Word: wellingtons
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...WELLINGTON-Philip Guedalla-Harper...
...most typical great men England ever produced, Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) survives "as little more than the instrument of a single victory and the gruff hero of a dozen anecdotes." Biographer Guedalla, in 536 coruscating pages, has rubbed the rust off the Iron Duke, polished him till he shines...
...daily questions: what time would the staff move and what was there to be for dinner?-his answer was invariable: "At daylight; cold meat." His men trusted him, admired him at a distance; called him "that long-nosed b-r that beats the French." The admiration was not mutual. Wellington's frequently-expressed opinion of Tommy Atkins: "The scum of the earth, the mere scum of the earth. . . . The English soldiers are fellows who have all enlisted for drink. . . . The man who enlists into the British army is, in general, the most drunken and probably the worst...
After Waterloo ("a damned serious business-a damned nice thing-the neatest run thing you ever saw in your life. . . . By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.") nothing was too good for Wellington. Already a Duke, he had every conceivable honor, all possible emoluments heaped on him. He became Prime Minister, was even made Chancellor of Oxford. He could do no wrong. Once out shooting (being a General, not a sniper) "he shot a dog, then a keeper, and finally an aged cottager who had been rash enough...
...bogeyman Napoleon faded from memory and young Reform lifted its head, old diehard Tory Wellington lost his popularity. Twice his windows were broken by a mob; on Waterloo's anniversary he was trailed home by hooting hoodlums. The Duke, impervious to mobs, merely thought the country was going to the dogs. But before he died at 83, public opinion had swung round again: he was universally respected and, as only a public character can be, beloved...