Earth with the Blood of the Prince Imperial

Posts : 272 Join date : 2010-08-13

From a letter of Lt. MacSwinney of the 58th Regiment: “… Delache (Deleage--correspondent of Le Figaro)… has taken the sod from where the poor Prince’s head lay and his hands were covered in blood….” The National Army Museum Book of the Zulu War by Ian Knight, p. 238

Camden Place
Chislehurst. 1879

Pieces of earth soaked in the blood of the Prince Imperial
from where his head lay--taken by Mr. Deleage in the Donga
(where the Prince was killed) Given by him to Tristan Lambert
(Presented in a small circular horn container with brass inlays)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] (Isandula Collection)

Posts : 3385 Join date : 2009-03-03 Location : Devon

Hi Isandula

Nice piece of history you have.

I do have one question for you: have you ever opened the circular horn and looked inside?

Posts : 272 Join date : 2010-08-13

Hi 1879graves, The earth and the Camden Place note of provenance were both inside the horn container. In the photo the earth is at the right bottom, below the note, enveloped in some sort of celluloid-type material--most probably put there later on by Tristan Lambert (who was given the item by Deleage) for containment. It would be interesting to check the soil for the Bonaparte DNA. Isandula

Posts : 3385 Join date : 2009-03-03 Location : Devon

Hi Isandula

Many thanks for the reply. I did not know what the bag was in the bottom right of the photo, I did not pay to much attention to it, sorry.

Now that would be very interesting if it was possible to do a DNA test on the soil.

Many thanks for sharing these items with us.

Subject: Earth With The Blood Of The Prince Imperial Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:21 pm

Hi Isandula .
What a wonderful rare bit of history , thank you very much for taking the time to share it , Much appreciated.
Cheers 90th. Salute

Subject: Earth with the Blood of the Prince Imperial. Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:33 am

Hi Isandula.

Echo 1879graves and 90th.

Great piece of history, and yes, it would be very interesting to see the results of a DNA test.

Thanks for sharing.

Martin. Salute

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