Post by Catsmate on Jun 9, 2016 12:03:03 GMT
Dashwood has been referenced in one Doctor Who story, the audioplay Minuet in Hell. However he's one of those larger-than-life historical figures who could easily appear in a larger role.
He was born in 1708 in London, the only son of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet Baron le Despencer. He inheireted the title on his father's death in 1724. In his youth, up until about 1726, he travelled frequently and extensively in Europe developing a reputation for notoriety. Certainly he's known to have impersonated Charles XII (King of Sweden) while in Russia, attempted to seduce Tsarina Anne and was expelled from the Papal states. However it's probably that his Grand Tour wasn't entirely composed of drinking, gambling and whoring, despite his later reputation. He visited many of the great houses of Europe, spent much time in Italy (especially during his later travels from 1729-31) studying classical architecture and remains, including a sojourn to the the excavations at Herculaneum, and befriended the philosopher and theologian Antonio Niccolini. He travelled to the Russian capital of St Petersburg in 1733 on diplomatic business.
After returning to England in 1732 he helped found a dining club for those who'd done the Grand Tour and wished to discuss classical art (and eat and drink well). This would later become the Society of Dilettanti, from about 1734. Sometime in the 1730s he was involved what would later be known as the second Hellfire Club, a loose group of rakes who delighted in revenry and pranks. In 1746 Dashwood formalised the organisation as the Order of the Knights of St Francis.
Exactly what the club got up to isn't known (the records were destroyed in 1774 and there are no first-person accounts). There were rumours (encouraged by Dashwood's political opponents like Horace Walpole) of paganism, black magic, satanic rituals and orgies. Certainly there were included mock rituals, and much drinking, wenching and feasting. There was also probably a lot of political discussion, given the members included Francis Duffield, Robert Vansittart and Thomas Potter. The painter William Hogarth is also associated with the club and Benjamin Franklin occasionally attended club meetings in 1758, though not a member. Many others, such as John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, are belived to have been members.
The club died out in the 1760s, down to a number of factors; politics and the aging of the members were the main cause worsened by libellous accusations levelled against the members by the radical John Wilkes. Dashwood served briefly as Chancellor of teh Exchequer (badly), Postmaster General and sat in the House of Lords as 11th Baron Le Despencer.
He also commissioned the only land bound lighthouse in Britain, Dunston Pillar. This 28m pillar was constructed to guide travellers across the heath south of Lincoln and was lit regularly until improved roads rendered it obsolete in 1788. There were refreshments and a pleasure garden at its base.
Game uses.
Dashwood could appear in, loosely speaking, four roles.
Protagonist.
Dashwood could be an ally to the PCs, assisting them in combatting whatever's going on though his great wealth and resources, his political offices (depending on what the scenario is set) and his immense web of contacts could be very useful, especially for a party lacking a TARDIS or other base of operations.
Antagonist
Unless Dashwood is the villain of the piece. Is he behind a Sinister Plan to bend King George to his will? Or just create a harem of compliant slaves from the most attractive women in London.
Bystander.
The Hellfire Club and Dashwood could appear as local colour, without a major part in the plot, or as a red herring. Maybe the PCs have to infiltrate the club's revels in order to steal a piece of Osiran technology that one of the members picked up, but is now a vital component of the plan to stop the Sinister Menace.
Victim.
Maybe Dashwood has already fallen under the influence of something horrible; possessed, implanted or even dead and duplicated. How do the PCs fix the problem and allow him, and any others, to play their part in history?
Links to others.
1. There is no evidence that Dashwood ever encountered Jacques de Vaucanson but the latter's creations would certainly have interested him. Did they correspond secretly and exchange information about oddities they'd encountered?
2. Then there's Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, and a close friend of the Tenth Doctor. She was acquainted with Dashwood's friend and political opponent John Wilkes during his exile in Paris. Did Dashwood ever meet her? He'd certainly have tried to seduce her if he did, but perhaps they bonded over their interest in the arts. Maybe she mentioned this strange man she kept encountering in fireplaces...
