A tour through Holland

by Sir John Carr

Of the Presentation of Petitions and Audiences.

Those who wish to present petitions, or addresses, &c. to the king, will put at the head, “To the King.” They all begin with the title of Sire, and in the body of the addresses, &c. the words “Your Majesty” must be used. His majesty has provisionally charged the counsellor of state, M. Golberg, in order to receive in his name all the requests, supplications, and remonstrances which may be presented, and to give a circumstantial account of them to the King. This counsellor attends for this purpose in the apartments of the old court, every Tuesday and Friday, from nine in the morning till two in the afternoon. But all petitions, supplications, or remonstrances, must be presented in writing, on stamped paper: and there ought besides to be indorsed on the petitions, &c. the name of the supplicant, the nature of the demand, and in concise terms, the motives of the same. It must be observed besides, that all demands, addresses, or remonstrances to the courts, or tribunals of justice, departmental administrations, or other constituted authorities, ought to be sent to the minister or directors general, that the deed which relates to the object, be made by them, and presented to the king. Those who desire to be admitted to the audience of his majesty the king, are obliged to address themselves for this purpose to the chamberlain of the day, the motive for which this audience is requested, must be signified by writing, and the place where the answer may be sent exactly mentioned. The king has decreed, that in order to facilitate and assure as much as possible the relation between him and his subjects, all the ministers, or directors general, have to give once or twice a week a public audience; for this purpose they have fixed the following days, &c. &c.

The leading features in this constitution, are the guarantee of the payment of the national debt; the free and unqualified exercise of religion; the predominant authority vested in the king; the establishment of the salique law, for ever excluding females from the throne; the declaration that the minority of any future king shall expire upon his attaining his eighteenth year; that only natives shall be eligible to any offices under the state, exclusive of those immediately appertaining to the king’s household; that the yearly revenue of the king shall be two millions of florins, and that the royal residences shall be the palaces of the Hague, in the Wood, and at Soestdyke.

As a few months have only rolled away since the promulgation of this constitution, it would be somewhat hasty to offer any objections to it: it must be left to time to ascertain how far it is adapted to the genius and resources, and propitious to the prosperity of the people.

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.

Soon after the promulgation of the constitution, the King and Queen set off from Paris to take possession of their new kingdom, and on the 23d of June following made their solemn entry into the Hague: they left the palace in the Wood in the following order; a herald at arms, his majesty’s horse guards, the guard of honour, the council of state in three coaches, the admirals in one coach, the ministers in two coaches, the great officers of the crown in one coach, their majesties in one coach, the generals in two coaches: the ladies and officers of the royal household in one coach, followed by aids-de-camp and other officers, and the whole procession closed by detachments of hussars and dragoons.

When the procession reached the palace of their high mightinesses, their majesties were received at the door by four deputies from the assembly. They ascended the great staircase, passed through the chamber of the national library, and were received at the door of the anti-chamber by the president of their high mightinesses, and two other deputies. Having entered the hall of the assembly, her majesty was conducted to her tribune by two deputies. The king seated himself on his throne, and put on his hat. On the right side, and behind his majesty, sat the grand chamberlain, and the aid-de-camp general; on the left, the master of the horse, and the grand master of the civil list. All the other officers of state were ranged in proper situations. The members of the assembly stood up in their places uncovered on the entrance of the king; but when his majesty covered himself, they followed his example. The president placed himself in his chair, directly opposite to the king. After the king was seated on his throne, he directed the grand master of the ceremonies to administer the oaths of allegiance to their high mightinesses. The oaths were accordingly first taken by the president, and afterwards by the other members, in the order of their seniority. Each member approached to the foot of the throne, and was sworn on the Holy Evangelists. When all the members were sworn, his majesty delivered the following speech to the assembly:

“Gentlemen,

“When the national deputies came to offer me the throne which I ascend this day, I accepted it, under the conviction that it was the wish of the whole nation; that the confidence and the necessities of all called me to it.

“Relying on the intelligence, zeal, and patriotism of the principal public functionaries, and particularly on yours, gentlemen the deputies, I have fearlessly weighed in my mind the misfortunes of the nation in their fullest extent. Animated by the strongest desire to promote the welfare of this good people, and entertaining a hope that I should one day attain that end, I stifled those sentiments which, till then, had been ever the object and happiness of my life. I have consented to change my country, to cease to be solely and entirely a Frenchman, after having passed my whole life in performing, to the best of my ability, those duties which that name prescribes to all who have the honor of bearing it.

“I have consented to separate myself, for the first time, from him who, from my infancy, has possessed my love and admiration: to lose the repose and independence which those whom Heaven calls to govern cannot have: to quit him, the separation from whom would fill me with apprehension, even in the most tranquil times, and whose presence precludes danger.

“I have consented to all this, and, gentlemen, had I not done so, I would nevertheless yet act the same part, now that by the ardour, joy, and confidence of the people through whose country I have passed, they have proved to me, that you were the true interpreters of the nation, now especially, when I am convinced, that I may rely on your zeal, your attachment to the interests of your native land, and on your confidence in, and fidelity, towards me.

“Gentlemen, this is the first day of the real independence of the United Provinces. A transient glance at past ages is sufficient to convince us, that they never had a stable government, a fixed destiny, a real independence. Under that famous people, whom they fought and served by turns, as under the Franks and the Empire of the West, they were neither free nor tranquil.

“Neither were they so afterwards, when subjected to Spain.

“Their wars, and their repeated quarrels until the union, added to the glory of the nation, confirmed its qualities in point of frankness, intrepidity, and honor, for which, indeed, it had been always celebrated; but its efforts procured it neither tranquillity nor independence, even under the Princes of Orange, who, though they were useful to their country, as soldiers and statesmen, were always disturbing it, by pretending, or endeavouring to obtain a power which the nation denied them.

“Nor could Holland be considered in that state in later times, when the elevation of ideas, and the general agitation of Europe, so long suspended the repose of nations.

“After so many vicissitudes, so much agitation, so many calamities; and at a time when the great states were enlarging themselves, ameliorating and concentrating their governments and their forces, this country could enjoy no real safety nor independence, but in a moderate monarchical state; a form which had been acknowledged during a long period, and by each nation, in its turn, as the most perfect, and if not absolutely so, yet as much so as the nature of man will admit. But, doubtless, if perfection were the lot of humanity, we might then dispense with a government of this kind. Laws would then be founded in wisdom, and obeyed without reluctance or obstacle; virtue would reign triumphant, and insure its own reward; vice would be banished, and wickedness rendered impotent; but illusions which favour such romantic ideas of human nature, are transient; and experience soon brings us back to positive facts.

“However, even monarchy itself is not sufficient for a country, which, though powerful and important, is not sufficiently so for its position, which requires forces of the first rank both by land and sea. It will, therefore, be necessary for it to form a connexion with one of the great powers of Europe, with which its amity may be eternally assured, without any alteration of its independence.

“This, gentlemen, is what your nation has done; this is the object of its constitutional laws, and also that of my taking upon me an employment so glorious; this is my object in my placing myself in the midst of a people, who are, and ever shall be mine, by my affection and solicitude. With pride I perceive two of the principal means of government and confidence offering themselves to me; the honour and the virtue of the inhabitants.

“Yes, gentleman, these shall be real supporters of the throne; I wish for no other guides. For my part, I know no distinctions of religion or party; distinctions can only arise from merit and services. My design is only to remedy the evils which the country has suffered. The duration of these evils, and the difficulty of remedying them, will only increase and realize my glory.

“To effect these objects, I have occasion for the entire confidence of the nation, their complete devotion, and all the talents of the distinguished men whom it contains, but particularly of you, gentlemen, whose zeal, talents, and patriotism, are well known.

“I am at this moment appealing to the good and faithful Hollanders, before the deputies of the provinces and principal cities of the kingdom. I see them around me with pleasure. Let them bear to their fellow-citizens the assurance of my solicitude and affection: let them carry the same testimony of these sentiments to Amsterdam; that city, which is the honour of commerce, and of the country: that city, which I wish to call my good and faithful capital, though the Hague will always remain the residence of the sovereign. Let them also carry the same assurances to their fellow-citizens, and the deputies of that neighbouring city, the prosperity of which I hope very soon to renew, and whose inhabitants I distinguish.

“It is by these sentiments, gentlemen; it is by the union of all orders of people in the state, and by that of my subjects among themselves; it is by the devotion of each individual to his duties, the only basis of real honour assigned to men; but principally by the unanimity which has hitherto preserved these provinces from all dangers and calamities, and which has ever been their shield, that I expect the tranquillity, safety, and glory of the nation, and the happiness of my life.”

The king has given general satisfaction by the choice he has made of the persons he has nominated to fill the public offices; and if the wishes of one who trespassed a little irregularly upon their shores can avail, the brave, frugal, and indefatigable Hollanders will derive happiness, and, when peace is restored to Europe, prosperity under their new government.

The revenue attached to the stadtholderate was nominally 18,000l. per annum; but by the great patronage and influence belonging to it, no doubt it must have been considerably augmented, as also by the revenues arising from other hereditary territories of the stadtholders; but after all, the income of the stadtholderate was scarcely sufficient to support the dignity of the situation, powerful and important as it at last became. The king, in addition to his revenue, has an enormous private fortune: the savings which he has effected in the state reconcile the Dutch to this liberal, but perhaps not excessive allowance made for the support of his dignity.

How the Hague could be called a village, in all its meridian splendor, is a matter of surprise: it derived its name from s’Cravenhage, or the Count’s Wood, on account of a wood which formerly grew here, and which formed, some centuries since, a part of the domains of the Counts of Holland. The following anecdote will show the simplicity which reigned in this great and beautiful city in former times. When Louisa de Coligni was coming to be married to Prince William at the Hague, the Dutch sent an open post-waggon to meet her, and she entered the city seated on a plank: towards the latter end of Prince Maurice’s days, and during Frederic-Henry’s lifetime, the Hague became a very agreeable place, and the resort of people of the first distinction.

