272 THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER 



~AT'rFnE"WATETTL0O ballT 



Lady Louisa Tighe's Interesting Story of 

 That Thrilling Time. 



An example of how near to us is the 

 yesterday of romance and song may he 

 found in the recent death at her quiet 

 borne in Ireland of Lady Louisa Tighe, 

 one of the women who danced at the fa- 

 mous Brussels ball before the battle of 

 Waterloo. Every one who has read Byron 

 — and it is getting fashionable to read 

 Byron once more — remembers the poet's 

 description of the ball, but it is given to 

 few nowadays to have actually met and 

 conversed with a belle of that stirring oc- 

 oasion. Not many months ago a girl spent 

 an hour or so with Lady Louisa Tighe in 

 her son's house of Woodstock. She was 

 of that refreshing type — the charming ol< 

 lady. One would easily understand ho%J 

 Louisa Tighe had once been a beauty, 

 despite the wrinkles and crow's feet whicli 

 carking cares had left iipon her face. 



"Rejuember the ball before Waterloo?" 

 said she. "My dear, could you expect ma 

 to forget it? Everybody, I fancy, has a 

 supreme event in his or her life. That 

 was my supreme event. 



"I was staying at the British embassy, 

 and in our party there were many lovely 

 girls, now long since dead and gone. For 

 weeks we hiid talked of the ball and of 

 what we should wear. Girls were much 

 the same then as they are today, and not 

 even the return of Napoleon from Elba 

 and the renewal of war seemed half so im- 

 portant to us as the approaching ball. 



"My dress — I have it still — was a plain 

 white muslin, and over it I wore a blue 

 sash, as' became a debutante.. There was 

 no fear for any lack of partners, for Brus- 

 sels was full of young officers, and in the 

 army of occupation no loss than 35 of my 

 own near relatives, all young men and 

 nearly all of some dancing ability. Yaw 

 can easily picture, my dear, the flutter 

 which their proximity gave us. 



"The great night came at last, none too 

 soon for us 1 knew quite well that Na- 

 poleon wa.s marching on Brussels, but the 

 thought disturbed me little, for I had al- 

 ready ten names upon my dancing list, 

 and the prospect was altogether delight- 

 ful. 



"It was a most enjoyable ball, but 

 Byron was wrong when he described us as 

 turnips' pale and listening with horror to 

 the distant roar of cannon. Tlie truth was 

 that we heard no cannon at all. Indeed 

 the three bands and the company of high- 

 laud pipers would have drowned the roar 

 of all Bonaparte's ordnance at such a dis- 

 tance. 



"Indeed it was not until I missed the 

 Duke of Brunswick from the ballroom 



September 



tBSn really knew what was coming. The 

 honored name of 'Brunswick's fated chief- 

 tain' was upon my tablets for a dance, but 

 when I looked around for the duke I could 

 Bee him nowhere. In going, however, he 

 was polite, for he left a callow aid-de-oamp 

 to tell me the truth about the coming bat- 

 tle. It is rather romantic, but that callow 

 aid-de-camp eventually became my hus- 

 band. 



"Our acquaintance began at the Brus- 

 sels ball, when he showed both tact and 

 kindliness in setting my fears at rest and 

 actually danced with me the particular 

 number opposite to which the Duke of 

 Brunswick's name had been set. 



"I staid with Lord Clancarty's family 

 until after Waterloo had been fought and 

 won. We did not rejoice very much at thi 

 victory, I fear, as the thousands of poor 

 fellows coming in dead and wounded were 

 not conducive to enjoyment." 



Lady Louisa Tighe preserved to the last 

 the white ball dress in which she danced 

 at Brussels. Tht; dance card on which the 

 ill fated Duke of Brunswi^^'-'s name had 

 been inscribed was uufort .ately lost 25 

 years ago during a fire. — Exchange. 



Uinglisii. 



Professor Skeat of Cambridge has a feir 

 pointed words to say about the dislike of 

 some of his countrymen for the term 

 "English." In a recently published let- 

 ter he wrote thus: "Those who wish to 

 substitute British have entirely forgot 

 that if any one has a grievance in this 

 matter it is clearly the Londoner, for 

 London is in Middlesex, the land of the 

 middle Saxons, whereas this extraneous 

 word 'English' ignores the Saxons as com- 

 pletely as it does the Scotch, just as the 

 word 'British' ignores Ireland. However ,- 

 ^e shall have to move, it would seem, 

 with the times, and we shall soon have 

 before us a proposal that we must all talk of 

 the Americo - A ustralio - Canado-Cape-of- 

 Good - Hopo - Great-British-and-Irish lan- 

 guage or probably something still more 

 comprehensive in order to avoid wounding 

 the peculiar feelings of those to whom the 

 very name of England is an abomination. 

 Only one thing stands at present in the 

 way — viz, that there happen to be several 

 million jjeoplo siill loft to whom the name 

 of England is no such thing, and these 

 millions include foreigners out of every 

 nation und er heaven. " 



Miss Hocart, a daughter of a Wesley 

 an minister residing in Paris, has beeu 

 awarded the second of the prizes annu- 

 ally presented by the French academy 

 for "noble living. " The award is in 

 appreciation of her wcik in the slums 

 of Paris and the value of the prize is 

 1300. 



