2«A s. X. Oct. 20. '60.]. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



313 



symbolisms of Gothic ai-chitecture, I believe they 

 will generally be found to coincide with some 

 aesthetic principle. And I can readily suppose 

 that when the architect — being a man of genius 

 — hit upon some arrangement that added to the 

 effect of his building, he might find it answer his 

 purpose not to propound his idea in the shape of 

 a general rule, but to obtain for it the sanction of 

 a symbolical meaning. V. S. Cahey. 



I. 



THE DUKE'S WOUNDS AND SOBRIQUET « THE 

 BEAU." 



(2»* S. X. 268. 270.) 



I have made inquiries respecting this appella- 

 tion of a friend, who has favoured me with the 

 following reply : — 



" I have never heard of the Duke's having been 

 generally known during the early part of his life 

 by the name of ' The Beau ; ' but before he be- 

 came a public character he may have borne such 

 a sobriquet without one's hearing of it. Perhaps 

 it may be satisfactory if I mention that once, to 

 my own knowledge, on a particular occasion, he 

 was called ' Beau Wellington ' under amusing cir- 

 cumstances. It was during our operations m the 

 South of France (1814), and some time between 

 the battles of Orthes and Toulouse ; but whether 

 at Aire on the Adour, or at some other place on 

 our line of march, I cannot recollect. It so hap- 

 pened that the Duke came out one morning with 

 a new and somewhat smart neck-tie, an event 

 which, like everything personal connected with 

 the Commander-in-Chief down to the most minute 

 particular, immediately became the head- quarters 

 topic of the day, and the subject of much festi- 

 vity. Dan M , who was par excellence the 



head- quarters' wag, and who- in that character 

 kept us all alive, bent upon turning the incident 

 of the neck-tie to account, walked down the main 

 street, and at length halted opposite an open win- 

 dow at which a staff-officer was standing and 

 looking out. To him Dan audibly addressed the 

 inquiry, 'Have you seen Beau Wellington to- 

 day?' The point of the joke was that, as Dan 

 very well knew, in that identical apartment, at the 

 window of which stood the staff-officer, was ' Beau 

 Wellington' himself, who of course heard the 

 question. I need hardly add that not a man at 

 head-quarters would have ventured on such a 

 joke, save and except the privileged Dan. I re- 

 member few things about the Duke, except such 

 as have appeared in print ; but I never saw this. 

 Yours, &c." 



So far my friend. I think it by no means im- 

 possible that the appellation " Beau Wellington " 

 may partly have been used in allusion to some 

 such earlier sobriquet as that to which Q. F. G. 

 refers. Paul Pry. 



In reply to the two questions that appear in your 

 number of "N. & Q." of the 6th, one headed " the 

 Duke's Wounds," the other "the Beau," I can call 

 to mind, in answer to the first of these queries, one 

 occasion on which the Duke was hit. It was at 

 Salamanca by a spent ball which struck him on 

 the leg, creating a contusion. He took no notice 

 of this till the action was ovei", when, reminded of 

 it by the pain, he cursorily named the circum- 

 stance. It did not prevent him from continuing 

 at the head of the column of the Light and First 

 Division through a long and rapid night march in 

 pursuit of the enemy to the ford of Huerta on t)je 

 River Tormes. 



His sobriquet of " the Beau " was familiar as 

 household words to those around him. It origi- 

 nated In his being the neatest and best dressed 

 man in his army. There was at that time a gal- 

 lant, high-spirited, active, hawk-eyed, and distin- 

 guished look about him which marked the leader, 

 and betokened the character and genius of the 

 man. 



I never remember to have heard the other so- 

 briquet alluded to as " Old Douro." I think the 

 statement to be an error, or I should have become 

 acquainted with the name in the course of six 

 campaigns I had the honour and happiness to 

 serve under him. Besides, at the period spoken 

 of, nobody looked on him as old, and no one would 

 have ventured at any time to take the liberty of 

 applying the word to him in a familiar sense. 



SbN£X. 



[The friend who supplied us with the information re- 

 specting the Dulie's sobriquet of " Old Douro ". (^ante, p. 

 231.) again assures us that, on joining head-quarters ia 

 the spring of 1813, he found the said sobriquet in common 

 use, and received that explanation of it which he has al- 

 ready given. "It is very possible," writes our friend, 

 " that those ' around ' the Duke, i.e. those who were con- 

 tinuallj' about his person, may not have ' ventured ' to 

 employ such a 'familiar' term as 'Old Douro ;' and that 

 they may have preferred designating their Chief, more 

 ceremoniously and deferentially, as ' the Beau.' But into 

 that select and deferential circle I had not the entr6e ; 

 which probably is the reason why I never heard the 

 Duke called 'Beau' except on one occasion. Surely 

 Senex, whom I honour as an Old Peninsular, and who 

 appears to have seen much more of peninsular service 

 than I did, cannot mean to say that the bulk of our 

 peninsular forces, regimental officers and common sol- 

 diers, were in any sense indisposed and unaccustomed 

 to speak of their illustrious Commander in terms of 

 familiariti/?"'] 



Codex Sinaiticus (2"'' S. ix. 274.329.) — Dr. 

 Tischendorf has just published "Notitia Editionis 

 Codicis Bibliorum Sinaitici." This MS. disco- 

 vered eai-ly last year at the convent of St. Cathe- 

 rine in Mount Sinai, and supposed to be the oldest 

 copy of the Greek Testament extant (written 

 about the middle of the fourth century), is to be 

 published in 1862 in two editions, one in facsimile 



