As usual im keeping up with my sidetracking :biggrin: Its not the info you were looking for but very interesting all the same. I found more in the Aussie papers than the English ones on him :2fun::2fun:
Its quiet a long article
South Australian Register
Monday 29 January 1877
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF A SEPTUAGENARIAN.
Chapter VII. THE DUKE OF WELLTXGTON' — ESLZONT — WILLIAM BULLOCK.
'Where is the man of middle age5 be he a native of England, Scotland, or Ireland, who has not seen the Duke of Wellington? From 1815, the year in which he reached the summit of his fame, at an age which permitted him to enjoy for a long period the result of his signal triumphs, until the year 1852, when, at the patriarchal age of eighty-three, he surrendered to the universal conqueror, no man was personally more within the observation of the British pubiic than the great Duke. After the battle of Waterloo through his own instrumentality his peculiar avocation, like that of Othello, was gone. Then might that inflexible countenance be seen frequently in the House of Lords, or at the Horse Guards, or at reviews, levees, funerals, marriages ; walking, riding, driving, or being driven in any part of the metropolis of Britain or of its rural districts ; so frequently indeed that although its presence was never unnoted it at length created no sensation in beholders. For myself, I have heard him speak as a senator, and in other public capacities scores, perhaps hundreds of times, always sensibly, never eloquently. I have seen him reviewing troops ; presiding at his own table on the annual occasion of the Waterloo banquet; accompanying the Monarch, William IY., to the inaugura tion of a reformed London Bridge ; seated at performances in the Italian Opera house ; giving. away a noble bride at the Church of St. George's, Hanover-square ; following the remains of Lord Castlereagh to Westminster Abbey, amid a scene of tumult and incongruity as rare as it is indescribable ; and under a variety of other circumstances. Two occasions I call to remembrance when I looked on the Duke of Wellington with peculiar interest. On the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo — June 18, 1833 — I chanced to be walking near the Turnstile, Holborn, when I saw people running, and heard the word passed that a mob was hooting and hustling the Duke. I was in time to be done of those who collected around an accompanied him to his carriage, which was not far distant. Novel as such treat ment was to him, and affable as was the smile which accompanied his thanks as the coachman drove westward, that in flexibility of countenance was never more obvious than then. In the evening the window of his dining-room was fired into from Hyde Park while the annual Waterloo celebration was proceed ing. With the readiness of resource which had accompanied him through life, he immediately after caused metal blinds on the Venetian principle to be fixed outside the windows, and they were bullet-proof. The other incident occurred when Marshal Soult, one of his most formid able antagonists in the Peninsula, was his guest at Apsley House. The first time I saw Soult was one fine May morning, when he and Wellington, both men in the autumn of life, were walking their horses side by side up Constitution Hill. They were chatting complacently but earnestly on topics whose import none might guess, but knowledge of which if attainable could not have been other than interesting. Never, however, did I feel such interest as on beholding the Duke for the first time at the conclusion of the war. His name had become familiar to my child hood as Sir Arthur Wellesley, and sub-, sequently as Lord Wellington. Hitherto, having been incessantly abroad, he had occupied in the public mind, if I may use the expression, the position of a con temporary historical personage. Now he was about to subside into a distinguished unit of His Majesty's subjects, partaking familiarly of the everyday life of the general 'public. 1 was then a schoolboy at home for the holidays, and chanced one day to be at my father's place of business, which at that time formed portion of the building in Piccadilly, nearly opposite Bond-street, called the Egyptian Hall, Belzoni, an ex traordinary man in his way, was then exhibiting in the hall his celebrated Egyptian tomb. Mr. William Bullock, the naturalist, came hurriedly up to us, exclaiming, ' Look out, Lord Wellington is coming past !' I placed myself on the step of the entrance portico, whence I
could not fau to obtain _a good view 6f_ him as he passed. . His approach, was, indicated by a crowd on the pavemerit separating into two lines, and a general raising of hats. He walked very fast, and kept touching his hat at every step in recognition of the continuous respect paid to him. His appearance was that of a muscular thick-set man, and he looked shorter than in after years when he had become more slender, but his figure by no means justified O'Connell's description of him as 'the stunted corporal.' He wore the coat, a compromise between shooting and indoor attire, whose pattern was at once generally adopted, and on which was conferred his illustrious name. That honour was shared by a low boot over which the trouser fell to the instep, and whick, as general. wear, speedily supplanted - top-boots, hessians, and aE other kinds previously in vogue. I had taken a complete side view of him, when, a3 if struck by a sudden thought, he. made a half-wheel, which brought his face exactly opposite to mine, exalted as I was by the step. 'Oblige me,' he said, 'by telling me where the Egyptian tomb is being exhibited.' 