3-070-708 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal Visit to Welbeck Abbey, 1881. Sketches from photographs by Robert White. 'Entrance to tunnel - South Lodge; Entrance Gateway - Conservatory etc; Welbeck Abbey, south-east view; Entrance to tunnel; the Underground Road; the Inner Tunnel...There are altogether, extending in all directions from the Abbey, many miles of subterranean passages, all of which are pleasant to walk in and wide enough to allow of three persons walking abreast. They are brilliantly lighted by means of costly apparatus for attracting the sunlight; and, where sunlight cannot be admitted, by gaslights. The subterranean "riding-school," the like of which is not to be found in the world, is reached through one or two underground passages...This gallery...has been converted into a magnificent museum of art 180 ft. in length...The library, as well as the picture gallery, is underground...In the mansion itself, a large semi-castellated house built in 1604, there is externally no great architectural beauty...There is a large Gothic hall, restored in 1751, remarkable for the fan-like tracery of the ceiling, and the elaborate and splendid decorations'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.