Lord Uxbridge's leg

[angelophile]

I made a comment about the film Waterloo yesterday, which contained the epic exchange between the Duke of Wellington and Henry Paget, Lord Uxbridge, Marquess of Anglesey during the battle:

"By god, sir, I've lost my leg."
"By god, sir, so you have."

What I didn't know, but what wal_lace was kind enough to inform me, was that was an actual reported exchange and not just dialogue for the movie.

What I also didn't know was the story of what happened to Lord Uxbridge's leg after that exchange.

Some background first: Lord Uxbridge was a cavalry commander at the Battle of Waterloo and personally led some of the most decisive charges of the heavy and light cavalry in the battle, personally having eight or nine horses shot from under him in the process. One of the last canon shots of the battle hit his right leg, reportedly triggering the above exchange with Wellington and necessitating its amputation above the knee.

After that point, Lord Uxbridge's leg starts to become a legend in its own right.

Uxbridge was taken to his headquarters in Waterloo, a house owned by the Paris family and the remains of his leg were removed by surgeons, without antiseptic or anaesthetics. Uxbridge's reaction was as stoical as the exchange with Wellington would suggest - apparently his only comment through the dreadful procedure was, "The knives appear somewhat blunt." Although he is also reported to have commented, "I have had a pretty long run. I have been a beau these forty-seven years, and it would not be fair to cut the young men out any longer."

According to the account of Sir Hussey Vivian recorded by Henry Curling in 1847:

“Just after the Surgeon had taken off the Marquis of Anglesey's leg, Sir Hussey Vivian came into the cottage where the operation was performed. "Ah, Vivian!" said the wounded noble, "I want you to do me a favour. Some of my friends here seem to think I might have kept that leg on. Just go and cast your eye upon it, and tell me what you think." "I went, accordingly", said Sir Hussey, "and, taking up the lacerated limb, carefully examined it, and so far as I could tell, it was completely spoiled for work. A rusty grape-shot had gone through and shattered the bones all to pieces. I therefore returned to the Marquis and told him he could set his mind quite at rest, as his leg, in my opinion, was better off than on."

Uxbridge was offered an annual pension of £1,200 in compensation for the loss of his leg, but refused it.

The story doesn't end there.

M. Hyacinthe Joseph-Marie Paris asked if he might bury the leg in his garden, later turning the place into a kind of reliquary shrine. Visitors were first taken to see the bloody chair upon which Uxbridge had sat during the amputation, before being escorted into the garden, where the leg had its own tombstone, inscribed as follows:

Here lies the Leg of the illustrious and valiant Earl Uxbridge, Lieutenant-General of His Britannic Majesty, Commander in Chief of the English, Belgian and Dutch cavalry, wounded on the 18 June 1815 at the memorable battle of Waterloo, who, by his heroism, assisted in the triumph of the cause of mankind, gloriously decided by the resounding victory of the said day.

Some were impressed; others less so. According to an article headed "Marquis of Anglesey's Leg" in Notes and Queries, 1862, a wag wrote on the tombstone -

Here lies the Marquis of Anglesey's limb;
The Devil will have the remainder of him.

The poetaster Thomas Gaspey recorded his own impressions in verse, also recorded in Notes and Queries, which says they "went the round of the papers at the time":

Here rests, and let no saucy knave
Presume to sneer and laugh,
To learn that mouldering in the grave
Is laid a British calf.

For he who writes these lines is sure
That those who read the whole
Will find such laugh were premature,
For here, too, lies a sole.

And here five little ones repose,
Twin-born with other five;
Unheeded by their brother toes,
Who now are all alive.

A leg and foot to speak more plain
Lie here, of one commanding;
Who, though his wits he might retain,
Lost half his understanding.

And when the guns, with thunder fraught,
Pour'd bullets thick as hail,
Could only in this way be taught
To give his foe leg-bail.

And now in England, just as gay -
As in the battle brave -
Goes to the rout, review, or play,
With one foot in the grave.

Fortune in vain here showed her spite,
For he will still be found,
Should England's sons engage in fight,
Resolved to stand his ground.

But fortune's pardon I must beg,
She meant not to disarm;
And when she lopped the hero's leg
By no means sought his h-arm,

And but indulged a harmless whim,
Since he could walk with one,
She saw two legs were lost on him
Who never meant to run.

The leg attracted an amazing range of tourists from European society of the very top drawer, from the King of Prussia to the Prince of Orange. It was a nice earner for Monsieur Paris and his descendents, all the way down to 1878, when it was the occasion for a minor diplomatic incident. Uxbridge's son visited, to find the bones not buried, but on open display. On investigation by the Belgian ambassador in London, it was discovered that they had been exposed in a storm which uprooted the willow tree beside which they were buried. The ambassador demanded repatriation of the relics to England but the Paris family refused, instead offering to sell the bones to the Uxbridge family, who, not surprisingly, were enraged. At this point the Belgian Minister of Justice intervened, ordering the bones to be reburied.

However, the bones were not reburied; they were kept hidden. In 1934, after the last Monsieur Paris died in Brussels, his widow found them in his study, along with documentation proving their provenance. Horrified by the thought of another scandal she incinerated them in her central heating furnace.

Uxbridge himself used an articulated above-knee artificial leg invented by James Potts, with hinged knee and ankle and raising toes which became known as the Anglesey leg. The loss of his leg did not impede the Marquess of Anglesey's career - he rose to become a Field Marshal and Knight of the Garter, twice serving as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and twice as Master-General of the Ordnance.