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Henry Cyril Paget: Lord of the Dance

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20/08/2009

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Henry Cyril Paget: Lord of the Dance

How 'the dancing marquess', Henry Cyril Paget, was bankrupted by his love of theatre.

In 1904, 'the dancing marquess', Henry Cyril Paget, was bankrupted by his love of theatre. Sheila McClennon investigates. From August 2009.

As a child Sheila McClennon spent her summer holidays in Anglesey, where she became obsessed with the story of the Fifth Marquis, Henry Cyril Paget, an extravagant eccentric who converted the chapel at his stately home into a a theatre and spent enough to bankrupt the family in the space of six years. 

His was a life of jaw-dropping excess. After the bankruptcy, a series of auctions held  to recoup some of the money he had spent lasted several months and consisted of 17,000 lots, including some of the most lavish costumes in existence and jewels worth millions of pounds in today's money. 

The family was keen to erase him from their history, and little has been known about him until now, as Sheila returns to the scene of her family holidays to find out more about the man dubbed by locals, 'The Mad Marquis'.

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