Downing Street, 19th November 1846.
... Lord John Russell breakfasted with Dr Hawtrey yesterday, and had much conversation with him. He finds Dr Hawtrey strongly impressed with the evils of Montem, and he declared himself as decidedly against its continuance. He thinks your Majesty would please the Etonians equally by going to the boats once a year, which he said the late King was in the habit of doing. The Chancellor of the Exchequer,28 who was at Eton, wishes to see Montem abolished. Lord Morpeth would prefer seeing it regulated. Upon the whole, Lord John Russell thinks it would not be advisable for your Majesty to interpose your authority against the decided opinion of Dr Hawtrey, the Provost, and the assistants.29
Footnote 28: Mr (who a few weeks later became Sir) Charles Wood.
Footnote 29: Montem, the triennial Eton ceremony, the chief part of which took place at Salt Hill (ad montem), near Slough, was abolished in 1847.
Queen Victoria to the Duke of Wellington.
A PENINSULAR MEDAL
Osborne, 25th November 1846.
The Queen has learned from various quarters that there still exists a great anxiety amongst the officers and men who served under the Duke of Wellington's orders in the Peninsula to receive and wear a medal as a testimony that they assisted the Duke in his great undertaking. The Queen not only thinks this wish very reasonable, considering that for recent exploits of infinitely inferior importance such distinctions have been granted by her, but she would feel personally a great satisfaction in being enabled publicly to mark in this way her sense of the great services the Duke of Wellington has rendered to his country and to empower many a brave soldier to wear this token in remembrance of the Duke.
The Duke of Wellington to Queen Victoria.
THE DUKE'S VIEW