War Relics.
What wonderful antiquities are sometimes found among scraps! Years of neglect cause indifference to the contents of a scrapheap, and we read occasionally of the dispersal of relics among which, unknown to either sellers or buyers, there may be antiquities of more than passing interest if their original ownership could only be traced, for in the personal relics of great warriors in our national museums there clings a halo of hero-worship, and what to many would be considered fictitious values are attached to such curios. A few years ago the relics from the battlefield of Waterloo, which had for some time past been accumulated in a modest looking building at the foot of the Lion Mound, were dispersed. There were upwards of three thousand pieces, including helmets of brass, plates of shining metal, innumerable buttons and ornaments belonging to different French regiments, including officers' regimentals, and some relics of the British and Prussian armies. In old curio-shops many metal relics of battlefields are offered for sale, but they have little or no interest to the buyer, simply because their identity with their original owners has been lost. It is of the greatest importance to future generations of collectors that all records relating to known curios should be chronicled, and that even private collectors should hand on to their successors adequate descriptions which may have been verbally given them, so that private as well as national relics may be identified and the monetary value in such curios increased. Even a brass plate on an old gun, bearing the name of a great man, makes it a relic worth securing, whereas had the identity of ownership been missing the weapon would be of little or no value.
A visit to the United Service Museum at Westminster is full of interest. There is an abundance of personal relics there—not many of brass, it is true—many of which are of special interest. Perhaps the one of greatest historical fame is the much battered copper bugle on which it is said the signal was given for the fatal charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, resulting so disastrously to that famous regiment. There are some curious trophies of brass, too, which have been brought home by our troops; one known as "Jingling Johnny" is of special interest.