perhaps these you know, housing for his workers
(32:54):
were not all they were cracked up to be. Yeah,
there's there's there's this image that it can't stop dragging
myself up about, which is imagined, Like you said, imagine
you're working on this the state. You're digging a tunnel,
and this guy pops out. He's like, spaghett I'm just
kidding you. Guys. Keep keep digging. You guys are killing it.
(33:16):
You know. Don't look at me, No one look at me.
All right, I'm going back in the tunnel. The thing is,
the issues surrounding employment at this time are many and varied,
not just with this duke. This duke in particular had,
you know, like he had some good stuff going on
(33:37):
in comparison to other employers at the time. And it's
true that he did build a roller skating rink. That
actually happened for his employees. They all got outfitted with
certain stuff. Everybody got a nice suit of clothing and
a donkey so they could move across the state easily.
(33:58):
He even this kind of avier, and these standards earned
him the moniker, the worker's friend. But in addition to
that we see a bit of an authoritarian streak, which
shouldn't be surprising, right, because this guy is a member
of a monarchical society. His employees eventually go on strike
(34:20):
and they say, hey, you're having us dig these great hauls.
That's ten thou square feet out of solid clay. We're
doing all of this tunneling for you. We deserve to
be treated better and we at least want more money.
So when they go on strike, the Duke tells them, quote,
(34:43):
you can strike as long as you like. It does
not matter to me if the work is never done.
And then like he like, he called their bluff and eventually, no, Max,
they started digging again. They were like, Okay, he's kidding.
He doesn't care. This guy is unreasonable. We cannot reason
(35:04):
with him. And so the Duke can avoid other people, right,
But the question is can he avoid aging? Can he
avoid mortality? That's the one stranger he can't run from. Yeah, exactly.
But look, it's not like he seemed to care about
having friends or family. Um, his solitude was really his
(35:26):
kind of stock in trade, and there are some accounts
of him kind of buddying it up with some of
the workers and sharing kind of you know, talking shop
or or sharing gardening secret tricks or whatever, because he
was into this stuff. But like we said, you can
barricade yourself away from you know, humanity, but at the
end of the day, you are still human, whether you
want to be or not, and humans die. So he
(35:50):
began to age, and with aging that eccentricity can kind
of ramp up a little bit. So his construction projects
started to get more and more weird and less and
less functional. He even had a few natural lakes that
existed on the grounds drained and cemented over. Like. I mean,
(36:10):
this guy had some undiagnosed mental illness. I'm gonna go
so far as to say, in my armchair psychiatrist position here,
it certainly seems like there would be a name for this,
and I would want to know. I would be very
interested to dig a little deeper and find out what
that is. I mean, antisocial personality disorder, perhaps agoraphobia, any
of this combination of these things. But yeah, when you
(36:31):
start like cementing over lakes, you're getting dangerously into like
Howard Hughes territory, right, I mean, what the fish to see?
I know, I mean, who knows, who knows what? What's
what's going on there? Um. He also was very very
close to having the servants quarters like demolished in order
to build a glasslined path to the chapel. So he
(36:55):
was somewhat of a religious man. I mean he wasn't
necessarily taking this secret soldiers to church like some of
the townspeople maybe you know, made up in their minds.
But he did possibly want to have a secret glass
you know, tunnel path to his chapel. Like. He didn't
do that. He decided not to do that. Yeah, but
he did decide to reduce the just the floor space
(37:19):
that he was active in in his estate. So even
though he had all these tunnels, as he got on
an age, he started living in just five rooms of
this compound. And just like the tunnels, these were all
these rooms were painted pink, and he had toilets installed
(37:42):
in every room because he's like, you know, I've earned
my place in the world. I shall never again be
in a room where I can't I don't know, poop
if I want to. He was very bothered by that.
It was important to him that there would be a
toilet in each room. He also never left those five
rooms as he as he grew older, except to go
(38:04):
out on night walks. I'm a fan of night walks,
I get you. So when John was on these night walks,
he would have a servant walked exactly forty yards in
front of him holding a lantern so he could kind
to see where he was going. And when he absolutely
(38:26):
had to go outside during the day, he wore like
it was like the sun would burn him or something.
You know, maybe he was a vampire. Null, maybe he
was a vampire. He had two big coats, like overcoats,
and they would wear a tall hat and he would
hide behind an umbrella if people tried to talk to him.
That is a true story. Yeah, no, it's very true.
(38:48):
He's definitely a spooky dude, no question about it. And
he did pass away in de Scember six of eighteen
seventy nine. He was seventy nine years old and just
about six months before his death. He uh he Amost's
almost as though he sensed what was coming, because he
was able to take one of those one of his
famous carriage rides through those tunnels on his way to
(39:09):
his other estate where he passed away in the hardcourt House.
