His manner of dealing with a strike was a summary one. The wages of the
excavators of the tunnels were fifteen shillings a week regularly,
sunshine or rain; but the men thought their rich employer could afford
them an increase, so they struck.
"You can strike as long as you like," was the message sent by the Duke,
"it does not matter to me if the work is never done."
This cool attitude had its effect, the strike was at an end, and the
tunnelling proceeded.
One reason given for planning the tunnels was that when he first desired
to withdraw himself from observation he tried to close the public rights
of way over the estate. This brought him into collision with the powers
that be, and he compromised matters to his own satisfaction by making
the underground roadways. His cynicism was rich.
"Here have I had provided for you at enormous expense a clean pathway
underground, lighted with gas too, and you will persist in walking above
ground," was his salute to some astounded visitors. The idea that they
should prefer the sunshine, the delightful woodland scenery and
sweet-smelling scents wafted over Welbeck in summer-time, to the gaseous
tunnels, as if they were rabbits having natural affinities to the
burrows of the earth, was one only worthy of a ducal misanthropist.
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