4/06/2005

Battlefield monuments and the battlers

The Duke of Wellington was apparently no fan of battlefield monuments:
Eight years after the battle of Waterloo, the Dutch decided to memorialize the precise spot where the Prince of Orange was wounded... It took them three years to complete the monumental piece of landscaping, a 130-foot high earthen mound topped by a statue of a lion. The Duke of Wellington ... [a]sked his opinion of the work ... replied, "They have ruined my battlefield."
Food for thought.