A tour through Holland

by Sir John Carr

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
A Confession: the war: an adoption: confidence in fortune sometimes necessary: hateful character of a spy: a motive for travelling: a moral: anecdote of a royal description: miseries of a Dutch galliot: Calvin and Servetus: religion and a rope’s end: Dutch anecdote of fortitude: anecdote of a Newfoundland dog: appearance of Holland from the sea: its coast: a dilemma: the Maas river: anecdote of Napoleon: of a Dutch woman: a disaster: Rotterdam described: leaning houses	[1]
CHAPTER II.
The boompies: Bayle: prerogatives of genius: Spanish inscriptions: a Dutch dinner: Dutch beggars: a good bargain: anecdotes of some members of the Batavian executive body: anecdotes of the passion of the Dutch for traffic: anecdote of Lord Nelson and the Dey of Tunis: hereditary dresses: the Exchange of Rotterdam; anecdotes of the English there: several anecdotes of the King and Queen of Holland: public opinion of them: duty of a Tourist	[13]
CHAPTER III.
Commission countenances: physiognomies compared: homage paid to genius: Erasmus’s statue: inscription: revolutionary whims: learned gallantry: kisses: anecdotes of Erasmus: cathedral of Saint Lawrence: the rival organ: charity schools: public examinations: effects of education on the public mind: his Grace the Duke of Bedford: Mr. Lancaster’s school	[22]
CHAPTER IV.
The coins: practice of vails-giving in Holland: fruit and vegetable sellers: Dutch passion for scrubbing and mopping: whimsical sarcasm of a traveller: singular offence offered to a chambermaid: Dutch prints of Lord Nelson: treatment of our countrymen at Verdun: Dutch compared with the Chinese: private collections of paintings: brief anecdote of the Vanderwerfs: remarks on Dutch and Flemish schools: Dort; anecdotes of distinguished persons there: anecdote of Cowper: interposition of Providence	[30]
CHAPTER V.
Licensed brothels; remark upon them: Dutch literary meeting described: spitting pots: pipes, Dutch extravagant in them; smoking; historical anecdote of tobacco: general temperance of the Dutch: arbitrary power of police masters: travelling in Holland very cheap and very agreeable: canal to Delft: Dutch sawing mills: English circular masonry mills: Dutch language: specimen of the English, Dutch, and German languages	[41]
CHAPTER VI.
Dexterity of boatmen: Overchie: Dutch gingerbread: a French saying: Delft china: Delft: Dutchman’s remark on the war: new church: anecdote of Grotius: affectionate stratagem: Grotius’s remarks on education: Barneveldt: noble female anecdote: the carillons; carilloneurs: Dutch frugality towards the dead: revolutionary moderation: firmness of manufactures	[56]
CHAPTER VII.
Spirited remonstrance: anecdote of a regicide: interesting anecdote of Frank Hals and Vandyke: a Dutch Bloomfield: delightful passage to the Hague: Dutch discussion of Desdemona’s wish: Ryswick: approach to the Hague: Dutch review: old and new constitutions compared: brief review of the ancient constitution of Holland: also of the political history: remarks on the Princes of the house of Orange	[66]
CHAPTER VIII.
Remarks on the last Stadtholder; also on the Princess of Orange; her presumption and indiscretion: hatred of the Dutch to the House of Orange: Fête at the Hague on the flight of that family. Reasons assigned for the progress of the French arms; for the glorious triumph of British prowess. Conduct of the new government towards some of the servants of the old: the new constitution of Holland	[76]
CHAPTER IX.
Grand entry of King and Queen into Holland: opening of the meeting of their High Mightinesses: anecdote of royal economy: the Hague described: Lady W. Montagu’s remarks rebutted: pretty female faces: a Dutch nursery: Dutch mode of increasing animal heat: the wood: its sanctity: the palace formerly called the House in the Wood: anecdote of King William the Third: unostentatious habits of the Orange family: charming jaunt to Scheveling: a marine hotel: Mr. Fox	[92]
CHAPTER X.
Historical anecdote of Scheveling: anecdote of Lord Nelson: a marine scene. Passion of Dutch for flowers not subsided. Veneration of Dutch for storks: causes of it: quails and swans: humorous blunder of a Dutch waiter: universal industry: dogs and goats: the theatre: theatrical economy: prodigal procreation. Present state of the Hague; state of literature there: brief anecdote of Daniel Mytens: of John Hanneman: of John le Duc, or the Brave	[106]
CHAPTER XI.
Vegetable problems. Approach to Leyden: general description of that town: the town-hall: celebrated picture of Lucas Van Leyden; anecdote of that painter: also of Karel de Moor: picture of the siege of Leyden: description of that horrible siege: generous and heroic conduct of the Dutch women: also of Peter Adrian: the mount: university of Leyden: the students: anecdotes of Boerhaave: Peter the Great: genius and diffidence: confidence in Providence: monument of Boerhaave	[116]
CHAPTER XII.
The botanic garden: the celebrated ancient palm: busts and statues: theatre of anatomy: library and portraits of distinguished persons: museum of natural history: attractions of the university; its present condition; severity of its examinations: anecdotes of Rembrandt; his genius and rapaciousness: a stratagem: criticisms on his works: Mr. Desenfan’s splendid gallery of paintings: John of Leyden: his ambition, cruelty, and fate: Dutch bowing: Saint Peter’s church: anecdote of Russian prisoners	[128]
CHAPTER XIII.
The press of Leyden; its staple trade: anecdotes of Gerard Douw: of Jean Steen; his singular painting of the Deluge: anecdotes of Francis Mieres: the pictorial contest: anecdote of Vanderwelde: the village of Rhynsburg: singular religious association: a curious custom: explosion at Leyden: conduct of the King. Haarlem; its celebrated organ described: anecdote of Handel: Mr. Henry Hope’s House	[137]
CHAPTER XIV.
Anecdotes of Lawrence Coster: art of printing how discovered; its originality disputed: female fortitude and presence of mind: siege of Haarlem: heroic conduct of the women: brief anecdote of Wouvermans: of Bamboccio: fatal effects of severe criticism: anecdotes of Nicholas Berghem and his termagant wife: of Ruysdaal: enormous sluices; approach to Amsterdam; its general appearance: a sley: Erasmus’s whimsical description of that city: the stadt-house: silence represented as a female: the tower: clocks, singular mode of striking the hour	[148]
CHAPTER XV.
Dungeons in the stadt-house: treatment of the prisoners: hall of justice: the torture: criminal trials: capital punishment: anecdote of a malefactor: the bank; its former and present state: popular tumult: effects of diffusive education: public fête at Amsterdam: dancing Dutchmen: the Beguines: ladies of Holland: house rent: the water of Amsterdam	[164]
CHAPTER XVI.
Police: fires: laws relating to debtors; ditto to bankrupts: the aanspreekers: singular custom: the trokenkorb: the streets: insalubrity of stagnant canals: societies for recovering drowned persons: noble conduct of the Emperor Alexander: Polish gratitude: Austria: the exchange: a Dutch merchant: herring fishery	[174]
CHAPTER XVII.
Former commerce of the Dutch: Batavia: anecdotes of national frugality: exchange and banking business: commercial house of Messrs. Hope: Jew fruit-sellers: marine school: the rasp-house: the work-house: the plantation: priests how supported: parish registers: the poor: literary societies: Felix Meritus: modern Dutch painters	[183]
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Dutch theatre: theatrical traffic: the rondell: singular village of Brock: Saardam: cottage of Peter the Great: climate, divisions, and population of Holland: journey to Zeyst: Dutch fond of coffee: small farms: picture of a Dutch peasant’s nest: effects of industry: palace of Soestdyke: pyramid raised in honour of Bonaparte: society of Herrenhuthers; their house and internal arrangements described	[193]
CHAPTER XIX.
The mall of Utrecht: a gasconade: the Rhine: conquest of Utrecht: the cathedral: beautiful lines: anecdotes of distinguished persons born at Utrecht; the ancient inhabitants: a direction: the city of Arnheim: anecdote of Beck: Dutchy of Berg: Cleves: anecdote of Flink: a tedious form: anecdote of brown bread: the contrast: the reception: Bonaparte’s hatred of English	[204]
CHAPTER XX.
Dusseldorf described; its inhabitants; the grand ducal court: anecdote of Murat: a double entendre: the flying bridge: Cologne: a contraband peep: the cathedral: a collection of gods: a bon mot: priestly mummery: anecdote of an archbishop of Cologne: anecdote of Rubens and other distinguished persons: present state of Cologne	[221]
CHAPTER XXI.
Remarks on the French army: origin of the conscription: Robespierre: French soldiers: policy of the generals: military vanity: bulletins: mode of attack: Rhenish confederation: act of imperial abdication	[236]
CHAPTER XXII.
Imperial regulation necessary to be known: the director of the bureau des diligences par eau: singular adventure: a scrape: a stratagem: passage to Bonn: a discovery: excellent effect of brandy: the city of Bonn: the Mall: effect of black: present state of Bonn: the seven mountains: the monastery: anecdote of the Empress Josephine: beautiful scenery	[251]
CHAPTER XXIII.
Basalt mountains: Andernach: anecdote of General Hoche: Rhenish floats: singular accident: French police: Neuweid: the Rhine boat: tomb of General Marceau: anecdote of French heroism: Coblentz; its surrender to the French arms: anecdote of French vivacity: the rock and fortress of Ehrenbreitstein: the griffon: stupendous French roads: Boppart	[261]
CHAPTER XXIV.
The young conscript: singular French anecdote: St. Goar; its history: Oberwesel: the palatinate: a celebrated vineyard: a regale: Bacharach: Bacchus: the Rhyngau song: Rüdesheim: Roman derivations: the priory of Johannesberg: vineyards classed: grapes classed	[274]
CHAPTER XXV.
Biberich: Charlemagne’s palace: bridge of boats: Mayence: horrors of war: the art of printing: the Hockheim hills: remarks on old hock: the tooth-brush: Francfort: splendid table d’hôte: inauguration of the Prince Primate: anecdotes of the French: the fair	[284]
CHAPTER XXVI.
Beautiful village of Offenbach: bravery of the Hessians: anecdotes of Mareschal Augerau. Excursion to Darmstadt: minute-posts: Darmstadt: law’s delay in Germany: agreeable manners of the Germans: national antipathies. Return to Francfort: gloomy appearance of the continent. French army on its march against the Prussians. Return to London	[294]

TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND.

CHAPTER I.
A CONFESSION ... THE WAR ... AN ADOPTION ... CONFIDENCE IN FORTUNE SOMETIMES NECESSARY ... HATEFUL CHARACTER OF A SPY ... A MOTIVE FOR TRAVELLING ... A MORAL ... ANECDOTE OF A ROYAL DESCRIPTION ... MISERIES OF A DUTCH GALLIOT ... CALVIN AND SERVETUS ... RELIGION AND A ROPE’S END ... DUTCH ANECDOTE OF FORTITUDE ... ANECDOTE OF A NEWFOUNDLAND DOG ... APPEARANCE OF HOLLAND FROM THE SEA ... ITS COAST ... A DILEMMA ... THE MAAS RIVER ... ANECDOTE OF NAPOLEON ... OF A DUTCH WOMAN ... A DISASTER ... ROTTERDAM DESCRIBED ... LEANING HOUSES.

The public shall be my confessor.—In the summer of last year, whilst the larger portion of the civilized world was anxiously awaiting the result of our sincere negotiations for a peace, which, alas! the crafty ministers of Napoleon, never intended should be other than mere “romans politiques,” the desire of contemplating a country, and a race of people to me entirely new, induced me to trespass upon their shore.

I resolved upon visiting Holland, although in a state of reluctant war with my own country, of a war which yet permitted to her commerce a few stolen embraces with that of England, which forced many a pursy Dutchman to lament the separation, and in the narcotic atmosphere of his consoling pipe, to wish for better times. In gratifying my wishes, I was guilty of assuming a character respected in every country, as well for its being most wisely and profitably at peace with all the world, as for its integrity and enterprize: I became an American, and by an act of temporary adoption, fixed upon Baltimore in North America as the place of my nativity. A fortunate correspondence in the personal description, except a slight variation, not easily discoverable, relating to my face and age, enabled a friend of mine, a legitimate American, to accommodate me with his passport, which after all I might as well have left behind me, so kindly are the Hollanders disposed towards us.

