Sir Walter Scott on Prussians.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 14 January 1916, Page 3

Sir Walter Scott on Prussians.

A writer in the Spectator recalls Sir Walter Scott’s impressions of the Prussian character, received in his visit to France and Belgium immediately after the Battle of Waterloo. The Prussians were then, of course, our allies, and Scott was warmly welcomed by Blutcher. He should therefore have been prejudiced in their favour, and this makes his recount the more significant. Writing to the Duke of Buccleuch for Picardy, in August, 1815, he says : —“ As for the Prussians, a party of cavalry dining at our hotel at Mons ate and drank of the best the poor devils have left to give, called for their horses, and laughed in the face of the landlord when he offered his bill, telling him they

would pay as they came back The English,' they say, have always paid honourably, and upon these they indemnify themselves.”

Again, in a letter to his frienc Joanna Baillie, he draws a

picture which history has simply repeated and multiplied in the present war : “ Most of the chateaux where the Prussians are quartered are what is technically called rumped —that is to say, plundered out and out. In the fine chateau of Montmorency, for instance, the most splendidiapartments, highly ornamented with gilding and carving, were converted into barracks for the dirtiest and most savage-looking Hussars I have ever seen. Imagine the work these fellows made with velvet hangings and embroidery. I saw one hag boiling her camp kettle with part of a picture frame : the picture itself had probably gone to Prussia.”

These and many other pictures are to be found in Scott’s little remembered volume, “ Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk.”