The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1878-09-26
The Rich Duke Who Burrows Like a
Rabbit.
LLondon Times.1

The tall, slender, almost emaciated
man, with shoulders but slightly bowed
by age, with the fine clear cut features,
and with fy-away cape eliminating in
a Gothic arch collar, is the head of the
present family of Bentick. 1t pleases
him to penetrate his magnificent domain
by series of burrows, and to startle his
dependents by unexpected appearances
from these subterranean depths. These
burrows are no narrow tunnels, but lofty,
spacious passages, lighted by a costly
apparatus for letting in the sun at in
tervals, and by innumerable gas lights.
Lined with brick and stone, and per-
fectly water tight, they enable their
owner to be everywhere by turns and
nowhere long. The sudden apparition
of great duke among the grooms ex-
ercising his horses in the great riding
house, whose like exists nowhere else,
astonishes, but does not dismay. As his
pale face rises from the earth in the
left hand corner of the enormous build
ing, there is no sign of .trepidation
among those assembled, while their
master surveys the magnificent work
raised at cost which sets calculation
at defiance. Nearly four hundred feet
eng, with width of rather more than
one-third, this riding house carpeted
with tan, has walls of solid stone, and a
roof Of wood, glass, and iron. Two rows
of columns divide it into a nave and two
aisles, the latter with beautiful wooden
roofs. The great central compartment
is decorated with frieze of painted
brass work, representing birds, beasts,
and foliage, while the whole structure is
adorned with stone frieze of elegant
design and perfect workmanship.
On the latter quality the Duke of
Portland insists. Endowed with refined
tastes and considerable skill in archi-
lecture, he is builder up of good work
and puller down of bad. An architect
at one time employed by him built a
gateway. which, when completed, be-
came abhorrent to him, yet SO con-
siderate was he of the artists feelings
that he could not find it in his heart to
demonstrate with him. One night he
waited till the architect had driven off,
and then set all his men at work to pull
down the edifce. By morning not a
footlSc Icudlucu, duu Iuo dTCultcCG OIL
his arrival rubbed his eyes in amaze
ment, and neither he nor the Duke ever
took the slightest notice of its disap-
pearance. The half hundred lodges for
keepers and other servants on the We'll
beck estates have all been built by their
present proprietor, who has in their con.
struction carried out his passion for
subterranean work. The dining rooms
and bed chambers make handsome
little house enough, solidly and perfectly
built of stone. The unseemly part Of
the dwelling is buried in the earth
kitchens, pantries, and other offices are
plunged below. Many of the iuest
apartments in the Abbey itself are
actually underground, and illuminated
by all kinds of ingenious devices. Wei
beck boasts of subterranean library oi
great size, whose natural gloom is com
pletely expelled by gas burners sempi
ternally aglow. Of course the gas used
at the Welbeck estate is made on tht
premises, and lofty mounds covered
with rhododendrons hide four unseemly
gasometers from the eye.