The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the LatterWellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
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The Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J., 1834-1851: Edited, with Extracts from the Diary of the Latter
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852 -- Correspondence
The Duke of Wellington presents his Compt^s to Miss J. He has
only this morning received her letter without date; in which Miss
J. apprizes the Duke that she is about to quit Hampstead; but she
does not state where she is about to reside.
In respect to Miss J.'s wish that the Duke should write to Her,
the Duke assures her that he will receive Her Letters with
pleasure; and that he will answer them regularly. But that he
must be permitted to do so, in a form, which shall not expose him
to the accusation of treating a Lady with disrespect.
From the perusal of Miss J.'s Letter the Duke does not exactly
understand whether Miss J. did or did not send back the Paquet
containing the Duke's Letters to her. As the Duke stated upon a
former occasion, it is a matter of Indifference whether Miss J.
has burnt the Letters; or kept them; or sent them back.
The Duke begs leave to inform her however that if she sent them
back he has not yet received them. They may however be in His
House in London as he has been absent from there since the 19th
of last Month.
In Miss J.'s next letter she inquires into the truth of a report of the
Duke's indisposition that has appeared in the papers. The reply is
decidedly testy.
WALMER CASTLE, Nov^r 3, 1835.
The Duke of Wellington presents his Compliments to Miss J.
He received only this morning Miss J.'s Letters of the 28^th and
31^st October.
The Duke returns his thanks to Miss J. for her kind Enquiries
about His Health. The Duke was unwell for one day; of which the
Newspapers obtained Intelligence; and as usual misrepresented and
exaggerated the facts.
The Duke is much concerned that Miss J. is not satisfied with the
formal style of His Notes. She was not satisfied when he wrote to
her in a form more consistent with familiarity. Such form was
considered disrespectful.
The Duke assures Miss J. that he can reply to any letter which
she may think proper to address the Duke as fully in one form as
the other.
The poor Duke's life was frequently made a burden to him by the
comments expressed by the papers upon his health and his conduct. His
letters abound in impatient references to the inaccuracies of the daily
journals in all that pertained to himself. These finally irritated him
to such an extent that, against the advice of wise friends, he sued the
"Morning Journal" for libel, and succeeded in obtaining the punishment
of the editor and printer by fines and imprisonment. His course in this
matter was deprecated by those who thought that a man of his
acknowledged character and position could afford to disregard such
attacks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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