The Field of Waterloo The Field of Waterloo The Field of Waterloo is a poem by Sir Walter Scott, written and published in 1815. After the allied victory at the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, Scott travelled to Belgium in August, and was one of the first British civilians to visit the battlefield. Scott was hoping to recover his expenses by publishing an account of his travels (in the form of imaginary letters), published as "Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk" (1816). The profits from Scott's poem about the battle were intended to go to a fund for widows and orphans of soldiers.
The Field of Waterloo Critical Review" judged it as "absolutely the poorest, dullest, least interesting composition that has hitherto issued from the author of "Rokeby". Even the gazette of the battle contains more information, and the style of the poem is very little, if at all, superior to that of Marshal Wellington's modest dispatches." The poor reception of the poem led to widespread joking about Sir Walter Scott like Napoleon meeting his greatest defeat at Waterloo, as in the widely circulated squib attributed to Lord Erskine: The Field of Waterloo The Field of Waterloo is a poem by Sir Walter Scott, written and published