THE HISTORY OF APSLEY HOUSE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 64

THE HISTORY OF APSLEY HOUSE.

(New Penny Magazine.) It would be difficult to name a building more replete with interesting association? than is the great stone-fronted mansion, at the corner of Hyde Park and Piccadilly. 'Apsley House, so long the residence of the |*reat Duke of Wellington, is full of meanentoes of the past, and its history is only slightly le.ss interesting than is that £i the hero whoso, home it was. 1 The story of the original grant of the land on which the mansion now stands is 'curious. It is said that George II v/as tiding out unattended along the country lane whicb is now known as Knightsjbridge, when his attention was attracted ijy a very miserable-looking man whose atJcire consisted of an exceedingly ragged military uniform. The King accosted the old soldier, and found that his name was Allen iand that lie had fought at the battle of 'Dettiagen. The veteran was exceedingly ■poor and only managed to obtain an occasional meal with tLo meagre profits of a miserable apple-stall, which he and his wife ihad pitched nesr the park g^tes hard by. "Vffuit can 1 do for you?" said the King. "Your Majesty can give me a grant of the bit of ground my apple-stall stands on, for I'm in daily iccv of being turned away. Iff you will grant me this, I shall be happy tor the rest of my days." "33e happy,"' responded the monarch, and he gave ord?rs accordingly. ' Secure in his tenure, and with no rent to 'pay, tlie apple-stall proved a valuable speculation. Allen's fortune improved, and he died in comparatively well-to-do circumstances, leaving a son whom lie had. educated, and who became s, respectable attorney. Ait&v Allen's death vhe stall fell .out 6i repair, and the plot of ground became a public eyesore from want of atten'lion ; and after it had remained whhout occupation for several years the then Lord Chancellor granted a lease of the land to Lord Apdley., afterwards Lord J3athur&t, who built aline brick mansion ior his own occupation, and was s^incrhat ostonished when, ju-.t as the building was finished, '■young Allen put in a claim for a large sum of money in lieu of rent and damages. In ,the result a compromise wos arrived at, and Lord Apsley agreed to pay an annual rent of £450 Lo the apple-stall keeper's fcon. In 1820 this mansion was purchased by the nation and settled as an heirloom on >Ois Duke of Wellington, who, eight years jlater, liekl the building added to and altered. The original red buck was laced hvith a casing of Bath atone, and the '.portico and west wing added. it is in the /.vest wing that the famous Waterloo oallerv is placed. It consists of a vast hall, nearly one hundred feet long, and is handsomely decorated and richly gib. It was 'in this apartment that the Duke used every '-ear to celebrate the anniversary of the of Waterloo. The Waterloo banquet, held on June 18, was regarded as 'one of the most important functions of the season An invitation to H was prized 'miite as highly as was a command to dine at, St. James's' Palace, and in some respects the. dinners were similar, since the King was invariably one of the guests at Apsley TT —

Hoit^e. ... Popular though the Duke was with the general public throughout the whole of his life, there was a period during whichhe ,was most cordially hated by the rabble. His unflinching opposition to the Reform Bill was the signal for very marked and repeated insults by the mob. In 1851 he used to be frequently hooted in the streets, and on one occasion the windows of Apsley House ,v; ere 'stoned. The Duke made a characteristic reply to the treatment he had received by having iron shutter* fixed in a prominent position outside all the windows facing Piccadilly. Despite the fact that after phe Reform Bill was passed, in 1832, the ■Duke became once again the people's hero, and that frequent representations were made ■•co him on the subject, he would never consent to have the bullet-proof shutters respoved; and they remained, a silent feproof to the fickleness of the common people, until taken down by the second Duke in 1852. On one- occasion, after his popularity had been regained," the Iron Duke was riding up Constitution Hill when he was followed by a crowd of several thousand persons, who vociferously cheered and demanded a speech. The Duke took not the slightest notice of the ovation accorded him, but rode leisurely on until he arrived at Apsley House, v, hen he slopped outside the gateway, and, turning round in the saddle, he silently pointed to the iron-closed windows, and after making a sarcastic bow passed into the conryard. . . . Apsley House, though for a time bereft of its social f-plenclour, is a fitting monument to one of the very greatest of the heroes of England. It is a building leplete Avith reminiscences of one of the grandest periods in the history of England — i structure of which every Englishman may well be proud.