38 I HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



Latter road on foot, and soon reached the iarm-steading of 

 Mont St Jean, where the walls shewed abundant marks 

 of having been struck by bullets. 



Field of Battle. 



Although we may add little or nothing to the de- 

 scriptions which have already been published, few readers, 

 we presume, will be disinclined to accompany us in our 

 walk over the field ; our expectation of that indulgence de- 

 pending wholly on the great interest conferred on the scene 

 by the soldiers who there signalised themselves. 



The first remarkable object which attracted our atten- 

 tion, was The Wellington-Tree, situate close by the high- 

 road to Charleroi. This memorable tree is a large old 

 Dutch Elm. It had suffered severely from the shot ; but 

 the fame it has acquired, from marking the principal 

 position of the Commander-in-Chief, has since proved 

 much more disastrous to it than the cannon-balls. No 

 sooner does an English party appear at Mount St John, 

 than boys ascend the unfortunate tree, and break off, not 

 only twigs, but whole branches, which they teaze the visi- 

 tors to buy as relics. We tried to discourage this work 

 of destruction, by reprobating the forwardness of the boys, 

 and refusing to purchase. But unless a high rail be placed 

 around the base of the tree, and a board denounce in le- 

 gible characters the vengeance of the magistrate against of- 

 fenders, the tree must inevitably perish. If the Sovereign 

 of the Netherlands have not zeal enough to preserve this 

 memorial of the station of the Prince of Waterloo, surely 

 the English at Brussels might feel sufficient interest in 

 their admiration of the hero, and of the valour of his sol- 

 diers, to induce them to ask permission of the Government 

 to indole the tfee, and thus enable it to recover its injuries 