I was promised by my friend a full description of the principal places in Baltimore, and of the adjacent country, that I might pass unsuspected through a cross examination, should any be attempted: the description never arrived, or arrived too late, and I ascended my chaise, as ignorant of Baltimore as of the Peruvian Potosi, trusting to that good chance which has often favoured me, and under the guidance of which

“In my school days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow of the self same flight

The self same way, with more advised watch,

To find the other forth; by vent’ring both,

I oft found both.”

Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 1.

The stratagem, if not perfectly blameless, was at least intended to be an inoffensive one; I had no hopes of a peace, and consequently none of seeing Holland in a more regular mode. I went not to investigate the nakedness of the land, and by availing myself of its confidence to penetrate the military depots, the docks and arsenals of a country not in amity with my own.

I abhor the character of a spy, moving in friendly garb, however useful his treachery may be to his employers. My imposition extended no farther than to enable me to make a picturesque tour through an almost aqueous kingdom, to view its natives in their ordinary habits, to glide upon their liquid roads, to saunter in their green avenues and flourishing gardens, and trace the wonderful results of that daring and indefatigable ingenuity, which has raised the permanent habitation of man in the ocean, and made successful inroads upon the physical order of the universe.

But though the deception gave no pang to my conscience, yet, harmless as it was, (and let me mention it as a moral lesson) it did not escape the lash of many a petty inconvenience. Often have I been pestered upon the supposition of my being an American merchant, with interrogations as to the number of partners I had, how many clerks I kept, and the many other perplexing queries of minds at once devoted to commerce, and curiosity: nor did I escape dilemmas infinitely more perilous.

Having thus in all candour confessed my offence, if such it ought in justice to be called, and which has also met with its due proportion of chastisement, I trust I shall receive absolution from my reader, and in that hope I shall now proceed to my narrative.

I intended to have availed myself, as I wish I had done on former occasions, of the indulgence usually allowed to tours given in the shape of epistolary correspondence, the ease and familiarity of which render the tourist less formal, and the critic more indulgent; but the war presented an obstacle to the adoption of a plan which would have been more congenial to my mind, and to the nature of the remarks I have to offer.

In company with two highly esteemed friends, I proceeded to Gravesend: upon the road, we were charmed, by occasional views of the majestic Thames, formed by a rich setting sun into the appearance of an inverted sky, decorated by ships more supported over than upon its bosom, and a vast expanse of richly cultivated land fading in the mist of a far distant horizon.

Of the country which I was quitting, and of that to which I was proceeding, our Charles the Second, a monarch of whom Sir Richard Bulstrode justly says, that had he loved business as well as he understood it, he would have been the greatest prince in Europe, observed, “that the former was the most comfortable climate to live under, he had ever experienced; as there were more days in the year, and more hours in the day, that a man could take exercise out of doors in it, than in any country he had ever known. That during his exile he had seen many countries, of which none pleased him so much as the Flemings, who were the most honest and true-hearted people he had ever met with; and added very prophetically to me, to whom he addressed these remarks, I am weary of travelling, I am resolved to go abroad no more; but when I am dead and gone, I know not what my brother will do, I am much afraid that when he comes to the throne he will be obliged to travel again.” A prediction fatally realized by the wicked folly of the royal object of it.

At Gravesend we paid six guineas apiece to a Dutch captain, and a little favourable breeze springing up, we proceeded on board with a large party composed of specimens of the human race from various parts of the globe, proceeding, through the indulgence of the government of Holland, to their various destinations on the continent. The moment we stepped on board we found we were victims to the most infamous imposition. Six guineas for a berth in a vessel, which Noah in the first rudiments of his art, would have made a thousand times more commodious! Figure to yourself about forty persons stowed in a Dutch galliot of about one hundred tons burthen, deeply laden with a cargo of chalk, &c. a hold near the bows covered with straw for the accommodation of thirty-six of the passengers; a low miserable cabin, four feet high on the deck, which formed the honey-moon bower of a young Swiss and a pretty English girl just married; and a little hole astern which, furnished with a couple of tickings crammed with Dutch peas instead of feathers, constituted the vestibule, drawing-room and chamber for me and one of my companions.

Hoping for a speedy termination to our marine miseries, we set sail and slowly creeped down the Thames by the aid of a scanty breeze, which dying before we had advanced two miles, left us as a legacy to the tardy tides. Indeed, we almost tided it over to Holland, in the achievement of which we were six long days and nights; but then the days were serene and warm, and the nights were adorned by a brilliant moon, and the blue vault of heaven was spangled over with stars.

Our captain and his crew exhibited twice a day that attention to their devotions, which is still so characteristic of their country, in spite of every hostile attack and insidious intrigue of France, in the most vulgar, impious, and savage era of her bloody revolution. The breakfast of every morning, and the supper of every evening, were consecrated by a long shrill anthem, and still longer prayer. The cook was the chaplain, and the kitchen, a hole of about eight feet by five, the chapel. The spirit of Calvin, if it be not offered up to the manes of Servetus, must have smiled with satisfaction at the motley group, surrounding a pot of boiled peas and pork, and enveloped in a deep fog of steam and smoke, thus offering up their homage in the language, and according to the rites of that merciless reformer.

The piety of the commander was carried to an extreme length. One morning we were disturbed by a great noise: the captain had compelled his son, a sprightly lad of about nine years old, to read the Dutch Testament for three days together, and with scarcely any cessation; in consequence of which the young disciple became restive, and whilst his father’s back was turned committed the apostles to the deep, for which he received a tolerable proportion of castigation. Fifty times a day were we annoyed by our pious commander vociferating to his child,

“Leer, leer, jou luigaart, of dit endje touw zal je leeren.”

“Learn, learn, you idler, or this rope’s end shall teach you.”