In my rambles round this city, I was much impressed with the elegance and spaciousness of the buildings; every object seemed to have partaken of the spirit and magnificence of a court. But there was a solemnity in the splendor. It reminded one of looking into a magnificent ball-room after the greater part of the company had departed, and the lustres were dying away. If the Orange family had been entitled to sympathy, the scene would have led me to feel and think for them. Its noble buildings, its spacious streets, gracefully built, shaded with trees, and divided by canals, the variety of surrounding scenery, its proximity to the sea, its elevated situation, and the purity of its air, render the Hague the most charming town in Holland. The first place I visited was the palace of the last of the stadtholders. It is a vast pile of houses, many of them somewhat ancient, surrounded by a canal, without which and a pipe, paradise itself would have no charms for a Dutchman: over the canal are several draw-bridges; and the whole has a very pleasing effect seen from the spot where I took the view of it. On one side of a quadrangle is part of a new palace, built by the late stadtholder, and which, had it been finished, would have been handsome and princely; but the troubles in Holland have prevented its completion.

In part of this building there is a noble gothic hall, much resembling Westminster-Hall, and very large; on each side little shops were arranged, similar to those in Exeter ‘Change: it is converting into a chapel for the king. There were here formerly the prince’s cabinet of natural history and museum of rarities, consisting of a tolerable collection of shells, petrifactions, precious stones, fossils, minerals, and birds. This collection has been removed to Paris, although, from all I could learn, scarcely worthy of so much trouble: it, however, furnished the first elements of knowledge to Camper, one of the most profound geniuses which the United Provinces ever produced, and also Professor Pallas, who has been called the Pliny of Russia. The French offered to re-sell this cabinet to the Dutch government, who declined becoming the purchasers; a tolerable proof of its inferiority. The prince’s cabinet of pictures was very select and valuable, and was enriched by the productions of Titian, Holbein, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Gerard Dow, Metzio, Polemburgh, and other illustrious artists. On the confiscation of the property of the exiled Stadtholder, the Dutch government, for the purpose of promoting the polite arts, formed this collection of pictures, esteemed one of the most valuable in Europe, into a national gallery, set apart an annual sum for the augmentation of it, and deposited it in a fine suite of apartments in the House in the Wood, where a director of ability, and assistants, were appointed to superintend it: but the French soon afterwards transferred the best of them to that magnificent depot of the fruits of conquest, the Louvre at Paris. The first person sent by Napoleon to select for his gallery was unequal to his office, and left some excellent works behind him, which, upon “a second shaking of the tree” by another and more able inspector, were collected, and sent off to that colossal collector of works of art. Amongst several landscapes by Vernet was the finest he ever painted, the subject, the waterfall of Tivoli. It is a curious circumstance that there is not one fine private collection at the Hague.

I was much delighted with the Voorhout, considered the principal street, in which are many elegant and classical buildings, forming complete contrasts to the leaning, mercantile structures of Rotterdam. In this street the most elegant houses are those which formerly belonged to the Prince Wielburgh, who married the last Prince of Orange’s sister, and to the French ambassador, formerly occupied by the British minister: but the most beautiful part of the Hague is the Vyverburg; it is a vast oblong square, adorned with a noble walk or mall, strowed with broken shells, and shaded by avenues of trees on one side, and on the other by the palace, and a large basin of water called the Vyver, almost a quarter of a mile in length, variegated by an island of poplars in its centre. This mall is the place of fashionable resort, and, on the evening of the day I saw it, was adorned with several groups of lovely women attired in the French fashion, which generally prevails amongst the genteel families in Holland. Besides these there are many other very noble ones, and all remarkably clean, but the canals are almost all of them green and stagnant, and at this season emitted an unpleasant effluvia. Here, as in many cities in France, the armorial ensigns of distinguished families, which used to dignify the front of their dwellings, have been cut away, and many a shield remains despoiled of its quarterings. Some of them, since the new order of things has occurred, have been restored. In a square planted on all sides with trees the parade is held.

As Lady Wortley Montagu, in her accustomed sprightliness of style, has mentioned with some appearance of disgust, the white fishy faces of the Dutch women, I beg to observe, that at the Hague I saw several very pretty females: in general they possessed transparent delicacy of countenance, but as generally wanted expression. An English gentleman who had just returned from Italy, where he had been accustomed for several years to the warm voluptuous brunettes of that beautiful country, was uncommonly delighted with the fair faces of the Dutch ladies; but female beauty does not begin to expand itself till after the imprisonment and regimen of the nursery are past. Pretty and healthy children are rarely to be seen in Holland: in general they look pale and squalid, owing to an abominable system followed in rearing them; they are accustomed for the first two or three months to respire the atmosphere of a room, the windows of which are never opened to receive the freshness of the morning air; to wash them with refreshing cold water would be considered as certain infanticide; the miserable infant is swathed round with flannel rollers, until it becomes as motionless as a mummy; and over these ligatures there is always a vast flannel wrapper folded three or four times round the body, and fastened at the bottom of its feet: afterwards, for many months it is loaded with woollen garments, and when at length it is permitted to try for what purpose legs were originally constructed, it is cased in an additional wrapping of flannel, to prevent the dreaded consequences of freely inhaling the salubrious air.

As it was summer, I can only speak from information of an equally vile and destructive custom, which obtains in the winter, of suffering the children to sit over the chauffepies or stoves, which frequently supplants the ruddy tints of health by a white parboiled appearance. I saw several of these chauffepies, from which the little pots that in cold weather contain the burning turf, had been withdrawn, used by the ladies as footstools. Whilst the men warm themselves with the smoke of tobacco from above, the ladies, to recompense themselves for not using that indulgence, take care to fumigate themselves below, by placing, in the proper season, these ignited stoves under their petticoats, and resemble the glow-worm, which carries his fire in his tail: the cats and kittens, from the genial warmth of the climate, are glad to take shelter in this warm mysterious sanctuary. The ladies and the lower classes of females are always remarkably neat about the feet; the petticoats of the latter are in general very short, display a well-proportioned leg, clean blue stockings, and a slipper without any heel-piece, or sabot.

In my way to the palace in the Wood, near this square, I passed by a vast triumphal arch made of wood, painted to imitate stone, and adorned with a number of complimentary inscriptions in Latin, in honour of the king and queen, who passed through it on the 23d of June last, when they made their public entry; and in a vast field adjoining to the wood was a lofty temporary obelisk of the same materials, which formed one of the principal objects of a magnificent fête recently given by the French commander in chief in honour of their majesties, which was conducted in the highest style of Parisian taste. The day when I visited the wood was remarkably fine; this spot, so dear to the Dutch, is nearly two English miles long, about three-quarters of a mile broad, and contains a fine display of magnificent oaks growing in native luxuriance. Antony Waterloo made the greatest part of his studies from this spot and its environs. The ground upon which it grows, and the country about it, undulate a little, a circumstance of agreeable novelty, and the whole is a truly delightful walk, more romantic and umbrageous than our mall of St. James’s, and surpassed only by the garden of the Thuilleries. This wood has been held sacred with more than pagan piety. War and national want, that seldom spare in their progress, committed no violations here. Although the favourite place of royal recreation, yet, in the fury of the revolution, not a leaf trembled but in the wind. Philip II. in the great war with Spain, issued his mandate for preserving it: hostile armies have marched through it without offering it a wound, and the axe of the woodman has never resounded in it. Even children are taught or whipt into veneration for it, so that their mischievous hands never strip it of a bough. Once, however, it is recorded, that at a period of great state necessity, in 1576, their high mightinesses sat in judgment upon its noble growth, and doomed it to fall: the moment their decree was known, the citizens flew to the meeting, remonstrated with a degree of feeling which did honour to their taste; and upon learning that the object of its doom was to raise a certain sum to assist in replenishing the nearly exhausted coffers of the republic, they immediately entered into a contribution, and presented the amount to the “high and mighty masters” of the sacred grove.

It has been asserted by some travellers, that the Dutch treasure this spot more from national pride than feeling, and that they are more disposed to preserve than to enjoy it. To this remark I have only to offer, that I saw a considerable number of equestrian and pedestrian groups, who appeared to relish its shaded roads, and sequestered walks with great delight. The royal residence is to the right at the end of the wood. Upon my asking a Dutchman which path led to the “house in the wood,” the only appellation by which, in the time of the Stadtholder, it was known, he sharply replied, “I presume you mean the palace in the wood.” This building is merely fit for the residence of a country gentleman, and has nothing princely about it, except the centry boxes at the foot of the flight of stairs ascending to the grand entrance: two tall and not very perpendicular poles, from the tops of which is stretched a cord, suspending in the centre a large lamp, stand on each side of the house in front of the palace; on the left are the coach-houses and stablings, which are perfectly plain, and are just separated from the court road by a small stunted plantation: there was a very handsome carriage of the king’s in the coach-house, without arms or cyphers, of a pale blue colour, which, with silver lace, is the colour of the new royal livery. The carriage had every appearance of having been built in England. Excepting this, I never before saw a carriage, unless appropriated for state occasions, belonging to any crowned head on the continent, that an Englishman of taste and opulence would be satisfied with. Even the carriages of Napoleon, built in a city so celebrated for its taste in design, and beauty of workmanship, as Paris, are clumsy and unpleasant to the eye. Although it was Sunday, the sound of workmen, actively engaged in modernizing the palace after the Parisian taste, issued from almost every window. Some Dutchmen who were contemplating the front of the house, shook their heads at this encroachment of the sabbath. In consequence of the internal arrangement not being finished, strangers were not admitted. The walks on the outside of the gardens are formal and insipid; the gardens themselves are handsomely disposed, and kept in great order, and the whole of the premises is insulated by stagnant canals crossed with draw-bridges.

In this palace, amongst many other precious works of art, was the celebrated picture of King William the Third, who appointed the famous Godfrey Scalken, when he was in London, to paint his portrait by candlelight: the painter placed a taper in the hands of his majesty, to hold it in a situation most favourable to the designs of the artist, during which the tallow melted and dropped on the fingers of the monarch, who endured it with great composure, for fear of embarrassing the painter, who very tranquilly continued his work, without offering to pause for a minute: it is not much to the credit of the prince of the country to record, that this blunt enthusiasm for his art lost poor Scalken the favour of the court, and of persons of fashion, and he retired to the Hague, where he had a prodigious demand for his small paintings.

