Major-General Wilson, formerly Lieut.-Governor of Ceylon,[1] to accompany
him on a military tour through the country about to be the theatre of war.
Though I had never before visited the Continent (except with the British
army in the invasion of Holland in 1799, when I began my military career),
yet I was not wholly unprepared for travelling, having united to a
classical, as well as military education, a tolerable knowledge of history,
and a partial acquirement of the principal modern European languages, which
I had begun to learn when very young and which I kept up during my leisure
hours in India, which, like those of Don Quixote, were many. I preferred
this study infinitely to that of the Asiatic languages, for which I never
felt any taste, as I dislike bombast, hyperbole and exaggeration; and
though an ardent admirer of the Muses, I never could find pleasure in what
Voltaire terms "le bon style oriental, ou l'on fait danser les montagnes et
les collines," and I prefer the amatory effusions of Ovid to those of the
great King Solomon himself.

The war will no doubt commence in Belgium, and of course the Emperor
Napoleon will be the assailant, for it cannot be supposed that after the
act of ban passed against him by the Amphictyons of Vienna he will remain
tranquil, and not strike the first blow, which may render him master of
Belgium and its resources.

We embarked at Ramsgate on the first of May for Ostend on board of a small
vessel bound thither. Our fellow passengers were two officers of dragoons,
several commissaries with their servants, horses, etc. After a passage of
twenty-four hours, we entered the harbour of Ostend at one o'clock the
following day. Ostend, once so flourishing and opulent, has long since
fallen into decay; its usual dullness is however just now interrupted by
the bustle of troops landing to join the allied army. Cavalry, infantry,
artillery, horses, guns, stores, etc., are landed every minute. The quays