Photographs I've gleaned from flea markets, junk shops and sometimes ebay. The cheaper the better. Anything with a story that can be extracted from hand written notes, location research, local histories, census records......anything. A small band of fellow enthusiasts worldwide have helped me with many of these. Of course there are always mysteries that defy research, but there's even a story inside these. All images can be viewed at super-size on Flickr.

Thursday, 2 June 2011

The Lion's Mound, Waterloo, Belgium.

The Lion's Mound, Waterloo, Belgium.

The battlefield of Waterloo started attracting curious tourists before the corpses were even cold in 1815. The Lion's Mound, seen in the background here, was erected in 1820 by the King William I of the Netherlands to commemorate the wounding of his son during the battle. You can see tourists at the base of the lion statue enjoying the view. This photograph was probably taken in the 1870s and mounted on a specially printed card, in English, no doubt by a photographer specialising in the tourist trade. Who is this old man? Is he a visiting British veteran or a local guide? Is he old enough to have been present at the battle itself all those decades ago? I wonder.

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