The furniture of this, which, as well as of the other palaces, was superb, but old fashioned, was sold by the French, upon the pretence that their arms were directed against the Prince of Orange personally. In this palace the Stadtholder and his family used to indulge his subjects in that ridiculous custom of eating before them on certain days; a custom which was a fit appendage to another, that of keeping dwarfs and fools about the royal person. How this stupid usage came to be adopted at first I know not, for one would naturally think that the situation least calculated to inspire awe and veneration, those great supports of royalty, amongst subjects towards their rulers, would be that in which a mere animal appetite is gratified. In England such splendid folly has been long discontinued.

The plain manner in which the Prince of Orange and his family resided at this palace, is thus described by the late ingenious Mr. Ireland. “The reception we met with as strangers, was highly flattering. It was the character of Englishmen that was our passport. Expressing our wish to see the prince, the court being then full, we were addressed by a gentleman (whom we afterwards found to be Lord Athlone) through whose politeness we gained admission, and were with great affability noticed by the prince. He is short in stature, with much elegance and familiarity in his manner, not unlike our royal family. The princess and her daughter, who is about eighteen, appeared in the room: their dresses were very plain, and they had no other mark of superiority than a train-bearer. So little ceremony is observed in the exterior of the house, that just without the door of the apartment, where the prince was giving audience (which was open), a woman was on her knees scrubbing the staircase.”

Upon my return to my hotel at one o’clock, the dinner hour, I found a very agreeable party, composed of foreigners from different countries, and an excellent table d’hote: over the chimney-piece was a good equestrian portrait of the famous Duke of Cumberland, who lodged at this house occasionally during the campaigns of 1747. After dinner, in company with a very amiable gentleman-like Englishman, whom I met at the table d’hote, I set off in one of the carriages, many of which are always ready to convey passengers, for about the value of six-pence English, for Scheveling, a village which every traveller should visit, on account of the beauty of the avenue leading to it, which is nearly two miles, perfectly straight, and thickly planted with beech, limes, and oaks; at the end of which superb vista the church of Scheveling appears. On the sandy ground on each side of this avenue are several birch thickets, and it abounds with the aiera canescens, hippophae rhamnoides, a singular dwarf variety of ligustrum vulgare (Privet), the true arundo epigejos of Linnæus (that is, calamagrostis), and a number of heath plants, mixed with others usually found in marshes. Scarcely is there so small a spot, where Flora presents such opposite variety, and which the fluctuating moisture of the soil can alone account for. Among the rarer species are convallaria multiflora, and polygonatum, with gentiana cruciata, which is not a native of England.

The Dutch value this beautiful avenue as much as they do their Wood, and great care is taken to preserve it from violation. At the entrance, in a most romantic spot, is the turnpike-gate, where all passengers, except the fishermen of Scheveling, pay a fraction of a farthing for permission to enter; and here are stuck up orders, threatening with punishment those who may attempt to injure in the smallest degree this consecrated forest. At short intervals, cautionary inscriptions are placed in conspicuous situations, to warn mischievous “apple munching urchins” from cutting the smallest twig.

Constantine Huygens, brother of the celebrated mathematician and mechanist of that name, had the honor of designing this avenue, in which there are many stately trees, upwards of a century and a half old: a terrible storm which took place a few years since, laid about fifty of these noble objects low, to the great grief and consternation of the country. Here, and perhaps here only, throughout Holland, the traveller may be gratified by the sounds of a running brook. The foot paths on each side were crowded with pedestrians of both sexes, in their holiday clothes; and the slanting rays of a brilliant sun flashing through openings in the branches of the limes, beech trees, and oaks, upon a crowd of merry faces, jolting in the most whimsical carts and waggons, to their favourite spot of carousal, had a very pleasing and picturesque effect.

The village is very neat and pretty; at the end of the vista, large sand-hills rising near the base of the church, preclude the sight of the ocean, which, when they are surmounted, opens upon the view with uncommon majesty. The beach, which we saw in high perfection on account of its being low water, is very firm to the tread, and forms a beautiful walk of nearly six miles in extent. The ocean was like a mirror, and fishing vessels were reclining on the sand in the most picturesque forms, just surrounded with water; their owners, with their wives and children, were parading up and down in their sabbath suits, and the whole sand for a mile was a fine marine mall, covered with groupes who appeared as capable of appreciating the beauty of the scene, as the worshippers of the Steyne at Brighton, or of the Parade at Bath. The Dutch are said to have an antipathy to sea-air; but this I found not to be generally true: certain it is, that they are not fond of sea-bathing, otherwise this beach would be crowded with bathing, and the country above it with lodging-houses.

Water is no novelty to a Dutchman, and he prefers, and there seems some sense in his preference, his neat, commodious country-house, and his gardens, and all the comforts of life about him, to the pleasure of bathing and contemplating a waste of waters from the windows of a cheerless inn or lodging-house. An English frigate, which lay off at a considerable distance, excited a good deal of attention, and added to the beauty of the scene. Upon quitting the beach we entered an inn which overlooked the sand and was a place of great resort, every room of which was crowded and filled with tobacco smoke. The state of Mr. Fox’s health formed the leading feature of the political discourse. “Herr Fock,” as he was called, was frequently repeated at every table. Opposite to where we sat a young Dutch couple were making violent love; they kissed, devoured dry salted fish, and drank punch with an enthusiasm, which presented to our imagination the warmest association of Cupid and the jolly god. John Van Goyen, who died in 1656, and was so justly celebrated for the transparency of his colouring of water, made this spot the frequent subject of his charming pencil. Dutch tradition dwells with delight upon a cock and a bull story respecting the celebrated flying chariot which used to sail upon those lands, and on the surrounding country. It was said to have been made by Stevinus, for Prince Maurice: it is thus described and commented upon in a curious old description of Holland: “The form of it was simple and plain: it resembled a boat moved upon four wheels of an equal bigness, had two sails, was steered by a rudder placed between the two hindmost wheels, and was stopt either by letting down the sails, or turning it from the wind. This noble machine has been celebrated by many great authors, as one of the most ingenious inventions later ages have produced. Bishop Wilkins, in his Treatise of Mechanical Motions, mentions several great men who described and admired it. Grotius mentions an elegant figure of it in copper, done by Geyneus; and Herodius, in one of his large maps of Asia, gives another sketch of the like chariots used in China.” Incredible as this story appears, one would be disposed to think, that a man of Grotius’s celebrity for learning and truth, would scarcely have eulogized the invention, had he doubted its existence. Upon a level, hard, straight road, uninterrupted by trees and buildings, such a piece of ingenuity might perhaps prove successful as a mechanical experiment, but utterly impossible ever to be made serviceable.

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.

The coast of Scheveling is considered very dangerous in rough weather: the spires of the church here, and those of Gravesande and Monster, three leagues to the south, serve for landmarks; yet, owing to the coast of the province of Holland lying very low and flat, they are scarcely discernible three or four leagues at sea: for want of sand-banks to break the force of the sea, the coast is much exposed, and the fishermen are obliged, after their return, to haul their vessels on rollers up the beach beyond the water’s reach: this labour must be very great, for many of them are from twenty to thirty-five tons burthen.

This place has been at different periods subject to dreadful irruptions of the sea, particularly in the year 1574, when it broke in, and carried away 121 houses: Scheveling has its portion of historic celebrity. In 1650, the expatriated Charles II. after a long exile, embarked from this place for Scotland, to which he was invited, with a promise of assistance in recovering the rest of his dominions. Clarendon, in his History, vol. iii. p. 287, says, the king went from the Hague to Scheveling, where “the States of Holland, at infinite hazard to themselves from Cromwell and England, suffered their ship to transport him. They gave all countenance to the Scotch merchants and factors who lived in their dominions, and some credit, that they might send arms and ammunition, and whatsoever else was necessary for the king’s service, into that kingdom.” And this the States did “when the king was at his lowest ebb, and was heartily weary of being in a place (Paris) where he was very ill-treated, and lived very uncomfortably, and from whence he foresaw he should soon be driven.” Having experienced the most romantic vicissitudes after his escape from Worcester, this monarch, in the disguise of a sailor, escaped to Dieppe in Normandy, in 1651; and he again, in 1660, embarked at Scheveling on board of his own fleet, which was waiting to receive him. The grateful monarch declared war against his Dutch friends in 1672, and entered into a private league with the French king to lay waste their provinces with fire and sword. From this beach too the Stadtholder, his son the hereditary prince, and two or three Dutch noblemen attached to the prostrate fortunes of the house of Orange, embarked when they fled to England: the vessel they sailed in was a small fishing cutter, navigated by five men; the princesses took their departure in a similar conveyance the day before.

Another interesting event also is recorded as having occurred off this coast, by Bishop Burnet, who in the History of his Own Times thus relates this marvellous circumstance: “There was one extraordinary thing happened near the Hague this summer (1672); I had it from many eye-witnesses, and no doubt was made of the truth of it by any at the Hague. Soon after the English fleet had refitted themselves, they appeared in sight of Scheveling, making up to the shore. The tide turned, but they reckoned that with the next flood they could certainly land the forces that were on board, where they were like to meet with no resistance. The States sent to the prince for some regiments to hinder the descent. He could not spare many men, having the French near him; so between the two, the country was given up for lost unless De Ruyter should quickly come up. The flood returned, which the people thought was to end in their ruin; but to all their amazement, after it had flowed two or three hours, an ebb of many hours succeeded, which carried the fleet again to sea; and before that was spent, De Ruyter came in view. This they reckoned a miracle wrought for their preservation.” It is also a curious circumstance that the reverse of this extraordinary effort of nature enabled the immortal Nelson to lay his fleet so as to bear upon the batteries by which the capital of Denmark was protected. The tide had never been known, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant of Copenhagen, to have risen so high as on the day when the battle first commenced, and greatly contributed to his success in persuading the gallant Danes that they were beaten.

