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.
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.
In the neighbourhood of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Cresswell, and the mining
district between Mansfield and Worksop the Duchess is regarded as a
Princess Bountiful in reality, rather than a creation of fairyland.
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