Odd this day

23 January 1806

It’s the 220th anniversary of William Pitt the Younger uttering his last words, which were, famously:

I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies.

Disraeli’s biographer Lord Rosebery, writing 85 years later, said so, so it must be true…

Well, except, according to Robert Harvey’s The War of Wars — The Great European Conflict, 1793–1815:

Benjamin Disraeli heard an amusing story about what he claimed were Pitt’s last words. An elderly House of Commons waiter and keeper of its secrets told him: ‘You hear many lies told as history, sir,’ he said; “do you know what Mr Pitt’s last words were?’ — ‘Of course,’ said Mr Disraeli, ‘they are well known … “O my country! how I love my country!’ for that was then the authorized version. ‘Nonsense,’ said the old man. ‘I’ll tell you how it was. Late one night I was called out of bed by a messenger in a postchaise, shouting to me outside the window. “What is it?” I said. “You’re to get up and dress and bring some of your meat pies down to Mr Pitt at Putney.” So I went; and as we drove along he told me that Mr Pitt had not been able to take any food, but had suddenly said, “I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies.” And so I was sent for post-haste. When we arrived Mr Pitt was dead. Them was his last words: “I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies.”

Ah. So, Rosebery got it from Disraeli, who’d heard it from (Rosebery’s words) “a grim old waiter of prehistoric reputation” at the House of Commons, who for some reason was woken up by a messenger who had supposedly been got out of bed one night to fetch a pie for Pitt on his deathbed — a task said messenger could easily have carried out on his own without waking a waiter.

Earl Stanhope’s four-volume biography of Pitt says his last words were (as above) “O my country! How I love my country!” (or possibly “how I leave my country”). The pie is probably balls.

Mind you, according to Jacqueline Reiter, author of The Late Lord: the life of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, the official last words are probably balls, too. She puts it more politely, but basically says the same thing

“At about half-past two Mr. Pitt ceased moaning, and did not speak or make the slightest sound for some time … I feared he was dying; but shortly afterwards, with a much clearer voice than he spoke in before, and in a tone I never shall forget, he exclaimed, ‘Oh, my country! How I leave my country!’ From that time he never spoke or moved.” (Stanhope IV, 382)

So according to Stanhope, Pitt had spent the night moaning and muttering incoherently, then suddenly mustered up the strength to “exclaim” his last words, before subsiding into silence. Hmmm. Is that likely to happen? Could it happen? It sounds like Pitt was lapsing into a coma, woke up conveniently to speak his last words clearly and commandingly, then returned to his coma.

Why put (even posthumous) pressure on historical figures to say something profound at the last? Far better to go like Noël Coward and say

Goodnight my darlings, I’ll see you tomorrow.

Now that’s a life goal.