A missing hoof of a white stallion belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte has been found in the UK, over 200 years after it helped in carrying the French Emperor into battle for the last time at Waterloo.
The missing fourth hoof belonging to Napoleon's stallion Marengo was found stuffed in a plastic bag in a kitchen drawer.
It had been languishing in a plastic bag at the back of a kitchen drawer in a Somerset farmhouse once owned by the wealthy family who bought Marengo when the injured horse had been nursed back to health after the battle in 1815, The Times reported.
The stallion's skeleton was recently restored and put on display at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, where it is one of the most popular exhibits.
Eagle-eyed visitors noticed that it was missing its original front hoofs.
They were removed by Marengo's last owner, Lieutenant- Colonel William Angerstein, after the horse's death in 1831 and converted by two silversmiths into snuff mills, to be passed around the table after dinner.
One was engraved and presented in 1840 to the officers' mess of the Brigade of Guards at St James' Palace, where it is still in use. The other was missing presumed lost until a few years ago when it was discovered in the farmhouse.
In the intervening years at least six army regiments thought that they had acquired the "missing" hoof, which they proudly displayed along with other trophies of war.
Christopher Joll, a former officer in the Life Guards, identified the hoof found in Somerset as the genuine article.
Joll, who has written a book called Britannia's Spoils about trophies of war, said, "I have been around horses my entire life and I could see immediately they were from the same animal."
"There is a big question over whether this horse was ever called Marengo but there is no doubt he was Napoleon's mount at Waterloo," he was quoted as saying.
On June 18, 1815, Napoleon abandoned his wounded mount and fled the battlefield at Waterloo in a cart.
The horse was found in a ditch by Lieutenant Henry Petre of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, who recognised the imperial brand on his flank and saved him from being turned into barbecued horse steaks by the hungry victors.
Lieutenant Petre nursed the horse back to health and brought him to London, where he was put on display at the Waterloo Rooms in Pall Mall.
When public interest waned he was sold to Angerstein, who was then a captain in the Grenadier Guards, and put out to stud.
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