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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Harriette Wilson
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(1786–1846) Courtesan whose Memoirs (1825) are the source of two popular quotations. The first is her own opening sentence: 'I shall not say why and how I became, at the age of fifteen, the mistress of the earl of Craven.' The second is the riposte of the duke of Wellington on receiving a blackmailing letter from the publisher of the memoirs, in which he features as one of Harriette's conquests. 'Publish and be damned', he was said to have scrawled across the letter before sending it back.
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