Gurwood had evidently been thinking about editing the Duke's "Dispatches" for some time and reportedly spelt out his idea at breakfast at Stratfield Saye in January 1832 when the conversation turned on Sir William Napier's "History of the War in the Peninsula". The Duke made no reply but Gurwood prepared a paper which was presented to the Duke in January 1833. This spelt out that the whole of the Dispatches 'from Ahmednuggur and Assaye to Waterloo and Paris' would be arranged in chronological order. Some material relating to the Indian campaigns would be added in order to explain 'the vast importance of the victories and successes of General Wellesley', but the 'dispatches from the Peninsula, require no such explanatory introduction.' The Duke replied on 13 January that he had not the smallest objection to what Gurwood proposed to do. If Gurwood would come over on any day in the next two weeks he would be delighted to see him.