The importance of this place was also so well appreciated by Bonaparte,
that the battle of the 18th began by his attacking Hougoumont. This
name, which was bestowed upon it by the mistake of our great commander,
has quite superseded the real one of Chateau Goumont. The ruins are
among the most interesting of all the points connected with this
memorable place, for the struggle there was perhaps the fiercest. The
battered walls, the dismantled and fire-stained chapel, which remained
standing through all the attack, still may be seen among the wreck of
its once beautiful garden; while huge blackened beams, which have fallen
upon the crumbling heaps of stone and plaster, are lying in all
directions.
On the field of battle are two interesting monuments: one, to the memory
of the Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon, brother to the Earl of Aberdeen, who
there terminated a short but glorious career, at the age of twenty-nine,
and "fell in the blaze of his fame;" the other, to some brave officers
of the German Legion, who likewise died under circumstances of peculiar
distinction. There is also, on an enormous mound, a colossal lion of
bronze, erected by the Belgians to the honour of the Prince of Orange,
who was wounded at, or near, to the spot.
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