Wellesley

“ His lordship stopped me, whereat I was rather surprised, as we had not met for some time: he spoke very kindly, smiled, and asked if I had forgotten my old friend? It was Sir Arthur Wellesley whom I discovered in his companion; but looking so sallow and wan, and with every mark of what is called a worn-out man, that I was truly concerned at his appearance.—But he soon recovered his health and looks, and went as the Duke of Richmond’s secretary to Ireland; where he was in all material traits still Sir Arthur Wellesley—but it was Sir Arthur Wellesley judiciously improved. ”

“ The first shovelful of earth was turned for Wellesley College the day before I was born, and when I was ready to enter as a student, only eleven classes had been graduated. Yet to me, coming as I did, from the embryonic, frontier college, with its single building in a waste of cactus and sagebrush, Wellesley, with its many dignified buildings set beside Lake Waban in a campus of sweeping lawns and stately trees, seemed an institution not only honorable, but ancient. ”

“ How could a thousand words, or all the names that could be named, speak so powerfully—ay, even if I spoke with the tongue of an angel, as if I were to mention one word—Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the hero of a hundred fields, in all of which his banner was waved in triumph; who never, I invoke both hemispheres to witness—bear witness Europe, bear witness Asia—who never advanced but to cover his arms with glory ”

“ Wellesley's drawing-room?”
“No. Dr. Wellesley had told me of the door between his house and the Moot Hall, and he said that after he and I had had our talk, I could go through that door to the mayor's parlor, where I should be sure to find Mr. Wallingford at that time.” ”

“ Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington’s elder brother, on his return from Lisbon in 1794, coupled with intermittent campaigns and conquests by France, had virtually put a stop to foreign travel. Young noblemen in charge of tutors or ‘bear-wards’ had ceased to traverse the Continent, and French schools had ceased to receive British students. The schools, moreover, had mostly been closed by the Revolution. An Arthur Wellesley, even if inclined, could not have studied horsemanship at Angers, nor could a Gilbert Elliot have been the comrade of a [13] Mirabeau at Fontainebleau. So also as to girls. ”

“ By the faith of President Pendleton, Wellesley College is alive to-day. She did literally and actually cast the mountain into the sea on that seventeenth of March, 1914. St. Patrick himself never achieved a greater miracle.
She knew that two hundred and sixteen people were houseless; that the departments of Zoology, Geology, Physics, and Psychology, had lost their laboratories, their equipment, their lecture rooms; that twenty-eight recitation rooms, all the administrative offices, the offices of twenty departments, the assembly hall, the study hall, had all been swept away. ”

“ I saw the name of Wellesley, with those of Fox and others as celebrated, carved in the college oak. There, too, were the busts of Hammond and Pearson, and of Gray himself. The famous men of Eton seemed to be around me in legions. Who could not catch manliness and might amid such associations? All day I loitered about those meads, and towards evening went upon the Thames with a merry party, to see a juvenile boat race, in the Oxford fashion. Oh, the sport of those happy boys! One boat swamped, but the little fellows swam lustily to shore, and ran home laughing. ”

“ It is certain that the British army could have done nothing upon the twenty-ninth even if their commander had desired to push forward against the enemy. The men were not only tired out by two days of battle, but half-starved in addition. But Wellesley was far from feeling any wish to pursue the French. His infantry had suffered so dreadfully that he could not dream of exposing them to the ordeal of another engagement till they had been granted a respite for the refreshment of body and spirit. ”

“ In 1798 the Marquis of Wellesley—afterwards known as Lord Wellington—was made governor. Even there he had his future great antagonist to guard against, for Napoleon was at that time in Egypt, and was thought to have the design of driving the British from India and restoring that great dominion to France. Wellesley’s career in India was a brilliant one. He overthrew the powerful Marhatta Confederacy, gained victory after victory over the native chiefs and kings, captured the great Mogul cities of Delhi and Agra, and spread the power of the British arms far and wide through the peninsula. ”

