1 NOVEMBER 1946, Page 16

" WELLINGTON "

Sta,—Your reviewer of Mr. Richard Aldington's Wellington quoted Mr. Aldington as saying that Mr. Belloc managed to write a chapter on the Peninsular War " without mentioning either the name of Wellington, the presence of an English army during six years, or any kind of opera- tions in Portugal which were so unpleasant for the Emperor's Marshals and their reputation." In fairness to Mr. Belloc it should be said that the book in question is a one-volume episodic study of Napoleon, and the Spanish chapter deals only with Napoleon, and the capitulation of Baylen in 1808. Mr. Belloc has often paid tribute, e.g., in the volume carrying Lingard from 1689 to 191o, to Wellington's military genius.--