Kind of interesting that he didn't die in one of
those five rooms. I guess he really did seem like
he kind of knew what was coming. Interestingly enough, he
was immortalized in a character that I think many of
us will be familiar with, um Mr Badger from the
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, who is kind
(39:31):
of an eccentric underground dweller himself who rules over his
kingdom which is known as the wild Wood from his
underground you know, kind of heidy hole, sort of a layer,
and he is a very important character in in that book,
along with Mr Toad and Mole. Uh. And there's a
there's a very nice quote um that we found on
(39:51):
an Atlas Obscure article that kind of is it's clear
that Graham definitely was aware of this guy's legacy, says
who can tell? L said? The badger people come, they
stay for a while, they flourished, they build, and they go,
but we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told
long before that same city ever came to be. And
now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot,
(40:14):
and we may move out for a time, but we
wait and we are patient, and back we come, and
so it will ever be. Today. You can visit well
Back Abbey. It is open for tours, but you won't
be able to see the underground chambers. A lot of
them have not been maintained, so they're probably not safe
to enter. Uh. Sort of like a cavern system where
(40:37):
you can only go to some parts of the caves.
Which is interesting because, as Kaythor Johnson points out, john
probably would have been down with this. It would have
given him some sort of satisfaction. Maybe he would have
felt good knowing that people can't go explore his tunnels
(40:59):
to day, and with that his story ends, but his
legacy remains. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone.
What's the weirdest thing you've done to avoid hanging out with? People?
Love to hear from you. Let us know, Let your
fellow ridiculous historians know on our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians,
(41:20):
And I can ask Max, You've been kind of quiet
for this one. What's what's the weirdest thing you've done
to avoid people? Oh? Man, weirdest thing I've done to
avoid people? That is, um, that's a treat question. I
generally like to hide at work, where I'll be like, Oh,
I have this really important thing I've to do at work,
I can't come hang out, and then I'm like sitting
(41:41):
here renaming files a lot. So you gotta actually do
the thing or something some semblance of the thing you said,
Otherwise you'd be a liar. I I appreciate your commitment
to the bit. Max. I just started telling people, folks
the listen and stuff they don't want you to know.
We'll have maybe heard the moment we discovered this. But
(42:02):
I just started telling people I have become strange, and
if you say it with a straight face, usually people
just vibe with it. It's a process, that's for sure.
But this is the story has been a bit of
a process to you guys. There's a whole there's there's
details we couldn't even fit into the story. Uh. There
there was a very weird um lawsuit in Nteno seven
(42:24):
where a man named George hell Ambi Drew's claimed that
our boy John had actually faked his own death. Um,
that might be a story for another day, or even
a story for our other show. Stuff they don't want
you to know. It turns out it was largely completely bogus,
but very very interesting. And that's really what brought him,
in his whole story, back into the zeitgeist. And that's
(42:45):
what caused Kenneth Graham to become a fan and write
him into that that book Wind in the Willows. Um.
But this has been a fantastic story and We hope
that you've enjoyed it. I certainly have yes, Thanks as
always to our number one badger, Max Williams. Thanks to
our number two badger, Alex Williams, who composed this track.
(43:06):
That's right, Max, Tell tell your brother he's number two
now and of course number two. Oh wow, yeah, that's
is that technically true? That is so so Also thanks
to Gabe Luzier, our research associate. That's right. Thanks to
Jonathas Trickland the quist or. Thanks to Christopher Haciota is
(43:27):
here in spirit. He's Jeff Cote uh a leak. She's
on vacation, so we'll call her here in spirit too.
And thanks to you Ben Um this this was This
was a fun one. We'll see you next time, Foix.
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(43:49):
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
so much for tuning in. Quick question, not just for
our super producers Casey Pegram and our super producer Max Williams,
but a question for all our fellow Ridiculous Historians. What's
the weirdest thing you've done to avoid interacting with people? Hi?
(00:52):
I'm Ben, and I gotta tell you no, I've I've
gone to some cartoonist lengths, the greatest lengths to avoid
social inter action. You say, yeah, how weird have you
gotten with it? Well? Ben, Uh, and it's mean all
by the way, Well you know, the pandemic. I think
probably put us all on that boat in many ways.
And it really just involved not leaving the house. I
(01:14):
was just saying to to you and super producer Max
Williams off air, how I've started kind of easy my
way back to going into the office a couple of
days a week to record, and it has done wonders
for my mental state. I'm a people person, Ben, I
don't I like I like being around people. I don't
typically avoid uh, social interactions if if I can help it,
How about you? Yeah, I had a great time during
(01:36):
the pandemic because I was going to the office. I
loved it when no one else was there. And now
you know, my Fortress of Solitude has gone shout out
to any DC fans you get that reference, and it's
it can be kind of it can be kind of disappointing.
You know. I mentioned this often on another show Stuff
(01:57):
they don't want you to know. But one thing that
always baffles me about the human species is how quickly
things become normal. Uh, maybe the weirdest thing I did
because alone time and hopefully I'm not alone in this
alone time is incredibly important to me. I think it's
a resource that modern society often sort of avoids or
(02:22):
attempts to disincentivize. We're taught now that we have to
always be available, that one must always be plugged in,
or that you always have to be somehow online, somehow
participating in society, and that's simply not the case. It's
it's a really weird thing to do. And that's why
I have the back of the fifth Duke of Portland's
(02:45):
William John Cavendish dash Scott dash Bent. Such a duke
ly name, I gotta say, but we're gonna refer to
him occasionally in shorthand as the Underground Duke, which also
sounds like it could be the name of a really
cool like new wave or possibly early nineties uh you
know e d M type band. But I gotta just
double back with you really quickly. Been I think this
(03:07):
expectation that society has of always being on in quote
unquote participating in all of this stuff, it's not even participatory.
