The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery (59 page)

52. The cortège arrives at the mausoleum in the grounds of the castle.

53. David, the present and 11th Duke of Rutland.

54. Emma, Duchess of Rutland.

Fig 1. Belvoir Castle, Ground Floor

Fig 2. Belvoir Castle, First Floor

Fig 3. Belvoir Castle, Second Floor

General Note

All letters/diaries are late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century papers from the Muniment Rooms at Belvoir Castle unless otherwise stated. The archives have not been catalogued, therefore it is not possible to provide citations for the individual documents.

Abbreviations

Part I

Chapters 1–6: General Note

The descriptions of Belvoir Castle in 1940, the manner of doing things, and the rumours, events and anecdotes referred to in these chapters have been drawn from conversations with servants working there at the time (or their relations) and members of the Manners family.

They are:

The Marquis of Anglesey, nephew of John, 9th Duke of Rutland

Gladys Brittain, the wife of Ted Brittain, the butler in 1940

Lady Ursula D’Abo, eldest daughter of John, 9th Duke of Rutland

Clarence Harper, footman

Helen King, tenant of the Duke of Rutland

Lord Roger Manners, youngest son of John, 9th Duke of Rutland

Viscount Norwich, nephew of John, 9th Duke of Rutland

Sheila Osborne, former pantry maid

Tonia Pacey, the daughter of Ted Brittain

Dorothy Plowright, the daughter of Bill Hotchin, the boiler stoker

Emma, Duchess of Rutland

George Waudby, footman

Chapter 2

Belvoir Castle had been
…: National Archives, PRO 18 and PRO 18/1

At Chancery Lane
…: ibid.

The oldest and most important
…: ibid.

Ten days earlier
…: ibid.

Appointed Physician-extraordinary
…: Francis Watson,
Dawson of Penn
, Chatto & Windus 1950

Chapter 4

Horse Key, Pringle
…: Belvoir Estate Records, MR

These women thus being
…: Michael Honeybone,
Wicked Practise & Sorcerye
, Devon 2008

Chapter 6

First a pane of glass was smashed
…: National Archives, PRO 18/1

‘I thought I ought to let you know
…’: ibid.

Chapter 7

In 1914, the Duke of Rutland’s estate
…: Belvoir Estate Maps, MR

The testimony of farm worker Leonard Thompson
…:’ Ronald Blythe,
Akenfield
, Penguin 1999, pp. 31–44

‘We were all delighted when war broke out
…’: ibid., p. 38

We arrived at the Dardanelles
…: ibid.

Of the men who left
…: Information gathered from the village war memorials

A few weeks after war was declared
…:
Grantham Journal
, 29 August 1914

‘No man in the prime of life
…’: A. J. P. Taylor,
The First World War
, Penguin 1974, p. 22

In an age when the word ‘nobility’
…: Brian Masters,
The Dukes
, Blond Briggs 1977, p. 9

In 1914, there were thirty of them
…: Includes the Royal Dukes: Albany, Connaught, Cumberland and Teviotdale, and Rothesay

Within living memory
…: ibid., pp. 9–10

So opulent was their lifestyle at Belvoir
…: Philip Ziegler,
Diana Cooper
, Hamish Hamilton 1981, p. 10

‘It was not just that millions died
…’: Mary, Countess of Wemyss,
A Family Record
, The Curwen Press 1932, p. 235

Chapter 9

Even so, in the sixteen weeks since the division
…: General Edward Stuart Wortley to Lord Stamfordham, Private Secretary to King George V, June 1915, Royal Archives, Windsor

On a warm summer’s evening
…: John Milne,
Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment
, Naval and Military Press 2006, p. 31

‘It was a pleasant bivouac
…’: ibid.

‘Everybody knew what a visit there
…’: ibid., p. 30

‘What a track it was
…’: ibid., p. 32

At 8 p.m., General Clifford, the Commanding Officer
…: 138th Brigade War Diary, National Archives, Kew

‘The Companies marched back independently
…’: Milne,
Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment
, p. 34

In the autumn of 1915, at the Battle of Loos
…: Nick Lloyd,
Loos, 1915
, Tempus 2006

Twenty of John’s fellow officers
…: Milne,
Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment 2006
, p. 55

‘A significant proportion of the regiment’s casualties
…’:
Grantham Journal
, October–November 1915

Chapter 10

Sigmund Freud had also suggested
…: ‘Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work 1: “The Exceptions” ’, in Freud, S. E. (1957)

Chapter 12

In the months that followed
…: Wikipedia: 1908 Messina earthquake

Some weeks earlier, Herbert Asquith
…:
The Times
, 12 January 1909

The King had concealed them
…: Christopher Hibbert,
Charles I, A Life of Religion, War and Treason
, Macmillan 1968

Chapter 13

Among the documents
…: National Archives, HS 9/921/5

I was dropped
…: ibid.

Chapter 14

The sources in this chapter are drawn from files held at the National Archives, PRO 18 and PRO 18/1.

Chapter 16

The break with his mother
…: In her letter to Charlie, Violet misremembered John’s age. He was eight years old at the time.

Chapters 17 and 18

The newspaper sources from which the events of these chapters are drawn are:

Bedfordshire Mercury
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Bedfordshire Standard
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Bedfordshire Times and Independent
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Biggleswade Chronicle and Sandy Times
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Grantham Journal
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Grantham
Times
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Leicester Chronicle
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Leicester Daily Express
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Leicester Journal
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Melton Mowbray Times
, Sept./Oct. 1894

Chapter 19

The family had employed 110 servants then
…: Belvoir Castle Household Accounts, 1894

Chapter 20

Both Henry and Violet had close links to the Queen
…:
Burke’s Peerage
, 107th edition

Chapter 23

Mary, Countess of Minto
…: Mary, Countess of Minto, 1858–1940, married Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, July 1883

Mary, Countess of Wemyss
…: Mary, Countess of Wemyss, 1862–1937, married Francis Richard Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss, August 1883

Chapter 26

Famous only for his handsome looks
…: Philip Ziegler,
Diana Cooper
, Hamish Hamilton 1981

Born in 1852
…:
Burke’s Peerage
, 107th edition

As a matter of course, whenever he entered
…:
Leicester Journal and Midland Counties General Advertiser
, 23 July 1852

At Leicester, a few weeks after Henry was born
…:
Leicester
Chronicle
, 24 April 1852

A beautiful set piece
…: ibid.

The picture she paints of him
…: Lady Diana Cooper,
The Rainbow Comes and Goes
, Rupert Hart-Davis 1958

‘Ruin stared us in the face
…’: ibid., p. 21

Though he ‘worried and fretted’
…: ibid., pp. 20–21

‘Sadness fell from the air
…’: Diana Cooper,
Autobiography
, Faber and Faber 2008, p. 282