“ Of the little that can be known of the first seventeen years of Arthur Wellesley's life the clearest facts are that his childhood was not happy, that he was believed by many to be a dull and backward boy, and that he himself thought that if circumstances had not made him a soldier he would probably have become distinguished in public life as a financier. ”

“ Wellesley, a small province, part of Penang Territory, in the Straits Settlements; of great fertility, and yields tropical products in immense quantities, such as spices, tea, coffee, sugar, cotton, and tobacco.
Wellesley, Richard Cowley, Marquis of, statesman and administrator, born in Dublin, eldest son of the Earl of Mornington, an Irish peer, and eldest brother of the Duke of Wellington, and his senior by nine years; educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in classics; in 1781 succeeded his father in the Irish House of Peers; entered Parliament in 1784 ”

“ The interest in social questions is to the fore astonishingly early. In Wellesley's first newspaper, the Courant, published in the college year 1888-1889, we find articles on the Working Girls of Boston, on the Single Tax, and notes of a prize essay on Child Labor. And throughout the decade of the '90's, the dominant note in the Prelude, 1889-1892, and its successor, the Wellesley Magazine, 1892-1911, is the social note. Reports of college events give prominent place to lectures on Woman Suffrage, Social Settlements, Christian Socialism. ”

“ The safest general statement which can be made about Wellesley students of the first forty years of the college is that more than sixty per cent of them have come from outside New England, from the Middle West, the Far West, and the South. ”

“ She was a woman of wealth, beauty, and refinement, and her marriage with Wellesley greatly increased the happiness of the remainder of his life.
It had long been evident that the views of Wellesley and the Duke of Wellington on the Roman catholic question entirely differed, and when the duke became prime minister in 1828, Wellesley was not invited to join the administration. ”

“ Whether or not it could be differentiated from the Smith, the Bryn Mawr, the Vassar, and the Mt. Holyoke types, if the five were set up in a row, unlabeled, is a question. Yet it is true that certain recognizable qualities have developed and tend to persist among the students of Wellesley.
Wellesley girls are in the best sense democratic. There is no Gold Coast on the campus or in the village; money carries no social prestige. More money is spent, and more frivolously, than in the early days; there are more girls, and more rich girls, to spend it ”

“ This was Wellesley's first engagement. Seeing that the troops in front of him were retiring in some confusion, he deployed his regiment, let the others pass through, and drove back their pursuers by a volley (Cust, Annals, iv. 246) .
Outnumbered by four to one, York retreated, but maintained himself behind the Waal till the end of the year. On 20 Dec. Wellesley wrote: 'We turn out once, sometimes twice, every night; the officers and men are harassed to death. ”

“ Wellesley has her lawyers and doctors, her architects, her journalists, her scholars; every year their tribes increase. Among her many journalists are Caroline Maddocks, 1892, and Agnes Edwards Rothery, 1909. ”

“ It surely can have no connexion with the phrase of old Norman law—"clameurs de haro:" for "haro" is an exclamation of dissent and opposition. "Crier haro sur quelqu'un," is to excite mischief and scandal against him—the very reverse of hurrah!
C.
Derivation of "Wellesley" (Vol. viii., p. 173.) .—In reply to J. M., I think the following particulars I may not be uninteresting to him. There is good reason to believe that the name of Wellesley was derived from an ancient manor about one mile south of Wells, called Wellesleigh, which once, belonged to the Bishops of Bath and Wells. ”

“ Sir Arthur Wellesley, fortunately for England and for Europe, commenced life under circumstances eminently favourable for the early development and recognition of his great talents. To his brother, the Marquis Wellesley's rank as Governor-General of India, he owed the opportunity of conducting our armies in the East at a time of life when, if of inferior birth, he could hardly have commanded a battalion; and the magnificent campaign of Assaye so established his reputation, that shortly after his return to Europe he was entrusted without hesitation with the armament assembled at Cork. ”