I restored our captain, who spoke English very well, to good humour, by relating to him an anecdote of the activity and cool philosophy of a Dutch sailor belonging to the fleet under the command of the celebrated Van Tromp, who immortalized himself by his naval victories over the Spaniards in 1639, but submitted to the superior skill and prowess of the British fleet under the command of the sturdy patriotic Blake. At the time when the hostile fleets were laying very near each other, after a severe engagement, to refit, a British and Dutch sailor endeavoured to rival each other by their activity in ascending and descending the rigging of their respective ships; at last the English sailor astonished his competitor by standing with his heels in the air upon the truck head of the main top gallant mast; the Dutchman endeavoured to do the same, but in the attempt fell upon the deck, from which, with great anguish and difficulty, he raised himself a little, and exclaiming to the Englishman, “dere mynheer can you do dat,” expired upon the spot. The Dutch are very fond of dogs. Our captain had a bitch and two puppies on board of a very peculiar breed, for which he expressed great attachment, and he was one day not a little amused at my telling him that at the commencement of the gallant action which took place between the Nymph and Cleopatra in the last war, there was a large Newfoundland dog on board the former vessel, which, as soon as the firing began, ran from below deck in spite of every exertion of the men to keep him down, and climbing up into the main chains, there kept up a continual barking, and exhibited the most violent rage during the whole of the engagement. When the Cleopatra struck he was amongst the foremost to board her, and walked up and down her decks as if he participated in the glory of the victory obtained by the English.

After a passage, during which our patience was put to a severe trial, we discovered Schouwen, and soon after the Island of Goree, where the wind began to freshen, and just before we made the mouth of the Maas, we met and hailed a fine large fishing smack, the captain of which our commander endeavoured to prevail upon, by the usual and generally successful application of a little money, to smuggle us into the Briel: after a long consultation, the captain and crew of the smack, not considering that all was fish which came to their net, refused to take charge of us, and to our no very pleasant sensations, instead of standing out to sea, tacked and returned to the Briel under full press of canvass. A low slimy shore surmounted by green flags and a few scanty oziers announced our voyage to be at its close, and we entered the river of a country which our Hudibrastic Butler thus peevishly describes:

“A country that draws fifty foot of water,

“In which men live as in the hold of nature;

“And when the sea does in upon them break,

“And drowns a province, does but spring a leak;

“That always ply the pump, and never think

“They can be safe, but at the rate they stink;

That live as if they had been run aground,

And, when they die, are cast away and drown’d;

That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey

Upon the goods all nations’ ships convey;

And when their merchants are blown up and crack

Whole towns are cast away in storms and wreck;

That feed like cannibals, on other fishes,

And serve their cousin germans up in dishes,

A land that rides at anchor, and is moor’d,

In which they do not live, but go aboard.”

The Duke of Alva, with more whimsicality and less bitterness, observed, “that the Dutch were the nearest neighbours to hell of any people on the earth, for they dwelt the lowest.”

In consequence of the tide being always very rapid when going out, and the wind again falling, we came to an anchor in the mouth of the Maas. One of the first objects that saluted our eyes, in this state, was the telegraph, which was in a state of uncommon activity, and the glasses of its official attendants often came in direct opposition with ours. The balls flew up and down with wonderful rapidity for nearly an hour after we anchored, and sufficiently explained the motive which induced the captain of the smack to return to port. The signification of the word Briel, in Dutch, is spectacle, which is supposed to have given its name to this place, on account of the extensive view which its buildings command of the surrounding country. This town is celebrated for having given birth to the illustrious warrior I before mentioned, admiral Cornelius Van Tromp.

In the dead of the night, and in a deep fog, a fishing boat dropped along side, the master of which told us that the last vessel which had arrived from England had been confiscated, and all the passengers made prisoners, and after this exordium offered to conduct us in safety past the guard-ship if we would give him two guineas apiece: and to secure our transit, he proposed shutting us all down in his cabin, under hatchways, for that night and the whole of the next day, and then dropping past the guard-ship in the evening; during all which time we must have sat chin to knee, and have been infinitely worse accommodated than a cargo of African slaves. As we had an aversion from being introduced into the kingdom in this furtive manner, we persisted in refusing to quit our vessel, to the no little mortification of our captain, who having safely deposited our passage money in a large tin box, was very anxious to get rid of us in any manner. I believe personal apprehensions induced him to weigh the anchor early next morning, and to bear away for Maaslandsleys, on the other side of the Maas, where after the captain had satisfied the commodore commanding the guard-ships there, to whom he was well known, that we all came from Varel, a little neutral town to the eastward of the Weser, a fast sailing fishing boat was provided to take us up to Rotterdam, a distance of twenty-five miles, at half a guinea a head.

Gladly we bade adieu to our miserable ark, and about six o’clock in the evening embarked upon the Merwe river, a noble branch of the Maas, the breadth of which is about a mile, lessening but in a little degree as it reaches Rotterdam. The water of this river is rather foul, its shores are beautifully lined with villages, farm houses and avenues of trees. A botanical gentleman informed me that the eryngium campestre, field eryngo, so very rare in England, grows in great profusion, and wild, on either side of the river, and in most other parts of Holland.

When the night advanced, the floating lanterns of the fishermen had a pleasing and romantic effect, as we glided along with a fine breeze; and a row of lamps running parallel with a canal supplied by the Merwe, announced our passing Schiedam, so celebrated throughout Holland for its distilleries of geneva, of which we were informed there were three hundred before the Dutch submitted to the arms of France.

When the French troops entered Holland as victors, this beautiful river, in a season remarkably rigorous, formed a compact road of ice for the infantry, cavalry, and artillery, of the invaders: dreadful as the winter was, the French were in want of the most necessary articles of clothing; even whole battalions were destitute of shoes and stockings, and centinels frequently did duty with no other covering than a tattered blanket, and the fragment of a pair of breeches, which time and service had reduced by instalments to little more than a few shreds: yet they did not repine.

In a milder climate, after the French took possession of Bologna, a soldier, whose coat was nearly in the predicament of his military countryman’s breeches before mentioned, came up to Bonaparte, and begged that he would order him a new one, to which his general, who had none to give him, very shrewdly replied, “my good fellow, that will not do, it will hinder your wounds from being seen.”

When the French troops entered Rotterdam, they were quartered on the inhabitants, whose good opinion, I was well informed, they soon conciliated by their quiet conduct and orderly deportment. I afterwards received the same character of the French troops in other parts of Holland, from those with whom, I am convinced, they were not very welcome visitors, on account of the contributions which they levied.

