Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/181

 10 s. x. AUG. 22,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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which formerly contained 621-83 acres, and has to-day but about 368 acres, has lost about 253 acres, these lost acres having certainly been transferred to Kensington Gardens. Of the 253, about 22 represent the long triangular slip taken in 1872 to enclose the Albert Memorial, and to form an entrance to the Gardens at the Alexandra Gate of the Park. Thus of the above 297-75 acres of the Palace domain (c. 1728), 231 acres had then been taken from Hyde Park, and the remainder, 66 '75 acres, may fairly be considered as the original area of the Palace estate. That area, it will be observed, coincides with my calculated area of the estate as comprised in the " quadri- lateral " portion of land containing the Palace, viz., 67 acres* and I think it may be allowed that this coincidence of figures supports my conclusion, which, to resume, is : That Hyde Park reached so near to Kensington Palace as to be within a few yards of the east end of the Orangery until the sovereigns diminished it by extending their gardens ; whereby it comes about that Kensington Gardens, as we have them, consist, for the most part, of ground taken from Hyde Park, and not of any other pre-existing domain or park.

W. L. RUTTON.

WATERLOO : LETTER BY VIVIAN.

NEAR Bodmin Road Station stands the stately mansion of Glynn, the residence of the old Cornish family of Vivian. Sir Hussey Vivian, grandfather to the present owner, was in Bonaparte's days reputed to be one of the foremost cavalry leaders in Europe. He is immortalized by Henry Sewell Stokes in the lines :

One greater still, whose star grew dim, Saw through the battle's lurid glare How Vivian, when the trumpet blew, Led the last charge at Waterloo.

A copy of a letter written by this gallant soldier a few days after the battle, addressed to his old Cornish friend Mr. W. Pendarves, appeared in The Western Morning News for 19 June last. As I understand it has not been published before, it may be worth preservation in the columns of ' N. & Q.' It reads as follows :

MY DEAR EDWARD, I did not write you, not because I had no time, but because I had nothing

by an Act of 1841, severed to be let on lease for building " Kensington Palace Gardens," &c. About seven acres of the severed portion remain in the field noticed as exhibiting traces of Queen Anne's gravel-pit garden.
 * Of the " quadrilateral," about 30 acres were,

to write about, for, in truth, the six weeks prior to our friend Napoleon's beating up our quarters were passed in indolence and ease. Not so the last eight days- they afforded plenty to write about, and but ittle time to write in.

If you were in Cornwall, I should refer you to a etter which my father will receive for a full, true that is, not many lies in it)u and particular account of the battle of the 18th, and the affairs which pre- ceded it. As it is, I will as shortly as possible relate them.

We had heard prior to the 15th that Bonaparte had been collecting his men near Mauberge, and was himself about to leave Paris to attack us, and Lord Wellington had felt persuaded he would do so ; but what reason he had to change his opinion I know not, but certain it is that on the 16th, at a ball at the Duchess of Richmond's, we were all surprised to find that the French were pressing on in great force upon Birche and Nivelles. We all [eft the ball and returned to our quarters, and the Following morning at five o'clock marched upon Enghien, Braine le Comte, and Nivelles, from thence to Quatre Bras, where we came too late to join in a very severe affair, in which a very small part of our army had been engaged, for, to tell the honest truth, our great general had committed a sad blunder in riot having before collected hisforce. On the 17th, owing to the Prussians having been beaten on our left and retreated, we were obliged to do the same to Mont St. Jean, near Waterloo, where we occupied a position, and no very strong one either. Our retreat was considerably pressed by the enemy's cavalry, who gave us a pretty good specimen of their boldness ; they played the d 1 with my old regiment, the 7th, which is not in my brigade. They did not press me much. I covered the retreat of the left column. We had the most tremendous rain I ever beheld, and were soaked to the skin, without anything to change, and the canopy of heaven for our covering ; no very comfortable com- mencement of a campaign which was to take us almost without a blow to Paris. On the morning of the 18th, about eleven o'clock, our advanced posts were driven in, and we saw the enemy's column advancing to attack us.

The firing soon began, and about one o'clock one of the most desperate attacks I ever witnessed was made on the centre and left centre of our line ; this was defeated, and repeated twice, the armies con- stantly mixed actually with each other, and the French always covering each attack by the most tremendous cannonade you can possibly imagine. With respect to the particular situation in which my brigade was placed, it did not suffer much until towards the last attack ; the ground on the left did not admit of the cavalry advancing, and I, being on the left of all, consequently suffered only from the cannonade. About six o'clock, however, I learnt that the cavalry in the centre had suffered dread- fully, and the Prussians about that time having formed to my left, I took upon myself to move off from our left, and halted directly to the centre of our line, where I arrived most opportunely at the instant that Bonaparte was making his last and most desperate effort. And never did I witness anything so terrific : the ground actually covered with dead and dying, cannon shot and shells flying thicker than I ever heard musquetry, and our troops some of them giving, away [sic].

In this state of affairs I wheeled my brigade into lina close (within ten yards) in the rear of our