Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/111

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NOTES BY THE WAY.
41

appeared." Needless to say that the numbers containing the memoir were immediately out of print,[1] and permission was granted to Messrs. Longman to publish it in "The Traveller's Library," where it forms the thirty-first part. It is rather remarkable that following this notice is a review of Victor Hugo's 'Napoleon the Little.' "The admirable likeness of the Duke painted by the late Count d'Orsay" is referred to on the 2nd of October as holding "a foremost place, not less for its own great merit than for the curious fact that the Duke, having occasion to select a portrait on which to affix his autograph," chose an engraving from the D'Orsay picture for that purpose; and in the following week Mr. Thoms noticed a Characteristic statuette."very characteristic statuette of 'The Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords' " as an admirable memorial of him modelled by Mr. George Abbott from a sketch by Alfred Crowquill, and executed in Parian.

"A pretty frequent opportunity of seeing the Greatest Man of his Age in that House of which he was the ornament enables us to speak with confidence of the admirable manner in which the artist has caught the Duke's usual quiet unaffected attitude, as he sat with his legs crossed, and his hands on his knees, the observed of all observers."

A coincidence is noted by Mr. Yeowell in the number for the 24th of December, 1853. On the news of the death reaching Trim the Dean (Butler) caused the muffled chimes to be rung. The large bell, which was considered one of the finest and sweetest in Ireland, had hardly tolled a second time when it suddenly broke, and on examining the bell it was found to have been cast in the very year the Duke was born, 1769.

Materials for his biography in 'N. & Q.'Materials helpful to a life of the Duke abound in the pages of Notes and Queries. The date of his birth, his Irish origin, his early days, his residence in Dublin, his missing correspondence, his sayings, all find a place. Some correspondents bestowed much labour in searching for the derivation of "Wellesley." Mr. Henry Walter (1 S. No. 201) states that Wellington's clerical brother was entered on the Boards of St. John's College, Cambridge, as Wesley, and the name continued to be spelt as Wesley in the calendars until 1809, when it was altered to Wellesley.

The Waterloo dispatch.During 1858 there was a discussion as to the Waterloo dispatch arriving in London some hours after the news of the battle had become known. J. M., in the number for December 18th, relates

  1. The sale of newspapers containing memoirs of the Duke was enormous, and Mr. H. M. Bealby, in the number for October 8th, 1853, gives the circulation of The Times on the 19th of November, 1852, the day after the Duke's funeral, as 70,000; while the double number of The Illustrated London News, with a narrative of the funeral, sold 400,000. "During the week of the Duke's funeral there were issued by the Stamp Office to the newspaper press more than 2,000,000 stamps."