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| THE WELLINGTON TESTIMONIAL, PHOENIX PARK. -This ponderous shaft is the most striking feature among the monuments of Dublin's spacious pleasure ground. The obelisk is constructed of Wicklow granite, and the bronze panels in the column, which is approached by flights of stone steps, are composed of the molten metal of cannon captured during Wellington's immortal campaigns. These bear, besides representations of many famous scenes of conflict, the names of his numerous splendid victories. The total height of the monuments is 205 feet, and the general effect is massive and angular-like the character of the "Iron Duke"-rather than symmetrical and graceful. It was built as the result of "popular subscription"-mainly confined to the "nobility and gentry"-in 1817, while yet the glory of Waterloo was fresh in the public mind. Dublin claims the Duke as her son-fixing his birthplace in Upper Merrion Street, instead of at Dangan Castle, county Meath, which long held undivided claim to that distinction. The Duke, whose greatness seemed to terminate with the battlefield, was an inveterate Tory, and never called himself an Irishman, although his family, on both sides, had been settled in Ireland for centuries before his birth, in 1769. Consequently, his memory is not revered by a majority of his fellow countrymen, who, however, respect his martial record. |
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