The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery
Page 44
In the two weeks that John …: John’s war diary
The châteaux John slept in …: ibid.
His empathy with the living conditions …: John to his family, various letters, February/March 1915, MR
Fortnum’s offered …: Fortnum & Mason Christmas Catalogue for the Expeditionary Force, 1914
1¼ pounds fresh meat …: Derbyshire Times, 28 August 1914
In the trenches …: Paul Fussell, The Great War, p. 49
‘I am very comfortable …’: John to his sister, Marjorie, n.d., private collection
‘They might as well …’: ibid., 14 March 1915
Chapter 49
‘I am very sad …’: Letter to Winifred Bennett, 13 March 1915, Imperial War Museum
After spending …: ibid., 14 March 1915
There, they saw …: Diary of Sir John French, Imperial War Museum
Some months earlier …: George Moore, unpublished memoir, private collection
The project …: Major-General C. H. Foulkes, ‘Gas!’, Naval and Military Press 2009
Foulkes, a charismatic …: ibid.
Moore wanted John …: Charlie to John, various letters, March–April 1915, MR
In mid-February …: Sir John French to Violet, February 1915, MR
That morning …: Violet to Charlie, various letters, March 1915, MR
I went in to St Omer …: Diary of Sir John French, Imperial War Museum
I motored GM …: Sir John French to Winifred Bennett, 14/15 March 1915
So shaken …: John’s war diary
Chapter 50
The division had been …: 46th North Midland Battalion and Brigade war diaries, WO 95 2662/2663/2683
They were three miles …: Captain J. D. Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire, Naval and Military Press 2002
Outside the North Midlands headquarters …: John to Charlie, 15 March 1915, MR
It was shortly after …: John’s war diary
Stuart Wortley read …: John to Charlie, 15 March 1915, MR
John had barely skimmed …: ibid.
A few minutes later …: John to Charlie, 16 March 1915, MR
John shared … John to Charlie, various letters, January–February 1915, MR
The next morning …: John to his sister, Marjorie, n.d., private collection
Since John’s arrival at the Front …: Letters to John from Charlie, Violet and the Duke, February–March 1915, MR
Chapter 51
Early the next morning …: Charlie to John, 25 March 1915, MR
‘Your boy’s failed me …’: ibid.
The drawing room …: Charlie to John, May 1914, MR
John’s refusal …: Charlie to John, 25 March 1915, MR
But, before proceeding …: Charlie to John, 16 March 1915, MR
‘Find out why …’: ibid.
Depending on the answers …: The Duke to Edward Stuart Wortley, 18 March 1915, MR
Two days later …: Note, Violet to Charlie, MR
Chapter 52
Shortly before 7.30 p.m. …: Note, Violet to Charlie, MR
It was a wet, blustery evening …: The Times, 26 March 1915
Well into her eighties …: Various references, MR
Earlier that day …: Note, Violet to Charlie, MR, 25 March 1918; Violet to Charlie, 18 March 1915, MR
Lady Holford had opened …: ibid.
At the appointed hour …: George Moore, unpublished memoir, private collection
To ensure their conversation …: This is not documented, but it is reasonable to assume that they would not have wanted the footmen to hear the conversation that followed. In extremis, the practice of the day was to dismiss the footmen after dinner was served.
While Violet had convened …: Inferred from Violet’s note of meeting, MR. A scrap of paper: ‘1. GHQ – too many titled officers. 2. Sir J – spurned/reissue? 3. J? How?’
In tackling …: Charlie to John, 25 March 1915, MR
Chapter 53
In March 1915 …: G. E. Cockayne, The Complete Peerage, Vol. VIII
Her bedroom at Arlington Street …: Violet to Charlie, March 1915, MR
The previous October …: Violet to Charlie, 18 October 1915
Determined to stop her …: At the time, Violet and Diana were trying to set up a hospital at Hardelot in France. However, the project had run into problems. Anticipating that it would fail, the Arlington Street Hospital was Violet’s fallback. But it was not until the following year that it became operational.
Other dukes …: Chatsworth archives; Lost Hospitals of London (website); Wikipedia
He thought it would be ‘knocked about’ …: Henry to Violet, n.d., MR
Violet, who had had several lovers …: Besides her long affair with Harry Cust, which began in the 1880s and continued until well into the 1900s, Violet also had an affair with Montagu Correy, Disraeli’s private secretary, who was thought to be the father of her second daughter, Letty.
Later that day, Henry watched …: Marjorie to John, private collection
Chapter 55
At General Headquarters …: The full extent of Sir John’s troubles that spring and early summer was reported in The New York Times in a long article published on 4 July 1915
‘I have more trouble …’: Sir John to Winifred Bennett, Imperial War Museum
‘We had not sufficient …’: The Times, 14 May 1915
The finger of blame …: Richard Holmes, The Little Field Marshal, Cassell 2005, pp. 288–91
The scandal served …: The New York Times, 4 July 1915
‘The impression …’: ibid.
