My New Favorite Person

OK, so you might already know about William John Cavendish Scott-Bentick, 5th Duke of Portland, but if you don't you need to. He lived in North Nottinghamshire in the 19th century and is reputed to be somewhat eccentric. Here are some of my favorite tidbits:

• He was an extreme recluse, who never received guests and avoided his servants; if they ever did end up in the same room, they were instructed to ignore him completely (supposedly he once fired a dude for acknowledging him). He communicated with his seirvants by mailboxes installed on his room doors.
• He pretty much only went outside at night, with someone carrying a lantern wayyy ahead of him. Otherwise he would hide behind a ton of coats, hats, and umbrellas
• He built an extensive system of underground tunnels and rooms under his property, including a giant billiards room, an observatory (not sure exactly how this works but he had a lot of skylights...?), and a 10,000 sq.ft. ballroom (remember, he never had guests so he instead used it as a solo skating rink) with an elevator that could accommodate up to 20 people. According to Wikipedia, the tunnels are supposed to have totaled 15 miles. Some of them were glass-domed and tall enough to accommodate fruit trees.
• After his death, when people finally went into his home, they found that all the rooms he used were painted pink. By the end of his life, he had retired to five rooms in the main house, removed all of the furniture, and installed toilets in the corner of each room.
• He had doors installed on his bed so it was impossible to tell whether he was in it or not. He also had secret trapdoors into the tunnels (one of which popped up by the train station) so his servants were never quite sure if he was around or not.

All this being said, he was clearly a very reserved and unusual chap, but there was more to him than that. Although he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, he did serve in Parliament for a few years. His extensive underground projects also provided huge job opportunities to an impoverished region, and he seems to have taken good care of his workers (though there appears to be a little disagreement about that): he provided each of them with an umbrella, a suit of clothes, a top hat, and a donkey, and he even installed a roller skating rink for their benefit. He was also an avid horseman.

It's also worth noting that after his death, he was involved in a long and scandalous trial involving a woman and her son who claimed he'd been leading a double life as her father-in-law (the son's grandfather), T.C. Druce. Growing weary of this facade, our friend the duke was supposed to have faked his own death as Druce and arranged the burial of a weighted coffin. The case was eventually dismissed (and a disproportionate number of the people involved committed to insane asylums), as the motive was, of course, to show that Druce's grandson should inherit the dukedom. But it's still an interesting story.