THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 110, 12 February 1853, Page 5

THE LATE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

The following particulars of the Duke's private habits are taken from the Morning Post .— J

_ " Walmer Castle, where the Duke of Wellington died, is just the sort of residence that would have been pointed out by an imaginative mind as appropriate to such an event. Placed behind the high shingle beach which the incessant action of the waves has formed on this part of the coast, and surrounded on the landward side by lofty trees, it does not arrest notice by any pretentious prominences, and the modern windows opened in the thick o d walls, look as if its warlike uses had been laid aside for the milder and more peaceful influences of the times in which we live. There are, however, some heavy guns upon the upper walls pointed towards the Downs, and below a battery of smaller pieces that seem to include foreign invasion among the contingencies to which we are still exposed, it was a piace of strength, built for rough work in stormy times. It has become a quiet seaside residence, within earshot of the surf as it breaks upon the beach, j»nd within sight of those essentially English objects, ilie chalk cliffs of Dover, the Goodwin sands, and the shipping in the Downs. This was no unsuitable place for the Duke of Wellington to die in —that man in whose eventful history the largest experiences of military and civil life are so marvellously united.

" The room in which the Duke expired is of moderate size ami plainly furnished, but everything neatly and methodically arranged, something like an officer's room in a garrison. Ou the right-hand side stands an ordinary iron camp bedstead, with a single horse-hair luattrass and a horse-hair pillow covered with leather,, which the Duke usually carried with him and used in town. Summer or winter the little camp bedstead was without curtains or any paraphernalia. Here the Duke always slept and wrote wnen at Walmer. Over the bedstead is a small collection of books, evidently selected for use.. Among them are some of the best English writers of Anne's Augustine age, in poetry and prose — recent histories and biographies, some French memoirs, military reports, oh'ioia! publications, and Parliamentary papers. In the centre of the room is a mahogany table, well stained with ink, and covered with papers; and here for some hours every day the Duke sat and wrote. Near this is ;i more portable one, and contrived so as to be used for reading or writing while in bed, 'Eh\$ y with two or three ohairs> comprises-

*^ whole; and it is sufficiently characteristic of the tastes and habits of the illustrious deceased. The windows look out upon the sea, and the view from the ramparts is very extensive, and, it may be added, magnificent. The prospect is unbroken, north and south, till it touches upon the massive and frowning battlements of Deal and Sandown Castles ; directly in front it is only bounded by the French coast; while below stretch the Downs for some miles on either side, with its fleets of merchant vessels bound on their-peaceful errands of commerce or enterprise. The unmistakable military character of tne Duke is evident in the notices placed by his orders on many of the doors of the castle—' Shut this door;' although it may be added that he never addressed a request to any of his personal attendants without saying,' If you please' to do this or that. A still more kindly and considerate -memorial of bis' Grace might be seen upon his table in the shape of a number of small slips of paper, on which were printed, (Avoid to impose upon others the care of original papers which you wish to preserve.' It is well known that the applications to the late Duke for advice and assistance were extremely numerous, and in many cases testimonials and original documents were enclosed by the applicants, which the Duke, after making a memorandum of, invariably returned, accompanied by one of these significant cautionary notices.

" His great mental activity has often been a theme of conversation. Shortly before his decease he was engaged in the "task of reading a ponderous document, which has excited a good deal of public attention, being no other than the report of the royal commission appointed to examine into the management and condition of Oxford University. This, he doubtless did with the view of mastering the details, so"as to be able to form a sound judgment on a question of so much national interest, and possibly to take part in the discussion of the subject in the next session. He was, in fact, like the late Sir R. Peel, one -who would, take no opinion second-hand, and in this instance he laboured hard to understand the subject in all its bearings. It is a striking, and, all things considered, a most interesting; fact, that before his death he had nearly concluded his gigantic task, and, up to a certain point, it is believed, liad read every word of the report. 11 The Duke's diet was as simple as his habits, consisting of the very plainest dishes. He had, indeed, a French cook, but had he always lived alone the office would have been a perfect sinecure; the cook, in fact, had little opportunity of displaying his artistic powers. The bill of fare was duly placed before his master, but was nearly always returned with, in addition to a plain joint of meat, some such words as ' pudding aud tart,' occasionally varied by the transposition of the words into ' tart and pudding,' as if by way of joke at the baffled ingenuity of the gastronomist. Another source of disquiet to the cook was positively that the Duke never complained. 'If I cooka good dinner,' the desponding artist would say, the Duke remarks, " It is well ;" and if I cook a bad dinner, he says, " It is well."'

" The Duke's bodily system remained sound to the Jast. His fine nervous energies were wonderfully preserved. For example, he always shaved himself; and the only change in this respect which was observable as years accumulated was that a rather longer tune was occupied in the process. He also wrote a good firm hand, and, until within a very few years before bis death, would not infrequently indite three or four letters before breakfast. There is another fact of the same character. In his eightyfourth year, and half a century after many of his greatest victories, the Duke could raise to his lips a glass of water, filled to the brim, steadily, and without spilling a drop ! " The plainness of the Duke's diet has been already mentioned. Equally plain was his bed. It consisted of what may be termed a horse-hair mattress—tlie hard couch of a veteran soldier—covered with wash leather. A bed of this description he had at each residence; but there was only one pillow, which migrated iiom place to place with its owner. It is no exaggeration te say of that pillow, that henceforward it will be a national heir-loom.

" A pleasing trait in the Duke's character is the hug period during which a large proportion of his dependents have been connected with or served him, and the unvarying testimony which they hear to his pood and'kind qualities as an employer, a landlord, and a master. Exact

and punctual in the management of his private affairs, up to the last moment his weekly bills were discharged by him as usual; and this precision, which he carried into everything1, made him easily dealt with.

" Amid the splendour of his public achievements his conduct as a landed proprietor is apt to be forgotten. Yet was he one of the most liberal and improving landlords in the country. The estate of Strathifieldsaye, which he used to say would have ruined any man but himself, has had more done for it in the shape of permanent improvements—of draining, of chalking, of substantial farm premises, and such like, than perhaps any other single property in the south of England. It was a wretched investment of the public money, but the Duke, true to his usual maxim, did the best he could with it, and the annual income for a long series of years has been regularly laid out upon it.

" A general and very erroneous impression has existed in the public mind that the Duke of Wellington.was extremely parsimonious in his contributions to the different benevolent institutions with which London abounds. Such was not the case ; but when he gave donations .lie always requested that it might not be blazoned before the public ; and that Ins private benevolence was extensive we have only to instance the late prosecution of the female Stanley and her male accomplice, who obtained from the Duke above £500 at various periods extending over seven years.

" A few clays before he died his Grace, while standing on the platform of the Folkestone station, met with an old pensioner, and at once entered into conversation with him. His Grace questioned the veteran as to what regiment he had served in, and so on, and after hearing the replies, terminated the affair by quietly putting his hand in his pocket and giving the man a sovereign. On this occasion, as on others, the Duke was unattended by a single servant"