DRUCE LETTERS STOLEN.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12392, 4 January 1906, Page 2

DRUCE LETTERS STOLEN.

A singular development to the celebrated claim of the Druce familyto the estate and title of the Duke or Portland is the ransacking by _o_sebreakers of Mr Hollamby Druce's house in Wells street. Gray's Inn road, London. Mr Druce was away from home for a few hours, and on his return lie found that eveything had been taken out of his I chest of drawers, his bed had been tipset and the mattresses searched, and his letters and papers scattered over the fl°° r - , , ~ , , "The selection made by the burglars was curious," he says. 'They took a long blue, legal-looking envelope, containing nothing more valuable than a company notice, and a bundle of letters, thirty to forty years old, written by my father. These came out of a wasn-stan_ drawer. In the corner of a room they then found a portmanteau containmg a suit of clothes and some 200 letters. This they took just as it was. Fortunately, i they got nothing of value affecting my claim, except the old letters which might have been useful to prove dates. All Mr Druce's papers and offixavits are in a strong room at the Isational Safe Deposit Company's office. He is steadily preparing a cr.se for presentation to the courts by which no hopes to prove that tho late proprietor of the Baker street Ba_aar and the fifth Duke of Portland were one and the fiamo person. Like Mrs Druce, another cl.umant, he will endeavour to get the crave opened in High gate Cemetery m which the body of Mr Druce, is supposed to lie, the expectation that the coffin will prove to be empty, thus proving at least that Mr "T. C. Dmcs, of the Baker street Bazaar, did not die at the date alleged. . It is more than seven years since tlio case was sprung upon the P"bhc, arid although it has not had the effect of the Tichborne claim in dividing society into two'classes—these who bcuve and ti:o ; e . who condemn—it still holds the iielu as ; an extraordinary and exciting problem, j Mrs Anna Maria Druce s story was that her husband, Walter Druce, was tho son of the man of mystery, none other than the Duke of Portland. She always declared that his father was a noblemin in disguise, although, singularly enough, he never attempted to laiee the question of his heirship to the Portland estates, one reason alleged being that he never actually knew the title lor he was only a lad at the time of his fathersupposed death, and was never able to gain authentic particulais. It was only by accident, and alter her husbands death, that Mrs Druce got a clue to tiro mystery. . . . Searching among tho records of the manor-at Hendon, where 'f. C. Druce had lived, she saw a reference to some coPYhold land that had belonged to her | father-in-law. Tho land had d.tappeai- ; ed so far as tho Druce family Avaa con- ; cerned, and after much search in the : Record Offico she discovered that the j land had been discovered by no Druce, but by the Duke of Portland. >,obody ' but a Druce could do it. Hence, ehc argued Thomas Charles Druce could have been no other than the fifth Duko , of Portland. . _ Further details came rapidly to sup- ] port her view. Druce was an eccentric ; man, and the Duke was an ccccn.ric i Duke, and, stranger still, their eccentricities were alike. The year of theD.ihes death and burial wore well known—l-«U. How did this agree with Mr Druce s burial in 1864. A bogus death and a bogus burial, said Mrs Druce. She could set little or no evidence of the drcea-e. and it is significant that the death certificate at Somerset House bore no dector's signature. Equally curious is it that no birth certificate of Mr Druce lias been found. Then witnesses came forward to declare that the old man, co far from dying in 1864, was afterwards seen alive. Dr. Forbes Winslow saw him, and knew him, though under another name, that of Dr. Harmer. Her one idea was to get the grave opened, and then, she said, you will find the coffin filled with lead taken from , the house at Hendon, on the night before the supposed death. This point gained, she would proceed to prove that although tho Duko left no issue in his * own name, he had, as Mr*T. C. Druce, left a son Walter.

Both the Duko of Portland and Mr Druce were eccentric to a fault, even in their dislike of wine and tobacco.

If tho Duke chose to play Jclcyll and Hyde for fifteen years, there were the marvellous underground passages at Welbeck to help him. They might have made it easy for him to hide or to absent himself for months, while playing the tradesman at the Baker street bazaar. He walked about the estate ia a secretive manner, never spoke to anyone, or permitted them to notice him. Mr Druce was similar in bearing, a singularly quiet man, with no liking far strangers. In form and figure they were alike, and the portraits of the two men bear a startling likeness to ono another.

There remains the reason of the Duke's concealing himself in this .manner, and masquerading as an ordinary tradesman.

Mrs Druce's contention was that tho Duke, in a quarrel with his brother, Lord George Bentinck, over a girl by whose charms both wero smitten, struck a blow which led to fatal consequences, and troubled his conscience so much that he foreswore the privileges of his ducal position therewith. The strange fact remains that Lord George Bontinck's body was found, stiff and cold, in Welbeck Park, on the night of September 21si, 1848, but contemporary records, it must be admitted, do not support the view of the Duke's complicity in his brother's end.

At present the oase traits for the opening of the grave in Highgato Cemetery. Legal permission has been given moro than once to carry out this work, but the complexity of the law has hitherto been sufficient to prevent its accomplishment.

After many years of unsuccessful efforts on her part, there was a lull in her activity, and the prosecution of the? extraordinary claim now rests with Mr Hollamby Druce, the victim of the recent theft.

Mr Hollamby Druce claims to be tho fegal lineaJ representative of Thomas Druce, of tho Baker street Bazaar. Ho came to England from Australia, his nativp country, in 1903, and. has since been busy with his solicitor, Mr T. K. V. Coburn, in getting together every scrap of evidenco bearing on the claim. It is stated that everything is now in order for th© reopening of tho legal proceedings. Quite recently a company with a capital of £11,000 was registered at Somerset House, which it is believed is intended to aid in the prosecution of tho case. Mr Hollamby Druce is a director, and two other directors, Mr George Crickmer and Mr John Crickmer, nro his relatives, through Thomas Druce's first wife, tho grandmother of tho present claimant.