'At the end of this passage, your Grace,' was my reply, as I pointed J the way to the exhibition-room. The j cluster of gazers behind me separated to j left and right, and through the avenue ; thus formed the illustrious warrior, with j a touch of the hat ' and ' Thank you,' j was quickly entombed among mummies from the pyramids. . ; :. When I went back to school at the end of the holidays all the boys had of course a great deal to communicate and a little to discuss. Among other topics the recently-returned General: had con siderable preponderance. One had seen hi3 back as he rode thither ; another had met him full face, particularly regarding his nose, as he walked hither; the father- of one . had actually heard his voice as he conversed on the pavement with another nobleman. I waited until all had finished their narratives, and then with an air of indifference as natural as the little art which I possessed could make it, I observed, 'I saw the Duke of Wellington, too, and conversed with him ;' , of course truly reporting the slender extent of the conversation. Not withstanding that,I acquired distinction sufficient for any schoolboy, and it lasted till bedtime. On another occasion, two of my schoolfellows cast a shade over this triumph. Residing on the sea-coast, they had been taken in one of the numerous boats which put off to the ship containing the captive French Emperor, who was there to implore the British Government to make England the scene of his captivity ; and, lucky dogs, they beheld Napoleon smiling and bowing to his English visitors from tlie deck of the Bellerophon. As I have mentioned in the course of this article two other men each in his own way remarkable, I may as well tell my readers something about them as far as my personal knowledge extends. Both were men who had raised themselves un aided, and eminently succeeded in peculiar pursuits chosen by themselves. Guisenpe Battista Belzoni was a native of Italy, and as noted in England in the very early years of the century for prodigious personal strength as he was subsequently for his researches in Egypt. Some of the feats which he performed, at Astley's A-ixphitheatre and elsewhere, sometimes in the character of Hercules, who can never have had a more competent representative, were witnessed :by thousands, and are almost incredible. At the time, he was exhibiting the tomb at the Egyptian Hall the fact of his being identical with the athlete of former years was often denied or questioned, his deeds of strength being attributed to a. relative ; but I heard him, in answer to a question put by Mr. Bullock, avow the fact, and give several amusing anecdotes connected ?with his herculean career. It was said, and I believe truly, that his chief object in thus exhibiting himself was to' save money enough- to pay the expense of 'his explorations among the pyramids. In height he was several inches over -six feet, proportionately stout, and double jointed. His beard was the most ample and handsome I- ever beheld, descending, I think, a couple of feet from the upper Up. While residing in Europe he wore this beneath his clothing. He forebore to amputate it because on his return 'to Egypt he would require its services. He told me that the extraordinary influence which he exercised over Arabs, on whose labour in aid of his own mechanical skill he chiefly relied, was partly attributable to his beard, although his extreme strength and adoption of their costume contributed much to produce the effect. I once dined at Mr. Bullock's when Belzoni and his wife, a talented little Englishwoman, were present. On that occasion, at the host's request, he assumed the Arab costume, turban and all, and as the beard was favoured with liberty for, the evening, he certainly presented a most majestic ap pearance. . William Bullock from his earliest years had a passion for collecting specimens of natural history, especially live ones. He had at various periods of his life walked over considerable portions of Europe and America, both north and south. He was always accompanied by a small gun, which fitted into a walking-stick, with which he procured many specimens, and which he retained until his final departure from England. These, when they had become numerous, he exhibited in Piccadilly under the designation, I think, of the 'Liverain Museum.' After he built: the Egyptian Hall his then augmented collection occupied: the two larger rooms of that building. The enlarged Museum was a place of great resort ; but, getting tired of inaction, he disposed of his specimens by auction, thereby realizing a large sum, with which he secured a considerable tract of country in North America. :His glowing description of this territory— for he was a man of sanguine tem perament— bordered, as it was \ for many miles with a broad navigable stream of fresh water, excited in:me a desire to accompany him. . He pro mised when the new settlement should become well established to sendfor ime:.. I heard some years after .that he had been eminently successful in his speculation, bat I never received the promised summons. Had I- received it probably I should never have seen Mount Lofty. Mr. Bullock told me that it was his custom to taste the flesh of ?- such animals as he killed, and he described to« me the flavours of sundry feathered bipeds, quad rupeds, and reptiles, whose names' I never saw on any bill of fare. Although he was not then collecting specimens, when -par-: taking of his hospitality I always selected recognised dishes'. It was a foolish prejudice of course, for I know hot why a, boa-constrictor-steak should riot be both as relishing and nutritious as a 'slice of conger. eel. ?. ..? ? ,_.
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Its longer than i original thought and 3/4 of it has nothing to do with Bullock
