Duke of Wellington | autograph letter signed, to the Dowager Countess of Westmorland, 1851

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of

Autograph letter signed, to Jane, Dowager Countess of Westmorland

a furious outburst against her daughter, Lady Georgiana Fane, asking her to "prevail upon her Ladyship to cease to molest me with daily vituperative letters", complaining of Lady Georgiana's threats to reveal confidential letters written to her by the Duke ("...notice has been given to me within the last few months that her Ladyship has shewn these letters to others with a view to calumniate, to injure to vex and torment me..."), and explaining his decision to refuse all further acquaintanceship with Lady Georgiana "until I shall have security that I shall not again be betrayed", written on blue paper in Wellington's characteristic hurried cursive script, 8 pages, 8vo, Walmer Castle, 22 October 1851, autograph envelope with remains of wax seal and postal marking,

"...When informed of these acts by her Ladyship I have smiled and said nothing! Accepting that Ladies know best what they should make known of themselves! That I was a gentleman! and should say nothing!..."

THE OCTOGENERIAN HERO OF WATERLOO ANGRILY RESPONDS TO THREATS OF BLACKMAIL SOME TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER TELLING ANOTHER LOVER TO "PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED". Lady Georgiana Fane (1801-1874) was one of several women with whom Wellington's name had been linked as early as the 1820s, and indeed in this letter Wellington does not deny the existence of intimate letters. The diarist Charles Greville recorded that when he broke with her "she persecuted him to death"; as well as writing daily letters (which Wellington appears to have destroyed) she pursued him when he appeared in public and placed his letters with her solicitor, who claimed they were sufficient for a case against of breach of promise of marriage.

PROVENANCE:

Fulbeck Hall, A Lincolnshire House Sale in London, Sotheby's, Olympia, 8-9 October 2002, lot 435