3. Then there's the Kevin Bacon of eighteenth century weirdness Le Comte de Saint-Germain, artist, spy, magus, linguist, immortal, alchemist, confidence trickster, diplomat, raconteur, conspirator, lover, mystic, forger and pathological liar. He and Dashwood were made for each other. And he certainly was in London in 1745.
4. Dashwood served as Postmaster-General from 1765 to 1781. While this wasn't the most glamorous of cabinet offices, it's (still) a little known fact that this post also controlled much of
Britain's counter-espionage efforts through the Secret Office. This was founded round 1653 (the exact date is unknown) and operated within the General Post Office (GPO) as a covert spying institution. What other mysteries did it study? A Georgian Torchwood perhaps?
5. For anyone interested in Hellraiser, Phillipe LeMarchande and the Lament Configuration, Dashwood might easily be blended in to that mythos.
6. Finally there's the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon, based very loosely on the real Chevalier d'Eon (a truly fascinating character in his/her own right). The series includes Dashwood, Madame de Pompadour, the Comte de Saint-Germain, Robespierre, Cagliostro and many more; it could be a useful source of ideas for scenarios set in the Georgian period.
Links.
Rogue's Gallery page on Dashwood (rather colourful)
Wiki pages on Dashwood, the Hellfire Club, the Hellfire Caves and the Society of Dilettanti
Secrets of the Hellfire Club
Parliamentary biography
He was born in 1708 in London, the only son of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet Baron le Despencer. He inheireted the title on his father's death in 1724. In his youth, up until about 1726, he travelled frequently and extensively in Europe developing a reputation for notoriety. Certainly he's known to have impersonated Charles XII (King of Sweden) while in Russia, attempted to seduce Tsarina Anne and was expelled from the Papal states. However it's probably that his Grand Tour wasn't entirely composed of drinking, gambling and whoring, despite his later reputation. He visited many of the great houses of Europe, spent much time in Italy (especially during his later travels from 1729-31) studying classical architecture and remains, including a sojourn to the the excavations at Herculaneum, and befriended the philosopher and theologian Antonio Niccolini. He travelled to the Russian capital of St Petersburg in 1733 on diplomatic business.
After returning to England in 1732 he helped found a dining club for those who'd done the Grand Tour and wished to discuss classical art (and eat and drink well). This would later become the Society of Dilettanti, from about 1734. Sometime in the 1730s he was involved what would later be known as the second Hellfire Club, a loose group of rakes who delighted in revenry and pranks. In 1746 Dashwood formalised the organisation as the Order of the Knights of St Francis.
- The term "Hellfire Club" wasn't used at the time, the group referred to themselves as Order of the Knights of St Francis and later the Brotherhood of St. Francis of Wycombe and the Order of Knights of West Wycombe.
- Such a huge excavation has interesting possibilities, what else might have been dug up from the chalk?
- The Eighth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard visited the caves in 1806, in the audioplay Seasons of Fear.
Exactly what the club got up to isn't known (the records were destroyed in 1774 and there are no first-person accounts). There were rumours (encouraged by Dashwood's political opponents like Horace Walpole) of paganism, black magic, satanic rituals and orgies. Certainly there were included mock rituals, and much drinking, wenching and feasting. There was also probably a lot of political discussion, given the members included Francis Duffield, Robert Vansittart and Thomas Potter. The painter William Hogarth is also associated with the club and Benjamin Franklin occasionally attended club meetings in 1758, though not a member. Many others, such as John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, are belived to have been members.
- Just what did the club get up to? Well it's the perfect place for someone to attempt to infiltrate British society. Perhaps the members are being replaced by shapeshifted Zygons or android duplicates, implanted with alien mind control technology or taken over by immaterial aliens. Or the Meddler is drugging the wine with something to allow him to hypnotise the members. (His monastic dress would blend in well)
- Or they could be meddling with Thing Man Was Not Meant to Know. Artefacts acquired by Dashwood or others while touring Europe, or unearthed during the construction of the caves, perhaps. Psionically active crystal technology left from the time the Earth Repiles ruled the world. A crashed spacecraft containing a dangerous alien, or simply advanced technology.
