'J})0 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



skull, still containing the brain, in a black and putrescent 

 state. This remnant of humanity lay in the track of a 

 farm-road, and had been left to be kicked about by the 

 feet of the cart-horses ; so indifferent had the common 

 people become to such vestiges of the carnage. At 

 no great distance from this spot, and just where the battle 

 raged the hottest in the early part of the day, a solita- 

 ry peasant, in his blue frock, was now mowing oats with 

 the Hainault scythe. This Flemish instrument of reap- 

 ing is furnished with three upright wooden forks, calcula- 

 ted to collect the stems of the grain as they are cut. By 

 making the sweeps of one uniform length, the reaper lays 

 what is cut, in very straight and regular parcels. Both 

 Mr Hay and Mr Macdonald tried to use this implement, 

 and were of opinion, that a little practice only would be re- 

 quired to render it easy, and that it might be advantageous- 

 ly employed on some of our Scottish farms, especially where 

 shearers are not easily procured. At the end of the handle 

 is a piece of squared wood, which is used for giving edge to 

 the scythe. 



Arriving again at the Wellington Tree, we now crossed 

 towards the left of the British line, and walked along a by- 

 road leading to the village of Ohain. By the side of this 

 mad is the hawthorn hedge, the literal haye sainte, behind 

 which the Highland Regiments were posted on the day of 

 trial, and through which they often burst to encounter and 

 repel their daring antagonists, pursuing them across the ri- 

 sing ground, into hollows next to their own lines. The 

 hedge and its low mud embankment are now completely in 

 nuns ; but when at their best, the protection afforded must 

 have been \ary slender indeed. Several squadrons of Bri- 

 tish cavalry, including the Scots Greys, were stationed in 

 hollow ground a short distance back from the hedge. In 