It's really just kind of a weird invisible leash that
we're all expected to wear and like be you know,
subjected to. Most of it's not even functional, are useful.
It's really just this kind of like um, you know,
burdens albatross for a lot of us. And you're right, Ben,
(03:30):
the Underground Duke um personifies this. We need to take
a lesson from the fifth Duke of Portland's I'm gonna
give it my best, John Kevin just Scott Bentink. Bentink
what a great name. Yeah, I I went Wold Bentink.
But because all the male children and his family were
named William, uh, this guy was usually called John and
(03:52):
and throughout the episode, we're probably gonna call him a
bunch of different things, but yeah, like those close to
him would would call him John and um he uh he.
Essentially it never wanted any of this. Um. He never
wanted to be a public figure. He never wanted to
be in in politics or in the ruling class. He
literally did not want to be a duke. He didn't, no,
(04:14):
not at all. In fact, it was supposed to go
the honor, I guess or the the what do you
call that? The position I was supposed to go to
his older brother who died unfortunately very young. And then
their father, who was the fourth Duke of Portland, also
died in eighteen fifty four, and that's when William John
(04:34):
Um became this unlikely and uh, you know, reluctant duke.
A couple of great sources we dug into for this episode.
An Atlas Obscure article, The Duke who loved tunnels so
much he was immortalized as a literary badger, Vintage News,
Gordon Blaski, the eccentric Duke who adored missanthropy. I am
(04:56):
not going to finish the headline because it has him spoilers. Uh.
Shout out as well to Nottinghamshire history. Uh. This comes
from the Portland's peerage Romance by Charles j Archard. Right,
we've also got Elizabeth London writing for History Things in
an article entitled Histories Nutcases. The Prince of Silence also
(05:21):
a pretty epically cool nickname. Then we have one from
OMG facts dot com how an introverted duke pimped out
his house to avoid humans. So why don't we get
into the early days of William John Cavendish Scott Bentinck.
So there were a few things the duke did like though,
right we said he didn't want to be duke. He
(05:41):
kind of due to the tricky laws of what's called primogeniture.
His life didn't go the way he had planned. He
didn't really like talking to people, but he did like
some things. He liked watching horse races, he liked gardening,
and he was super into digging tunnels, like cartoonishly a
(06:04):
million percent into digging tunnels around his huge compounds. You know,
we're calling a state if you want to be classy
about it, if you will, sure, yes, Yeah. The seat
of his land he was located in an area of
the Midlands which is called the Dukeries. Yeah, and we'll
(06:26):
get into his life in depth. You know, spoiler alert.
I guess we should say the spoiler alert. Well, uh,
this guy was so done with social expectations that he
like he went. He literally went underground to avoid having
to hang with people he did. I think I threw
(06:46):
a little too early to his his youth, but there's
a lot of the things that lead to his eccentricities
and these badger like labyrinthine tunnels that he dug I
think happened in his youth. In his early days, he
is he was jilted by the love of his life,
at least in his mind. The love of his life
didn't seem like she reciprocated those feelings. But he was
(07:09):
in fact born William John Kavanish Scott Bentinck on September
dred in London. His mother was Henrietta Scott and his
father was It was Senior William Bentinck. He was the
fourth Duke of Portland, as we mentioned, and was very
much entrenched in politics. Uh, something that the young William
(07:31):
would look at as being pretty dull and not up
his street at all. The protagonist of our story, we'll
call him the young William, or the underground Duke. Um
was the second of nine children. He received his baptism
at St. George's Church in Hannover Square on September and
received a very high level education at home with the
(07:55):
best that that money could buy, the best tutelage that
money could buy. Yeah, yeah, Well also, you know at
this time, being from the noble class gets gets you
ahead of the game right in the military, and he
he starts off as an incident in the foot Guards.
He eventually becomes a captain just three years later of
(08:19):
the seventh Light Dragoon Guards. He didn't like the military.
There are several reports that youphemistically, you mystically say he's
not cut out for it, that he has quote lethargy,
and that his health is quote delicate, which means that
this guy was maybe more of an indoors cat. It's
(08:43):
almost like opinion of the military. It's almost like a
diplomatic way of saying he was lazy and weak. Right.
In eighteen twenty four, one of his elder brothers, also
named William, unfortunately passes away. So this is what we're
being too. At the top, John gets is elder brother's position.
(09:05):
He becomes the Marquess of Titchfield and then he takes up,
you know, everything that that entails, including becoming a Tory MP.
Uh in King's Lynn and King's Lynn l y N
is actually one of their traditional family seats. So he's
there for just like about two years, and he doesn't
(09:30):
talk much. He doesn't like he doesn't like doing politics either,
so he doesn't talk very much. He's never super active. Uh.
And then he's around twenty six when he says to
one of his uncle's here, I just I just can't.
I don't feel like doing it. Can you be the
(09:50):
Tory MP here and his uncle His uncle gladly agrees.
