THE HEIGHT OF NAPOLEON. [To THE Banos OF Tan "SPECTATOR:1
Si,—Will you allow me to explain why Napoleon was ever said to he only 5 ft. 3 in. high p It was because a French foot in the old French measure was not 12 in., but about in in. (12.7892 more exactly). Napoleon when dead measured 5 (French) ft. 2 in. and 4 lines, or in English measurement 5 ft. 6 in. Roughly, I think we should say he was 5 ft. 6 in. high.
With regard to Wellington, may I be allowed this oppor-
tunity to throw out a suggestion with regard to a little event in his school life? We all know the story that "Hobos" Smith, brother of the famous Sydney Smith, was bathing in the Thames at Eton, when young Arthur Wesley pelted him from the bank. Whereupon Bans came out of the water, and naked as he was had a fight with the future Duke. Sobel was beaten. Wellington in later life could not remember the event. To my mind that 4; conclusive that the event never took place, at any rate with Wellington. There are certain events in one's life that can never be forgotten, and this is one of them. A fight between a boy who is dressed and one who is in puris naturatibus is a thing never to be forgotten—by the boy who is dressed at any rate. What, then, is the explana- tion ? The Duke, who was at Eton from 1781 to 1783, had a younger brother there at the same time, and this younger brother looked very much like him. Hence Bobus's mistake some thirty or forty years afterwards.
And may I whitewash young Arthur Wesley's character
still further ? In Frere's works, Vol. L, p. six., it is stated that in Hookham Frere's time at Eton eighty boys were flogged for a sort of barring out, and among them Mr. Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Wellington. May I point out that Frere went to Eton in 1785, and Arthur Wesley (not yet Wellesley) had then left Eton, but in 1785 there was still a younger brother of the Duke at school—bearing, of course. the same name of Wesley ? I leave it to others to defend the two young brothers : I am championing the Duke.--I am. Sir,
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