De Ruyter, the Nelson of the Dutch, was distinguished for the boldness of his designs and the celerity of his execution. In 1653, with Van Tromp, he commanded the Dutch fleet against this country with the greatest honour to his flag. The Moors presented him with a Barbary horse, magnificently caparisoned, for his gallantly reaching his destined port in the Salee roads, and for capturing five powerful Algerine corsairs. The celebrated vice-admiral d’Estrés said of him in a letter to Colbert, on account of his noble conduct in those hard-fought engagements between the English, Dutch, and French fleets off the Texel, “I should be very willing to purchase with my life the glory which De Ruyter has acquired in these desperate actions.”

On our return we met groups of little girls, whose short petticoats, and protuberances on all sides, looked very grotesque. Many of the Dutch girls of the lower order wear twenty or thirty yards of flannel tied round their hips. In the village is a pauper house for the poor and aged, founded in 1614. On a week day, the road from Scheveling is more characteristically gay, being covered with fishwomen running and singing to the Hague, under loads of soles, cod, turbot, &c. to which place I returned, highly delighted with my excursion. In the neighbourhood of that city are several fine flower-gardens. The passion of the Dutch for flowers is well known. M. Dutens, in his very entertaining and interesting Memoirs of a Traveller in Retirement, says, that at the kermis or fair held at the Hague in the month of May, “I was witness to a circumstance I could not otherwise have believed, respecting the price of flowers in Holland; I saw four hundred and seventy-five guineas offered and refused for a hyacinth. It was to be sure the most charming flower that ever was seen: it belonged to a florist at Haarlem, and another florist offered this price for it. The reason which the owner gave me for refusing the offer was, that his hyacinth was known to all the amateurs of Europe, and that he sold the bulbs every year for more than the interest of five hundred guineas. These bulbs produced the same sort of flower in all its beauty.” This singular passion has not subsided: at Haarlem fine narcissuses and jonquils sell for an immense price, and parties are made every summer to visit the roses, which grow in great perfection at Noordwyk.

Upon our return to the Hague, we visited a palace of the ci-devant hereditary Prince of Orange; it forms three sides of an oblong square towards the street; it was converting into a public office; behind are some pretty gardens, one of which is less formal than Dutch gardens in general. I concluded the day by walking round a great part of the town, the whole of which is surrounded with avenues of trees, similiar to, but not so fine as the boulevards of Rouen. In the fish-market, the next day, I saw several storks, who were parading about in perfect security, of which they seemed to be thoroughly satisfied, and were every now and then regaled by the offal of the fish. The prejudices of the people have consecrated these birds, on account of their being considered as the gardes du corps of republican liberty. The Greeks and Romans regarded them with peculiar veneration; and in Thessaly the destroyer of one was punished with exile. No animal but this discovers any token of fondness for the authors of its existence after it has attained strength and discrimination sufficient to provide for itself. The stork is well known to evince an exemplary regard for its aged parents, whom it defends from attack, and furnishes with food; and well did it deserve the Roman appellation of “pia avis.” The Dutch frequently erect frames of wood upon the tops of their houses to encourage these their favourite birds to build their nests there. Perhaps another reason why these birds are so much cherished is that which renders them popular in Germany, namely, on account of their quick perception of fire, and the noise they make when it takes place. If the Dutch really believed that the storks could exist only in a pure republic, they must for some time past have renounced their credulity, for these birds have survived the visits of the French, and seem to have no objection to be enrolled amongst the subjects of the new King. It is said that they assemble at certain periods and hold consultations. Certain it is that the crows in England frequently meet with all the appearance of a deliberative body. A gentleman of distinguished talents and veracity assured me, that he once observed a vast body of crows assembled near his country-house, that after making a great deal of noise, one of them moved slowly into the middle, soon after which the rest fell upon him and pecked him to death. The quails are another species of privileged birds in Holland, particularly in Guelderland, where they are preserved with superstitious care in cages suspended on the outsides of houses. The swan too is much venerated here, and the raven is greatly cherished at Nimeguen.

The traveller will be well remunerated for his trouble in ascending to the top of the tower of St. Jacques, the only high devotional building in the Hague, except the new church: to obtain permission to do so, it is necessary to apply to the principal magistrate of the police, the reason for which precaution I could not learn. The view from this elevation is exquisitely beautiful; below, on one side lay expanded the square, the venerable pile of the town palace, its superb basin, the noble streets leading towards the wood, and the spires of distant villages fading in midst of the horizon; whilst, on the other side, stretched the avenues of Scheveling, terminated by the blue and sparkling ocean.

A whimsical little penalty followed this gratification; at the hotel where I resided, a Dutch waiter attended me, who imposed upon his master to believe that he spoke English very fluently, in consequence of which he was selected to wait upon all English and American visitors: the English language of this personage was a ridiculous collection of the heads, legs, wings, and tails of English words, mingled together with all the confusion of a giblet-pye. Upon my expressing to this flippant gentleman my wish to ascend the tower of the church, he said, interrupting me, “Oh, de roof, de roof.” I acquiesced, and away he flew; about an hour afterwards he returned in high perspiration with a billet, which instead of proving to be an order to view the town and country from the roof of the tower, was an acknowledgment of money for the ruif of the treckschuyt for Leyden the day following, viz. the whole of the cabin which he had engaged and paid the amount of for me.

In Holland, that bee-hive of industry, every available source of service is made use of, so that dogs, and even goats, are not suffered to pick the bone, or eat the bread of idleness. Most of the little wares and merchandizes, and particularly fish, are drawn by the former, who are properly harnessed for the occasion to little carts, whilst the latter are yoked to infantine waggons and curricles, to air and exercise little children in. It is really astonishing to see what weight these animals will draw after them; nothing can exceed their docility, and for their labour, the Hollander, who is remarkable for his humanity to the dumb creation, feeds them well, and lodges them in his house very comfortably. Owing to the great care paid to their dogs, the canine madness seldom appears amongst them. On Sundays they are permitted to refresh and enjoy themselves, and never show any disposition to escape from their lot of industry. In their farms, cows and oxen are always used in draft, and display every appearance of receiving the kindest treatment from their masters.

The theatre at the Hague is tastefully arranged, and supplied with a tolerable set of French comedians. The centre box is appropriated for the royal family, and is elegantly fitted up. Before the conversion of the republic into a kingdom, when the government resided in the hands of the Batavian directory, the ornaments of the box which was allotted to them, were very unworthy of the rank of the personages for whose accommodation it was reserved: a piece of paper, on which was written, “Le loge du directoire Batave,” and pasted on the box door, alone announced the dignity of its destination. The usual national spirit of economy used to display itself in the Dutch theatre, where, to prevent a useless consumption of tallow, whenever the musicians quitted the orchestra, they were bound by contract to extinguish the lights by which they read their music. In many tradesmen’s houses at this day in Holland, winter courtships are carried on in the dark, the union of warm love and rigid economy being considered a very laudable conjunction.

If we are to give credit to the ridiculous story which is still believed at a village called Loosduynen, about three miles from the Hague, the ladies are far from being economical in breeding. A Dutch author has gone so far as to declare, that he had seen the three hundred and sixty-five children of the Countess of Henesberg, and with pleasant minuteness describes them to be of the size of shrimps, and Erasmus believed the story. Those who have the hardihood to differ from such authorities, explain away the miracle by stating, that on the third day of January, the beggar wished the countess, who expected to lie in every hour, might have as many children as there had been days in the year, and that she on that day was delivered of three children.

The Hague was once celebrated for its many elegant, and especially for its literary societies; the latter have declined, whilst those of France have flourished and improved, amidst the frightful fluctuations of revolutionary tumult. Erasmus, Grotius, and Boerhaave, have conferred immortality upon the letters of Holland, as they would upon those of any nation; but the literary glory of the country seems not to have spread upon the demise of these illustrious sages. Hooft, Vondel, and Antonides, are known in Holland, but not out of it; and we have heard but faintly of Huygens, Graveszande, and Vandoveron in physic; of Voet in jurisprudence, and Burman and Gronovius in the belles lettres.

It is certain, that if the Dutch poets are to be considered as favoured by Apollo, a condescension which those who are best acquainted with their productions much doubt, they have made more successful advances in the most difficult of poetical composition. I have heard of three epic writers; Antonides, before mentioned, who wrote an epic poem on the river Y, on which the city of Amsterdam is erected; Rotzans, and the author of Abraham de Aartsvader, or the history of Abraham the Patriarch. The Dutch mention with great exultation the name of De Cotts, who, like our Prior, united the characters of poet and statesman; his sensibility is said to have been very acute, his fancy very luxuriant, and his powers of versification very mellifluous. So attractive were the Muses, that when he held the splendid office of lord keeper of the seals in Holland and West Friesland, and stadtholder of the fiefs, he retired to his native shades to tune his oaten reed, which entitled him amongst his countrymen to the appellation of the Dutch Ovid: at the earnest solicitation of their high mightinesses, he quitted his lyre and beloved retreat, and appeared at the court of Cromwell in the character of ambassador of the States to England, where he was received with that politeness and attention which our country never fails to observe towards strangers of merit and distinction. Having accomplished the object of his mission, he retired from the bustle of life to his native country, in the bosom of which he expired, beloved, honoured, and lamented.

I was not much surprised to find that the splendor of the Hague was principally confined to its buildings, although it has been so often, in other times, celebrated for its magnificence and the expense of its inhabitants: the revolution expelled its hereditary princes, dispersed its nobles, and visited every description of society with more or less distress. However, I was informed by those who were enabled to compare, that it is again rearing its head. Before the revolution, sumptuous equipages and various other characteristics of polished luxury were displayed in almost every street; and the foreign ministers vied with each other in costly splendor: during the operation of that political hurricane scarce any other carriage was to be seen save a few crazy fiacres, and every servant was stripped of his livery. At present, society seems to be returning to many of its original habits, and some handsome equipages appeared in different parts of the town; yet, upon the whole, the first impression of its gloom was never effaced.

