Read The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery Online
Authors: Catherine Bailey
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
MR | Muniment Rooms |
WO | War Office |
PRO | Public Record Office |
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