The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife and the Missing Corpse (39 page)

p. 8
    
  Description of Welbeck as at the 5th Duke’s death in
1879
.
See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit.

p. 9
      
no coat of arms
. See proof of Thomas Keetley, the Duke’s coachman, at NU Pl L1/2/7/99.

p. 9
    
  carriage… goods wagon.
See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 33.

p. 9
    
  duke’s voice from inside the carriage
. See
Daily Express
, 20 June 1903.

p. 9
      
dead body housed in a box on the roof.
See Theodore Besterman,
The Druce-Portland Case
, London: Duckworth, 1935, p. 17.

p. 9
    
  two or even three overcoats (whatever the weather).
There are many testimonies to the 5th Duke’s eccentric style of dress. See, for example, the evidence of estate worker, the engineer Mr James Rudd, reported in the
Lichfield Mercury
, Friday, 13 December 1907; also the
Daily Chronicle
, 15 March 1898.

p. 9
    
  vast umbrella.
See William Day,
Reminiscences of the Turf
, London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1886, p. 137.

p. 10
  
  on pain of immediate dismissal
. See obituary notice of the 5th Duke in
The Times
, 8 December 1897; also Charles J. Archard,
The Portland Peerage Romance
, London: Greening & Co. Ltd, 1907.

p. 10
  
  kindly and generous employer.
See obituary of the duke in
The Times
, 8 December 1879.

p. 10
  
  donkeys… umbrellas
. See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 36.

p. 10
  
  skating rink.
See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 36.

p. 10
    
listening to the men singing.
See proof of Joseph Harvey at NU PL L1/2/6/4.

p. 12
  
  no beauty in these rooms.
See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 35.

p. 12
  
  leaving… the lonely figure.
See account of Lady Ottoline Morrell in
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 34.

p. 14
  
  Rugeley Poisoner.
See the memoirs of the politician and journalist Louis John Jennings (1836–1893).

p. 14
  
  several eye-witnesses at the inquest.
See
Daily Express
, 10 July 1903.

p. 14
  
  body laid out.
The 6th Duke notes in his autobiography that he never met his predecessor in life, although he saw him in death:
Men, Women and Things
, op. cit., p. 30.

p. 16
    
Medici lace collar
. See Archard, op. cit.

p. 16
    ‘
The City? I have only been here in processions.’
See
Chips: the Diaries of Sir Henry Channon
, ed. R. R. James, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967, p. 468.

SCENE TWO

p. 18
    
Proceedings of the 9 March
1898
consistory court hearing
. The dialogue in this chapter is taken from the record of the court proceedings in the London Consistory Court of 9 March 1898 and the interview with Mrs Druce and Dr Forbes Winslow reported in
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
of 13 March 1898.

p. 18
    Wellington Chapel of St Paul’s Cathedral
. See Besterman, op. cit., p. 18. The description of the chapel here is based on the contemporary description given by the Rev. Arthur Dimock MA,
St Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch
, London: George Bell & Sons, 1900.

p. 19
    a diminutive and portly figure.
Physical descriptions of Chancellor Tristram are taken from
Thomas Hutchinson Tristram: For Forty Years Chancellor of London: A Memoir
, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1916, pp. 24–5.

p. 19
    
Smith and Others
v.
Tebbit and Others
,
1867
.
See the account of this case in
Thomas Hutchinson Tristram: For Forty Years Chancellor of London: A Memoir
, op. cit., pp. 24–5.

p. 20
    middle classes fallen on hard times.
The physical description and clothing of Anna Maria Druce is taken from illustrations in newspaper reports of the time. She is referred to as having once been handsome in a number of newspaper reports, for example, in
Society
, 3 December 1898.

p. 24
    a fact that bothered the chancellor.
The chancellor in his judgments repeatedly referred to the significance of T. C. Druce’s medical certificate not being signed by a doctor.

p. 25
    Dr Lyttleton Stewart Forbes Winslow.
The physical description of Forbes Winslow is taken from contemporaneous portraits and photographs.

SCENE THREE

p. 29
    gaunt figure in widow’s weeds.
See the interview with Mr T. E. Bois (mis-named as ‘Tu’ Bois in some accounts), superintendent of Highgate Cemetery, reported in
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
, 13 March 1898. He states to the reporter that Mrs Druce had been ‘worrying’ him for some time.

p. 29
    She had even brought a mining engineer.
See
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
, 12 June 1898.

p. 30
    firm of undertakers
. See
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
, 13 March 1898.

p. 30
    ‘Depend upon it… ’
Quoted in
Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper
, 13 March 1898 (as are Mr Bois’ misgivings on the issue).

p. 33
    revelatory biography
. Tomalin, Claire
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens
, London: Viking, 1990.

p. 33
    ‘Official’ account of Dickens’ death was a fabrication
. As argued by Tomalin in
The Invisible Woman
, op. cit.

p. 34
    
Henry Wainwright.
The full story of the Wainwright saga is recounted in grisly detail in Judith Flanders’
The Invention of Murder
, London: HarperPress, 2011.

p. 35
    a ‘certain impatient gaiety of disposition… profound duplicity of life’
. Robert Louis Stevenson,
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
(1886): Norton Critical Edition, 2003, p. 48.

p. 36
    high moral tone.
Oscar Wilde,
The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895), Bantam, 2005, p. 465.

