15 探望陸軍元帥蒙哥利(doc)
15. Seeing Field Marshal Montgomery I drove to Alton in Hampshire to see Field Marshal Lord Montgomery at Isington Mill, his little country home. His place is really modest and simple. When I returned to London, I happened to pass Apsley House, the enormous mansion(almost a palace)on Piccadilly given by the grateful British people to the Duke of Wellington1 after the Napoleonic wars. Montgomery did not do so well. Whatever one may think of him, he is undoubtedly the most famous British general since Wellington. Monty was wearing a dark blue knitted sweater and over it an open leather windbreaker 2. He led me through the dining room upstairs to his study. The room was decorated with a lot of bad oil paintings, at least four of which were full-length portraits of Monty. Also hideous3 but not uncomfortable furniture and an enormous mass of knickknacks4. Everything was in apple-pie5 order, including the desk. In a peculiarly ugly cage was the only other living thing in the house, a somnolent6 blue parakeet7 with a celluloid8 fake companion. There were at most twenty books on a shelf by his desk, and I imagine this comprises his entire library. Prominent9 were Burke's Peerage10 and the 1963 Who's Who. I could just imagine the old codger11 reading himself to sleep with those after his usual dinner of mutton. 　　Among the decorations in this study were several signed snapshots of King George VI together with Montgomery. There were also signed photographs. Churchill had inscribed his picture:“ To Monty. Hard times; stern conflict;victorious commander!Winston S.Churchill 1946.” Among the bad oil paintings were one by Churchill and one by Field Marshal Alexander. 　　Monty sat on a sofa opposite the stove. He seemed cocky12, tough, positive13, intolerant14, ignorant, and unbelievably vain. He has a stubborn, grumpy15 face, but looks extremely fit for a man of his age. There is not an ounce of fat on him, and there is a healthy gleam in his cold blue eyes. I dislike him and think that his supreme military gift is confirmed by the fact that his own army didn't shoot him in the back. 　　I began by asking him what he thought of the idea of a multilateral16 force for NATO. He said: 　　Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Just assume you have a ship with a crew of one
15 探望陸軍元帥蒙哥利(doc)