In the faces of our crew, and the scenery on each side of us, before dusk-fall, we saw those studies to which the exquisite works of the Dutch school have familiarized every person of taste. About twelve o’clock we arrived at the boom, or barrier for shipping at Rotterdam, and here a luckless accident had nearly befallen me. The luggage of the passengers was deposited in small holds nearly the length of the vessel, covered over with loose boards: the night was dark, and as by the light of a solitary lamp we were endeavouring to get at our luggage, a fat Dutchman’s wife sprung out of the cabin, in which she had been concealed during our expedition up the river, who thinking that we were molesting some of her bonnet boxes, in the unguarded violence of her approach, slipped into one of the holds, the boards of which had been inadvertently left open by the Swiss bridegroom before mentioned, in an irritable struggle to obtain his luggage; the oaths and howlings of the poor lady brought out her husband, a man whom we had remarked for the unpleasantness of his physiognomy and deportment during the voyage, and as I stood nearest to his prostrate wife in the act of assisting her, he charged me with having maliciously occasioned her suffering, and threatened repeatedly to call the watchmen of the city and send me and my companions to prison.

It was a long time before I could allay the storm, and dulcify the temper of this man, which, considering my situation, required some little forbearance and management of feeling. At length we got on shore, and after much difficulty and perambulation discovered a comfortable hotel in the suburbs; the gates of the city being always shut, and the boom closed at eleven o’clock.

Our hotel lay at the bottom of a most beautiful avenue of trees, running parallel with the river opposite to the ferry. Our landlord was very civil, and all his servants spoke French. In the principal apartment was a print of Napoleon in his coronation robes: I afterwards observed similiar prints in many other houses in the city.

Many of the principal merchants of Rotterdam have country-houses in these delightful suburbs. I walked along a line of them, and beheld for the first time a specimen of the taste of the Dutch in rural scenery: the gardens, upon a level with the river, and divided from it by a high raised road, appeared to have been all designed by a mathematician; but still their neatness and luxuriance left a pleasing impression on the mind. Upon every gate, or house, a motto indicative of the mind of the owner, or of the character of the place, presented itself, of which the following are specimens:

Vreede is myn Lust Haf

Peace is my garden.

Lust en rust

Hope and repose.

Na by Bruten

Almost out of town.

Ziet op u minder

Look upon those beneath you.

N. B. This was inscribed upon a large house that commanded some little cottages.

Wel te vreeda

Very content, &c. &c.

These inscriptions are seldom used but by opulent tradesmen; amongst the higher classes they are considered to be a little tinctured with vulgarity, though, as I found, they sometimes indulge in them: the villas of the latter are frequently known by names corresponding with those which are applied to the country residences of the superior families in England.

In the morning our luggage was inspected by the proper officers, who gave us very little trouble, and were content with a trifling douceur. The entrance to the city, towards the river, through the principal gate, called De Nieuwe Hoofds Poort, a structure infinitely more elegant than another barrier of this city, called De Oude Hoofds Poort, is very handsome.

The immediate transition from the tranquillity of the country to the busy hum of men was very striking: the canals, with their numerous draw-bridges, as we proceeded to our city hotel, the Mareschal de Turenne, were lined with vessels of all sorts and sizes; and notwithstanding the war, every one appeared to be engaged in some active pursuit or another.

Before hostilities began, it was no uncommon circumstance to see between three and four hundred merchant ships, from England alone, lying in these canals and in the Maas; by which a vast commerce is carried on with the greatest facility and economy, from the centre to the extremities of the kingdom; and as they communicate with the Rhine and other large rivers, all the productions of the earth are conveyed at little expense to many parts of the continent, in a period of tranquillity.

The number of beautiful streets adorned, as is the case throughout Holland, with noble rows of trees, is a spectacle at once novel and beautiful. The trees act as a fan to the houses in hot weather, and their leaves are said to inhale whatever mephitic air may arise from such of the canals as are stagnant, and to breathe it out again with refreshing purity.

In a sick chamber, fresh flowers are now thought salubrious, although, in no very distant time, they were regarded by the faculty as extremely noxious.

The city derives its name from the adjoining river Rotte, which unites with the Merwe, and from the neighbourhood of both to the sea, renders the situation of this town very eligible for trade, commerce, and navigation. The pleasure-boats of some of the merchants, which we saw moored opposite to their houses, appeared to be very clumsy, and constructed only for smoking or napping in: they were broad, high at the head and stern, admitted only of one rower, and had a heavy cabin with moveable glass windows towards the stern.

One of the first appearances which impress a foreigner on his arrival in Holland is that of the houses, which, built of very small bricks, very lofty, and filled with large windows, lean forward as they ascend; to such a rage has this unaccountable passion for avoiding an upright been carried, that I am sure many of them must be two or three yards out of the perpendicular: nothing can be more whimsical than the corner houses of most of the streets. If these houses had not the appearance of being perfectly stable, from the freshness of their outsides, and from their presenting no fissures, a stranger would be induced from apprehension of personal safety, to prefer paddling his way in the very centre of their canals, to walking in the streets. No scene can at first be more novel and interesting than that which Rotterdam presents; masts of ships, enlivened by gay streamers; beautiful stately trees and lofty leaning houses appear mingled together, and at one view he sees before him the characteristic features of the country, the city, and the sea.

CHAPTER II.
THE BOOMPIES ... BAYLE ... PREROGATIVES OF GENIUS ... SPANISH INSCRIPTIONS ... A DUTCH DINNER ... DUTCH BEGGARS ... A GOOD BARGAIN ... ANECDOTES OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE BATAVIAN EXECUTIVE BODY ... ANECDOTES OF THE PASSION OF THE DUTCH FOR TRAFFIC ... ANECDOTE OF LORD NELSON AND THE DEY OF TUNIS ... HEREDITARY DRESSES ... THE EXCHANGE OF ROTTERDAM ... ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH THERE ... SEVERAL ANECDOTES OF THE KING AND QUEEN OF HOLLAND ... PUBLIC OPINION OF THEM ... DUTY OF A TOURIST.

One of the first places we visited was the Boom-quay, or Boompies, which extends along the river, about half a mile from the new to the old head, the two places where the water enters the city, and fills the canals, which are seven in number: this street is very broad and truly magnificent; and the prospect from it, over the river, and the opposite country, highly delightful. Cheyney-walk at Chelsea is a very humble resemblance to it.

