Hello, I've been thinking, for some inexplicable reason, about the 5th Duke of Portland. I think I'll tell you a little bit, because it came to my attention that my posts are usually too relevant for their own good. He was a funny guy, was the 5th Duke of Portland. He had a great big house, Welbeck Abbey, which is now used to build murderous robots. Oh sorry, I mean it's now an Army training college, but in the 19th century it was something more interesting. So anyway, he had this great big abbey to live in, but he decided that he would only live in 5 rooms of it. He painted all of the walls pink, and the rest of the abbey began to fall into ruin. And - this is the really interesting bit - to say he was a recluse was an understatement. He was a RECLUSE. He built tunnels underground, 1000s of metres of underground tunnels. They went around his estate, and one went to Worksop town centre and the other went to Worksop train station. He also built an underground ballroom (a pink one). When he wanted to go anywhere, he would get in his coach, trundle off down the tunnels to the train station, then his carriage (with him still in it) would be loaded onto a train wagon and off he'd go. Apparently, he was a kind person. He used to muck in with the workmen, or something, so he wasn't a very good duke as dukes are supposed to be snobby - it's the rules. He once donated a collection of miniatures to a display in Manchester, but someone pinched them so he never did that again. And at some point he died from one of the many diseases that had plagued him all his life. He'd never really done anything, his brother was some army guy who got involved in politics and stuff I think, but our shy duke spent the best part of his life in his underground lair and his 5 rooms in the abbey. I wonder how he got on without people, to talk to him and stuff. Or maybe he just didn't need people, but myself I cant understand this, as I tend to go a bit mental when I haven't spoken to anyone for a while. Anyway, I was just quite fascinated today by the thought of this lonely duke living in his abbey and throwing balls (I mean the type with music and dancing and stuff) in his pink underground ballroom. Platonic hugs, Mike ICQ: 73775341 Email - smiley@rebelmonkey.freeserve.co.uk The Black Den - http://www.rebelmonkey.freeserve.co.uk Tomorrow (or soon) I think I will go and have a look at the remains of this tunnel. I saw the pink underground ballroom once, when Welbeck Abbey had an open day. But if I tried that now I'd get shot by an over enthusiastic guard. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+