Upon inquiry after the present state of literature at this place, I found it was considered at a very low ebb: the press of the Hague was once justly celebrated, but has of late emitted little more than a few pamphlets of inconsiderable merit. Before the revolution there were several capital booksellers’ shops, of which I could only discover two; the books in their shops, apparently the remains of declining literary traffic, were neither very numerous nor very valuable. The booksellers formerly found very ample encouragement in the affluence of the court, and many petty German princes who selected the Hague for their residence. It has been asserted that as the Hague contained the seat of the executive government and of the representative bodies during the revolution, it suffered much less than any other town in the republic; but this I was well assured was not the case, because the commercial towns still derived resources from their commerce and enterprize, through the medium of neutral bottoms and other circuitous modes of traffic, notwithstanding the severity of British blockades and the vigilance of British cruisers.

The Hague has produced several very distinguished painters; amongst others I must beg to mention Daniel Mytens, who was born in 1636, and went to study at Rome, and afterwards employed himself in designing after the antique, in copying the most celebrated paintings of the best artists, and adding considerably to his improvement by an intimacy which he formed there with Carlo Maratti and Carlo Loti. The dreadful habits of dissipation to which Mytens was addicted, deplorably interfered with his advancement in his profession. His imagination was lively, his colouring agreeable, his composition good, and he designed with great facility. After a long residence in Italy, he returned to the Hague, where he was much admired and cherished by the lovers of the arts: his eminent qualities were displayed in those works which he painted at Rome, and upon his return to the Hague, where, not many years after, his productions became greatly depreciated, from his constant indulgence in the most intemperate excesses, to which he at length fell a victim in the year 1688. He acquired much and deserved reputation for the sketch of a very noble design for a ceiling of the painters’ hall at the Hague: this work commenced, and left unfinished for some years; at length he roused himself from his indolence, but it was only to show what ravages it had made on his fine abilities, for he only injured the work which he attempted to improve. Another distinguished artist, who has shed lustre upon the Hague, is John Hanneman, who was born here in 1611; by some he was said to have been a pupil of Vandyke. By others, and with greater probability, that of Hubert Ravestein; and in the soft and delicate tints of his carnations, he is considered to be very little inferior to Vandyke: many of Hanneman’s copies of that illustrious artist are mistaken for the originals.

Hanneman continued in England sixteen years, and upon his return to the Hague became the favourite painter of the Princess of Orange: he was also employed by the Prince of Nassau, for whom he painted, amongst others, several historical pictures, which are now highly esteemed. The third and last artist I shall mention is John le Duc, who was born at the Hague in 1636, and was a disciple of Paul Potter, so justly celebrated as a painter of cattle, whose works, however, are often scarcely distinguishable from those of his pupil. His principal subjects were the same as those of his master, viz. horses, sheep, goats, cows, &c. He finished his pictures very highly, and possessed great facility of pencil and purity of style. He was appointed director of the academy of painting at the Hague in the year 1671. The desire of distinguishing himself in arms induced him to exert all his interest to obtain a company, and such was his gallantry in the field, that he obtained the epithet of “Brave,” after which, unfortunately for the arts, he neither painted nor designed.

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.

After spending some days very pleasantly at the Hague, I proceeded to the Leyden treckschuyt, which lay at a great distance from the hotel, where I found, from the blunder of the waiter before detailed, that I was considered as a personage of considerable consequence, on account of my having engaged the whole of the ruif to myself. The day was brilliantly fine, and nothing could be more delightful than my passage to Leyden: for two miles and a half the left bank of the canal presented an unbroken succession of handsome country-houses and highly cultivated grounds, which although laid out like so many vegetable problems, abounded with a variety of forms, which, as they were clad in luxuriant green, were very agreeable. Many of these spots were graced by the acacia and Weymouth pine, to which the soil and climate seemed to be congenial. On the other side were rich meadows, whose vivid green seemed to rival that of the emerald, and corn-fields yellow with harvest. Enchanted with the day and the scenery, I envied not the aquatic pomp of Cleopatra, although

“The barge she sat in like a burnish’d throne

“Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold,

“Purple the sails, and so performed, that

“The winds were love-sick with them.”

The blunder of the waiter added not a little to the delights of my passage, for I sat a solitary grandee upon the top of the cabin, without a soul to interrupt the happy frame of my mind formed by the lovely prospects on every side of me. In this agreeable manner three hours and a half passed away with feathered fleetness, and at the end of a long avenue of trees and a line of water, the spires and elevated buildings of Leyden appeared. We stopped about half way from the Hague at Leydehendam, a very neat pretty village, the neighbourhood of which abounds with pleasure houses and gardens. The country as I approached Leyden appeared to be thickly wooded, and displayed the novel variety of a gentle undulation of ground. After passing through a beautiful boulevard, and crossing some drawing bridges, I entered the elegant city of Leyden through the white gate, and proceeded to a very comfortable hotel in the principal street, called the Broad street, the length, spaciousness, and beauty of which entitles it to the highest admiration: there is no canal in it, and the buildings on each side are very handsome, many of them splendid mansions. This seat of learning is considered to be one of the handsomest in Holland, and next in size to Amsterdam; the entrance to it is through seven stone gates, at each of which is a draw-bridge: the town is surrounded with a rampart, and a deep, broad canal, and is adorned by beautiful shady walks. The number of bridges in this city is astonishing, they are said to exceed one hundred and forty-five of stone and railed with iron. It has also many canals, the most beautiful of which is the Rapenburg. It has been compared by travellers to Oxford, but I cannot see any resemblance, except in its being devoted to learning, and consequently presenting many of those features of meditation and consequent tranquillity, which are to be found in places destined to similiar objects: but in its fortification, its buildings, streets, and canals, there is unquestionably no resemblance. The channels or gutters of the Broad street are covered with boards which open like a trap door, into which the moment any dirt is lodged, it is removed by persons appointed for that purpose; and lofty common pumps, with large brass ornaments constantly scoured and kept bright, are placed in different parts of it, to supply the inhabitants and to purify the street, of which they are not a little proud. The fame of Lucas Van Leyden made the stadt-house or town-hall the object of my first visit; it is a vast gothic building, presenting a very long irregular front, in a very uncouth style of architecture, surmounted by a small steeple, which is crowded with carillons, and stands in the centre of the Broad street. As I ascended the grand staircase, a painter was giving a finishing touch to some large stone lions, which by way of blending them with the stone colour of the rest of the building, he had painted vividly red. In one of the apartments, which was very heavy and gloomy, I beheld the celebrated production of Lucas Van Leyden, or Hugens, who was born here in 1494, and died in 1533. This picture is in three divisions, the two external smaller ones being made like folding doors, to close if necessary over the middle one. The subject is the last judgment, for which vast sums of money have been repeatedly offered to the magistrates of the town and refused. I must confess I felt no more pleasure in contemplating this picture than what arose from its great antiquity. There are a great number of figures in it: the females are wholly destitute of beauty, at the same time there is a freedom in the outline: many of their limbs appear to be elongated, and every head seems to have been taken from the same subject, and wholly destitute of expression; however, considering the early period in which the artist flourished, it is a very curious and valuable production. This painter was instructed in the principles of his art by his father, Hugens Jacobs, an artist of some consideration: it is said that Lucas from his infancy displayed incessant application, and at the age of nine and twelve years astonished the artists of his time by his works. After he had learned the rudiments of his art under his father, he became a pupil of Cornelius Engelbrecht; at the age of fifteen he painted the history of St. Hubert, which elevated him to high distinction in his art. On account of the principles of perspective not being known in his early time, he proportioned the strength of his colouring to the different degrees of distance, in which his objects were placed. He painted not only in oil, but in destemper and on glass. A famous print of this master’s engraving, the subject a bagpiper, is also mentioned, which sold for a hundred ducatoons or twenty pounds sterling.

