The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-11 00:00:00

R. RUD GE'S VISIT TO THE FIELD

OF WATERLOO.

(From the Town and Country Magazine.)
A few days after the action of the 18th of June, 1815, I
visited with a few friends the field of battle, and examined with
very minute attention every part of this memorable spot. The
road which leads to it from Brussels, is through a thick and
extensive wood, called Bois de Soigne. It is narrow, and on
each side are some of the highest trees I ever saw. Hence
everything around assumes a dark and gloomy appearance. I
know not whether it is to this circumstance that I am to attri-
Lute it ; but, certainly I never before recollect to have expe-
rienced such sensations as I did during the two hours I was
passing along this confined and dismal road. The feelings
with which r approached the field of battle will never be ef-
faced from my mind. We arrived at Waterloo—a small but
not unpleasant village. If it boasts not of its splendid man-
sions, &c., it has, to an Englishman, something much more
calculated to excite his admiration, and awaken his patriotism.
In such a place, "to abstract the mind from all local emotion,
-would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be
foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the
power of our senses ; whatever makes the past, the distant, or
the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the
dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends,
be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and un-
moved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom,
bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose pa-
triotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or
whose piety would not grow warm among the ruins of lona I"
We alighted from our cabriolet, at the village of Waterloo ;
and after having visited the church and inn in which Lord
Wellington's despatches were written, as we were told, pro-
ceeded on to Mont St. Jean, about a mile distant. The first
object by which our attention was struck, a few yards from this
place, was a park of artillery, consisting of nearly two hundred
tins of the largest dimensions. They were guarded by a few
of our artillerymen, and the situation in which they were left
bespoke the service which they had seen. They were all of them
covered with dirt, and many with blood ; and upon them were
the names of Austerlitz, Jena, &c., inscribed. Having wit-
nessed with feelings of peculiar exultation these trophies of our
arms, we next visited the farm-house of La Haye Sainte, from
which, it will be recollected, our brave fellows, after perform-
ing prodigies of valour, and not until they had expended the
whole of their ammunition, were compelled to retire. The
house bore evident marks of this severe and sanguinary con-
flict. Its roof was pierced with a thousand holes, and its walls
battered through in various parts. But, after all, there was no
part of the field of battle in which I was so much interested as
ti.e house and garden of Hougoumont, where the engagement
commenced. At this place I spent some interesting but me-
itricholy moments. Here it was that the battle raged
with the utmost fury throughout the day, and the cool
intrepidity and physical strength of our brave men were
conspicuously displayed in resisting the repeated attacks of
the French army, headed by Buonaparte in person. Every
British soldier here proved himself a hero. The chateau of
lioweoumont was in a state of ruin when I visited it. Not a
single part remained entire. The whole exhibited the most
terrific appearance. In one of the out-buildings cf which the
roof and walls were nearly destroyed, was a large room in
aviiich the bodies of some hundreds had been burnt. Their
as;,es yet smoked, and I am sure, I speak without exaggeration
la libel I say, that the ashes of the dead were, in this place,
three feet deep. I have in my possession a small piece of a
Elul! which I found there, and upon which the suture is very
perceptible. The garden attached to the house is of conside-
rable length, and it appeared originally to have been laid out
ith some taste. It was surrounded by a thick wall, which
served as a protection to our men, to whom was entrusted the
defence of the place. Opposite to it, was a small wood, in
which the French army was stationed. From hence they were
throughout the whole of the day upon our brave fellows,
tio, .crom apertures made in the wall, returned a most de-
iructive Ere of rnusquetry. It was curious to observe the cf-
f ets of ties balls on the different trees which came within their
range. There was not one but what was pierced as ith nurne-
iaaS holes; aoc; while the foliage was thick and beautiful above,
the contrast below N7as singularly striking. The trees were in
the most mutilated state, having their bark torn away and their
1. -Inks penetrated by the bb.ils. Near the entrance of the
,eleLeau. is a spot in which were buried or burnt above a thou-
?, ind of the slain. The smell was here particularly offensive,
eu', in eome places parts of the human body were distinctly to
I,e eaeegnized. The earth with wh:ch they had been covered,
'•ad in and exhibited here and there an arm and a human
tiesh nearly wasted away, and the features of the
Mitartaa'ea hardly distinguishable from the change they had
„,iri„,,4u,e. 1. turned with horror from these sights ; arid with
feele'Ts not to b' described, passed over some rich corn fields,
t,„}„, elevated sp,:- on which Napoleon had erected his obser-
and from which' the most extensive view of a fine undo-
ieg country for several miles around might he seen. I re-
,--re•ted much we could not aa -end. One of the ladders had
h. er removed, and we were thus .deprieed cf a high gratifiea-
time Its elevation, I should think, about eighty feet. We
were told by sonic French gentlemen, rrlican we met there,
that it was erected, not by Buonaparte, but Lord Welling-
t"'- After visiting the observatoire, we went to the-celebrated
house, situated on the right side of the road leading to Brus-
,sels, called La Belle Alliance. The name is over the door by
vatiich you enter, with the figures, if I recollect right, 1755
araterneath. The coincidence of the two allied generals meet-
ing by accident at this spot, was very singular, and perhaps
from this circumstance, and in commemoration of the alliance
between the English and Prussian nations, the battle should
have borne the name of La Belle Alliance. The house itself
is entail and mean looking. I examined its different rooms.
The whole of the building had been much injured by the can-
non-balls, and the roof of it was penetrated with numerous
holes. Near to this, there is hardly a spot, in which at every
step you may not trace the graves of the dead, and the ashes
of the slain. It has been calculated that upwards of 30,000
sleep the sleep of death. Every part of the field of battle was
strewed with different articles belonging to those who had
fought and bled. Every thing around attested the horrors of
war, and the march of devastation. On every side were scat-
tered the arms and clothing of the slain ; shoes, caps, and
belts, and every other military appendage, either stained with
Llood or covered with dirt. In the corn fields, which had been
completely ploughed up by the trampling of the horses, and
the movements of the soldiers, a number of books, cards, and
letters were seen. I saw and read some few in English ; one
ill particular from a soldier to a female friend in the north of
England, in which he gave her an account of his being en-
g.iged in the battle of the 16th, that he had been so fortunate
us to escape without a single wound, that he expected again to
be engaged, when he hoped that Boney might be taken, an end
put to war, and that he should then return, and be happy
with
dated on the 17th : it was directed, but was not sealed. On
my return to England, I wrote to the person to whom it was
inscribed, and enclosed it in my letter, giving an account of the
situation in which I found it. It is singular that not the
slightest notice was taken of my letter.
Having visited at a very interesting period, a spot upon
which was fought one of the most memorable and decisive bat-
tles, recorded either in ancient or modern times, I trust that
the notice which I have taken of it will not prove unacceptable.

