The Duke of Wellington
The Luftwaffe obliterated The Swan Inn on 23 May 1943 with the loss of 16 lives. In its place stands a commemorative garden with two simple benches providing areas for quiet contemplation. Sited at the beginning of the High Street, opposite the medieval church where Rossetti was married, its bar was handily placed for Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley’s lodgings further along at No. 54. And his troops, billeted around the corner on The Croft (latterly home to Inspector Foyle) didn’t have far to stumble in order to celebrate their commander’s honour.
Hastings wouldn’t seem the first choice of home for a highly decorated soldier who had served 10 years in India fighting the Mahratta Wars, winning the famous victory of Assaye, for which he was knighted and eventually made Duke of Wellington. But clearly the sea air suited him for he accepted the charge of a brigade attached to the town and in 1806, became its MP.
Later that year, he married Catherine Lady Pakenham and brought her to live at Hastings House, a beautiful Palladian mansion at the north end of Tackleway. The house is gone but the plot and its gardens are now called Old Humphry Avenue.
Wellesley first met ‘Kitty’ Pakenham when he was 27 and she was a 23-year-old beauty living in his home town of Dublin. Besotted, he had asked for her hand, but, despite his aristocratic background, his family were poor and her father rejected him. On his return from India, aged 37, he tried his luck one more time and this time they agreed to the match – he had amassed a fortune of more than £48,000 while away. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but unfortunately for the man who was to go on to defeat Napoleon, this cliché didn’t stand: once the nuptials were formally announced and the two were reintroduced, he remarked to his brother: ‘She has grown ugly, by Jove!’ However, he was a gentleman and the match was made.
Following the wedding, they had two sons in quick succession after which they usually lived apart: he left Hastings in 1809 and spent the ensuing decade at war. Historical documents do not relate what Kitty felt of the match, but Arthur found her ‘intolerable’.
By the time of his triumph at Waterloo in 1815, Wellington was seen as one of the most charismatic men in Europe, with almost as many lovers as decorations. But he was no bloodthirsty despot. After defeating Napoleon, he wrote to his friend Frances Lady Shelley: ‘Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.’ Not a sentiment attributed to Hitler.
Next week: Cooker frenzy
Hastings wouldn’t seem the first choice of home for a highly decorated soldier who had served 10 years in India fighting the Mahratta Wars, winning the famous victory of Assaye, for which he was knighted and eventually made Duke of Wellington. But clearly the sea air suited him for he accepted the charge of a brigade attached to the town and in 1806, became its MP.
Later that year, he married Catherine Lady Pakenham and brought her to live at Hastings House, a beautiful Palladian mansion at the north end of Tackleway. The house is gone but the plot and its gardens are now called Old Humphry Avenue.
Wellesley first met ‘Kitty’ Pakenham when he was 27 and she was a 23-year-old beauty living in his home town of Dublin. Besotted, he had asked for her hand, but, despite his aristocratic background, his family were poor and her father rejected him. On his return from India, aged 37, he tried his luck one more time and this time they agreed to the match – he had amassed a fortune of more than £48,000 while away. They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but unfortunately for the man who was to go on to defeat Napoleon, this cliché didn’t stand: once the nuptials were formally announced and the two were reintroduced, he remarked to his brother: ‘She has grown ugly, by Jove!’ However, he was a gentleman and the match was made.
Following the wedding, they had two sons in quick succession after which they usually lived apart: he left Hastings in 1809 and spent the ensuing decade at war. Historical documents do not relate what Kitty felt of the match, but Arthur found her ‘intolerable’.
By the time of his triumph at Waterloo in 1815, Wellington was seen as one of the most charismatic men in Europe, with almost as many lovers as decorations. But he was no bloodthirsty despot. After defeating Napoleon, he wrote to his friend Frances Lady Shelley: ‘Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.’ Not a sentiment attributed to Hitler.
Next week: Cooker frenzy