ANECDOTES OF WELLINGTON

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 173, 4 March 1902, Page 4

ANECDOTES OF WELLINGTON

/ The philosophers toll us that it is || characteristics of a great mao to be rJ.bH sleep at will. The art mini cs a (B physique., and Wellington was a sUcH •man. Many instances arc given of 'Bj endurance. Ho once rode to rev: v,|| division fifty-six miles out and hack. M was home to an early dinner ; and a d.-.yfij ;two later an almost equal distance, to | spect a damaged pontoon. At Watei ley® jwas seventeen hours and a half in the mij| His-diet was of the simplest; it was* eaying of his Spanish attache that v,i® asked what timo ho would be called in ti morning, ho would say, “At daylight and when asked what ho Would have j •dinner, “Cold meat. 1 "' His ordinary dal followed a simple rule. Before breaku ho wrote, the forenoon he spent on busing ■later in the day ho rode, then from nine 1 Would write again, and midnight was I regular hour for going to bed. When intj North of Spain he encouraged his officers' follow the hounds, of which ho owns about sixteen couples. In his stables Ul9 were eight good hunters, besides sev( ■chargers. At, Salamanca, Lord Wellington w breakfasting behind some farmyard buili ings while shot,<f.Qll fast around, “ stumpit about, munching,” and taking occasion! peeps through his glass. An aide-dc-cao brought word of a movement iu the Freac position. Wellington looked again. “Tin will do,” he exclaimed; leaped on to ki horse, examined further, closed his spj glass with a snap, and turning to Spanish attache, said, “Lion chor Alan Marmont cst perdu !” He had seen an errs of movement that gave him his opportunitj Ho dashed off to give commands. “ Watc the French through your glass, Fitzroy, he said to his aide-de-camp, a little lata 41 1 am going to take a rest; when the reach that copse, near the gap in the hills wake mo.” In another minute he ws wrapped in his cloak on tho heath, an asleep. His habitual coolness was porhap never more strikingly apparent than wlicil in face of one of tho furious charges of thfi French cuirassiers at Quatro Bras, ho diw mounted, and stood with the Highlanders! making them hold their fire till the enenm were within thirty yards, when it fell witfi withering effect. £