So then, the name which travels side by side
\nWith English life from childhood\u2014Waterloo,
\nMeans this. The sun is setting. \u201cTheir strife grew
\nTill the sunset, and ended,\u201d says our guide.
\nIt lacked the \u201cchord\u201d by stage-use sanctified,
\nYet I believe one should have thrilled. For me,
\nI grinned not, and ’twas something:\u2014certainly
\nThese held their point, and did not turn but died:
\nSo much is very well. \u201cUnder each span
\n“Of these ploughed fields\u201d (’tis the guide still) \u201cthere rot
\nThree nations’ slain, a thousand-thousandfold.\u201d
\nAm I to weep? Good sirs, the earth is old:
\nOf the whole earth there is no single spot
\nBut hath among its dust the dust of man.<\/p>\n
Oh dear. But he does have a point. And then, in a letter to William at home:<\/p>\n
One of the great nuisances of this place, as also at Waterloo, is the plague of guides from which there is no escape. The one we had at Waterloo completely baulked me of all the sonnets I had promised myself; so that all I accomplished was the embryo bottled up in the preceding column. Between you and me, William, Waterloo is simply a bore.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Yawn.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As it’s the\u00a0two-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, I thought I’d share this Pre-Raphaelite tidbit from the twenty-one-year-old Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In the autumn of 1849, he and William Holman Hunt took a holiday to the continent together. Rossetti … Continue reading ![\"Yawn.\"](\"http:\/\/verityholloway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Waterloo-by-William-Holmes-Sullivan.jpg\")
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