XV ODE ON DUKE OF WELLINGTON 207 



the garden (she in a recumbent couch on wheels). He read 

 some of his new poems, and then I ventured to ask whether he 

 would not read one of his old ones. I suggested the " Ode on 

 the Death of the Duke of Wellington," and he seemed pleased at 

 the choice, and said he would read it after dinner. I told him 

 that I had often read it to my children, whose first ideas of the 

 Duke of Wellington had been derived from it, which also pleased 

 him. He said, " I hope you pronounce it properly — all the vowels 

 broad and long (larmentartion)." He had reproved the Duke 

 in the morning for speaking of a "knoll" instead of knoll, and 

 said you would not say '• toll " a bell. He thought the mincing 

 way of shortening vowels was spoiling the language. But I must 

 say the opposite extreme which he adopts, combined with his deep 

 rough voice and Lincolnshire (?) accent, though interesting, was 

 not really pleasing. He was very severe upon the impertinent 

 intrusion into his private life of modern interviewers and news- 

 paper writers. 



Although generally rather severe and depressed, complaining 

 of old age and weakness and of the political and social state of 

 the country, he was often jocose in a grim way. The Duke was 

 upon some particular diet, involving occasional drinking of a cup 

 of hot water. When at tea Tennyson offered him some, and the 

 Duke said, " Not yet ; my man will bring it when the proper 

 time comes " ; to which Tennyson replied, " Oh, I see, he always 

 keeps you in hot water." 



Speaking of the Duke of Wellington, I asked him if he had 

 known him personally, and he said that he had never met him 

 but once, at an evening party, and that the host offered to intro- 

 duce him, but that he declined, being, he said, very shy, and 

 thinking that the Duke could not know who he was. Thereupon 

 the Duke of Argyll gave several interesting reminiscences of 

 Wellington, one of which may be worth setting down. A man 

 in the Indian Civil Service had some grievance against the Com- 

 pany, having been, he alleged, wrongly deprived of an appoint- 

 ment, and was trying to get compensation. His case was brought 

 to the notice of the Duke of Argyll, then very young in politics, 

 and he promised to bring it before Parliament ; but in order to 

 get more support he went to the Duke of Wellington and laid all 



