Msy 9, 13«. ] 



JOrEXAX OF HOETICrXTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDEXEE. 



357 



handed, slew so many of the Cairassiers. Ay ! and there is 

 the slope along which they swepc to attack our Infantry 

 sqnazes — 



" On cund the whirlwind— steel-Bleama broke. 

 Like lightning chroagh the rolling smoke." 



but that steel conld carve no entrance into those living qnad- 

 lilaterals. 



" 3haw wBs a warrior ^tont and keen. 

 And had in many a ba:tle been." 



But they were battles in the prize-ring, for he had been a 

 pngilistl one of the heavy weights, and Visetir, one of the 

 Belgians employed in burying the dead, told that he and 

 his helpmate had to exert "all their strength to lift Shaw to 

 his grave. Xor is he without some title to a remembrance 

 in our pages, for he was either the son or nephew of a gar- 

 dener. 



Yonder, in the vale between the two ridges on which the 

 opposed armies were positioned, is another chateau and 

 garden, of more pretensions, for it has a chapel, and an 

 orchard, and is within a walled enclosure ; that chateau is 

 Hougonmont : under that row of trees beyond was the ar- 

 tilleiy of Jerome Buonaparte, from those cannon was the 

 first fire delivered on the day of Waterloo, and the ball was 

 directed against Hougonmont. It was the key of the British 

 position, and was prepared for defence, and was assailed 

 proportionately to its importance. Its orchard trees were 

 shattered to splinters by the French artfllery; its roof was 

 battered in ; the trunks of the trees around are literally 

 tessellated with the scars where bullets pierced them ; the 

 chapel was in a blaze from the French shells, and the 

 flames burnt off the feet of the figure on the Cross, and 

 there, we were assured, they arrested their course. Pre- 

 datory insects are less reverential, for we never saw a 

 wooden image more worm-eaten. Again and again the 

 French infantry penetrated to the gates of the chateau, and 

 as often they recoUed before the fire poured upon them by 

 OUT Guards." The loop-holes in the orchard-walls remain as 

 thev were on that day of slaughter, and beneath one, where 

 he fell, is the grave of Captain Lane Blacfcman, of the 

 Coldstreams. How did that grave contrast with the old 

 Comns mas which was its neighbour I That tree was a 

 contemporary of the battle, and its shattered trunk is now 

 crowned by but one branch, yet that was profusely covered 

 with its yeUow flowers. Xor was that the only contrast — a 

 hundred anecdotes of the sanguinary strife within and 

 around those walls recurred to our memory, and seemed in- 

 compatible with the quietude, and the bright sunshine. The 

 songster instead of having suggested to him deeds of " The 

 British Grenadiers," might have written 



" If there's peace in this worid to be fonnd, 

 A heart that is humble migat hope for it here." 



Yet even on that bright sunshiny day, a little domestic 

 trai&re was only concluding. The present lady of Hougou- 

 tnont is " passing fair," and the lord of Hougonmont is pug- 

 nacious when hom^e is paid to that fairness, and the lady's 

 &ther had intervened that day, and peace was being effected, 

 and the lady looked, not penitent, but as if she thought she 

 had the best of it, as she chatted whilst we wrote our names 

 in the album, made obelsauee, cut a twig from the Cornus 

 and departed. 



Slowly we turned back towards Mont St. Jean, and 

 reaching the high ground again, rested upon a bank that 

 crowned its summit. That bank should never be removed, 

 for from behind it rose our Foot Guards, poured in a volley, 

 gave one hurrah ! and finished with the bayonet, the last 

 charge of the French at Waterloo. The decisive moment 

 had arrived, the whole line was formed three deep, dashed 

 down the declivity, and swept the enemy before them. 



The Prussians had come up and were assailing the left 

 flank of the French. They debouched from the Forest of 

 Frischermont, guided by a Belgian, whose name deserves 

 preservation. Dumortier was a gamekeeper, who knew 

 every road and path of the forest, and when called upon to 

 act as guide, he led the troops on the high ground so as to 

 come out in the rear of the French — " Then," as he said, 

 " we shall take them all '. " 



And, now, warning our readers not to buy walking-sticks 

 of the Wat-erloo vendors, for no such sticks grow in that 

 locality ; bidding them look, but not stop, at the Hotel des 



Colonnes, at llont St. Jean, for there Victor Hugo resided 

 for months whilst he wrote " Les Jliserables ; " and advis- 

 ing them to have Martin Viseur as their guide, we bid good- 

 by to Waterloo, and depart for Ghent. — G. 