‘The absence of any …’: ibid.
The fact of the matter …: ibid.
It was his War Office file …: National Archives, WO 374/28523
It was only when I read the war diary …: National Archives, WO 95/2670
Chapter 56
According to Colonel Beevor’s …: National Archives, WO 95/2670
19 July, 7.30 am …: ibid.
We marched back …: Captain J. D. Hills, The Fifth Leicestershire, Naval and Military Press 2002, p. 45
The weather throughout …: ibid., p. 47
‘I dined with Marjorie Anglesey …’: Duff Cooper’s diary, private collection
The above-named officer …: National Archives, WO 374/2852
Very quickly …: National Archives, WO 374/2852
Among them was a letter …: For reasons unknown, Lady Mildred’s letter to John was included among Violet’s papers in the trunk of her correspondence that John was working on when he died
‘Darling C,’ she wrote …: Again, for reasons unknown, this letter to Charlie from Violet – and the two that follow – was among her gold-dusted letters. Whether Charlie had returned them to her, or whether she had made copies, we cannot know
The ‘resounding room’…: Violet told Charlie that the room was in the ‘old offices’. This was where the Duke’s land agent and his team had worked. These rooms became the Muniment Rooms.
The report also shows …: National Archives, WO 374/2852
I have this day seen and examined …: ibid.
Between 5 December 1915 and …: ibid.
While he had been abetted …: Shot at Dawn (website)
Chapter 58
She had ‘golden-brown eyes’ …: Cynthia Asquith, Remember and Be Glad, J. Barrie 1952, p. 90
‘I don’t think I’ll ever …’: John to Marjorie, 28 May 1914, private collection
Twice, in the eighteen months …: Violet’s letters to Charlie and others, November 1912–May 1914, MR
He broke off the engagement …: Rosemary Leveson-Gower to John, various letters, November 1912–May 1914, MR
Chapter 59
The wedding was organized by Violet and …: Mrs Annie Tennant to John, January 1916, MR
The bride, who was given away …: The Times, 28 January 1916
The newspaper also listed …: ibid.
Chapter 60
Some 1,500 members of the aristocracy
…: Gerald Gliddon, The Aristocracy and the Great War, Gliddon Books 2002, p. xiii
It seems fitting …: Information taken from the war memorials in the villages on the Belvoir estate
Epilogue
‘Talking of Kakoo’s second baby …’: Cynthia Asquith, Diaries 1915–1918, Hutchinson 1968
One with the children’s nanny …: Burke’s Peerage, 107th edition
Thirteen thousand three hundred …: Sales catalogue, MR
George Gordon Moore …: The World, January 1916
On his return to America …: Letter, Rothesay Stuart Wortley to John, February 1916, MR
A celebrated breeder …: Carmel Magazine, spring issue, 2007
His ‘Great Friend’…: Richard Holmes, The Little Field Marshal, Cassell 2005, pp. 362–6
He died there in May 1925 …: ibid.
‘That awful Duff …’: Philip Ziegler, Lady Diana Cooper, Hamish Hamilton 1981, p. 104
When Violet first learned …: ibid., pp. 102–3
Cassell’s Saturday Journal …: ibid., p. 104
Diana’s old admirers …: ibid., p. 105
Soon after their wedding …: ibid., p. 129
When Henry died …: Diana Cooper, Autobiography, Faber Finds 2008, p. 290
‘With the huge nest-egg …’: ibid., p. 346
Her days were spent …: ibid., pp. 346–7
‘The Hatley brocade curtains …’: ibid.
In the last week of her life …: ibid., p. 453
‘I stayed with her …’: ibid.
Acknowledgements
My first and greatest debt is to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland for allowing me access to the Muniment Rooms at Belvoir Castle, and for their unstinting help and support. I am also indebted to the descendants of previous generations of the family that I spoke to, many of whom showed me letters, photographs and diaries without which it would have been impossible to shed light on particular episodes in the book. I would especially like to thank the Marquis of Anglesey, who kindly allowed me to see the large collection of private family letters at Plas Newydd; the Earl of Wemyss, who found the long letter Violet wrote to Mary, Countess of Wemyss, after Haddon died; and Viscount Norwich, whose help has been invaluable. Besides showing me his father’s unpublished diaries, and a notebook that Violet kept in the early years of the First World War, I would like to thank him for his generous permission to quote extensively from The Rainbow Comes and Goes – the first volume of his mother’s wonderful memoirs.
I would also like to thank Lord Roger Manners, John’s youngest son, for his recollections of his childhood at Belvoir, and his memories of his father.