And now, now lest we seem that we're painting Will
as a you know, a wil Team lily of some sort,
we should note that he was an outdoorsman, right. He
really was a good hunter. People respected his opinion on horses. Uh.
(10:15):
He also, you know, he he also was a gentleman
of culture. He loved a good opera. He had some crushes.
He even proposed to one. And uh, this is where
things started to get real weird for him. Apparently that's
right at the time, one of the most famous opera
singers on the planet was Adelaide Kimball. I'm surprised I
(10:38):
haven't heard her. I think I maybe mentioned on the
show before that both of my parents were in the opera. Uh.
And my mother is a very interesting character. She's exactly
what she would think a retired, kind of aged diva
might be. She is also quite fond of fine things.
Not such a great judge of horses though. But Adelaide
(10:58):
Kimball absolutely ingenue, and he was totally smitten with her.
I mean, from what we understand from the research that
we've looked at for this story, I think he was
like a fan, but he was also wealthy and in
the upper class, which maybe there was a little entitlement there. Ben,
I'm not sure, because he was in love with her
(11:20):
and he proposed to her, but it's not like they
might have, you know, somewhat known each other socially. But
it seems very forward for him to have proposed to her.
You know, it checks out because she totally turned him down,
and this event or this um you know, heartbreak, seems
(11:40):
to have triggered his tunnel digging, you know, mindset. He
was already not the most talkative guy, and after this
opera singer turns him down, he becomes a known eccentric.
(12:02):
He is refusing to see people, including medical professionals. The
only person who is quote unquote allowed to see him
is his valet, so his like man servant. Basically, he
retreats to his home at Whelbeck Abbey, and he has
two letter boxes outside of his I guess, his suite,
(12:26):
his rooms, you know, and these two letter boxes are
his primary means of communication with other people. While this
is all happening, his father passes away March fifty four
and William becomes very much non consensually. The fifth Duke
(12:49):
of Portland's becoming duke. Right, you you enter into this
world of privilege, right, you are one of the elite
of this society, and you have a lot of agency
to do things that the average person could not do.
And so for William, when he becomes duke, he gets
(13:12):
more uh, he gets more room socially to be even
more reclusive. Now he doesn't have to go do stuff.
You know, there's so many obligations that our fellow ridiculous
historians or Max or me or you would have to
do that you just don't have to do if you're
no ability. So he just stops doing it. He just
(13:34):
stops doing it. He I can't recommend highly enough this
history things article. There's some really great photos of his uh,
his kind of cavernous a state, so highly recommend checking
that one out. But it's true. He um he has
been spurned by the love of his life. He essentially
goes underground in a very very real way. He takes
(13:58):
this a state, this the family seat, it's sort of
in the country, and he begins to undergo massive, massive,
massive construction projects. And it was lucky because the previous
Duke had been concerned that England was going to see
in the future a wood shortage, so he planted these
(14:20):
massive forests of oak uh and they, thankfully, we're just
starting to, you know, come into maturity when William became
the Duke himself. So he had just this this awesome
surplus of building materials um that he was able to
use to reinforce these tunnels and and build all of
these additions. And it gets a little bit nuts and
(14:42):
we don't quite know exactly, you know, what the timeline
was for some of these projects, but we do know
that during the eighteen years that he was in charge
of this estate, Wellbeck Abbey, he oversaw he didn't do
it himself. He basically, you know, higher these massive team
of people to dig around twelve miles of tunnels and
(15:05):
and and they weren't like deep belie the earth. At least,
they weren't deep beneath the earth. They were really just
kind of right under the surface of of the estate. Um.
But yeah, he they were big though exactly. He even
dug these tunnels that were topped with glass that were
large enough for fruit trees to grow. Yeah. Yeah, And
(15:25):
he also dug tunnels that well, he had tunnels dug
due to his delicate health. He had tunnels dug that
were wide enough for horses. He still loved animals. And
he had a hierarchy to his tunnels, like some tunnels
were for the working man, and then there were nicer
(15:47):
tunnels for the upper class, like the dukes and so on.
And he had he creates an underground compounds. We're talking
about a ballroom that's more than a hundred and fifty
eight beat long, and observatory of course, a billiards haul,
because what's the point otherwise, right, why would you have
(16:08):
a tunnel complex without a billiard's haul. He also had
plans that he didn't quite get to, so he wanted
to have this gargantlin kitchen, a riding house, and stables,
all underground, and a personal this is one of my favorites,
a personal roller skating rink, not just for him but
(16:29):
for the staff, because he was he was a good
boss in his opinion. He did have a underground library.
He tried to go under the estate had a lake
right on the grounds, and he tried to dig under there.
But you know, due to any number of problems you
can easily imagine, he eventually abandoned that. This was not
(16:52):
a dirty place. All the underground rooms where he did
they had gas lighting. This guy hung out there all
the time, like the way that the teenage mutant ninja
turtles hang out in the sewers of New York City.
This guy was always under a manhole and he was
kicking it. And it was a pretty nice place. Nice tunnels,
Oh my god, so nice. I mean, this really was
(17:14):
like the most bespoke, luxurioust like clubhouse. And you know,
he seemed like he was surrounded by more horses than
he was people. Um. I mean, he did have a staff,
but it didn't seem like he was much of an entertainer.
