The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Save the last dance for Napoleon
The grand ball that famously broke up on the eve of the battle of Waterloo is the subject of a fascinating exhibition, says Harry Mount
It is the most famous party in history – the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, held on June 15 1815, in Brussels, interrupted after dinner by a messenger with the terrifying news: Napoleon is on the march.
Soldiers – the Duke of Wellington among them – raced to the battlefield, some still in their tailcoats and dancing pumps, hangovers evaporated by mortal terror.
And now an exhibition devoted to the ball is being held at Goodwood House – then, as now, the Sussex seat of the dukes of Richmond.
The exhibition includes a pair of busts of the duke and duchess; she is in a particularly racy pose, sculpted by Joseph Nollekens, her left breast cheekily exposed.
Astonishingly, the duchess’s lace shawl and hand-painted, green silk fan from the ball survive; both are in the exhibition. The greatest treasure is the duchess’s handwritten guest list – which is usually in the library of the Earl of March, heir to the Duke of Richmond. Lord March uses the library as a study, where he sits in the campaign chair of one Napoleon Bonaparte. The Duke of Richmond’s spoils of victory included the silver plate that Napoleon dined off on the morning of Waterloo.
Chief among the 200 guests were Wellington and the Prince of Orange, aka “Slender Billy”, a fellow officer at Waterloo. Also on the list were the cream of Brussels society, along with British civilians, diplomats and officers stationed in town.
But the truth of it is that, for all their grandness, the Duke and Duchess of Richmond were deeply in debt. And Brussels was a cheaper place to live a ducal life than expensive London. There they raced, hunted wolves and even played cricket – the show includes an engaging picture of the duke bowling as a little boy. “Like many English aristocrats, the fourth Duke and Duchess of Richmond were living in Brussels owing to straitened circumstances,” says James Peill, Goodwood’s curator. “Their house became a hub of social activity filled with family and friends, including their own 13 children.”
The setting was distinctly unducal, too. The Richmonds were staying in an unfashionable part of Brussels in an old carriage-builder’s house – and the ball took place in what had been the showroom for the carriages on sale.
When the duchess first planned her ball, she had little idea that it would coincide with the battle that shifted the course of European history. Three days before the ball, a worried duchess asked Wellington if the event should be called off.
“Duchess, you may give your ball with the greatest safety, without fear of interruption,” Wellington said.
By the day of the ball Wellington knew that Napoleon was near – but he didn’t realise quite how near. After dinner, as guests prepared to dance Highland reels and waltzes, the mudspattered messenger approached Wellington to tell him that Napoleon had crossed the border and was only a matter of miles away. An 1870s picture from the Goodwood collection (above) depicts the dramatic moment when Wellington heard the news.
A shaken Wellington called for a map and, on examining it, said: “Napoleon has humbugged me, by God. He has gained 24 hours’ march on me.” The Duke of Richmond asked Wellington what his tactics were. First, Wellington said, he would gather his troops at Quatre Bras, a crossroads south of Brussels. But he knew the real battle would take place a few miles north at a spot he marked on the map with his thumbnail – Waterloo.
The duchess desperately asked the officers to “wait one little hour more”, and “not spoil her ball”. But it was not to be – the ballroom rapidly emptied as soldiers made for the battlefield.
Three guests from the ball – the Duke of Brunswick, Lord Hay and Col Cameron, colonel of the 92nd Foot, were killed at Quatre Bras within 24 hours. Another nine guests died at Waterloo and 35 were wounded.
The party was well and truly over.
Dancing into Battle: the Duchess of Richmond’s Ball, June 15 1815 is at Goodwood House (01243 775537; goodwood.com) from August 3 to October 12. Open 1pm to 5pm, Sunday to Thursday in August, and on Sundays and Mondays in September and October. Admission £9.50 adults, £4 children, under-12s free.