GREAT MEN'S BODIES
"There can be no doubt that the Duke owed immunity from serious illness, and his longevity, to these active habits. He benefited largely by his systematic, resolute employment of the simplest and best means of keeping up his condition. He was exceedingly temperate and abstemious, a very small eater—too small, his friends sometimes said, for health. When he paid the great debt at last he had reached the long age of eighty-three. His end was peaceful; he passed away quietly, painlessly, mourned by the whole nation."
"The nation agreed with Queen Victoria when she said: 'He was the pride and genius, as it were, of the country.'"
"In person the Duke was of middle height; strongly built; with keen gray eyes; a long face; an aquiline nose; and a cheerful countenance."—American Encyclopædia.
Tennyson touches upon some of the physical characteristics of "The Iron Duke":
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
Whole in himself, a common good.
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest yet with least pretence,
Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common-sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.
O good gray head which all men knew,
O voice from which their omens all men drew,
O iron nerve to true occasion true,
O fall'n at length that tower of strength
319
