LATIN POEMS IN CONNEXION WITH WATERLOO.
I send you two copies of Latin verses which have not, to my knowledge, appeared in print. They are however interesting, from the coincidence of their both relating to elm-trees, and in some measure belonging to the "Story of Waterloo," about which we never can hear too much. The lines themselves possess considerable merit; and, as their authors were respectively distinguished alumni of Eton and Winchester, I hope to see both compositions placed in juxtaposition in the columns of "N. & Q."
The first of these productions was written by Marquis Wellesley, as an inscription for a chair carved from the Wellington Elm (which stood near the centre of the British lines on the field of Waterloo), and presented to his Majesty King George IV., to whom the lines were addressed:
Ampla inter spolia, et magni decora alta triumphi,
Ulmus erit fastis commemoranda tuis,
Quam super exoriens faustâ tibi gloria pennâ
Palmam oleamque uno detulit alma die;
Immortale decus maneat, famâque perenni
Felicique geras sceptra paterna manu;
Et tua victrices dum cingunt tempora lauri,
Materies solio digna sit ista tuo.
For the other verses subjoined, we are indebted to the late Rev. William Crowe, Fellow of New College, Oxford, and many years public orator in that university. It seems that he had planted an elm at his parsonage, on the birth of his son, afterwards killed at Waterloo, which sad event was
commemorated by his afflicted father in the following touching monody, affixed to the same tree:
Hanc Ego quam felix annis melioribus Ulmum
Ipse manu sevi, tibi dilectissime Fili
Consecro in æternum, Gulielme vocabitur Arbos
Hæc tua, servabitque tuum per secula nomen.
Te generose Puer nil muneris hujus egentem
Te jam perfunctum vitæ bellique labore,
Adscripsit Deus, et cœlestibus intulit oris,
Me tamen afflictum, me consolabitur ægrum
Hoc tibi quod pono, quanquam leve pignus amoris,
Hic Ego de vitâ meditans, de sorte futurâ,
Sæpe tuam recolam formam, dulcemque loquelam,
Verbaque tam puro et sacrato fonte profecta,
Quam festiva quidem, et facili condita lepore.
At Te, qui nostris quicunque accesseris hospes
Sedibus, unum oro, mœsti reverere Parentis,
Nec tu sperne preces quas hâc super Arbore fundo.
Sit tibi non invisa, sit inviolata securi,
Et quantum natura sinet, crescat monumentum
Egregii Juvenis, qui sævo est Marte peremptus,
Fortiter ob patriam pugnando, sic tibi constans
Stet fortuna domûs, sit nulli obnoxia damno,
Nec videas unquam dilecti funera nati.
Braybrooke.