Paris Revisited in 1815, by Way of Brussels: Including a Walk over the Field of Battle at Waterloo, 2nd Edn (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1816), PP. 18–19, 34, 121–2, 151–2, 204–8, 237–42, 324–6.

The title, Paris Revisited, was a reference to the author’s previous account of travelling to that city in 1814. John Scott (1784–1821), editor of London weekly The Champion, found great success with his account of his trip to the Continent in the aftermath of Waterloo. High sales necessitated at least five subsequent editions in 1816. The following excerpts illustrate the likelihood that army wives would travel in pairs or groups whenever possible, and shows the challenges they faced due to their femininity, poverty, and ignorance of foreign languages. Scott admired their fortitude, but any praise of regimental women was laced with the highly gendered notions of the time. The selection mentioning the strong market for letters found on dead soldiers demonstrates one possible fate of military family correspondence. When enemy soldiers’ correspondence was found by the victors, it might have become a mere curiosity or souvenir, and almost never found its way toward its intended recipient. The final section provides a window on the beneficial side of armed service and camp-following: the opportunity for tourism, in this case experienced by men in the ranks and their wives in Paris in the immediate aftermath of Waterloo. Here, Scott’s class prejudices deeply informed his observations.