A recluse who preferred to live in seclusion, he had an elaborate underground maze excavated under his estate at Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire.

[1] He was born in London, the second son of William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, and his wife Henrietta, daughter of General John Scott.

The duke's major building operations and developments at his estate of Welbeck Abbey in which he took an active involvement appealed strongly to the popular imagination.

While there were occasional labour disputes over wages and hours, the duke was on very good terms with his many employees and earned the nickname "the workman's friend".

[citation needed] The house's kitchen gardens covered 22 acres (8.9 ha) encased in high walls with recesses in which braziers could be put to ripen fruit.

A 1.25 mi (2 km) long tunnel ran north-east from the coach house, to emerge at the south Lodge, which was supposedly wide enough for two carriages.

The duke maintained an extensive correspondence with a wide-ranging network of family and friends, including Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Palmerston.

His reclusive lifestyle led to rumours that the duke was disfigured, mad, or prone to wild orgies, but contemporary witnesses and surviving photographs present him as a normal-looking man.

Upon his arrival at his London residence, Harcourt House in Cavendish Square, all the household staff were ordered to keep out of sight as he hurried into his study through the front hall.

He insisted on a chicken roasting at all hours of the day and the servants brought him his food on heated trucks that ran on rails through the tunnels.

Fanny had two sons, George and Bertram Lawson, both of whom served with distinction in the military during World War I, and has numerous descendants living today.

[7] The duke had numerous intimate and discreet relationships during his lifetime, and his family was told that due to an accident in his youth he would probably be unable to have children.

The Harley Gallery shows exhibitions from the Portland Collection, in the museum which is situated in the converted site of the Fifth Duke's Gas Works.

The widow claimed that the duke had faked the death of his alter ego Druce to return to a secluded aristocratic life and that therefore her son was heir to the Portland estate.

Evidence of a fake burial was given by a witness named Robert C. Caldwell of New York and others,[12] and it was eventually agreed that Druce's grave should be opened.

[10][14] Caldwell's evidence was so unreliable that the prosecution disowned him during the trial, and it transpired that he had habitually appeared in court giving sensational, and false, testimony.