In the justice hall is a celebrated picture of Harel de Moor, who was born in this town in 1656; the subject, Brutus condemning his sons, the design, the colouring and finishing of which are very beautiful. De Moor had great and highly merited honours paid to him by various princes and distinguished personages, particularly by the emperor of Germany who directed his ambassador Count Singendoff to engage him to paint the portraits of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough on horseback, with which his imperial patron was so gratified, that he conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, and nobly rewarded him in a more substantial manner for his admirable production: he had also the honour of painting that mighty savage of the North, Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy. Under the picture of Brutus are some elegant Latin verses; there is also a large picture representing the bravery of its citizens, who are rendered immortal in the page of history for the heroic valour they displayed during a siege, which in the year 1573, for five months, visited this place with all the horrors of war, disease, and famine. The historian can scarcely do adequate justice to these heroes. After the Spaniards had been compelled to raise the siege of Alkmaar, they determined upon directing their forces against Leyden, from the trenches of which they were bravely repulsed by Count Louis of Nassau, brother to the then Prince of Orange; but having been reinforced, they returned to the attack; when the Spanish general, Francis Valdey, discovering that he could not take the place by storm, resolved upon reducing it by famine, and a scene of horror ensued which baffles the powers of the pen to describe. The Spanish General, Frederic of Toledo, son of the execrable Duke of Alva, repulsed a body of English auxiliaries who were coming to the relief of the besieged, in consequence of which the blockade was so vigilantly conducted, that the wretched inhabitants could derive no provisions from without. In this dreadful dilemma, they drew lots to determine which should fall each day to afford sustenance to the rest with their bodies; and it is said that the spirit of patriotism ran so high, that many of them anticipated this desperate alternative, and voluntarily slew themselves to furnish food to their brave fellow-citizens and soldiers. An extraordinary female patriot, of the name of Kenneva, headed the women, led them to the ramparts, where they assisted the nearly exhausted soldiery in working the cannon, and displayed that enthusiastic courage which great occasions will generally find lodged in that bosom which is the seat of every gentle, every tender feeling, and ought only to heave with the tenderest emotions. Many of them stabbed themselves, to assist in preserving the survivors, and expiring exclaimed, “See, my poor valiant friends, your provision for the rest of the day.” But notwithstanding these terrible sacrifices, and supplies of human flesh, many thousands of the garrison and burghers perished. The Spaniards, having been informed of their situation, again summoned them to surrender, and allowed a truce of an hour for deliberation, during which a consultation was held, the unanimous determination of which was contained the following reply: “Tell your arrogant general, that we shall not want the means of life whilst a left arm remains upon any of our shoulders, and with our right we shall continue to fight for our liberties to the last.” At length, broken down by their frightful situation, and hopeless of relief, after having exhibited prodigies of valor, and the sublimest acts of patriotism and resignation, the miserable survivors of this ghastly scene of desolation assembled round the house of Peter Adrian de Werf, the chief magistrate of the city, a man of great influence amongst the people, and implored him to sanction with his fiat the surrender of the place; but this noble being preferring, like Cato, to perish rather than see his country in the possession of a tyrant, thus addressed his emaciated brethren: “My brave comrades! cut this body in pieces; it is better that I should die for you, than by the enemy: my wounds disable me from further service. Take courage, let me receive death from your hands, and let my miserable frame furnish a wretched meal for some of you. Take me, and may Leyden be victorious, and her glory immortal!” Deeply impressed by such firmness and eloquence, his auditors turned their haggard countenances aside, and with the convulsive energy of expiring nature, rushed again to the rampart, and soon afterwards they were thrown into an agony of joy by the arrival of two carrier pigeons, to whose feet were tied stalks of corn and hemp, in which letters were concealed, announcing that relief was at hand. The Dutch confederates, having no other mode of relieving the inhabitants of Leyden, broke down the dykes of the Maese and the Yssel, inundated the Spanish camp, and the beautiful country which surrounds Leyden, and enabled Louis Brissot, admiral of Zealand, to send many flat-bottomed boats, well armed, to the succour of the besieged. This desperate measure compelled the Spanish general to evacuate his camp, and to retire with such of his army as did not perish by the waters, into their own country. This siege, which commenced shortly after Easter, was raised the third of October, on which day a supply of provisions was brought to the famished inhabitants, who greedily devoured the food, amidst tears and convulsive inarticulate exclamations to heaven for their delivery, and many of them dropped down dead upon too rapidly satisfying their ravenous appetites. After this signal deliverance, the Prince of Orange, although suffering under severe illness, ordered himself to be carried in a litter to Leyden, to condole with and express his admiration of its heroic inhabitants: the interview, as well as many scenes which occurred during the siege, must have afforded a fine subject for the pencil. He gave them their option of being exempted for a certain period from taxes, or of having an university founded in their town; when, with noble and disinterested wisdom, they gave the preference to the latter. Never did any seat of learning originate from a nobler cause: it may be said to have been endowed by the blood of the brave. The clergy of Leyden, in a public oration, still celebrate the anniversary of the glorious third of October, in which the story of the siege, and the deliverance of the town are feelingly recapitulated. I was surprised to find that such a subject had not more frequently engaged the pencil of the many divine artists which Holland has produced: the picture which led me to mention the above story is, in my humble opinion, unworthy of the subject; the figures are badly grouped, and express no one emotion which can affect the mind. After quitting the stadt-house, the evening being very fine, I ascended a large mount, which may be considered as a great curiosity in Holland, in the centre of the town, where there is a fine view of it: this mount is surrounded by a high wall, and is said to be the scite of a castle built by Hengist, king of the West Saxons, on his conquest in England, or, what is more likely, by one of the antient counts of Holland. The town presented a very beautiful appearance from this spot, but it is not elevated enough to enable the visitor to see the surrounding country: the fruit-trees in the gardens which encompassed the wall were loaded with very fine fruit, particularly pears, plumbs, and apples. This place is much resorted to, on Sundays and holidays, by the citizens and their families, to smoke and enjoy the beauty of the prospect, and the refreshing sweetness of the air.

The next morning I visited the university of Leyden, which stands by the Rapenburg canal: it is the most venerable seminary in Holland; and, by the great number of learned and famous men which it has produced, does honour to the luster of its origin. There is scarcely a science which has not been improved and extended in this hallowed seat of learning; which has to boast amongst its members the immortal name of the younger Scaliger, who bequeathed to it his valuable Hebrew library; of the two Hensius, father and son; the former of whom was invited by Pope Urban the eighth to Venice, “to rescue,” as he expressed it, “that city from barbarism;” and both of whom shone like stars of the first magnitude in every branch of graceful literature; of Salmasius, the profound and able competitor of our immortal Milton; of Boerhaave, whose consummate knowledge of physic, attracted pupils from the most distant parts of Europe; and of many other illustrious persons, who have shed honour and distinction upon their country and the times in which they flourished. The students board in town at different lodging-houses, wherever their inclinations or resources may dispose them; they wear no regular habit; when the professors appear in public, they wear a large black silk gown, bordered with velvet, on which the word ‘Leyden’ is worked in silver. My next visit was to the botanic garden, rendered immortal by the illustrious Boerhaave, as that of Upsal, in Sweden, has been by Linnæus. Haller says, in speaking of Boerhaave in the Leyden Botanical Garden, “sæpe vidimus ante Auroram optimum senen ligneiscalceis per hortum repentem, ut comminus et cultum herbarum perspiceret, et flores fructusque specularetur.” We have often seen the good old man before the morning dawn, crawling about the garden in the wooden slippers, that he might immediately superintend the culture of plants, and speculate on their flowers and fruits. This great man was born at Woerhout, near Leyden, in 1668; at the age of fifteen he found himself without parents, protection, advice, or fortune: he had then profoundly studied theology, intending to devote himself to a clerical life; but the science of nature presented all her attractions, and for some time wholly absorbed his contemplation. In 1693 he was created doctor of physic, which he then regularly practised. At this time he could scarcely exist by his labours, and was compelled to teach the mathematics to procure the bare necessaries of life, although he left at his demise the vast fortune of two hundred thousand pounds. At length his genius dissolved the darkness in which he was enveloped, many powerful friends gathered round him, and procured for him the valuable appointments of professor of medicine in the university of Leyden, of chemistry, and of botany. The Academy of Sciences at Paris and the Royal Society at London, to each of which he imparted his discoveries in chemistry, invited him to become one of their members. Whilst Boerhaave presided in the chair, in chemistry, medicine, and botany, the city of Leyden was considered the school of Europe in these sciences. In 1715, when Peter the Great went to Holland to study maritime affairs, he regularly attended the lectures of Boerhaave. So widely diffused was his fame, that a mandarine in China wrote to him a letter thus superscribed; “To the illustrious Boerhaave, physician in Europe,” and it was regularly received. It was the daily practice of this eminent physician, through his whole life, as soon as he rose in the morning, which was generally very early, to retire for an hour to private prayer, and meditation on some part of the Scriptures. He often told his friends, when they asked him how it was possible to go through so much fatigue, that it was this which gave him spirit and vigour in the business of the day. This he therefore recommended as the best rule he could give; for nothing, he said, could tend more to the health of the body than the tranquillity of the mind, and that he knew nothing which could support himself and his fellow-creatures, amidst the various distresses of human life but a well-grounded confidence in the Supreme Being, upon the principles of christianity: the truth of his doctrine he finely illustrated in his severe illness in 1722, when the course of his lectures and his practice were long interrupted. Of his sagacity and wonderful penetration in the discovery and description of such distempers as betray themselves by no symptoms to common eyes, such surprising accounts have been given, as scarcely can be credited, though attested beyond all doubt. Yet this great master of medical knowledge was so far from feeling a presumptuous confidence in his mighty talents, or from being inflated by his prodigious wealth, that his condescension to the humblest being who approached him, and his unceasing professional application were ever the theme of admiration and astonishment.

He often used to say, what will make many a practitioner in physic tremble, that the life of a patient (if trifled with or neglected), would one day be required at the hand of the physician. He used to call the poor his best patients, nobly observing, that God would be their paymaster; the lustre of his eyes bespoke the activity and vivacity of his mind. He was always cheerful and desirous of promoting every valuable end of conversation. He disregarded calumny and detraction; for even Boerhaave had enemies, and never troubled himself to confute them. “They are sparks,” said he, “which, if you do not blow, will go out of themselves. The surest remedy against scandal is to live it down, by a perseverance in well doing; and by praying to God that he would cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and injure us.” He was never over-awed by the magnificence or presence of great men, but boldly persisted in proceeding in what he considered to be right, and left the consequence to God. He was enabled, with unexampled celerity and acuteness, to penetrate into the tempers and characters of persons at a glance of his eye. A friend, one day, who had often admired his patience under great provocations, asked him, if he ever knew what it was to be angry? to which Boerhaave replied with the most perfect frankness, “that he was naturally quick of resentment; but, that by prayer and meditation, he had obtained complete mastery over his passions; this he attributed, as he did every good thought, and every laudable action, to his God.”

About the middle of the year 1737, he felt the first approaches of that indisposition which was destined to bring him to his grave, viz. a disorder in his breast, which was occasionally very painful, often threatened him with immediate suffocation, and finally terminated in an universal dropsy: during all the anguish which he suffered, his placid temper and firmness of mind never forsook him; he attended at once to the ordinary duties of life as if in full health, and prepared for that death which his skill and experience enabled him to know was not very distant.

