In 1751, Dashwood leased Medmenham Abbey on the Thames from a friend, Francis Duffield.

In about 1870, Maitland Dashwood returned to Hall Place, restored the building and leased it to various tenants.

In 1755, when Sir Francis Dashwood acquired the ruins of the ancient abbey from the Duffield family, he and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich attended a service at St. Peter's parish church in Medmenham where Sandwich released a small monkey in the church.

The original land lighthouse was commissioned by Sir Francis Dashwood ( better known as the founder of the Knights of St. Francis, which became the Monks of Medmenham, later called a Hellfire Club ) in 1751 as a gift to his wife Sarah ( Ellys ) Dashwood, who feared crossing the dark heath near her childhood home, Nocton.

On moving into the Abbey, Dashwood had numerous expensive works done on the building.

Underneath the Abbey, Dashwood had a series of caves carved out from an existing one.

* Sir John Middleton — a distant relative of Mrs Dashwood who, after the death of Henry Dashwood, invites her and her three daughters to live in a cottage on his property.

( Dashwood resigned the post the next year, having raised a tax on cider which caused near-riots ).

His 2002 novel The Adventuress of Henrietta Street features characters carrying on the Hellfire tradition, while the Faction Paradox audio plays, Sabbath Dei and The Year of the Cat, feature Francis Dashwood as a secondary character.

Since its closure in June 1998 a new housing development has been built on its site which includes Dashwood Primary School.

A route through the underground chambers proceeds, from the Entrance Hall, to the Steward's Chamber and Whitehead's Cave, through Lord Sandwich's Circle ( named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich ), Franklin's Cave ( named after Benjamin Franklin, a friend of Dashwood who visited West Wycombe ), the Banqueting Hall ( allegedly the largest man-made chalk cavern in the world ), the Triangle, to the Miner's Cave ; and finally, across a subterranean river named the Styx, lies the final cave, the Inner Temple, where the meetings of the Hellfire Club were held, and which is said to lie 300 feet ( 90 metres ) directly beneath the church on top of West Wycombe hill.

During the late 1740s, to try to combat local poverty, Sir Francis Dashwood commissioned an ambitious project to supply chalk for a straight three mile ( 5 km ) road between West Wycombe and High Wycombe ( then on the busy London-Oxford road, now the A40 ).

Though not believed to have been a member, Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Dashwood who visited the caves on more than one occasion.

Dashwood resigned the post the next year, having raised a tax on cider which caused near-riots.

* He married, secondly, Catherine Greville ( d. 7 February 1703 ), daughter of Fulke Greville, 5th Baron Brooke and Sarah Dashwood, on 12 March 1698 in St. Clement Danes, Westminster, London, England.

Most of his pranks are played on Dr. Dashwood, of Orgasm Research.

Dashwood demolished the existing manor house and built a modern mansion on higher ground nearby.

In the background, on the hill, are the Dashwood mausoleum and church.

Sir Francis Dashwood built West Wycombe to entertain, and there has been much speculation on the kind of entertainment he provided for his guests.

Sir Robert embarked on a costly legal case against the executors of Lady Dashwood, which he lost, and raised money by denuding the estate's woodlands and selling the family town house in London.

Determined to live out her fantasy of forging a storybook relationship with her long-absent dad, Daphne, on an impulse, gets on a flight to London, where she quickly discovers that her father is the high-profile politician, Lord Henry Dashwood, who has controversially renounced his hereditary seat in the House of Lords to run for the House of Commons.

Dashwood sent detectives to serve sub poenas on everyone the rector knew.

He married Elizabeth Dashwood, daughter of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet on 22 October 1762.

On his deathbed, Mr. Dashwood extracts a promise from his son, that he will take care of his half-sisters ; however, John's selfish and greedy wife, Fanny, soon persuades him to renege.

Portrait of Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer by William Hogarth from the late 1750s, parodying Renaissance images of Francis of Assisi.

The most infamous club associated with the name was established in England by Sir Francis Dashwood, and met irregularly from around 1749 to around 1760, and possibly up until 1766.

