BRUSSELS. 285 



and mark the spot to generations unborn*. Unless some 

 such expedient be resorted to, it will speedily share the 

 fate of Wallace's Oak in the Tor Wood, and exist only in 

 the shape of patriotic walking-sticks and snuff-boxes. 



Close by, Sir Alexander Gordon fell ; and a very neat 

 monument, constructed of Tournay marble, has here been 

 erected to his memory. Our guide mentioned to us, that 

 the Duke remained at this spot during a great part of the 

 day, constantly despatching aides-de-camp in different di- 

 rections, and occasionally himself galloping towards diffe- 

 rent posts, when they were the objects of the enemy's attack, 

 or seemed otherwise to require his presence. Our guide 

 observed him, on two occasions, go as far to his right as a 

 rising ground behind Chateau de Gomont. 



In front of Wellington's position, and at no great dis- 

 tance from it, is the farm-house, barn, and remains of the 

 small orchard of La Haye Sainte^ where our conductor, 

 according to his own account, was stationed as a sharp- 

 shooter. The troops within formed numerous loop-holes 

 in the walls, through which they canarded the enemy 

 when they approached. Our guide mentioned, that du- 

 ring the early part of the engagement, he saw through the 

 loop-holes bodies of the cuirassed cavalry pressing forward 

 along the high-road, towards the Duke's station, in the 

 most daring style. Both the loop-holes and the breaches 

 occasioned by cannon-balls have been filled up ; but the 

 marks of mending are still very evident. Nearly opposite to 

 this farm-house, on the other side of the high way, is a sort 

 of hollow or old gravel-pit, into which, we were told, a re- 



* Mr John Scott, in his " Paris revisited in 1815," has » we find > cele " 

 brated this tree in a strain of lofty eloquence to which we have no preten- 

 sions. He did not once anticipate the fate to which it now seems destined. 



