ottoline divine: December 2011

remembrance

the years 1904 & 1906 I will pass one side-save to say they were disagreeable and painful, at this time they do not appear to ME very significant..

Perhaps I shall return to them if days of Health are given to Me.

Twins were born on May 18th, three days later the boy child, christened Hugh died. Julian the surviving twin would be an only child.

photograph from Ottoline's personal scrap books at the NPG, here.

CHRISTMAS At WELBECK, the 6th Duke

Ottoline's brother-Portland's estate of Welbeck at Christmas

Christmas is one of the events of the season at Welbeck and the Household Ball its main festivity. The Ball is held to celebrate the Duke's birthday, which falls on December 28th. It is held in the vast underground picture-gallery, with the subjects of the old painters looking down from their canvases upon the gay dancers-

Winifred Anna Cavendish Bentinck (née Dallas Yorke),

6th Duchess of Portland,1912

portrait by Philip de László

Choice exotics, stately palms and seasonable shrubs add to the variety of the decorations. The band is almost hidden in a bower of foliage in the centre of the great saloon, and there are 500 guests of all ranks of society from peers and peeresses to the humblest domestic servant.

THE PICTURE GALLERY

About ten o'olock the Duke and Duchess appear with their house party, and dancing commences with a Circassion Circle. The Duke has the housekeeper for partner and the Duchess the house-steward, while the aristocratic guests find partners among other chiefs of departments in the Welbeck household.

Winifred-again

portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1902.

With midnight comes supper, served in two adjacent underground rooms, that owe their excavation to the grim hobby of the old Duke. All the festive party sit down to supper at the same time, the Duke's French chef providing the menu. The house-steward presides and proposes the health of the ducal family. This is welcomed in the manner it deserves and then dancing is resumed in the picture-gallery.

On another evening the children on the Welbeck estate are invited to a party when the head of a giant Christmas-tree is reared in the centre of the ball-room, laden with toys for distribution to them, and the pleasures of the entertainment are varied with the tricks of a conjurer and ventriloquist. Thus is afforded a glimpse of the happy relations existing between the Portland family and their retainers.

this Christmas story from Nothinghamshire history here

a tree at Welbeck, 1807

It's notable that in 1807 William Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland, then prime minister, set up a Christmas tree at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, ‘for a juvenile party’.

the third Duke of Portland

another LOOK at the CaVenDish BenTinck Connection

Lady Ottoline Morrell & William Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland 1935
from the NPG, here

from TURBERVILLE:
There are 2 main strands in OTTOLINE"S GENEALOGY. The CAVENDISH line goes back to TUDOR times and BESS of HARDKWICK, whose second husband was Sir William Cavendish and whose last husband was the Sixth Earl of Shrewsbury.

Young Elizabeth "Bess" Hardwick. ©NTPL/Angelo Hornak (at left) & Sir William Cavendish (1505?-1557). ©NTPL/Hawkley Studios

Bess' second youngest son, WILLIAM CAVENDISH, founded the DEVONSHIRE, or senior side of the Newcastle line which descended through a series of Heiresses until 1734 when William CAVENDISH, the Second Duke of Portland, married Margeret Cavendish-Holles-Harley, Ottoline's great-great-grandmother.

William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland,by James Seymour

Margaret, Duchess of Portland ,by Michael Dahl

William Bentinck was the grandson of Hans Willem Bentinck, who came over to England in 188 with WILLIAM of ORANGE (WM III of England).

Hans Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, by Michael Dahl

Hans Willem, a younger member of an old DUTCH family, was a close friend of William III, who created him Earl of Portland. Hans Willem's son Henry was made First Duke of Portland by GEORGE I (mainly because of Hans Willem's efforts in the Hanoverian cause)

first LOOK from OTTOLINE DIVINE on the Connections- Here & Here

read Treasure Hunt for all Derbyshire postings here & the Bess of Hardwick and Wm. Cavendish portraits from there as well

some images & more information at the peerage here