As you may know, I live in the historical town Waterloo, where the Duke of Wellington an Anglo-Irish military commander and British politician signed the defeat of Napoleon and ended the battle of Waterloo in this house, which today is the Wellington museum.
The oldest inhabitants of Waterloo, when they were young boys, remember the times when the house was just open and not yet a museum and they played inside and faked to sleep in Wellingtons bed !
Today it is protected behind the red cord and of course you have to pay an entrance fee.
The bed seemed very small to me and I thought the boys who "slept" in there must have been not taller then a 10 year old or measure 1.50 m certainly not more.. Everybody looking at this bed laughed and said that such an important man was so small, but it is also true that people were smaller in the past and that's why the bed looks as if it was for a child.
Therefore I was quite surprised when I read that in fact, "Wellington was of “middle height, being about 1.79 m (5.9 ft), but his shoulders were broad, his arms long, and his whole frame firmly knit, and capable of fatigue in an extraordinary degree"
I think the size is not so small for this time, Napoleon was 10 cm smaller only 1.69 m. (5.5ft)
His cape is also exposed
a bust of him
and a wax figure when he signed. Of course there are many other things to see.
It's still a mistery to me how Wellington could sleep in this small bed ? Did he sleep sitting as many people did because of the wiggs, but he never wore one, or did he fold himself and slept on one side ? Nobody not even Google could give me the answer. But he must have slept well in his small bed because he was 83 when he died !
If you are an Iron Duke enthusiast, you can drink in 53 pubs called the Duke of Wellington, as well as 37 that go by an unadorned "Wellington". And that’s just in England. The Duke of Wellington is the oldest licenced pub in Melbourne, and now serves a variety of gastropub food. And then of course there are the countless pubs called simply The Duke. Just don't feel the need to get a pint in each one !!
Linking to Linda Hills One Liner Wednesday
I imagine he must have curled up.
ReplyDeleteBit of a mystery. Such an important man didn't have a bed to fit him properly.
ReplyDeleteThe Duke in Melbourne used to be where many journalists would drink, lunchtime and after work. There was a major newspaper and radio broadcaster next door. It has an 'interesting' past.
When I was a child visiting early Presidents' homes in the US I noticed the same thing, beds were amazingly tiny then. Same as when the Duke was alive. I would like to visit all those pubs, sounds like it could be a world tour.
ReplyDeleteNow you got me wondering how beds change though history.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
Maybe sleeping in comfort wasn't so important to him.
ReplyDeleteA mystery indeed. I hadn't realised that there were so many pubs named after him.
ReplyDeleteInteresting the bed was so small. I have no idea why but maybe he slept sitting in order to quickly respond to any attacks during the night.
ReplyDeleteHe must have slept in the foetal position. How interesting, I am only a few cms shorter than Napoleon. Maybe I can be an emperor too :)
ReplyDeleteThat would be fun, doing a tour of the Wellington pubs. It looks an interesting museum and yes one wonders how he fitted into the small bed.
ReplyDelete