He had this massive kitchen that he had designed. He
even like he participated in the designs of these things,
by the way, as well, he was always sketching designs
(17:36):
or at least the kind of like early ideas for
designs for various rooms and and creations around this this uh,
this compound. And he wasn't without style, you know, he
had his own kind of aesthetic. Um. It turns out
that every single wall in this underground cavern uh and
it was a cavern. Makes it sound like it's dank
and and and spooky, but it seems like it was
(17:58):
pretty bright, especially since all the walls were at a
pink um. And it's not something that really comes up
in the history of this dude, Like he was a
massive fan of the color pink. There is in this
OMG Facts article about the introverted duke who pimped out
his house to avoid humans, which also has some excellent pictures.
Kathor Jensen was also unable to find any indication that
(18:21):
this was a thing over a running theme, this fondness
of the color pink. So it's it's a little bit odd, right,
but there was like every single room in the underground
portion of his estate had this pale rose or like
pink color. And like I said it before, the tunnels
weren't incredibly deep. Some of them even had skylights, right.
(18:42):
We talked about some of the glass top tunnels that
would allow sun to come in so that the fruit
trees could grow underground, because obviously without sunlight they would
be toast. But uh, he just wanted to make sure
that he had essentially what amounted to like the most
expensive privacy fence ever created. He just didn't want to
be snooped upon any of his neighbors. Yeah, yeah, that's
(19:06):
that's that's the thing. He's not trying to journey to
the center of the earth. This is not for scientific purposes.
He just doesn't want to feel like other people are
watching him. He also had, you know, earlier I mentioned
this kind of hierarchy of tunnels, some for the common folk,
some for uh, the fancier folk. He had in addition
(19:30):
to this, his own set of small tunnels that were
just for him and would go through a trapdoor. The
point of this was to keep everyone, including his servants,
from knowing exactly where he was at any given point
in time, so he could make trips to his other
estate without anybody knowing one of the tunnels stretched all
(19:56):
the way to the local train station, so the duke
may have just popped down his trap door and disappeared.
It's strange because there are so many like rumors or
anecdotes about this guy, and you have to search kind
of carefully for some proven stories. So we know for
(20:17):
a fact that we know for a fact that Will
liked to ride alone in a specially constructed carriage that
was like windows tented kind of style for the time.
And the more that people knew this guy wanted to
avoid scrutiny, the more they wanted to see him. And
(20:40):
so he kind of created his own problem by attempting
to solve it. By by being perceived as mysterious and
retreating from the public eye, he sort of enticed the
public and people wanted to like catch a glimpse of
the weird duke. But anyway, the carriage was made so
(21:02):
that you can't see inside of it, and he had
spy holes so he can look out like all over
the carriage he could look out and see people. It's
it's very weird. It's almost it's almost like a like
a shoe box for your pet. Frau we have like
holes poked in it or something like that. Odd dude.
And people knew that he was an odd dude because,
like you know, a lot of the looky lose that
were kind of trying to catch a glimpse of him,
they were not in his employee necessarily, whereas like the
(21:25):
staff at his London state, they didn't want to be
seen when he arrived because they knew that that would
like freak him out or that would maybe even put
their jobs in jeopardy, so they would like dart, you
know into darkened corners or you know, like when they
saw him coming, they probably there's probably like a call
of life easier. I Yeah, like like how Max, when
Max joined on this show, you know his MAXI no offense,
(21:48):
but your contract is crazy. We had to side to
things saying we wouldn't make eye contact with Max. Yeah.
It's definitely very strange and awkward at times, but I
think we've figured it out. Something we have, We've we've
navigated these strange waters. We wouldn't have any other way, Max,
we wouldn't have it any other way. But he um,
so let's see what's next. Um. Hardcourt House was his
(22:11):
other estate in London, and he started to kind of
incorporate some of these weird designs into that estate as
well eventually, Right, not exactly the underground kind, but certainly
the very very over the top privacy measures. Yeah, it's
weird because he One of the things he did at
(22:34):
Hardcourt House, probably the most extreme example of his eccentricity,
was that he created a gigantic screen, a glass screen
that was eighty feet high, two something feet on each side.
He made this screen entirely so that his neighbors could
(22:56):
not see into the garden. This was specifically round glass,
so it's a glass wall, but it wasn't transparent, you
know what I mean. It was like speak of like
frosted glass, right, And this was entirely just to keep
his neighbors from knowing what was going on, which, again
(23:17):
I argue, just makes it more enticing for people to
try to catch a glimpse of this guy. And everybody's
everybody's treating him like that Tom Waite's song. They're like,
what's he building in there? You know, like, what is
he up to? Why is he hiding? There must be
a reason. He becomes the butt of a lot of
jokes and some people call him the mad Duke of
(23:41):
Portland's According to a Worshop resident quoted on worshop web
dot co dot uk t k S, who grew up
hearing stories about how weird this dude is, and people
tried to make reasons. They like tried to explain where
this guy was coming from or what his motivation was.