- The location of the caves might not be purely down to the ease of digging and suitability as a public works project; maybe Dashwood learned something while abroad, a clue that led him to select the site. Or do the walls hold a matrix of strange crystals and copper wire that amplify psionic powers and allow the club's Inner Circle to project their will?
The club died out in the 1760s, down to a number of factors; politics and the aging of the members were the main cause worsened by libellous accusations levelled against the members by the radical John Wilkes. Dashwood served briefly as Chancellor of teh Exchequer (badly), Postmaster General and sat in the House of Lords as 11th Baron Le Despencer.
He also commissioned the only land bound lighthouse in Britain, Dunston Pillar. This 28m pillar was constructed to guide travellers across the heath south of Lincoln and was lit regularly until improved roads rendered it obsolete in 1788. There were refreshments and a pleasure garden at its base.
- What other purpose did it serve?
Game uses.
Dashwood could appear in, loosely speaking, four roles.
Protagonist.
Dashwood could be an ally to the PCs, assisting them in combatting whatever's going on though his great wealth and resources, his political offices (depending on what the scenario is set) and his immense web of contacts could be very useful, especially for a party lacking a TARDIS or other base of operations.
Antagonist
Unless Dashwood is the villain of the piece. Is he behind a Sinister Plan to bend King George to his will? Or just create a harem of compliant slaves from the most attractive women in London.
Bystander.
The Hellfire Club and Dashwood could appear as local colour, without a major part in the plot, or as a red herring. Maybe the PCs have to infiltrate the club's revels in order to steal a piece of Osiran technology that one of the members picked up, but is now a vital component of the plan to stop the Sinister Menace.
Victim.
Maybe Dashwood has already fallen under the influence of something horrible; possessed, implanted or even dead and duplicated. How do the PCs fix the problem and allow him, and any others, to play their part in history?
Links to others.
1. There is no evidence that Dashwood ever encountered Jacques de Vaucanson but the latter's creations would certainly have interested him. Did they correspond secretly and exchange information about oddities they'd encountered?
2. Then there's Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, and a close friend of the Tenth Doctor. She was acquainted with Dashwood's friend and political opponent John Wilkes during his exile in Paris. Did Dashwood ever meet her? He'd certainly have tried to seduce her if he did, but perhaps they bonded over their interest in the arts. Maybe she mentioned this strange man she kept encountering in fireplaces...
3. Then there's the Kevin Bacon of eighteenth century weirdness Le Comte de Saint-Germain, artist, spy, magus, linguist, immortal, alchemist, confidence trickster, diplomat, raconteur, conspirator, lover, mystic, forger and pathological liar. He and Dashwood were made for each other. And he certainly was in London in 1745.
4. Dashwood served as Postmaster-General from 1765 to 1781. While this wasn't the most glamorous of cabinet offices, it's (still) a little known fact that this post also controlled much of
Britain's counter-espionage efforts through the Secret Office. This was founded round 1653 (the exact date is unknown) and operated within the General Post Office (GPO) as a covert spying institution. What other mysteries did it study? A Georgian Torchwood perhaps?
- If you do use this don't forget to give Edward Willes a cameo; he mixed the jobs of Bishop of Bath and Wells and Secret Decipherer to the King.
5. For anyone interested in Hellraiser, Phillipe LeMarchande and the Lament Configuration, Dashwood might easily be blended in to that mythos.
6. Finally there's the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon, based very loosely on the real Chevalier d'Eon (a truly fascinating character in his/her own right). The series includes Dashwood, Madame de Pompadour, the Comte de Saint-Germain, Robespierre, Cagliostro and many more; it could be a useful source of ideas for scenarios set in the Georgian period.
- For example the Secret du Roi, a real historical organisation that handled covert diplomacy, espionage and other matters could act as a French Torchwood, in the manner of the Shadow Directory in Christmas On a Rational Planet.
Links.
Rogue's Gallery page on Dashwood (rather colourful)
Wiki pages on Dashwood, the Hellfire Club, the Hellfire Caves and the Society of Dilettanti
Secrets of the Hellfire Club
Parliamentary biography