Many of the houses are very noble, and some of them are built of free-stone, which not being the produce of the country, must have been brought to the spot at a great expense. In England a rage for expensive building had so possessed a man whom I knew, and who resided very far from the capital, that he had many parcels filled with bricks and stones sent down to his workmen by the mail coach.

The Boom-quay forms a fine mall for the inhabitants of the city, and is chiefly the residence of the most opulent and elegant families. An English nobleman, Lord North and Gray, had many years since a superb house here, which he became entitled to in right of his wife, a rich Dutch lady.

Upon this quay once resided the celebrated Bayle, the author of the Historical and Critical Dictionary, and professor of philosophy and history at Rotterdam, from which he was removed by the influence of M. Jurieu, who in a violent controversy with him, had illiberally misrepresented his principles, and driven him to great penury. The writings of this extraordinary man are so versatile and so adapted to every one’s taste, that he secured readers amongst divines, philosophers, physicians, wits, and libertines in every part of Europe. Saurin, with that antithesis for which he was more known than for the elegance of his compositions, thus describes him: “Bayle was one of those extraordinary men, whom it is difficult to reconcile with themselves, and whose opposite qualities give us room to doubt whether we ought to consider him as the best, or the worst of men. On the one hand he was a great philosopher, who knew how to distinguish truth from falsehood, who could at one view perceive all the consequences of a principle, and the chain or series, in which they were linked together; on the other, he was a great sophist, who undertook to confound truth with falsehood, and knew how to deduce false inferences from the hypothesis he advanced. On the one hand, he was a man of learning and of knowledge, who had read all that could be read, and remembered all that could be remembered; on the other, he was ignorant, or affected to be so, of the most common things, in respect of which he proposed such difficulties, as had been answered a thousand times. On the one hand he attacked the most eminent men, opened a large field of labour for them, led them through the most difficult ways, and if he did not get the better of them, at least gave them great trouble, to get the better of him; on the other, he made use of the worst of authors, to whom he was lavish of his praise, frequently disgracing his writings by citing such names as no learned man ever mentioned.” So speaks Saurin of this able man, whose abilities, however, have been honoured with the usual homage; they have been allowed to consecrate the place in which they flourished. No stranger can visit the Boom-quay without being informed that Bayle resided there, and without having the spot where his little mansion stood pointed out to him. It is the noble nature of genius to requite the ingratitude of a thankless country, by shedding upon it unquenchable lustre, and raising it in the rank of nations.

In several parts of the city, memorials of the inroads of the Spaniards are traceable, not only in the forms of several of the buildings, but in several mottos and inscriptions in their language, which are still legible in many of the old buildings, in this and in other cities.

The number of Jews in Rotterdam is very great, and many of them are of high respectability, and as much distinguished for their integrity, as their industry and opulence.

Soon after my arrival I had the pleasure of dining with one of the first families of that persuasion: our host, a very amiable man, gave us a true Dutch dinner, consisting of nearly fifteen different sorts of fish, exquisitely dressed, and served up with vegetables of various kinds. In Holland, in preparing the fish for the kettle, the head, fins, and tail, are generally cut off. In this city port wine is scarcely ever drank; it is by no means gratifying to a Dutch palate. Some was presented to me at a dinner where I was, but it was so old that all its flavour had evaporated. The principal wines drank are Claret, Madeira, and the Rhine wines. I found the bread in Holland every where excellent, and the coffee every where bad.

I soon found that the received opinion of there being no beggars in Holland is perfectly erroneous. I was frequently beset by these sons and daughters of sorrow or idleness, who preferred their petition with indefatigable pursuit, but in so gentle a tone, that it was evident they were fearful of the police. They are abundant, but orderly. It was observed by some English in Holland, that a Dutch beggar is too wise to waste his breath by asking alms of a Dutchman, and that relief is only sought from strangers: the fact is, there are so many asylums for paupers, that a Dutchman acquainted with the legislative provision made for them, always considers a beggar as a lawless vagabond.

For this reason, and this alone, Charity seldom takes an airing in Holland: towards the wretched, in the streets, the rich in this country

“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,

That keep their sounds to themselves.”

Timon of Athens, Act. I. Sc. 5.

In no country of its size, as will appear in the course of this journal, are there more charitable institutions, and at the same time a stronger appetite for accumulation. To make a good bargain is considered by many a Dutchman as the highest achievement of the human mind. As a proof that they never suffer their national animosities to interfere with individual interest, the reader may rely on the following anecdote.

In an early stage of the last war, when the Dutch government rigorously prohibited the importation of English manufactures, some members of the executive body entered into an agreement with a mercantile house in Rotterdam, to supply the requisition for the clothing of the French army, by a clandestine importation of cloth from England, and the looms of Yorkshire accordingly clothed ten thousand French soldiers.

The same commercial spirit was observed by the Dutch many years since to us, when, in a severe battle between the fleets of the Republic and Great Britain, during a cessation of the fight, for the mutual accommodation of repairing the damages sustained, some of the officers of the Dutch ships actually offered the captains of some of ours, supplies of gunpowder at an advanced price, in consequence of understanding that two or three of our ships had nearly exhausted their stores of it.

The Dey of Tunis made a more whimsical offer; when the heroic and immortal Nelson threatened to blow his capital about his ears, the Dey sent to his lordship to know the cost of every shot that would be fired, the answer was nearly a pound sterling; upon which the Dey said, if his lordship would calculate how many shots would be necessary to demolish his capital, and send him half the amount in good bills, he would destroy it himself.

I nowhere saw, except amongst the skippers, that mighty mass of breeches, in which my expectation had in part clothed every Dutchman’s frame: but the appearance of many of the men in long flowered waistcoats, and trunk hose, and the females in short plaited petticoats, blue stockings, and large round silver buckles projecting over either side of the foot, was very whimsical. Many of their dresses are hereditary; and grandfather, father, and son, have in regular succession proceeded to the altar in the same nuptial breeches. The quays of Rotterdam are very spacious, and every where embellished with trees; and the canals deeper and cleaner than in any other of the large cities in the kingdom.

In consequence of the features of every street being so similar, a stranger finds uncommon difficulty in reaching the place of his destination, or in returning to his hotel, without a guide.

