The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-12

How London Came to Put the Dukes
Head on Phidias' alexander"
Eror, onIor, TN-,,AL


Head on Phidias' alexander"
From London Truth.
The origin of the Wellington Memorial
in Hyde Park, as told by Jacob IArwood.
must be reproduced, for few of the hun
dreds of thousands who have seen the
Achilles statue know the secret history
OF how 1t came to be there, and of the
vicissitudes which it encountered In its
early days:
I'm June, 1922 a brazen statue was set
up In Hyde Park for John Bulls wor-
ship. The public was told that il was
erected by the ladies of Great Britain in
honor of the Duke of Wellington, but
there were few who could see anything i'm
common between the Duke and a nude
figure, the name and author of which are
to this day unknown. The secret
history of the manoeuvres to which this
monument owes its erection is not a lit
tie curious and edifying. 1t appears that
Lady Spencer, in conjunction with sew
erai other amateurs and artists of fash
ion, had long been DESTROYS of seeing in
this country a bronze caste of this match
less and world-renowned Phidian STATUE
Though committee had been formed TO
effect thds purpose, there seemed little
chance that the wish would be realized,
as the funds necessary for the object were
too considerable to be expected from a
subscription among amateurs. But when
the illustrious achievements of the Duke
of Wellington had given a FLIP to public
spirit and lberality, the committees
thought IL an excellent occasion to carry
their point by lacking the Dukes name to
1t. This idea, more ingenious than can
did, was adopted, and an advertisement
was published soliciting subscriptions
from the ladies OF England toward erect
Ing a monument to the Duke Of yelling
ton, which monument, it was added,
would be a fac-simile of a statue of
Phidlas representing Alexander the Great
tanning Bucephalus.' Omitting even the
trifiing fact that Phidias died nearly a
quarter of a century before Alexander the
Great was born, there were various other
reasons, too numerous to detail which
rendered the statue utterly unfit for the
purpose for which the committee intended
1t, but they triumphantly remedied all
these drawbacks by placing the Dukes
head on the shoulders of the Greclan
statue and introducing him to the public
as Achillesl
Yet. though the Pope had
furnished the ladies with casts; though
the Ordnance office had given twelve "a
Founders for It's construction, still the
statue was only erected at a cost of fl0.-
900. On july IA, 1922 its nude
majesty was Tor the nrst time uncovered,
and from that day the Wellington Drive
was abandoned and the public foclxed
back to their old haunts in Rotten Row
and the Ladies' Mile. The want
of drapery was shocking to English no.
tons. Even ex-Sheriff Parkins
informed the public, through the columns
of the Morning Herald, that II his moth
er. who was a Newcastle woman, had
caught any Of her children looking at
such an object she would have soundly
whipped them"
That is how many of our statues and
memorials in London come to be erected.
II is not more statues that we. require,
but less. The government should appoint
committee to inquire into the whole
matter, with the object of Kidding the
metropolis OF many of the bronze and
marble atrocities that disfigure the city,
educate the taste OF the people wrongly,
and render us ridiculous to foreigners