![]() ![]() Could this seemingly outrageous claim be proved? The courts, it seemed, were willing to let Anna Maria try. Why? Because she claimed he was not, as everyone thought, simply the very wealthy owner of a London department store, but instead, none other than His Grace, the reclusive William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5 th Duke of Portland. ![]() ![]() So what exactly is “the Druce case”? The gist: in the late 1890s, a widow, one Anna Maria Druce, caused quite a stir when she petitioned the courts to exhume the grave of her father-in-law, Thomas Charles (T.C.) Druce. It included a chapter on the Druce case and the mysterious, hugely eccentric 5 th Duke of Portland. I was rummaging around a second-hand bookshop, looking for a case to write about, when I found an old ’70s book called Victorian Scandals. Eatwell says, “It’s true that, in the case of this book, truth really IS stranger than fiction! I happened on this story by complete chance. A glance at the title of this work lets the reader know there’s going to be some strange goings on, but what’s remarkable is that they’re all true – Piu Marie Eatwell has penned a work of nonfiction, not a novel (though, while reading, I kept thinking this material would make a great one). ![]()
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