“ And, as to John Wesley, why should he not have made the same schism with the English Church, because his brother Charles had become unexpectedly rich?
The Marquess Wellesley was of the same standing, as to age, or nearly so, as Mr. Pitt; though he outlived Pitt by almost forty years. Born in 1760, three or four months before the accession of George III., he was sent to Eton, at the age of eleven; and from Eton, in his eighteenth year, he was sent to Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated as a nobleman. He then bore the courtesy title of Viscount Wellesley ”

“ He was then obliged precipitately to quit the city; and so suddenly were Wellesley’s measures executed, that the dinner prepared for the duke of Dalmatia, was served up to the British general and his staff. War is, certes, a game of chances; and little did the French marshal suppose, when at noon he regulated the carte presented by his maître d’hôtel, that he was then civilly arranging an excellent repast for his opponent. Yet such was the case. Wellesley succeeded 63 Soult—and within a few hours the same roof covered the victor and the vanquished. ”

“ At any moment, during the first three years of his command, a single defeat would have caused the cabinet to recall him and withdraw his army from the Peninsula, but the defeat never came, and Wellesley at last won the confidence he merited, and was given adequate means to carry out his mighty schemes. The story of the war is the best proof of his abilities. ”

“ I have yet to find the Wellesley student who could not and would not say, 'I can always feel sure of the fairness of Miss Shafer's decision.' Again and again have Wellesley students said, 'She treats us like women, and knows that we are reasoning beings.' Often she has said, 'I feel that one of Wellesley's strongest points is in her alumnae.' And once more, because of this confidence, the alumnae, as when students, were spurred to do their best, were filled with loyalty for their alma mater.... ”

“ The pretty little Society houses, dotted about the campus, also give the students opportunity to entertain their guests, both formally and informally, and during the months following the fire, when Wellesley was cramped for space, they exercised a generous hospitality which put all the college in their debt. ”

“ He had no rivals among his opponents whom he needed to fear. His only foes were in the cabinet. Lord Wellesley and he could not work together. To Wellesley Perceval seemed to be starving the Peninsular war; to Perceval Wellesley appeared prejudiced and extravagant. During the autumn of 1811 communications passed between Wellesley and the regent with a view to a change of policy and of ministry. It was assumed that, when the regency restrictions expired early in 1812, the prince would place Wellesley at the head of the administration. ”

“ Here she was especially successful in keeping order among unruly pupils. The summer of 1877 she spent in Ann Arbor, studying for a higher degree, and although she never completed the thesis for this work, the university conferred upon her the degree of Ph.D. in 1882, the first year of her presidency at Wellesley. ”

“ The surrender of Dupont at Baylen on 19 July made it needless for Spencer to remain longer near Cadiz, and on 5 Aug. he joined Wellesley's force at the mouth of the Mondego, anticipating an order which Wellesley had sent him to that effect. He was present as second in command at the actions of Roliça and Vimiera. Wellesley acknowledged his assistance in his despatches, and recommended him for some mark of the king's favour. ‘There never was a braver officer, or one who deserved it better’ (Desp. vi. 124) . ”

“ He certainly had the advantage of possessing influential friends. Lord Wellesley had formed a high opinion of him when he worked in Dublin in the lord-lieutenant's private office, and did not fail to exert his influence on his behalf. ”

“ There are advantages in not being a pioneer, and Wellesley has been able to profit by the experience of her predecessors in this movement, particularly Princeton and Smith. Membership in the Councils of Wellesley and Smith is essentially on the same geographical basis, but Wellesley is unique among the Councils in having a faculty representation. ”

“ A Mahratta Chief, commanding a body of the Peishwa’s horse in Wellesley’s camp, wrote to his friends in Poona: “These English are a strange people, and their General a wonderful man: they came here in the morning, looked at the pettah wall, walked over it, killed all the garrison and returned to [137] breakfast!” In attacking fortified places that did not require regular siege operations, Wellesley successfully followed the plan, both in 1800 and on this occasion, of attacking by escalade directly he appeared before the place. ”