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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
but one man that could travel fast after he was turned of eighty; that man was the Reverend John Wesley: he was, unquestionably, as much the remarkable, the unparalleled man of my early life, as the great duke is of my present period of existence. As they are both descended from one stock—for our great captain was a Wesley, and Lord Mornington, his father, was enriched by a legacy at one time designed for the father of methodism—I wonder it has never entered into the heads of people who write books to make a parallel between them: it might be done exceedingly well, in my opinion, and take Marquis Wellesley into the group."
"In what way, dear sir? you excite my curiosity much," *[1] said Lord Meersbrook, who ever listened
- ↑ |* In many of the portraits of Mr. Wesley, taken about 1790, or earlier, there is evidence of a decided family likeness to the duke, and though scarcely the height of his grace, there was great resemblance in the spareness of flesh, the perfection of muscle, the springiness of the step, the brilliance and comprehensive character of the eye, the commanding and distinct intonation of the voice, and a power of enduring fatigue and physical privations only paralleled by themselves. The mental properties of the parties still more resembled each other—high intellect, great penetration, perfect integrity and singleness of purpose—a resolution devoid of obstinacy and a fortitude admitting sensibility and cherishing affection, were alike the characteristics of the clergyman and the soldier. To this it may be added, that each party was endowed with a genius for governing men. The duke found his soldiery half disciplined, flagitious, disorderly and inefficient: he rendered them, in his own words, a "perfect organ." John Wesley went into