SCENE FOUR

p. 38
    to work as a salesman for old Mr Munns.
See statement of Josh Cooke, cabinet maker, at NU PI/LI/1/1/29.

p. 38
    The Pantheon Bazaar.
See Knight, Charles,
Knight’s London
, London: Charles Knight & Co., 1841–44; also
Physiology of the London Idler
, Chapter IV –
Of the Pantheon, considered in relation to the Lounger
, in
Punch
, Jul–Dec 1842.

p. 40
    discreet brougham.
See statement of Josh Cooke, op. cit., NU PI LI/1/1/29.

p. 40
    the sight of red meat was abhorrent to him
. See the
Daily Express
, 22 June 1903.

p. 40
    a particular fondness for wigs
. See the
Daily Express
, 22 June 1903.

p. 40
    
rose or flower in his buttonhole
. See NU Pl L1/1/1/29.

p. 40
    jaundiced appearance… brooked no contradiction.
See interview with former employee of Baker Street Bazaar, Mr Redgell, in the
Daily Express
, 26 June 1903.

p. 40
    ‘
The old man… had an eye that could see right through you.’
See the deposition evidence given by George Druce’s son Charles at NU PL L1/2/4/2/23/2.

p. 40
    underground passages… red curtains
. Interview with former employee of Baker Street Bazaar in
P. T. O.
, 2 February 1907. There was much dispute about whether Druce’s office had curtains or not, but in the end Herbert Druce actually admitted as much in the perjury proceedings of 1908, as did Mrs Stoward, widow of the former partner of T. C. Druce (see NU Pl L1/4/2/12; NU Pl L1/2/6/12).

p. 41
    ‘sprung from the clouds… profound secret’
. Comments such as this were frequently made of T. C. Druce. See, for example, the
Daily Express
, 20 July 1903;
P. T. O.
, 2 February 1907; interview with J. G. Littlechild on 5 December 1898, NU Pl L1/9/1/2.

p. 41
    refusing to deal with all but his regular business acquaintances
. See, for example, the affidavit of James Smeaton of the horticultural engineers Gray & Ormson of Chelsea, filed in support of Mrs Druce’s probate action, which states that Druce refused to meet him when the partner of the firm that he usually dealt with was sick (NU PI L1/1/2). Also interview with Smeaton in the
Daily Mail
, 30 August 1898.

p. 41
    Mill Hill… Holcombe House
. See ‘Hendon: Growth before 1850’, in
A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume
5
: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham
, eds T. F. T. Baker and R. B. Pugh, London: Victoria County History, 1976, pp. 5–11; also the statement of the cook employed at Holcombe House, Charlotte High, at NU Pl L1/11/6/799/2.

p. 42
    ‘not even so much as a pair of gloves’
. See interview with former Baker Street employee Mr Redgell, in the
Daily Express
, 26 June 1903.

p. 43
    ‘
I see him now, the dead man!’
See NU Pl L1/1/2/1.

p. 43
    
Harcourt House
. Cited by Tim Knox in
Precautions for Privacy: The ‘Mole Duke’s’ Secret Garden at Harcourt House, Cavendish Square
, in
The London Gardener
, volume 2, 1996–1997, 2:27–33.

p. 44
    
circular path.
See Knox, op. cit.

p. 45
    
Sir William Folkes.
See NU Pl L1/2/8/2/20.

p. 45
    
farewell speech
. See summary of events in 5th Duke’s life complied by Baileys, Shaw & Gillett at NU Pl L1/2/8/2/20.

p. 46
    
contemporary newspaper report
. See summary of events in 5th Duke’s life compiled by Baileys, Shaw & Gillett at NU Pl L1/2/8/2/20.

p. 46
    
the old Duchess never forgave Lord John.
See statement of the widow Mrs Bethia Hartley at NU Pl L1/2/6/13.

p. 46
    
Hayter.
The incident of Hayter being recalled to Harcourt House to take away the pastels of Adelaide is recounted by Flora Northesk-Wilson, the painter’s granddaughter. The pastels remained with Hayter for the rest of his life. On his death in 1895, they reverted to Welbeck Abbey, but the 6th Duke gave Hayter’s daughter one of them as a gift (see letter from Flora Northesk-Wilson published in the
Daily Mail
, 20 December 1898).

p. 47
    
Lady Londonderry.
Cited in Masters, op. cit., p. 162.

p. 47
    
repressed homosexual
. See, for example, Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp,
Follies: Grottoes, Gardens and Buildings
, London: Aurum Press, 1999, p. 404.

p. 47
    carriage accident
. Details of the carriage accident were related in court depositions by the duke’s close friends the Dowager Countess Manvers (NU Pl L1 2/4/22) and the Dowager Countess of Cork (NU Pl L1/2/4/29).

p. 48
    
average height of the Victorian male
. See statistical analysis for the Galton Institute, by Gary E. Pittman in their December 1999 Newsletter: ‘We see that the average height of an Englishman [in the Victorian age] is 5’6” and the range of heights is between 5’3” and 5’9”. An Englishman less than 5’3” would be considered unusually short, and one taller than 5’9” would be unusually tall. You would expect to see only about one in a thousand Englishmen above or below the normal range.’

p. 48
    
unhealthy pallor.
See proof of Charles Nevett at NU Pl L1/ 2/6/13.

p. 48
    
a form of
eczema.
See interview with the foreman of Truefitt & Co.,
Daily Express
, 22 June 1903.

p. 48
    ‘
intense irritation of the skin’.
Cited in A. S. Turbeville,
A History of Welbeck Abbey and its Owners
, London: Faber & Faber, 1934, p. 434.

p. 48
    
Henry Powell, recollected.
See proof of Henry Powell at NU Pl L1/2/6/13.

p. 49
    averse to red meat
. See the
Daily Express
, 26 June 1903.

p. 49
    Descriptions of the 5th Duke’s mode of dress
. Descriptions of the oddities of the 5th Duke’s manner of dress are legion: see, for example, the
Daily Express
, 22 June 1903; also the
Daily Chronicle
, 15 March 1898.

p. 50
    ‘inclemency of a Siberian winter’
. See Day, op. cit., p. 137.