After having secured a bedroom and deposited our luggage at the Mareschal de Turenne, kept by Mr. Crabb, an Englishman, who renders the character of a maitre d’hotel eminently respectable, by his attention to foreigners of every description, and to his own countrymen in particular, by moderate charges and excellent accommodations, we proceeded to the Exchange at two o’clock, when the merchants assemble.

This building is an oblong square with a covered walk on each side, and is plain and handsome. It was finished in 1736. I was astonished to find it crowded in every part, and presenting, in the activity and bustle which were displayed, every appearance of a great commercial country in a high state of prosperous tranquillity.

In this Babel assembly the greatest interest for a successful termination of the negotiation between France and England seemed anxiously to prevail; and induced a stranger like myself to think that the interests of Holland were pretty closely interwoven with those of England.

The arrival of English papers, and of couriers from Paris, never failed to excite a strong sensation from one end of the city to the other. Upon the exchange I saw several Englishmen transacting business; and such is the respect which the Dutch bear towards us, that we soon found the suspicion of our being English rather increased than damped the civilities we experienced.

As Rotterdam may be considered, as Bonaparte has recently described the city of Hamburg, une ville Anglaise, in consequence of so many English families having settled there before the revolution, and also of the proximity of its port to England, it was with surprise I found that the new ruler and form of government were so popular as they are in this city.

In the years 1794 and 1795 the progress of the French arms excited uncommon consternation in this city, in which a higher veneration for the stadtholderian government, as established under the influence of England and Prussia in 1787, existed, than in any other city in the United Provinces.

As the French advanced, the principal English families fled with great precipitation, and were followed by many of the Dutch: their flight was in the most inclement part of a winter remarkably rigorous, and they were obliged to pass over frozen canals, rivers and deep snows, many by the most wretched open conveyances, in their way to Helvoetsluys, where they embarked for that country, which, since the time of the first Charles, has, thank Heaven! been neither the seat of war, nor of revolutionary phrenzy.

A short time before we visited Rotterdam, we heard that the king and queen had visited that city, the only one which they had then honoured with their presence, except the seat of the royal residence at the Hague.

Upon their arrival in the city, their majesties and the two princes, in their carriages, attended by their suite and an escort of horse, proceeded to the Exchange, where they were waited upon by the principal functionaries and a deputation of the most opulent merchants of the city. Their majesties appeared to be much affected by the very flattering manner in which they were received.

The queen, who is always mentioned by those who have had the honour of knowing her before and since the wonderful elevation of so many branches of her family, as a most amiable, enlightened, and accomplished woman, very much gratified some of the members, and the nation at large, by observing upon the Exchange: “We are deeply penetrated by the cordiality with which we have been received in the country; as strangers we could not, and did not expect such a reception; but we hope to remain long enough amongst you to secure your esteem, by doing all the good in our power.” This short address, delivered with that grace and manner, which, I am informed, are so characteristic of her majesty, captivated all the Dutchmen present, and spread with great celerity through every part of the city, and contributed to raise her very high in the public estimation.

From the Exchange their majesties proceeded to the Admiralty, and were gratified, for the first time in their lives, with seeing a man of war, a seventy-four, launched; and after partaking of a splendid collation, they passed through the principal streets in a single carriage, unattended by their body-guard. On this public occasion, the only external ornament which the king wore was the star of the legion of honour.

In the department of the admiralty, the king has effected many wise and salutary regulations. He has abolished all the sinecure offices attached to it, reduced overgrown salaries, and doubled the hours of labour of the clerks, who were before almost receiving the wages of idleness from the country. By this firm and sagacious conduct, the king has already produced a saving to the state of two millions sterling a year.

Before the new constitution, which will be given hereafter, was finally adjusted, the king declared, that the national debt should be most sacredly respected, and its guarantee forms accordingly a permanent feature in that system, and measures have been adopted for its speedy liquidation. The king has also chosen two gentlemen of high respectability from the body of the merchants of Rotterdam to be members of his council.

Before these circumstances, and the previous unsettled condition of the country are known or reflected upon, it would appear somewhat paradoxical, that as the interests of the Dutch have a bias in favour of England, and as their government is of French construction, the ruler who has been placed over them by events little less than miraculous, could ever, and especially in so short a time, have made himself popular; but to the fact I pledge myself, upon the authority of some of the most respectable and enlightened Dutchmen in different parts of Holland, repeatedly renewed to me.

It is a subject of congratulation with every Englishman, that a similar spirit of economy and retrenchment animates the minds of the present administration, which, during the short period of its elevation to power, has purified many of the public offices of slothful supernumeraries, and has to its eternal honour refused to augment the public burthens by reversionary pensions.

By such instances of public virtue, and the wisdom, vigour, and sound policy, which reign in the councils of his majesty, the British empire may ultimately triumph over its enemies, or at least be preserved entire amidst the general wreck of other nations.

The king of Holland was described to me to resemble his brother Napoleon, very strongly in size, complexion, manner, thoughtful taciturnity, and abstemiousness: he is a great invalid, and has received some severe paralytic shocks in one of his arms, for which, as well as for the general extreme delicate state of his health, he has been obliged to visit the baths of Wisbaden, and to drink the waters of the Spa; which prevented his remaining in Holland but for a very short time, after the constitution had placed him on the throne, and he was absent when I was there.

The king has the reputation of being much pleased with the English character, and very fond of the society of Englishmen; a gratification which a series of adverse circumstances has prevented him from indulging in for some time past. I remember, when I was at Paris, during the brief pause of war, that just gave “a time for frighted peace to pant,” he was never more happy than when he had one of our countrymen at his splendid and hospitable table.

The queen is, as she was also described to me, a brunette of considerable beauty, inclined to the en bon point, has a face expressive of great suavity of mind, and is highly accomplished; she particularly excels in dancing, in which, for the gracefulness of her attitudes, she is said to be unrivalled. To this elegant accomplishment she is particularly attached, and when she travels, is generally complimented, in any considerable town where she stops for a day or two, with a public ball, an attention by which she is always much gratified.

Their majesties have two princes who are very young; the eldest is called Napoleon after the emperor. Should the dynasty of the Bonapartes experience no convulsive overthrow, it is generally believed that, upon the demise of that extraordinary being, who has pushed so many kings from their thrones to make room for the members of his own family, the crown of France will devolve upon this child.

