WELLINGTON ANECDOTES. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin, — What you
say in the Spectator of March 25th about the difficulty of preventing peculation in the Army reminds me of an anecdote I have heard my mother tell of the Duke of Wellington. A friend of my mother had a contract to supply blankets for the Army. When they were delivered, the Duke desired that every blanket should be unrolled and shown to him. When the gentleman, who was as proud of his honour as a manufacturer as any soldier could be of his honour, remonstrated against what seemed an aspersion on his in- tegrity, the Duke only said: "It is my duty to see that the soldiers have proper blankets." I do not know the time or the circumstances, beyond the bare fact as I have heard my mother relate it.
Perhaps you will allow me to tell another story I have heard from my mother of the great Duke. He was staying in some town—it may have been Cheltenham—where was a girl who longed intensely to see him. She was ill, and could not leave her bedroom. Some one told the Duke of her wish, and he came and walked for some time in front of her window that she might see him.—I am, Sir, &c., EMILY TEMPLE FREER.
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