Gordon, Sir Alexander and Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of

i) Sir Alexander Gordon. 11 autograph letters signed to Lady Bathurst, writing as the principal ADC to Wellington, most of the letters giving a LIVELY AND WELL-INFORMED EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE 1812 PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, with two letters written in February 1813 before the start of the new campaign and the final letter written during the peace before the Waterloo campaign, 74 pages, 8vo, Rueda, Cuellar, San Ildefonso, Madrid, Valladolid, Freinada, and Brussels, 14 July [1812] to 9 January [1815]
ii) Duke of Wellington. 35 letters to Lord, Lady Bathurst, and Lady Georgina Bathurst, including discussion of political tensions over Reform and the likelihood of riots, one letter analysing tensions in Lord Grey’s government (6 November 1834), foreign affairs in the aftermath of 1830 revolutions in France and Belgium, and including a letter about Ernst Augustus, King of Hanover, and emphasising that British politicians have no right to interfere with his affairs in Hanover (7 August 1837) and issues of royal etiquette after the succession of Queen Victoria mostly on family, otherwise mostly on social and personal affairs, including military careers of family members and Lord Apsley, the later letters written to Lady Georgina Bathurst as Lady in Waiting to the Duchess of Gloucester, 73 pages, 8vo, various locations, 9 November 1819 to 24 August 1850

Sir Alexander Gordon (1786-1815) was the grandson of the Earl of Aberdeen; a highly-regarded officer, he was appointed ADC to Wellington in 1810. This remarkable series of letters begins with Gordon’s arrival with Wellington’s army days before the Battle of Salamanca (“...I arrived at Head Qrs after a ride from Lisbon of nearly 400 miles and found them posted along this bank of the Duero watching Mars[ha]l Marmont who had equally taken up his position on the opposite side of the river with his army...”). The letters go on to describe the aftermath of the victory and the subsequent march east then south to Madrid, with accounts of the celebratory scenes and the beauty of Wellington’s headquarters in the royal palaces of San Ildefonso, Madrid (where King Joseph Bonaparte had departed in such a hurry that his paintings still hung on the walls, including “Bonaparte on horsback crossing the Alps by David”) and Valladolid. The letters continue after the tide of war turned against the Allies after the failure to capture Burgos and subsequent retreat back behind the Duero (“...I never felt so much, or so sincerely for the poor people of Spain...”). Gordon admits the skill and good fortune of Soult but defends Wellington’s decision to retreat and expresses his confidence in ultimate victory (“...I do not despair of the cause, and hope and trust Gt Britain will still hold out and that Government will still strain every nerve to support the war in the Peninsula, to the utmost, at least as long as there is any hope of Bonaparte being foiled in his attempt of conquest in Russia...”) As well as providing well informed military news and a sympathetic and cultured response to Spain, the letters are also replete with anecdotes giving a sense of daily life in the campaign, from crossing the lines to visit French officers in answer to a letter from Marmont’s chief ADC “congratulating me on my promotion”, to the capture of General Sir Edward Paget. 

The majority of these letters were written to Georgina, Countess of Bathurst (d.1841), sister of the 4th Duke of Lennox and wife of the Third Earl Bathurst, who from 1812 to 1827 was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies and a crucial ally of Wellington during the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. Some of Wellington's letters are addressed to her husband and, latterly, their daughter Lady Georgina (for whom see next lot).