(_To the Editor._)
Perhaps the following traits of the national fidelity of the French
people may not be unacceptable to some of your readers. During my stay
at St. Helena, about six months ago, a French transport arrived with an
old regiment of French soldiers, who had fought under Napoleon, and who
had been from France ever since the exile of the emperor. When they came
on shore, they marched in regularity and silence to the tomb, before
which they knelt (many weeping) and uttered prayers for their fallen
emperor: this done, they marched back to the town with the same
regularity and silence, and returned to their ship much affected.
The account of Captain Mundy's visit to Longwood is very correct.[4] The
billiard table which he mentions is still there, and gentlemen visiting
Longwood, generally play there; the trees which he so justly calls
"scrubby" are "gum-wood" trees, from which an intoxicating liquor
(called by the natives "Toddy,") is extracted. The garden has lately
been much improved, as several gentlemen of the island have taken up
their residence at the New House. In the vicinity of Longwood are many
beautiful and romantic scenes. About a mile from thence is Halley's
Mount, from which that great astronomer observed the transit of Venus.
It is but too true that Napoleon's parlour is now occupied by a
threshing machine. H.M.B.
[4] See Supplementary Number of the _Mirror_, No. 549.
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