Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/308

 366 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* a. iv. Nov. *. * columns. On the 6th of December, 1851, " an imperishable monument" of the great gather- ing of the nations is reviewed—' The Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue,' to- gether with Robert Hunt's ' Handbook to the Official Catalogues.' The three octavo volumes of the former work contain an account of every article shown by the fifteen thousand exhibitors, illustrated with twelve hundred woodcuts. The publishers, Messrs. Spicer &, Sons, were the exhibitors of a large roll of paper 46 inches wide and 2,500 yards in length; this was the first time that paper- had been made beyond the then ordinary lengths, and it attracted much attention. The daily papers are now all printed from long rolls, tnat of the Times being two miles in length. On Tuesday, the 14th of September, 1852, the Duke of Wellington diea suddenly at Walmer Castle, and Notes and Queries, in the number published on the 25th, makes reference to the memoir of the Duke that had been given in the Times, the first portion, twenty-one columns in length, appearing on the morning following his decease, " a memoir worthy alike of its subject and of the journal in which it appeared." Needless to say that the numbers containing the memoir were immediately out of print,* 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. Thorns noticed "a very characteristic statuette of ' The Duke of Wel- lington 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 orna- the Duke wa3 enormous, and Mr. H. M. Bealby, in the number for October 8th, 1853, gives the circula- tion 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 Loudon 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." ment ena.bles us to speak with confidence of the admirable manner in which the artist has caught the Duke's usual quiet, unaffected atti- tude, as he sat with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees, the observed of all ob- servers." 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 whenit suddenly broke, and on examining the bell it was found to have been cast in the very year the Duke was born, 1769. Materials helpful to a life of the Duke abound in the pages of Notes and Queries. The date of his birth, his Irish origin, 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 (No. 201, 1st S.) states that Wellington's clerical brother was entered on the Boards of St. John's College, Cambridge, as Wesley, and the name continued to De spelt as Wesley in the calendars until 1809, when it was altered to Wellesley. During 1858 there was a discussion as to the Waterloo despatch arriving in London some hours after the news of the battle had become known. J. M., in the number for December 18th, relates that on the 1st of February, 1822, he heard the Duke explain the matter by stating that, from his respect for the royal family of France, and consider- ing the great interest they had in it, he thought it proper that the earliest intelli- gence of the event should be communicated to Louis XVIII., then residing at Ghent. A Jew, who was in front of the house had his curiosity excited by observing signs of joy among the royal party, went in, obtained the news, hastened to London, and carried it to Lord Liverpool and some others be- fore the arrival of Capt. Percy with the despatches. On the 25th of February, 1860, Mr. Robert Rawlinson, in reply to the query, Did Wel- lington and Nelson ever meet ? relates that Mr. Henry Graves asked the Duke, who re- plied, "Well, I was once going upstairs in Downing Street, and I met a man coming downstairs. I was told that man was Lord Nelson. So far as I know, that was the only occasion on which I ever met or saw him." On the 21st of Docember, 1861, Notes and Queries appeared with its front page in mourn- ing for the Prince Consort, and Mr. Thorns makes sympathetic reference to the great
 * The sale of newspapers containing memoirs of