Lady Dashwood's continuing occupation of the house prevented the nephew, Sir Edwin Hare Dashwood, 7th Baronet, an alcoholic sheep farmer in the South Island of New Zealand, from living in the mansion until she died in 1889, leaving a neglected and crumbling estate.

The 7th Baronet's son, Sir Edwin Dashwood, 8th Baronet, arrived from New Zealand to claim the house, only to find Lady Dashwood's heirs claiming the house's contents and family jewellery, which they subsequently sold.

Dashwood claims to be descended from Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer, founder of the original Hellfire Club and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The house remained in the Austen family until the mid 18th century when Robert Austen ( 1697 – 1743 ), the 4th baronet ( Sheriff of Kent in 1724 and MP for New Romney from April 1728 to 1734 ), died and the estate was eventually purchased ( c. 1772 ) by his brother-in-law Sir Francis Dashwood, a member of the notorious Hellfire Club.

* References and connections to the Hellfire Club include West Wycombe Caves, Franklin, the Earl of Sandwich, the motto " Fay ce que vouldras " (" Do what thou wilt ", from Rabelais ), and Sir Francis Dashwood.

There are no letters of complaint from the bishop to Dashwood at any time.

The investigation was directed by Dashwood from London.

He played the role of Lefevre in the 2004 film adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, John Dashwood in 1995's Sense and Sensibility and that of Lytton Strachey in the 2003 film Al Sur de Granada ( South from Granada ).

Paul Whitehead, a close friend of Sir Francis Dashwood, had been the Secretary and Steward to the Hellfire Club.

On his death in 1793, the estate was inherited by his son Sir John Dashwood, 4th Baronet, Member of Parliament for Wycombe and a friend of the Prince of Wales, although their friendship was tested when Sir John accused his wife of an affair with the prince.

Sir Francis Dashwood and the Earl of Sandwich are alleged to have been members of a Hellfire Club that met at the George and Vulture Inn throughout the 1730s.

Dashwood founded the Order of the Knights of St Francis in 1746, originally meeting at the George & Vulture.

Francis Dashwood was much more of a trickster than his predecessor Wharton.

Of the original twelve, some are regularly identified: Dashwood, Robert Vansittart, Thomas Potter, Francis Duffield, Edward Thompson, Paul Whitehead and John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.

The Club had many distinguished members, including the Earl of Sandwich and Sir Francis Dashwood.

West Wycombe Park, Caves, Mausoleum and Saint Lawrence's church were all constructed in the mid-18th century by Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the Dilettanti Society and co-founder of the notorious Hellfire Club.

In the mid 18th century Sir Francis Dashwood commissioned an ambitious project to supply chalk for a three-mile straight road between West Wycombe and High Wycombe, now part of the A40 road, then a prominent trade route between London, Oxford, and Gloucester and onward to South Wales.

During this time, Dashwood and other high-powered politicians and society members formed a club then known as The Knights of St. Francis ( which was later named as the Hellfire Club by a London newspaper ).

They were excavated between 1748 and 1752 for the infamous Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer ( 2nd Baronet ), founder of the Dilettanti Society and co-founder of the notorious Hellfire Club, whose meetings were held in the caves.

The caves run deep into the hillside above West Wycombe village and directly beneath St Lawrence's Church and Mausoleum ( which were also constructed by Sir Francis Dashwood around the same time the caves were excavated ).

18th century Italianate home of Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the notorious Hellfire Club.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s the caves were renovated and turned into a local visitor attraction by the late Sir Francis Dashwood ( 11th Baronet ), who used the profit earned to refurbish the dilapidated West Wycombe Park.

When he died in 1774, as his will requested, his heart was placed in an elegant marble urn ( costing £ 50 ) in the Mausoleum at West Wycombe by Sir Francis Dashwood.

After remaining in the Bradshaw family for some considerable time, it was sold to Sir Francis Dashwood in 1720 and was then held in the Dashwood family for almost 150 years.

Many of the character names are either puns ( Bertha van Ation refers to the film Birth of a Nation, Juan Tootrego ) or references to historical personages ( Blake Williams refers to the poet William Blake, Francis Dashwood's name refers to Sir Francis Dashwood ).