Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer, PC, FRS was an English politician and rake, Chancellor of the Exchequer and founder of the Hellfire Club.
Francis Baron le Despencer by Nathaniel Dance Holland
Portrait by William Hogarth from the late 1750s, parodying Renaissance images of Francis of Assisi. The bible has been replaced by a copy of the erotic novel Elegantiae Latini sermonis, and the profile of his friend Lord Sandwich peers from the halo.
West Wycombe Park
Hellfire Caves
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The Hellfire Caves are a network of man-made chalk and flint caverns which extend 260m underground. They are situated above the village of West Wycombe, at the southern edge of the Chiltern Hills near
Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer
…was in opposition to all of George II's governments. In 1747 he introduced a poor-relief bill that recommended commissioning public works (such as the Hellfire Caves he later had excavated at West Wycombe Park) to combat unemployment. The bill failed. Dashwood was re-elected for New Romney on 26 June 1747, and in…
Entrance to the caves, 2008
A tunnel in the Hellfire Caves