Beschreibung:

HILLS, Robert (1769-1844). Sketches in Flanders and Holland; with some account of a tour through parts of those countries shortly after the battle of Waterloo. London: J.Haines & J.Turner for John Booth, R.Ackerman and W.H.Pyne, 1816. 4° (330 x 255mm). 36 aquatint plates, 5 hand-coloured, the outlines etched by Hills, aquatinted by Hills, J.C. Stadler, D. Havell and J. Bailey, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 18 SHEETS WITH 20 ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS BY HILLS from which plates 5-16 are taken, Hills's passport for the journey and a wash sketch of a medallion and a stipple-engraved portrait of the author mounted as a frontispiece. (Plates with marginal spotting, occasionally heavy.) Contemporary russia, g.e. (covers detached, spine lacking). Provenance : Robert Hills (presentation inscription to:); Mary Garle; A.M.Broadley (bookplate, dated 1911); sale Puttick & Simpson 22 July 1921 lot 240 £16 10s to Lane; sale Puttick & Simpson 18-19 May 1922 lot 75 £4 5s to Way; C.E.Hughes (invoice from Francis Edwards 22 Nov. 1923 for £7 10s); Sidney G.Reilly (bookplate). FIRST EDITION, THE AUTHOR'S COPY. The watercolours (each 160 x 240 mm) are inscribed with titles and occasionally with notes. They are highly evocative (particularly when taken in conjunction with Hills's descriptions), and were executed during the two trips Hills and a companion made to the battlefield of Waterloo and the surrounding area between July 22nd and July 26th 1815 - the battle had taken place about five weeks earlier on the 18th of June. The road was lined with hastily dug graves, the bodies of horses and the discarded French baggage and uniforms. In certain areas trees had been stripped of their leaves by gun fire, in others only stumps remained - the wood having been used to burn the bodies. The subjects of the watercolours include Brussels from a height near the Palace of Laeken, Waterloo from the door of the inn 'Jean de Nivelles', Waterloo church, La Haye Sainte & Belle Alliance, peasants bringing home booty from the field of battle - entrance to the village of St. Jean, entrance to the farmyard at La Haye Sainte, interior of the barn at La Haye Sainte, exterior of the barn at La Haye Sainte, Hotel de la Belle Alliance, a cottage Napoleon used as a reconnaissance post during part of the battle, interior of the cottage showing spyhole, trees cut to pieces by shot, panoramas of part of the field of battle, house in which Napoleon slept the night before the battle, various views at Hougoumont. Hills's journey as a whole seems to have been dogged by misfortune, which may account for the generally bad-tempered tone of his narrative. The last straw was the return journey from Rotterdam to London: they set sail on Tuesday 18th August, the ship ran aground, they finally disembarked at Gravesend on the following Saturday to find that their luggage could not be cleared from the Customs House in London until the following Tuesday. Hills's passport bears mute testimony to the itinerary that its bearer undertook: op.cit. p.15 'We were obliged to submit our passports... in every town of consequence that we passed through, and by the period of our reembarkation for Old England, no "Waterloo Man" could have shown more efficient demonstrations of service than did these... tattered companions of our journey'. Hills subsequently presented this work to Mary Garle, daughter of his old friend John Garle, who later became his trustee. Abbey Scenery 186.