THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1390, 16 March 1912, Page 12

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,

MONUMENT IN ST. PAUL'S CATHE. DUAL.

At last, after forty-five years of delay, Alfred Sleveus's great monument to tlio first Duke of Wellington has been completed mid set up in its allotted place under the third arch in the navo of St. l'aul's Catlieilral, London. Tho equestrian siatuu of tho Duke, which Stevens planned as tho crowning of Uio edifice, I and the unfinished model of which is now I in the Stevens Memorial Exhibition at tho Tato Gallery, has been copied and completed alter that model oy John Tweed, cast in bronze, and placed in position. What Slovene's biographer has described ns tlio two parts of the monument, "The Triumphal Arch of tho Conqueror and (ho iiorluary Pile of the Conquered," are now set in their place, in bronze and marble, to last as long as St. J'aul's Cathedral lasls. In the first place, Stevens wns promised lor his work, and thfcii, thanks to tho blundering of the Commission at an early stago, (liis sum was cut down to ,£14,000. Alier seven years nearly all the luuney had been spent, and the work was jut half iinishcil. Fortunately, a busini'-s man, Mr. Coltmau, an intimate friend of -Stevens, intervened, guaranteed to get the work completed for a certain sum, got (he Government to consent, and Stevens henceforward worked in peace till tho monument was practically finished, nil except tho horse and rider. lie died in IST.i, at tho age of fifty-seven; and it was not till somo years afterwards that (ho monument was sot up. Kven then for a long time it remained half hidden in a side chapel. Thanks, however, to strong pressure brought to bear by Lord Leighton and other artists, it was ultimately rmoved to its place under tlio third arch of the nave —tho place for which Stevens had intended it, nnd where it stands today. '