Yes, as Fareastdriver says, the Belvedere was originally intended for the Royal Navy as a torpedo carrier and the nose-high attitude on the ground was to facilitate arming and re-arming, it also kept the front of the foreward rotor disc at a safe height above the people performing these tasks. But - as explained to me by an old ex-Navy man - the physical size of the helicopter and the absence of rotor blade folding capability for deployment on ships had the Royal Navy staff rolling on the ground holding their stomachs at first sight of it! So it was 'offered' to the Royal Air Force.
The nose-high attitude on the ground did indeed pose several problems, the first was the height of the cockpit above the ground and the propensity of the avpin starter to explode on start-up. The avpin 'initiator' was a three-cartridge breech giving, in theory, three starts before it had to be replenished. But all too often all three cartridges would go off together producing a helluva bang and usually an avpin fire (avpin is a monofuel so spcial fire fighting equipment and trained personnel were a pre-requisite to Belvedere operations). The first thing you were told on a Belvedere unit was never, never stand in line with the starter exhaust. The starter system for the front engine was right behind the pilots back and, as fareastdriver says, the access ladder was left in place and the cockpit window open for all starts - just in case.
The other problem associated with the nose-high attitude on the ground was that access to the cabin was via a similar, but slightly shorter, ladder. This made rapid troop embarkation/disembarkation almost impossible.
Nevertheless, the Belvedere was good as an external lifter and cargo hauler and performed excellent work in the far east during Confrontation. But it was a bugger to maintain and it is often said that it required 33 maintenance man-hours per flight hour.