(24:03):
They said, you know, he's probably he's probably a bit
of a litario. You know, he's got a bunch of
different lovers sneaking through the tunnels. Other people say, no, no,
he makes secret trips, sure, but they're to church, not
two dalliances. He's he's going to pray in peace and
you guys gotta stop bugging him about it. That's why
(24:25):
he went underground. Literally, other people are like, no, he's disfigured,
he's got a weird face. He's got a face thing
going on. And then you know, he's he's got to
use the tunnels so that you jerks will stop laughing
at him. Or maybe he's got a disease and he's contagious.
Like people were just throwing stuff out there. Yeah, none
(24:50):
of this was backed up by literally anything. Yeah, that
he was having dalliances with God though. That's that's a
fun one for me. Yeah, yeah, but it was it
wasn't that at all. He was just shy. He wasn't
even like a monster or anything, right, Like, I mean,
all of our all indications, like, I mean, he certainly
had to have been a bit of a stern taskmaster
if he was commanding these you know, legions of like
(25:11):
workers to dig these crazy tunnels, and he certainly had
a vision, but he really just wanted to be left alone.
We don't really have any indication that he was ever
cruel to any of his staff. I think he was
just kind of a sad, like heartbroken dude that kind
of just didn't want to mix with society. And I
mean I think we all have moments where we can
understand that, right yeah, I mean have you seen society lately?
(25:35):
Can you really blame people for not wanting to be
tintoes down on that concept? I I get it. I'm
just saying I I I get it. And you know,
honestly a lot of people then and probably now, I
I think and see the appeal right of solitude, But
this person is coming from enormous privilege. They can make
(25:58):
that desire real because they have the money and the
power in the position to do so. And there's nothing
wrong with being shy, you know, you don't again, you
the moral of the stories. You don't always have to
interact with people. You don't have to feel obligated to.
He just took it so much further than the average
(26:19):
person could. He when when he first tried to kind
of occlude himself from society, he tried to close the
what are called the public rights of way across his estate.
So a public right of way means, you know, hey,
you might not be the duke who owns you know,
(26:42):
uh Schroppenham, fart sure on Sandwich or whatever the name
of the estate is, but you have the right to
cross at certain points because you have to get from
point A to point B. He tried to shut that down.
He was like, I don't no new friends, as Drake
would say. And this is what led him to creating
his Warring of tunnels, because the other the other members
(27:05):
of the ruling class were like, hey, can't you can't
stop people from walking here, And then he responded, you know,
by going subterranean totally. I mean it's like any you know,
super wealthy area in in whatever city. I mean, you
don't have the right to pull into someone's driveway. I
mean maybe he could flip a uie or something like that,
(27:26):
but they could probably still yell at you, and rightfully so.
But it's not like they're gonna be able to close
Mulholland Drive, you know, in in Hollywood. Um, that would
be a nightmare because it's like one road in, one
road out. Um, So this totally makes sense. There would
be some beef behind that, and it's kind of funny
indication of his slight out of touchness that he was
so in his own head and just wanted to be
(27:46):
alone that he didn't even really think of others. So
while he doesn't seem like he was a monster, he
probably was a little bit self involved. Let's just say that.
That's just my guess. But he has a quote as
to We have a quote from him from Notts History
uh dot org dot uk that sort of sums up
his attitude about all this, and that is how he
describes his precious underground dwellings. Uh quote. Here have I
(28:10):
provided for you, at enormous expense, a clean pathway underground,
lighted with gas too, and you will persist in walking
above ground. Uh, that is what he would say to
visitors when they came to his estate. And it's almost
like he was doing them a solid right because he
was like, you know what the above ground is for
(28:31):
you enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the gardens, enjoy the lovely woodland,
scenic views and all of the flowers and all of that,
while he all the while stayed undergrown in what likely
you know, I mean, we're talking about gas lamp span.
I want to ask your opinion here underground like that.
I know, when they burn, it burns off the gas,
(28:53):
but one, if one one was left on, wouldn't it
be a fire hazard. I can kind of imagine like
just a pillar, like backdraft style, a flame just filling
these tunnels. If there was a mishap with some of
these gas lamps. Yeah, it goes back to what I
was saying earlier regarding the concept of privilege. This guy
was able to do this because he wasn't doing a
(29:15):
lot of the work, a lot of the maintenance. So
there were people monitoring these gas lamps. There was someone
continually checking on these things, cleaning the tunnels, making sure
that they were in good repair. So when he says, here,
I have provided for you at enormous expense. He probably
(29:36):
paid for it. But it's not like he was digging
these holes. It's not like he was lighting these lamps.
He did get a kick ass nickname out of it, though,
the Invisible Prince. He also This is something I was
wondering for a while. I wondered if he was the
type of person to jump out and try to spook people,
(29:56):
you know, like in Um Tim and Eric, where there's
the spaghett guy who just jumps out of spaghett. He
he was. He. I would I proposally cast Tim Hidecker
as the Invisible Prince or the underground Duke, because Will
liked to jump out and surprise people, and he liked
(30:20):
to make the environment increasingly off putting for folks. He
you know, he was. He was called a misanthrope, but
perhaps that's unfair in a way because he primarily just
didn't want to have to interact with people. I don't think.
