Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/208

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Wellesley
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Wellesley

He was buried with unexampled magnificence at St. Paul's on 18 Nov. After lying in state at Walmer, the body was brought to Chelsea Hospital on the night of the 10th, and lay in state there till the 17th. On that night it was taken to the Horse Guards, and next morning the funeral procession passed by Constitution Hill, Piccadilly, and the Strand to St. Paul's, in the presence, as was estimated, of a million and a half of people (supplement to London Gazette of 3 Dec. 1852; cf. Ann. Regist. 1852, pp. 482-96). Out of 80,000l. voted, there remained 20,000l. for a monument, of which nearly one-third was spent in the choice of an artist. The commission was given to Alfred Stevens [q. v.] in 1858, and the work was worthy of the man and the place; but it was not till forty years after the duke's death that it was erected in St. Paul's Cathedral in the position for which it was designed, in one of the arches on the north side of the nave.

A colossal statue on horseback by Matthew Cotes Wyatt [q. v.] had been placed on the top of an archway opposite Apsley House in 1846. Universally condemned, it would have been removed at once but for Wellington's own objection (Croker, ii. 328, iii. 120-8). It was taken down in January 1883, and transferred to Aldershot, being replaced by a smaller statue on horseback by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm in 1888. Equestrian statues were also erected near the Royal Exchange (by Chantrey) in 1844, at Glasgow (by Marochetti) in the same year, and at Edinburgh (by Hall) in 1852. In the Phoenix Park, Dublin, an obelisk (by Smirke) had been put up in 1821. A pillar was also erected near Wellington, Somerset, and a statue (by Marochetti) near Strathfieldsaye. The statue of Achilles in Hyde Park (by Westmacott) was a memorial to Wellington and his army by the ladies of England in 1822, the metal being furnished by guns taken from the French. In the same year the Wellington shield (by Stothard), suggested by Flaxman's shield of Achilles, was presented to the duke by merchants and bankers of London. The national memorial to him, for which 100,000l. was subscribed, took the form of a college near Sandhurst for the education of sons of officers. The first stone of Wellington College was laid by the queen on 2 June 1856, and it was opened by her majesty on 29 Jan. 1859. At the instance of Edward Gibbon Wakefield the capital city of the new colony of New Zealand was named after the Duke (28 Nov. 1840). The mountain in Tasmania at the foot of which the town of Hobart stands was likewise called after him.

Among the many portraits of Wellington the best is a half-length by Sir Thomas Lawrence, engraved by Samuel Cousins in 1828. There are earlier ones by John Hoppner, representing him as a lieutenant-colonel, and on his return from India; and there is an admirable profile picture of him in 1845 by Count d'Orsay, which is in the National Portrait Gallery; one replica of this is in White's Club, of which Wellington was elected a member in 1812. A portrait by Wilkie is in Merchant Taylors' Hall, and a full-length by Pickersgill was painted for Lord Hill. He was painted by Franz Winterhalter for the queen, in company with Peel. He is the central figure in a large number of subject-pictures, e.g. his meeting with Nelson, by J. P. Knight; the storming of Badajoz, by Caton Woodville; the entry into Madrid, by W. Hilton; the battle of the Nivelle, by T. Heaphy (which gives portraits of most of the Peninsular generals, taken on the spot); the meeting of Wellington and Blücher, by T. J. Barker; the fresco on the same subject, by D. Maclise, in the Houses of Parliament; the Waterloo banquet, by W. Salter; 'A Dialogue at Waterloo,' by Sir Edwin Landseer (in the National Gallery); and the last return from duty, by C. W. Glass.

While he was on Lord Westmorland's staff at Dublin (1790-3) Wellington formed an engagement with Catherine Sarah Dorothea, third daughter of Edward Michael Pakenham, second baron Longford, by Catherine, daughter of the Right Hon. Hercules Langford Rowley. Her family was opposed to their marriage at that time, and while he was in India Miss Pakenham had small pox, and wrote to release him from his engagement. He declined to be released, and on 10 April 1806 they were married at St. George's, Dublin. They were not congenial, and, though there was no formal separation, they lived a good deal apart (Gleig, iv. 86). She died on 24 April 1831, and was buried at Strathfieldsaye. They had two sons—Arthur Richard, second duke of Wellington (b. 3 Feb. 1807, d. 13 Aug. 1884), and General Charles Wellesley (b. 16 Jan. 1808, d. 9 Oct. 1858), father of the present and third duke.

Wellington was five feet nine inches in height, spare and muscular, with aquiline features and penetrating grey eyes. He is described in February 1814 as 'remarkably neat, and most particular in his dress, considering his situation. He is well made, knows it, and is willing to set off to the best what nature has bestowed' (Larpent, ii. 162). 'He had the most elastic and springy, yet firm and resolute step that I had ever seen in a