THE DUKE OF PORTLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2431, 7 January 1876, Page 3

THE DUKE OF PORTLAND.

Tlio most occonti io peer now living (says a London corrcßpondont) is also one of the wooUhiosfc. I refer to the Duko of Portland, who owns immensely valuable property in London, nnd muefc be receiving an income of at lopet £1000 a day. He has a passion for solitude. Though he has two fine houses in Cavondish. square and Park lane, very few Londoners have ever set eyes upon him. Even at Wolbook Abboy, near Worksop, where he passes most of his time, be lives so much alono tbat ho will not have any servants to wait upon him at dinner, but has an apparatus by which the tablo is lowered through the floor to tho kitchen when it wants replenish* ing. Not that it often needs this, for the duko.is a voiy abstemious man, and has only two meals a day, at one of whioh half a ohioken ?> served, and at the other meal the other half. Occasionally he has visitors at Wolbeok, but be never sees them, though they may be in the house with him for weeks at a time. Some othor ovrious traits of this etrango being arc told in the Figaro, He is voiy fond of budding, and has a keen eye for any dof eotive material or fault of construction. Should ho discover anything of the kind whioh cannot be romedied, down comes the whole struofcure, no matter what it cost. He always hn me dels of now buPdings made boforehand, and some of them cost hundreds of pounds. The approaches to the abbey are subtononeous, end there are fifteen miles of tunnols on tho estate, all well ventilated, and Bomo of them lighted day and night, and adorned v»lth soi^ptures. There is a splendid stable, where fltty horsos aro kept, though the duke never hunts. Ho hn a gallew 01 gkis and iron a qu enter of a mile long, where they may cxorcjse m a)l weathers. The duko is now constructing three enormous subtenanean "bmies end a subterranean church, and it ba3 tiken the workmen employe i on the job three years toexoavato tho ground. But that unon whioh tho duke most prides himself is b") museum. It is constructed largely of glass, and lighted by a dozen ohandeliers, eaoh weighing a ton, and having forty lights. It bei taken ten years to fix the glass a' one, and now the pictures ore being hung. They are tery choice, as they ought to be, see'ng tbat tho duke about eight jenn ago made t\ huge bonfli-o of ps'ntings which »>e did not thf^k good bnougb, though i they had cost many thousand pounds. Ho has ! ...rv, uvu tunuioa, ana iv ft supposed nas novor boon in love, and hb he is seventy-five, ho is not J'koly to be. He is very fond t>f mueto, and has had some of bis seivants taught it ta order to play to him. He has ono human fiiend, who, however, lives not at Wolbeok, but ?'n town, and gets constantly supplied with all the luxuties which the abbey grounds produce. The duke's other friends

are the deer, whom be feeda with biscuit out of bis own hands. When be diivee out he ia conveyed in a vehicle hung round with curtain*, ao that no one can ace in, and it i» drawn by six Lilliputian ponies. He keepa his town housea always ready to receive- him,' but scarcely ever visita them. He used to be somewhat of a Liberal ia politic*, and represented King'a Lynn for a short time, but he became a Conservative several yean ago. Hia brother wei the famous Tory atateaman, Lord George Bentinok. The present heir to tUfe dukedom ia Major-Qeneral Bentinok, late colonel of the 7th Dragoon Guards.