In detailing these few anecdotes, which to me at least were interesting, I have been induced by a veneration for truth alone, to give a representation which, to such as think that nothing favourable, however deserved, should be reported of those with whom we are not in amity, will not be very palatable. To an enemy, if not generous, let us at least be always just. It is as base in principle, as it is dangerous in politics, to depreciate the popularity of a prince with whom we are at war, for it obviously leads to a miscalculation of his influence upon his people, and of the nature and extent of his strength and resources.

I abhor fuming a sovereign with adulation, more especially the ruler of a country at war with my own; but it is what I owe to my own country to relate the fact.

CHAPTER III.
COMMISSION COUNTENANCES ... PHYSIOGNOMIES COMPARED ... HOMAGE PAID TO GENIUS ... ERASMUS’S STATUE ... INSCRIPTION ... REVOLUTIONARY WHIMS ... LEARNED GALLANTRY ... KISSES ... ANECDOTES OF ERASMUS ... CATHEDRAL OF SAINT LAWRENCE ... THE RIVAL ORGAN ... CHARITY SCHOOLS ... PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS ... EFFECTS OF EDUCATION ON THE PUBLIC MIND ... HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD ... MR. LANCASTER’S SCHOOL.

In my way to the celebrated statue of Erasmus, and indeed wherever I moved, almost every face I met looked as if it belonged to a soul more disposed to cultivate the figures of arithmetic, than of rhetoric. I saw none of those sprightly physiognomies, which abound in the large towns of England or France, full of smiles, of levity, and carelessness, the happy owners of which appear as if they basked and frolicked in the sunshine of every event. Even the Spanish proverb, “thoughts close, looks loose,” is not observed in this city. An eye prone to the earth, a look of settled meditation, and a measured pace denote the Rotterdammer. Yet with these appearances Holland has not been insensible to that literary merit, in honour of which, in other times and regions, the Grecians and Romans raised temples, statues, and constituted public games, to which the Persians, the Arabians, the Turks, and even the Chinese, presented the most magnificent rewards.

As the inhabitants of Languedoc established floral games, at which they bestowed golden flowers as prizes to the fortunate poets; as Rome crowned Petrarch with laurel; as Ravenna erected a marble tomb to the memory of Dante, and Certaldo a statue to Boccaccio; as delighted princesses touched with their fragrant lips the cheeks of poets; as the Venetians paid to Sannazarius six hundred pistoles for six verses; as Baif received a silver image of Minerva from his native city, and Ronsard had apartments reserved for him in the palace of Charles IX. of France, and also the honour of receiving poetical epistles from that monarch: behold the Hollander has raised a superb bronze figure to the memory of that great restorer of the Latin tongue, Erasmus.

This statue stands upon an arch crossing a canal, and is nearly ten feet high; it was finished in 1622, and is said to be the chef-d’œuvre of Henry de Keiser, a very celebrated statuary and architect. It has been observed, that in the quality of the different statues which the Dutch raised to the memory of Erasmus, may be traced the different degrees of zeal with which his memory was cherished by them.

In 1540 they raised a statue of wood; seventeen years afterwards, blushing for the little respect they had observed, they exchanged it for one of blue stone; and in sixty-five years following apotheosized him by the noble memorial of their veneration, which I contemplated with equal admiration and delight. In 1572 the Spaniards, Vandal-like, shot at the stone statue with their muskets, and threw it in the canal, from whence it was afterwards raised and again set up, by order of the magistrates, upon the expulsion of the Spaniards; upon whom the Dutch retaliated in the most spirited and gallant manner, by attacking that nation through her colonial establishments in the East and West Indies, and in Africa, and by capturing the rich galleons of their merciless invaders.

The bronze figure is clad in an ecclesiastical habit, with an open book in his hand. Various attempts have at different times been made to convert the sage into a turncoat: before the revolution which expelled the stadtholder and his family, every concavity in his dress was crammed, on certain holidays, with oranges; during the hey-day of the republican form of government, amidst the celebration of its festivals, he was covered with tri-coloured ribbons, when the juice of the orange was never suffered to pass the lips of a true patriot!! Even the marigold, first consecrated by poets to the Virgin, and afterwards used as a symbol of the House of Orange,

“The marigold, whose courtier’s face

Echoes the sun, and doth unlace

Her at his rise,”

was expelled from the gardens of the new republicans. Oh, Liberty! happy had it been for millions, if all the outrages perpetrated in thy hallowed name had spent themselves upon ribbons, oranges, and marigolds!

Oudaan the poet has done honour to this star of erudition, whose works filled ten folio volumes, and whose talents had nearly raised him to cardinalate under Pope Paul III. in the following lines in Dutch, which are inscribed on his pedestal:

Hier rees die groote zon, en ging te Bazel onder!

De Rykstad eer’ en vier’ dien Heilig in zyn grav;

Dit tweede leeven geevt, die’t eerste leeven gav:

Maar ’t ligt der taalen, ’t zout der zeden, ’t heerlyk wonder.

Waar met de Lievde, en Vreede, en Godgeleerdheid praald,

Word met geen grav geerd nog met zeen beeld betaald:

Dies moet hier’t lugtgewele Erasmus overdekken,

Nadien geen mind’re plaats zyn tempel kan verstrekken!

Or thus in English:

Erasmus, here, the eloquent and wise,

That Sun of Learning! rose, and spread his beam

O’er a benighted world, through lowering skies,

And shed on Basil’s towers his parting gleam.

There his great relics lie: he blest the place:

No proud preserver of his fame shall prove

The Parian pile; tho’ fraught with sculptur’d grace:

Reader! his mausoleum is above.

The reader may perhaps be pleased with the following anecdote. When Erasmus was in England, which he visited several times, and where he was honoured with the friendship of Archbishop Warham, Bishops Tonstal and Fox, Dean Colet, Lord Montjoy, Sir Thomas More, and other distinguished men, he mentions a custom then prevalent amongst the females of this country, the discontinuance of which, considering how much improved they are since the time of Erasmus, and how their natural charms are heightened by the grace of the Grecian drapery, must be a subject of infinite regret with all who love and cherish the sex, as it ought to be loved and cherished.