I don't think not feeling obligated to hang out with
(30:42):
everyone all the time makes you a hater of humanity. No,
but I do feel like he could be like the
patron saint of Zenniel's you know who will do everything
in their power to avoid human interaction outside of like
the Internet, And I think that's why things like food
ordering apps are so popular. Like my kid and some
of her friends will do absolutely anything they can to
avoid having to speak to someone they don't know super well.
(31:05):
And I think this is this checks out, This tracks
with the duke here. Um. Yeah, it's almost like there's
the accounts, like I've been kind of indicating, like we
don't really have accounts of him being cruel to workers,
but some of the accounts, like there's there's sort of
a divide, right and in the way that he's described
as treating his workers, like he definitely did the thing
(31:25):
where you like to jump out and spooked them, you know,
I am assuming for his own amusement a little bit.
It's it's not clear if he was trying to catch them,
you know, not working and and punish them in some way. Uh.
It could certainly have been that at times, but it
really feels more like you described to been like the
Spaghette kind of vibes. Um. But historians disagree a little
(31:48):
bit on whether he was a very forward thinking duke
and that he housed his workers, you know, on his property.
He gave them access to what could be considered now
like an employer health plan. Uh, they gave them regular
doctor visits and all that. But then there are other
um also he fed them of course, and provided them
with all of the amenities they needed to live, and
(32:10):
also made sure their families were comfortable as well, and
also would continue to house the widows of workers who
had passed away, whether through imagine there had to have
been We don't have stories of this been, but I
can't imagine this. All these tunnels were dug without some
calamitous cavan at some point. Luck Yeah, luckily they were
just under the surface. That's that's another big part of it.
(32:33):
That's a very good point also, glad to report as
far as we know, there wasn't a specific like widow tunnel.
I don'tunderstand, but we have the other accounts been the
of of him not of these things being largely exaggerated,
and that perhaps these you know, housing for his workers
(32:54):
were not all they were cracked up to be. Yeah,
there's there's there's this image that it can't stop dragging
myself up about, which is imagined, Like you said, imagine
you're working on this the state. You're digging a tunnel,
and this guy pops out. He's like, spaghett I'm just
kidding you. Guys. Keep keep digging. You guys are killing it.
(33:16):
You know. Don't look at me, No one look at me.
All right, I'm going back in the tunnel. The thing is,
the issues surrounding employment at this time are many and varied,
not just with this duke. This duke in particular had,
you know, like he had some good stuff going on
(33:37):
in comparison to other employers at the time. And it's
true that he did build a roller skating rink. That
actually happened for his employees. They all got outfitted with
certain stuff. Everybody got a nice suit of clothing and
a donkey so they could move across the state easily.
(33:58):
He even this kind of avier, and these standards earned
him the moniker, the worker's friend. But in addition to
that we see a bit of an authoritarian streak, which
shouldn't be surprising, right, because this guy is a member
of a monarchical society. His employees eventually go on strike
(34:20):
and they say, hey, you're having us dig these great hauls.
That's ten thou square feet out of solid clay. We're
doing all of this tunneling for you. We deserve to
be treated better and we at least want more money.
So when they go on strike, the Duke tells them, quote,
(34:43):
you can strike as long as you like. It does
not matter to me if the work is never done.
And then like he like, he called their bluff and eventually, no, Max,
they started digging again. They were like, Okay, he's kidding.
He doesn't care. This guy is unreasonable. We cannot reason
(35:04):
with him. And so the Duke can avoid other people, right,
But the question is can he avoid aging? Can he
avoid mortality? That's the one stranger he can't run from. Yeah, exactly.
But look, it's not like he seemed to care about
having friends or family. Um, his solitude was really his
(35:26):
kind of stock in trade, and there are some accounts
of him kind of buddying it up with some of
the workers and sharing kind of you know, talking shop
or or sharing gardening secret tricks or whatever, because he
was into this stuff. But like we said, you can
barricade yourself away from you know, humanity, but at the
end of the day, you are still human, whether you
want to be or not, and humans die. So he
(35:50):
began to age, and with aging that eccentricity can kind
of ramp up a little bit. So his construction projects
started to get more and more weird and less and
less functional. He even had a few natural lakes that
existed on the grounds drained and cemented over. Like. I mean,
(36:10):
this guy had some undiagnosed mental illness. I'm gonna go
so far as to say, in my armchair psychiatrist position here,
it certainly seems like there would be a name for this,
and I would want to know. I would be very
interested to dig a little deeper and find out what
that is. I mean, antisocial personality disorder, perhaps agoraphobia, any
of this combination of these things. But yeah, when you
(36:31):
start like cementing over lakes, you're getting dangerously into like
Howard Hughes territory, right, I mean, what the fish to see?
I know, I mean, who knows, who knows what? What's
what's going on there? Um. He also was very very
close to having the servants quarters like demolished in order
to build a glasslined path to the chapel. So he
(36:55):
was somewhat of a religious man. I mean he wasn't
necessarily taking this secret soldiers to church like some of
the townspeople maybe you know, made up in their minds.