 {To he caniinued). 



AURICULAS IN" 1S6-5. 



There is some wise and cynical philosopher who says that 

 people are never so happy as when contemplating the misfor- 

 tunes of Others — a maxira which I should be very sorry that 

 any of the readers of Tse Joitrnai. of Hoeticitltuee should 

 either think that I hold, or should themselves maintain ; 

 but there is a grain of truth in it, which I conceive to be 

 this, that it does somewhat tend to lessen the depth of 

 one's own misfortunes when we find that others are sharers 

 in the same calamity. I do not know, but I suppose if the 

 table at an exhibition gave way, and Jones found that his 

 plants were the only ones that had suffered, it would con- 

 siderably add to his indignation: whereas if Brown and 

 Eobinson met a similar fate I am afraid it wotild consider- 

 ably lessen the severity of the blow. 



Before I left home for a very hurried visit to Ireland 

 I had been horribly disgusted at the appearance of my 

 Auriculas. I had not only lost a considerable number, but 

 I had a very indifferent bloom, plants that looked well only 

 throwing up a truss of three or four pips, and I began to 

 think there must be something very wrong in my treat- 

 ment, and yet I had managed them as usual. The compost 

 I knew was good, and the plants did not look unhealthy. 

 I was cogitating as to what conld possibly be the reason, 

 and proposing to myself some alterations, when I derived a 

 grain of comfort from seeing that at the exhibition of the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society on the 15th April only one prize 

 was awarded, and that a second. Oh ! oh ! I began to think 

 I am not singular, and this long and severe winter has had 

 something to do with it : and when I received from the best 

 Auricula-grower in the kingdom. Dr. Plant of Monkstown, in 

 answer to my intimation that I hoped to pay him a visit, a 

 letter saying that his had never been so bad, I took heart 

 of grace, and began to think I was not alone in my misfor- 

 tunes. However, as I Imew what his Auriculas generally 

 are, I did not quite take in what he told me — that he had 

 nothing to show me, and thought that what he called nothing 

 I should consider a great deal ; and so, very soon after my 

 arrival in Dublin, I found my way out to Plantation, and saw 

 with my own eyes the state of his far-famed coileetion. So 

 far he was right, that I never saw them so poor, while, as 

 I rightly judged, there was still a good deal to see. I found 

 that he had himself been indisposed dxiring the winter, that 

 he had lost the services of his old gardener, and that hence 

 the plants had not been so well cared for as usual, so that 

 he had lost up'.vards of two hundred plants (this will give 

 some idea of the extent of his coileetion), while he com- 

 plained of the very same thing that I had found — the smaH- 

 ness of the trusses. li'eed I say that while I was really 

 sorry for it, it did give me some little comfort to find that 

 I was in the same plight as one of the very oldest, and 

 certainly the best of growers ? There were none of those 

 wonderful trusses of Booth's Freedom and Hey's Apollo 

 that I had seen before — the wonder and astonishment of 

 all who ever saw them; but still, as I have siid, there 

 were some fine blooms. 



George Lightbody. Dr. Plant agrees with oiir estimate 

 on the other side of the Channel, that it is the very king of 

 Auriculas, combining more reaEy good properties than any 

 other Auricula known, and of this I saw one very iiae bloom, 

 and do not wonder that it still maintains its very high price. 

 Parker's Metropolitan, self, is a favourite flower of Dr. 

 Plant's. It does indeed throw a fine truss of blcom, but it 

 has the defect of very soon flying — that is, the colour 

 becomes mottled ; and I have known a plant put into a bos 

 in fine condition and the next morning to be totally unfit 

 for exhibition. 



Fletcher's Mary Ann is another excellent show flower 

 despite the defect which makes it so distinct amongst all 

 others of its class — namely, the smallness of the eye. 



Fletcher's Xe Plus Tlltra was fine, but there were no 

 trusses equal to what I have frequently seen here. It is no 



