They’re coming, receive ’em—
With cheers, with cheers;
But Colonel Loyd Lindsay, I’m sure will be,
Delighted his Belgian friends to see.
And treat them at all events more handsomelee,
Than our Royaltee treats foreign Royaltee.
The Belgians are coming, &c.
Punch. May 25, 1867.
In October, 1866, a large number of English Volunteers went to the Tir National in Brussels, and were received with every mark of kindness and attention. The Belgians were lavish in their hospitality, and on October 20, the King gave a splendid dinner to all the English Volunteers then in Brussels.
In 1867, about 2,000 members of the Belgian Garde Civique paid a return visit, and were most cordially received by the London Volunteers. A great deal of money was spent in entertaining them, but the general arrangements were faulty in the extreme, and Royal hospitality was conspicuously absent.