I am grateful to the staff of the following libraries and archives for their assistance: the British Library, the Imperial War Museum, the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the London Library, the National Archives, the Bodleian Library, the British Newspaper Library, Leicestershire Record Office, Churchill College Library, Derbyshire Record Office, Eton College Library, Hertfordshire Record Office, and the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.
The letters in the Muniment Rooms run to many tens of thousands, and it would have been impossible to get to grips with them without the help of the Duke of Rutland’s archivist, John Granger – and, more recently, Peter Foden. His work in tracking down particular documents and answering innumerable questions has been tireless, and his knowledge of the pre-twentieth-century history of the Belvoir estate indispensable. I am also grateful to Marion Wood for her help in the early stages of my research. Thanks are also due to Sallyann Jackson, the former House Coordinator at Belvoir; to Harvey Proctor, Private Secretary to the Duke of Rutland; and to Phil O’Brien, who, throughout the writing of the book, has been my point of contact at the castle. I am grateful to him for his encouragement and forbearance.
By its very nature, so much of this book has been a collaborative effort. I would like to thank my editor, Eleo Gordon, for her unflagging support and her suggestions over the many drafts of the manuscript, and my agent, Georgina Capel, for all her wonderful support. I would also like to thank George Davis for his painstaking work in deciphering John’s letters from Rome, and Dr Christian Carritt for her help in looking into the medical aspects of Haddon’s accident. Undergraduates Pippa Bregazzi, Alexander Hill, Lotte Murphy Johnson and Jack Owen have been brilliant at tracking down documents at the Imperial War Museum and in other archives. Anne Carnt, William Eccles, and Lea Sellers read the manuscript in its entirety and offered invaluable suggestions. I am also grateful to Sarah Day, and Keith Taylor at Penguin, for their meticulous care during the final stages of editing.
It is impossible to reach the end of a large undertaking like this without realizing how lucky I have been in the support of my friends and family. Over the past couple of years, I have sought refuge at Combe and for that I have to thank Alexandra Henderson and her family for their hospitality – and Audrey Grimsey for keeping an eye on me. Patrick Forbes, Jasper McMahon, and William Sieghart were a never-ending source of encouragement to me when the book appeared to stall, and suggested alternative avenues of research and different approaches to particular aspects of the story. I owe them a huge debt. I would also like to thank those who were at pains to remind me that there was life beyond the Muniment Rooms at Belvoir, and who made the difficult moments bearable: Dorothy Cory-Wright, Sarah Cole, Martin Bailey, the Farman family, Sara Tibbetts, Konrad Gabriel, Christopher Kemp, Daniel Rosen, Rupert Bondy and Martyn Johnson.
Lastly, I would like to thank my mother, Carol. Without her help in deciphering and typing out the many thousands of letters I found in the Muniment Rooms, and the many hours spent discussing them, the book would have been even longer in gestation. It is dedicated to her with love and thanks.
He just wanted a decent book to read ...
Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something good to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks – the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardbacks. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company – and change the world.
We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it’
Sir Allen Lane, 1902–1970, founder of Penguin Books
The quality paperback had arrived – and not just in bookshops. Lane was adamant that his Penguins should appear in chain stores and tobacconists, and should cost no more than a packet of cigarettes.
Reading habits (and cigarette prices) have changed since 1935, but Penguin still believes in publishing the best books for everybody to enjoy.We still believe that good design costs no more than bad design, and we still believe that quality books published passionately and responsibly make the world a better place.
So wherever you see the little bird – whether it’s on a piece of prize-winning literary fiction or a celebrity autobiography, political tour de force or historical masterpiece, a serial-killer thriller, reference book, world classic or a piece of pure escapism – you can bet that it represents the very best that the genre has to offer.
Whatever you like to read – trust Penguin.
www.penguin.co.uk
Join the conversation:
Twitter Facebook
VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victor
ia 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
www.penguin.com
First published 2012
Copyright © Catherine Bailey, 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover photographs: front, Belvoir Castle and Haddon. Photographs reproduced by permission of His Grace the Duke of Rutland. Sky image: © Stephen Johnson/Getty Images
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-24-196038-7
* See the plans of the castle on pages 426-8.
* Archer Windsor Clive, the third son of the Earl of Plymouth.
* General Officer Commanding.
* Lieutenant-General Sir William Pulteney, CO III Corps.
* £852,000 at today’s values.
* Approximately £14,300 at today’s values.
* Violet was referring to the chapel at Haddon Hall, the family’s house in Derbyshire.
* The housekeeper at Belvoir.
† The Duchess’s lady’s maid.
‡ The caretaker at Haddon Hall, the family’s medieval castle in Derbyshire.
§ A breeder of British bulldogs.
* £3.6 million at today’s values.
† £2.7 million at today’s values.
‡ £20.5 million and £920,000 at today’s values.
§ £22 million.
* £2 million at today’s values.
† Calculated using average earnings as opposed to RPI.