[7] Such crops I never before saw, particularly those vividly-green crops of _trèf_, which really appeared so thick that one might walk on them without sinking to the ground. But to me the height attained by the rye was most astonishing. In one field which I rode through nearly every day, it was as high as my head, when mounted on my little horse Cossack, about 14¾ hands high, so that it could not have been less than 7 or 8 feet, the ears remarkably full and looking well. [8] The _captains were_--viz., Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Hew D. Ross, Major Bull, ---- Ramsay, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Smyth, Major M‘Donald, Captain Mercer. [9] The Duke of Wellington was so indifferent to the manner in which officers dressed, that they indulged in all sorts of fancies. I remember, at this inspection, Ramsay wore the light-cavalry belt instead of a sash; Bull wore beard and mustache; so did Newland; I wore the mustache. The usual dress of hussars was frock-coat open, with a red waistcoat richly laced with gold. At that time our regimental pantaloons were _pepper-and-salt_, with straps of brown leather inside the legs and round the bottom, and a red stripe down outside seam. [10] A report _was_ sent to Brussels, but it never reached the Duke, for the simple people went in the first instance to Sir G. Wood, and there it was strangled. [11] We had been ordered nearly a fortnight ago to keep this quantity ready, and the hay rolled, &c. &c. [12] I believe this is the Bois de la Houssier. [13] Sir Hussey Vivian’s, I believe. [14] These appear to have been the cuirassiers of Milhaud, together with the light cavalry of the corps commanded by Count Lobau, sent to assist Ney in his attack on Quatre Bras.--See O’Meara’s ‘Translation of Memoir of Napoleon,’ lib. ix. cap. v. p. 109. [15] That this was Napoleon we have the authority of General Gourgand, who states that, irritated at the delay of Marshal Ney, he put himself at the head of the chasseurs (I think), and dashed forward in the hope of yet being able to catch our rear-guard. [16] This was the spot where Picton fell on the morrow, and in this hedge was the so well-known Wellington Tree. [17] The light cavalry of the 2d Corps formed in three lines across the causeway from Nivelle, &c., nearly at the height of the first woods at Hougoumont, scouring all the plain by the left, and having main guards near Braine le Leude, and its battery of light artillery on the causeway of Nivelle.--‘Memoir of Napoleon,’ lib. ix. cap. vi. p. 134; O’Meara’s Translation. [18] I believe Jägers of the Hanoverian corps.