About three weeks before his dissolution, when the Rev. Mr. Schultens, one of the most learned and exemplary divines of his age, attended him at his country-house, the Doctor desired his prayers, and afterwards entered into a sublime discourse with him on the spiritual and immaterial parts of the soul, which he illustrated with wonderful perspicuity, by a description of the effects which the infirmities of his body had upon his faculties, which, however, they did not so oppress, or vanquish, but his soul was always master of itself, and always resigned to the pleasure of its Maker, and then added, “He who loves God ought to think nothing desirable but what is most pleasing to the supreme goodness.” As death approached nearer, he seemed to be more happy, amidst the increase of corporeal torments, and at length, on the 23d September, 1738, he sunk under them in his 70th year. His funeral oration was spoken in Latin before the university of Leyden, to a crowded audience, by his friend Mr. Schultens, amidst tears of genuine regret and sympathy. The city of Leyden has raised a monument in the church of St. Peter, to the sanative genius of Boerhaave, “Salutifero Boerhaavii genio sacrum.” It consists of an urn upon a pedestal of black marble, with a group representing the four ages of life, and the two sciences in which Boerhaave excelled. The capital of this basis is decorated with a drapery of white marble, in which the artist has shown the different emblems of disorders, and their remedies. Upon the pedestal is the medallion of Boerhaave; at the extremity of the frame, a ribband displays the favourite motto of this learned man, “Simplex vigilum veri.” Professor Allamand had destined a very fine piece of red jasper to be employed in this medallion, but on account of the great expense of cutting the stone his design was abandoned. His pictures represent him as above the middle size, well proportioned, and of a strong constitution; when age had silvered over his hair, his countenance was said to have been extremely venerable and expressive, and to have much resembled the head of Socrates, but with features more softened and engaging. He was an eloquent orator, and declaimed with great dignity and grace. He taught very methodically, and with great precision, but always so captivated his auditors, that they regretted the close of his discourses, which he often enlivened with a sprightly turn of raillery; but it was ever refined, ingenious, and incapable of offending. He used to say, “that decent mirth was the salt of life.” In the practice of medicine he gave a decided preference to green over dried herbs, thinking that there was more virtue in herbs when they had their juices, than when decayed and withered. He was a great admirer of simples, and consequently was not a great patron of the apothecaries. When health would permit he regularly rode on horseback; when his strength began to fail he walked, and upon his return home, music, of which he was passionately fond, gladdened the hours of relaxation, and enabled him to return to his labours with redoubled alacrity. Dr. Johnson has written the following beautiful eulogium on this great man; “A man formed by nature for great designs, and guided by religion in the exertion of his abilities; determined to lose none of his hours, when he had attained one science, he attempted another; he added physic to divinity; chemistry to the mathematics, and anatomy to botany. He recommended truth by his elegance, and embellished the philosopher with polite literature; yet his knowledge, however uncommon, holds in his character but a second place; for his virtue was more uncommon than his learning. He ascribed all his abilities to the bounty, and all his goodness to the grace of his God. May those who study his writings imitate his life! and those who endeavour after his knowledge, aspire likewise to his piety.”

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.

The botanic garden is not very large; in the time of Boerhaave it must have been small indeed, as its history represents it to have been considerably enlarged since that period: in the frontispiece of his Index Horti L. Bat. 1710, it is represented to be a petty square piece of ground. It now occupies about four acres, and is in excellent order: the trees and plants are marked according to the Linnæan system; but it is infinitely inferior in value and arrangement to the botanic gardens of Upsala and of the Dublin Society. Amongst the plants, I approached with the reverence due to it, the venerable remains of vegetable antiquity, in the shape of a palm, which stands in a tub in the open air, supported by a thin frame of iron work; it is about fourteen feet high, and was raised from seed by the celebrated Carolus Clusius, who died professor at Leyden in 1609: the professor who attended me, presented me with a bit of its bark, as a little relic. This tree and the pot in which it grows, are also figured in the frontispiece of Boerhaave’s Index before mentioned: it there appears to have been about half as high as at present, and is said to be the palm mentioned by Linnæus in his Prælectiones in Ordines Naturales Plantarum, p. 27, published by Giseke in 1792, at Hamburgh, which Linnæus suspected to be a chamærops, but which, as the ingenious Dr. Smith observes, his editor rightly refers to the rhapis flabelli formis, Ait. Hort. Kew, v. iii. p. 473. It comes from China and Japan: there is a tree of this kind, and about as large, in the botanic garden at Paris, and another at Pisa. In this garden is also the ginkgo of the Chinese, a standard twenty feet high; Strelitzia reginæ, Ait. Hort. Kew, v. i. p. 285, tab. 2, which has never yet flowered in any garden out of England; the olea laurifolia, a new species according to Mr. Van Royen; Royena lucida in flower, as large as a moderate hawthorn tree, and thought to be very handsome; and a singular plant from the Cape, supposed to be an echites, with a large tuberous root raised high above the surface of the ground, two or three weak stems a foot high, and large dark brown flowers. In the university library is Rauwolf’s Herbarium, which is very magnificent, and the plants well preserved; also Boccone’s Herbarium of the plants described in his Fasciculus Plantarum, published by Morison at Oxford, in 1674; these specimens are very poor: Herman’s Collection of Ceylon Plants is also here, which are a part of the celebrated Herbarium, the rest of which is at Copenhagen; also a volume of West India plants, belonging to Herman, which are very scarce in Holland, and a fine collection of mathematical instruments; amongst other things, a most pure and brilliant prism of Brazil pebble, and a two-inch cube of Iceland refracting spar, perfectly clear and free from blemish.

In a very long apartment in the gallery there are some busts and statues in tolerable preservation, but of no great value; the best are busts of Nero and Agrippina, Servilius and a Bacchus: they were presented to the university by a citizen of the town. I was shown into a small room containing some stuffed birds and beasts, which were in very poor condition. The theatre of anatomy is very near the botanic garden; in it is a valuable collection of anatomical and pathological subjects. This hall is well worthy the notice of the traveller, as well for its valuable contents, as for having furnished Europe with some of its best physicians. This library is celebrated throughout Europe, for the many valuable specimens of oriental literature with which it abounds, exclusive of the books before mentioned. Golius, upon his return from the East, and who afterwards filled with great reputation the Arabic professorship of the university, has enriched this valuable depositary of learning with many Arabic, Turkish, Chaldean, and Persian manuscripts. I have before mentioned that Joseph Scaliger bequeathed his valuable collection of Hebrew books to it. The precious manuscripts contained here are said to exceed eight thousand. Since the last war commenced, no addition of English publications has been made to this library, which contains the Transactions of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies of London, and the Histories of Gibbon, Robertson, and Hume. To suffer an inimical disposition between two countries to erect a barrier between intellectual communication is giving additional barbarism to the ferocity of war. To the honour of England and France, they have never permitted those melancholy conflicts which have so long, and so fatally inflamed the one against the other, to check the free and liberal interchange of philosophical discovery and literary investigation. Whilst the respective governments have been engaged in reciprocal schemes of vengeance, the learned societies of both countries have communed with each other in the language of peace and liberality.

The king of Spain has presented this library with some magnificent folios, descriptive of the antiquities of Herculaneum. The books are principally bound in fine white parchment, and are gilded and decorated with considerable taste and splendor. There are in this room several excellent portraits of eminent men who have belonged to the university, or who have been benefactors to it: the head of that elegant and voluptuous poet Johannes Secundus, who died at the age of twenty-five, distinguishable for its dark penetrating eyes, adust complexion, and black hair and beard, is very fine. There are also very interesting portraits of Janus Douse, who during the siege of Leyden exhibited the most admirable heroism, by which he acquired the applause of the Prince of Orange and the government of the town: this hero shone in letters as well as arms; also of Erasmus at different stages of his life; of Hugo Donellus, painted after death, in which all the appearances of mortality are finely imitated with ghastly precision; also of Daniel Heinsius, and a miniature of Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein. There are also several medallion likenesses of distinguished Englishmen carved in ivory, such as Milton, Marvel, Ludlow, Wickliffe, Harrington, &c. &c. executed by an English refugee, who took shelter in Holland after the overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion. There is a museum of natural history, principally collected by Professor Allemand, containing some fine ores, corals, and pebbles, and also some rare quadrupeds and amphibia: also a young ostrich in the egg; the nautilus with the animal in it, and some papilios. In the anatomical theatre are the valuable preparations of Albinus, amongst them are specimens of the progress of ossification in the fœtus. This university has also to boast of the works of Mr. Pestel, professor of jurisprudence, for his admirable work, entitled Fundamenta Jurisprudentiæ Naturalis. The constitutional regulations of this university are conceived in a noble spirit of liberality. No offensive obligations, no religious tests, no repulsive oaths, are imposed, no insidious attempts at proselytism are exercised. Youths of every religious persuasion mingle together in perfect harmony; like brothers they aggregate to study, and not to quarrel about modes of faith. Whatever may be the rank of the student, or from whatever country he may come, he speedily adopts the decent, gentle, and frugal manners and habits of the inhabitants. The long war and revolution in this country have naturally withdrawn a great number of young men of rank and fortune from this seminary, and prevented others from entering it. The students do not now exceed two hundred. A considerable number of English students, in a period of peace, used to flock to this illustrious academy, which, as well as the beauty, tranquillity, cleanliness, and salubrity of the city in which it stands, and the cheapness and perfect freedom of living, and the charms of the surrounding country, holds out the strongest attractions to the recluse and studious. The examinations for academical honours are more severe than even for those of Trinity College Dublin.

Amongst other circumstances which have concurred to crown Leyden with celebrity, I must not omit to relate that its neighbourhood gave birth to Rembrandt in 1606. His real name was Gerretz, but he is known by the name of Van Ryn, an appellation given to him from the place where he spent the youthful part of his life, on the borders of the Rhine. This illustrious artist is one amongst the many instances which might be produced, of the effect of accidental circumstances in early life determining the character and formation of genius; he derived his peculiarity of shade from the circumstance of his father’s mill receiving light from an aperture at the top, which, and not his studying under Jacob Pinas, gradually led him to use that breadth of shade for which he was so eminently distinguished. At a very early period he exhibited strong proofs of genius for painting, and by his productions astonished his master Jacques Van Zwanenburg, in whose school he continued three years. His father’s mill, and the circumjacent country, first attracted his attention, which, with the heavy living objects with whom he associated, so completely possessed his mind, that he seldom selected any others which were beautiful or graceful. When very young, one of his friends prevailed upon him to go to Amsterdam, and offer one of his pictures for sale, which he did, and sold it to a very able judge of genius in his line for one hundred florins. He went on foot with the treasure under his arm, but returned in a carriage. This trifling circumstance induced him to settle in that city, where he soon became solicited by persons of the first distinction for his works. Here, from the number of pupils who flocked to him, and the great demand for his paintings, wealth poured in upon him copiously. For instructing each of his pupils he received one hundred florins per annum, but becoming avaricious as he became wealthy, he sold a great number of copies made by them for his own pictures, in which he deceived the purchaser by retouching several parts. The swindling tricks and stratagems by which this great artist used to raise money, threw a deeper breadth of shade than his pencil ever cast upon his canvass, over the brighter parts of his genius. It is related that one of his pupils, well knowing his rapacious disposition, painted a number of coins upon some cards which he laid upon his master’s table when he was from home; on his return, he ran eagerly to seize them and recovered the vexation of his disappointment, only by admiring the dexterity of the deception.

