Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1919-10-09

AiISlUTJ, anu lue great uldJOFlly VI IOJll-
iSh tourists at least regard it as the
British Lion. In 1929, shortly after
its erection, a French visitor named
Saintine described it as ''the Belgic
Lion looking towards and apparently
threatening France" That description
seems not to have been forgotten, and
probably lies at the root of the sug-
gestiOn just made in Brussels to turn
the lion round so that the threat-it
needs very lively imagination to see
any at all-in the pose may be divert
ed from France in the direction of
Holland, writes Demetrius @. Boulger
in the Graphic.
What was the origin of the mound
and the lion? In the first place, the
animal represented is neither a Brit
ish nor Belgic emblem; it is the
Dutch lion, and somewhere in a corner,
if it has not been obliterated, will be
found, imagine, the motto of Nassau
Orange, "Je Maintiendrai." Whatever
is done with it, then, the susceptible
tiles of neither BelgianS nor British
are involved The British government
have certainly no inherited claim to a
voice in whatever solution may be
adopted. 1t is not their concern.
How the Mound Was Built.
In 1926 William Of the Netherlands,
the great-grandfathe of the present
Queen Wilhelmina and one of the most
obstinate personageS to be found in the
whole range of history, conceived that
the field of Waterloo required a
memorial to establish the heroism of
his eldest son, who had received
wound on the occasion. The king was
actuated entirely by dynastic consid-
erations, unless he also wished to pro-
vide the fOundries Of CoCkerill, in
which he was the largest shareholder
with a profitable commission. At all
events 1t is quite clear that the Bel
gian people took no interest or part in
the matter, which was decided by
vote of the states-general at The
Hague. The vote being passed, the
governments of Britain and Prussia
were then invited to make a contribu-
ton to the memorial. They complied
to a certain limited extent, the British
conserving, for their part, to the re-
moval Of certain French cannon in
Wellington's Belgian fOrtresses in or
der to provide the material for the
proposed lion.
BY that time William had decided on
the form of the memorial. 1t was to
be the erection of an enormous mound
some 200 feet above the crest of Mont
st. Jean, at the spot where his son,
the prince of Orange, had been wound
ed, the mound to be crowned by the
Lion of the Netherlands. The clay for
the mound was brought from the steep
sides of the famous "sunken road"
which disappeared in the process, by
women Of the district who were paid
at the rate of half franc basket, and
the site marked by Wellington's tree
was included within the radius Of the
elevation-sO that when the duke re-
visited the scene in 1929 with his
daughter-in-law, Lady DOurO, he made
the expressive comment, "My battle
field has been spoilt"
Legend of the Lions Tail.
The memorial, completed in 1928,
had been in existence two years when
the Belgian revolution broke out in
August, 1880. A year later a French
army advanced to LOuvain to repel
Dutch invasion. 1t was said that some
of the French corps in that advance
crossed the field and took Offense, not
at the mound or the lion, but at the
shape Of it's tail, which, erect in the
air, seemed to express defiance! The
story went on to say that in their
wrath they broke off the tail, and that
the cOmplalsant Belgians supplied the
lion with a new one, no longer erect,
but made gracefully dependent.
| went to considerable pains in 1901
to show that this legend could have no
real basis, because the contemporary
drawings in the Brussels Museum Of
Prints showed the lion being hOisted
into It's position with the tail in pre-
cisely the same form as it wears to-
day. There is no evidence of any
change having been made at that time
or any other.
In December, 1892, the French army
rendered a second signal service to the
Belgian people by the siege and cap
ture of the Antwerp citadel and once
more French regiment traversed the
scene without doing any damage. A
proposal was then made in the Belgian
chamber by patriotic leader, M. Cen
debien, to the effect that the ma
tional gratitude should be evlnced by
the removal Of the Hon monument al
together. He called IL, and justly as
has been shown, "the hateful emblem
cf the despotism and violence which
made rs subject for is years to the
humiiIE5lng yoke which we cast off In