Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1919-10-03

history, and the great majority of Brit |
ish tourists at least regard II as the |
British Lion. In 1929, shortly after
its erection. a French visitor named |
Saintlne described II as the Bclgic |
Lion looking towards and apparently |
threatening France" That description |
seems not tn 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 thrcat--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 Dcmetrius &. Boulger
In the Graphic,
What was the origin of the mound
and the lion? In the first place. the
animal represented is neither n Brit
Dutch lion, and somewhere In n corner.
II II has not been oblterated. will he
found, imagine. the motto of Nassau
Orange, "Je Maintiendrai." Whatever
Is done with ii, then, the susceptible
tiles of neither Bclgians nor British
are involved. The British government
have certainly no inherited claim to II
voice in whatever solution may be
adopted. II Is not their concern.
How the Mound Was Built.
In 1896 william of the Netherlands,
the great grandfather 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 u
wound on the occasion. The king was
actuated entirely by dynastic consid
eratiOns. unless he also wished to pro-
vide the foundries OF Cockcrill In
which he was the largest shareholder,
with 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 "A
vote of the states-general at The
Hague. The vote being passed. the
governments of Britain and Prussia
were then invited to make n 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
WcllingtOn'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. II 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 u frame n basket. and
the site marked by Wellington's tree
was included within the radius of the
Clcyution-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 apolt."
Iegend OF tne LIONS al.
The memorial, completed in 1928,
had been in existence two years when
the Belgian revolution broke out in
August, 1880, A year later French
army advanced 10 Louyuin TO repel a
Dutch invasion. II was said that some
Of the French corps in that advance
crossed the field and took OifcnSc, not
al the mound or the lion. but AT the
shape If 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 compnisant Belgians supplied the
! lion with a new one, no longer erect,
| but made gracefully dependent.
| went Ia considerable pains In 1901
10 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 its position with tie tail in pre-.
CiScly the same form ms it wears to-
day. There is no evidence of any
| change having been made AT that time
or any other.
In December, 1872, the French army
rendered second signal service To the
! Belgian people by the siege and cap
ure OF the Antwerp citadel. and once
more a French regiment traversed the
scene without doing any damage. A
proposal was then made in the Belgian
chamber by patriotic leader, NJ. Gen
deblen, To the effect that the ma
tionnl gratitude should be evinced by
the removal Of the lion monument al
together He called II, and justly, as
has been shown, "the hateful emblem
of the despotism and violence which
made us subject for II years TO the
humillating yoke which we cast of in