The Leeds Intelligencer says that there is no truth
in the report that Mr. Wortley will be brought forward at the
next election for Ripon.
As all billiard-balls are made of ivory, and as in
every mass of that substance there are always some parts more
solid than others, there is not a single ball, perhaps, which
has the centre of gravity exactly in the centre of the figure.
On this account, every ball deviates more or less from the
line in which it is impelled, when a slight motion is com-
municated to it, in order to make it proceed towards the
other side of the billiard-table, unless it should happen
that the heaviest part is placed at the top or bottom. An
eminent maker of these balls declares that he has never been
able to find one ball perfectly free from the fault now de-
scribed. Hence it is that when a player strikes the ball
gently, he often imagines that be has struck it, that is, played
badly, while his want of success is entirely the consequence
of this fault in the ball. A good billiard player, before he
engages to play, ought carefully to try the ball, in order to
discover the heaviest and lightest parts.— Walker's Games
and Sports.
THE BONAPARTE ESCUTCHEON.--." It is my wish
in all things to be amalgamated with France. She is my
adopted mother, and we will both bear the same shield."
Then,' resumed Regnault, ' you would make choice of
the old Gallic cock, and he may hold in his claws
a tri-coloured standard ?" The cock,' said Napo-
leon, in spite of his good qualities, is not a suffi-
ciently dignified representative of a great nation. We
must have an animal more imposing, more emblematic
of power—an elephant, for example, or a lion couchant, on the
map of France, with one paw thrust forward to the boundary
of the Rhine, and the device, Gare a qui me cherche. Ma
foi r exclaimed Regnault, ' but why should we determine
limits, which the lion may show himself inclined to overstep.'
Napoleon approved of this hint, and he began to think of
something else. Regnault suggested the fleur-de-lis. The
mere utterance of the word produced an effect almost elec-
trical. ' Never !' exclaimed Napoleon, ' those ensigns of a
proscribed family shall never again be seen among us. lam
not the son of Louis XVI. I commence a new dynasty, or
rather I found an empire. I succeed Charlemagne and the
Caesars, and I must have their emblems. The empire and
;myself will, therefore, adopt an eagle with spread wings,
ft, tippled with a thunderbolt."—Evenings with Prince Camba.
cckTes.

,SUICIDE.—A suicide of a dreadful and mest deter-
mined nature took place at Horsham during the night of Mon-
day, the 24th ult., when a man named Peter Pollard, an un-
der bailiff of the Sheriff of Sussex, destroyed himself. Pollard
was a Roman Catholic, and had the care of the chapel in
Horsham. He went to bed quite sober on Monday night ;
but on Tuesday morning it wa,-; discovered that he had left his
bed in the night and come down stairs into a small par-
lour where he kept his shaving-box and razor in a drawer ;
it is supposed he opened the drawer, took out the razor
gad with it cut his throat. It appeared he had seated
himself in a chair previous to committing this act.
There was a large pool of blood discovered on the floor,
a..ul the razor was lying near it as if it had been dropped
by deceased before he had completely effected his purpose ;
and there being finger-marks of bood round about it, it is
cone, 'uded that he had attempted to re-possess himself of the
instru Tent of destruction, but could not clutch it. He then
returns 'd up stairs to his bed-room and got into bed—the walls
on each side of the stairs and along the passage, upwards of
30 feet, • .being marked with blood, and the sheets in his bed
.0/Atilt; Itearbloody. Finding, however, that the wound he had
~--.7,ipsiirtecti,B-,ineffectual, he left his bed again, and finding a
gor-4-: .Wittpost at the foot of the bedstead, with the other
4(4,t•-...end c sinpletety‘.:s horrible design, and was found a corpse
4("; nia-Hg. —Brighton Guardian.