44 A CONTINENTAL TOUR. 



obliged to do on arriving; here, is to betake himself to 

 Waterloo. 



' Westward from Brussels lies the field of blood, 

 Some two hours' journey for a well-girt man; 

 A horseman who in haste pursues his road, 

 Would reach it ere the second hour began.' 



" So says the Laureate. Being neither a well-girt man, 

 nor a horseman, I hired a voiture and departed. On this 

 subject, as on all others on which so much has been said, 

 and sometimes well said, by others, I shall say little. I 

 spent three hours on the bloody spot. The field itself now 

 bears scarce a trace of the fierce encounter. It is in a state 

 of high cultivation, and covered with fine crops of beans 

 and peas, and various kinds of grain, and as the divisions 

 of the farms here are much more extensive than with us, 

 it cannot be traversed this year with the same facility as last. 

 There are, however, footpaths crossing over some of the 

 more elevated parts, from which a tolerable view may be 

 obtained at certain points. One feature of the vegeta- 

 tion is from the first very apparent, and when the cause 

 is known, produces an impressive effect. In many parts 

 of the field the grain is of a darker green and higher 

 growth than in others, and appears at a distance as if the 

 rays of the sun had been intercepted by dense clouds, but 

 beneath these spots lie the thousands who perished in the 

 fight, and whose bodies were buried where they fell. If, 

 however, nature has resumed her sway in the fields, the 