But he did possibly want to have a secret glass
you know, tunnel path to his chapel. Like. He didn't
do that. He decided not to do that. Yeah, but
he did decide to reduce the just the floor space
(37:19):
that he was active in in his estate. So even
though he had all these tunnels, as he got on
an age, he started living in just five rooms of
this compound. And just like the tunnels, these were all
these rooms were painted pink, and he had toilets installed
(37:42):
in every room because he's like, you know, I've earned
my place in the world. I shall never again be
in a room where I can't I don't know, poop
if I want to. He was very bothered by that.
It was important to him that there would be a
toilet in each room. He also never left those five
rooms as he as he grew older, except to go
(38:04):
out on night walks. I'm a fan of night walks,
I get you. So when John was on these night walks,
he would have a servant walked exactly forty yards in
front of him holding a lantern so he could kind
to see where he was going. And when he absolutely
(38:26):
had to go outside during the day, he wore like
it was like the sun would burn him or something.
You know, maybe he was a vampire. Null, maybe he
was a vampire. He had two big coats, like overcoats,
and they would wear a tall hat and he would
hide behind an umbrella if people tried to talk to him.
That is a true story. Yeah, no, it's very true.
(38:48):
He's definitely a spooky dude, no question about it. And
he did pass away in de Scember six of eighteen
seventy nine. He was seventy nine years old and just
about six months before his death. He uh he Amost's
almost as though he sensed what was coming, because he
was able to take one of those one of his
famous carriage rides through those tunnels on his way to
(39:09):
his other estate where he passed away in the hardcourt House.
Kind of interesting that he didn't die in one of
those five rooms. I guess he really did seem like
he kind of knew what was coming. Interestingly enough, he
was immortalized in a character that I think many of
us will be familiar with, um Mr Badger from the
Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham, who is kind
(39:31):
of an eccentric underground dweller himself who rules over his
kingdom which is known as the wild Wood from his
underground you know, kind of heidy hole, sort of a layer,
and he is a very important character in in that book,
along with Mr Toad and Mole. Uh. And there's a
there's a very nice quote um that we found on
(39:51):
an Atlas Obscure article that kind of is it's clear
that Graham definitely was aware of this guy's legacy, says
who can tell? L said? The badger people come, they
stay for a while, they flourished, they build, and they go,
but we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told
long before that same city ever came to be. And
now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot,
(40:14):
and we may move out for a time, but we
wait and we are patient, and back we come, and
so it will ever be. Today. You can visit well
Back Abbey. It is open for tours, but you won't
be able to see the underground chambers. A lot of
them have not been maintained, so they're probably not safe
to enter. Uh. Sort of like a cavern system where
(40:37):
you can only go to some parts of the caves.
Which is interesting because, as Kaythor Johnson points out, john
probably would have been down with this. It would have
given him some sort of satisfaction. Maybe he would have
felt good knowing that people can't go explore his tunnels
(40:59):
to day, and with that his story ends, but his
legacy remains. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone.
What's the weirdest thing you've done to avoid hanging out with? People?
Love to hear from you. Let us know, Let your
fellow ridiculous historians know on our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians,
(41:20):
And I can ask Max, You've been kind of quiet
for this one. What's what's the weirdest thing you've done
to avoid people? Oh? Man, weirdest thing I've done to
avoid people? That is, um, that's a treat question. I
generally like to hide at work, where I'll be like, Oh,
I have this really important thing I've to do at work,
I can't come hang out, and then I'm like sitting
(41:41):
here renaming files a lot. So you gotta actually do
the thing or something some semblance of the thing you said,
Otherwise you'd be a liar. I I appreciate your commitment
to the bit. Max. I just started telling people, folks
the listen and stuff they don't want you to know.
We'll have maybe heard the moment we discovered this. But
(42:02):
I just started telling people I have become strange, and
if you say it with a straight face, usually people
just vibe with it. It's a process, that's for sure.
But this is the story has been a bit of
a process to you guys. There's a whole there's there's
details we couldn't even fit into the story. Uh. There
there was a very weird um lawsuit in Nteno seven
(42:24):
where a man named George hell Ambi Drew's claimed that
our boy John had actually faked his own death. Um,
that might be a story for another day, or even
a story for our other show. Stuff they don't want
you to know. It turns out it was largely completely bogus,
but very very interesting. And that's really what brought him,
in his whole story, back into the zeitgeist. And that's
(42:45):
what caused Kenneth Graham to become a fan and write
him into that that book Wind in the Willows. Um.
But this has been a fantastic story and We hope
that you've enjoyed it. I certainly have yes, Thanks as
always to our number one badger, Max Williams. Thanks to
our number two badger, Alex Williams, who composed this track.
(43:06):
That's right, Max, Tell tell your brother he's number two
now and of course number two. Oh wow, yeah, that's
is that technically true? That is so so Also thanks
to Gabe Luzier, our research associate. That's right. Thanks to
Jonathas Trickland the quist or. Thanks to Christopher Haciota is
(43:27):
here in spirit. He's Jeff Cote uh a leak. She's
on vacation, so we'll call her here in spirit too.
And thanks to you Ben Um this this was This
was a fun one. We'll see you next time, Foix.
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
(43:49):
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.