Rembrandt was a great humourist. One day when he was painting a large family picture, and one of the subjects was actually sitting to him, his servant informed him of the death of his favourite monkey, which he felt so sensibly, and whimsically, that he immediately ordered the dead body to be brought in, and drew it as one of the group, which he would not expunge, although the family refused to pay for the picture before it was effaced. His finest historical pictures are those of Ahasuerus, Esther and Haman; the woman taken in adultery; and St. John preaching in the wilderness, which are said to be touched with inexpressible fire and spirit. The imagination of this great artist was lively and active, and his invention very fertile: he had a large collection of old draperies, armour, weapons, and turbans, which he used sportively to call his antiques; these he preferred to any of the works of the Grecian artists. He had also a great number of the finest Italian prints, drawings, and designs, many of them taken from the antiques, which afforded him gratification, but do not appear to have ameliorated his taste. His portraits are excellent, and resemble life as near to perfection as possible, but his airs and attitudes are defective of grace and dignity. Many of his heads display such minute exactness, that even the hairs of the beard, and the wrinkles of old age, are given with the most exquisite fidelity. The portrait appears to breathe upon the canvass. It is a curious circumstance that his lights were produced by a colour unusually thick, more resembling modeling than painting, but every tint was so judiciously placed, that it remained on the canvass in full freshness, beauty, and lustre. The etchings of Rembrandt are greatly admired, and are regarded as prime treasures in the cabinets of the curious in most parts of Europe: these productions rival his paintings, every stroke of the graver exhibits expression and life: his genuine works are rarely to be met with, but whenever they are presented for sale, they produce incredible prices. In the splendid collection of Mr. Desenfans, are some exquisite productions of this and other Flemish masters; this collection is, upon the whole, the best in England, and is exhibited to persons of respectability, without cost, by its liberal possessor.

Amongst the curiosities of Leyden, I did not take the trouble of seeing the shopboard of the celebrated John of Leyden, a character distinguishable for its ambition, enterprize, and ferocity: those who have furnished us with an account of this aspiring monster, relate that his name was Bucold; that from being the son of a taylor, and brought up to his father’s trade, he resolved upon becoming a king; that accordingly he first tasted of royalty on the board of a strolling company of comedians in the character of a prince, which affording him much gratification, he connected himself with a baker of Amsterdam, a fanatic, who called himself God’s vicegerent upon the earth, and declared that he was sent to illuminate the world. This fellow, previous to his becoming the associate of John of Leyden, assumed the name of Thomas Munster, and impregnated a number of Germans with his religious phrenzy, which aimed at the demolition of the doctrine of Luther: this fanatic faction spread with incredible celerity, until the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the duke of Brunswick, resolved upon drawing the sword against these furious zealots. The prophet Munster was taken prisoner and lost his head; but soon after, as if inspirited by this blow, John of Leyden took Munster at the head of a troop of sanguinary bigots, and ordered himself to be proclaimed king. After this ceremony was performed he committed the most horrible outrages: in the name of God, he battered down all the churches, and changed the religion of the country; he recommended polygamy, and kept a seraglio of sixteen wives, one of whom endeavoured to assassinate the Bishop of Waldeck, who fortunately seized the poniard from her hand, and plunged it into her own bosom; and another, John himself put to death for hesitation in complying with his wishes. When he appeared in the streets of Munster, he wore a crown upon his head, carried a sword in one hand, and the New Testament in the other, and was preceded on horseback by a group of dancing boys, whilst the sides were by his mandates, crowded with the prostrate terrified citizens, who were punished with instant death if they stood, or remained covered in his presence. The reign of this petty tyrant was brief: the Bishop of Munster besieged the town, which suffered nearly the same horrors which I have described to have occurred at Leyden, when the Spaniards sat down before it; the living fed upon the dead, and a look that intimated a wish to surrender was punished with instant death. The miseries which surrounded him, served only to inflame the fanatical spirit of the monster; at last, however, the town was taken by surprise, and John and the ministers of his bloody ambition were conducted before the victorious prelate, to whom, after being charged with the enormities which he had committed, he is said to have replied, with the craft of a coward, in the following manner: “The possession of my person has cost you much money and much blood, my death will be a loss to you, my life may become a source of profit to you, put me in an iron cage, set a price upon the exhibition of me, and send me through Europe, thus will you in the end be the gainer by me.” The bishop saw through his object which was the dastard preservation of his forfeited life, and accordingly ordered him to be put to death with a refinement of cruelty, at the relation of which human nature sickens, abhorred as the victim was. Two executioners tore his flesh slowly asunder with red hot pincers, and after the mitred conqueror and his followers had glutted their eyes with his writhings, and their ears with his screams, a javelin pierced his heart, and his mangled body was thrown into a cage, and exposed to the birds of the air from the steeple of St. Lambert’s church. It has been observed by some travellers, that the Dutch are much given to a tremulous motion of the head. I saw no instance of this national trait except, where I expected to find it, among old and paralytic persons. The practice of bowing is not confined to the Dutchman, though adduced against him as a sort of blemish by every Englishman who extends his rambles no farther than Holland: throughout Germany the same courtesy is displayed, and even among the common Russian boors the practice of exchanging bows is quite common.

I was not much gratified with the church of St. Peter, the principal one in the city; it is a large ponderous building, in the worst style of gothic architecture. In this structure the English and Russian soldiers were confined when taken prisoners at Alkmaar. The poor Russians, who expected no quarter, looked upon the brass chandeliers which are suspended in the body of the church, as the instruments of execution, to each of which they thought of being fastened by the neck. The Russians, in their first campaigns with the French, entertained the same apprehension, and were most agreeably astonished on one occasion, which presented a memorable display of French sagacity, to find that, instead of being shot or guillotined, they were presented with new clothing of the Russian uniform, and offered their liberty.

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.

In the streets of Leyden are several very handsome bookseller’s shops, particularly Murray’s in the Braadstraat, where there are many valuable publications, and particularly a fine collection of the classics, which are sold at very reasonable prices. The press of Leyden, in the time of Elzevirs, presented some of the most elegant specimens of typography, in the many correct and beautiful editions which they have given of the most renowned authors of antiquity. In beauty, variety, and profusion, the Leyden press rivalled, and in many instances surpassed, that of the Hague and Amsterdam; but since the period of the above bibliopolists, it has gradually decayed. It may be easily imagined, that with the change which has taken place in the political relations of Holland, the liberty of the press is not what it used to be at Leyden, which was once celebrated for its Gazette, a rival in reputation of that of Brussels: the former was distinguished for its partiality to the Stadtholder, and his well known attachments to the English cabinet; and the latter for supporting the true interests of the country. The editors and proprietors of the Leyden Gazette fled with precipitation, on the irruption of the French into Holland; and the paper which is now issued from Leyden, is of course the organ of the new government, and but little enlivened with political discussion.

The staple trade of Leyden, the woollen manufactory, has suffered very severely from the establishment of extensive looms in various parts of Germany, from the last and present war with England, and from the superiority of the manufactures of Yorkshire, which are in such high estimation in America and Asia, that Dutch merchants trading to those countries, found it more advantageous to send out English cloths. The coarse cloths of Holland had formerly a brisk market amongst the East and West India Companies: but from the above cause thousands of manufacturers have been obliged to renounce their looms, and divert their skill and industry to other sources of support; and in all human probability the woollen manufactures of Leyden will never revive.

Before I quit this celebrated city, I cannot help mentioning that, in addition to the illustrious artists before mentioned, it gave birth to Gerard Douw, who was born here in 1613, and entered at the early age of fifteen into the school of Rembrandt, with whom he continued three years, and from whom he obtained the true principles of colouring: his pictures are generally small, and remarkable for their wonderful brilliancy, delicacy, transparency, and exquisite high finishing. Sandrart relates a curious anecdote of the laborious assiduity which he displayed. Being with Bamboccio in the painting-room of Gerard Douw, they were enraptured with the wonderful minuteness of a picture which Douw was then painting, and were particularly struck with the finishing of a broom, and could not refrain expressing their surprise at the amazing neatness displayed in so minute an object; upon which Douw informed them that he should spend three more days upon that very broom before he could complete it to his satisfaction. The same author also relates, that in a family picture of a Mrs. Spiering, Douw occupied five days in finishing one of the hands that leaned over an arm-chair. This disposition to elaborate execution, in which he far surpassed every other Flemish master, so alarmed a great number of persons, that they had not patience to sit to him, and hence he chiefly applied his fine powers in works of fancy, in which he could introduce objects of still-life, and gratify his inclination in the choice of his time. A noble instance is related of the liberality of his great patron, Mr. Spiering, the husband of the lady above-mentioned, resident of the king of Sweden at the Hague, namely, that he allowed him a thousand guilders a year, with no other stipulation than that Douw should give his benefactor the preference of purchasing every picture he painted, for which he always paid him to the full extent of his demand. He lived to a great age, but his sight was so affected by the minuteness of his performances that at the age of thirty he was obliged to use spectacles. The finest picture from his hands considerably exceeded his usual size, being three feet high by two feet six inches broad within the frame: this matchless piece of art represents two rooms; in the first there appears a very curious piece of tapestry, forming the separation of the apartments, in which there is a very pretty-figure of a woman with a child at her breast; at her side is a cradle, and a table covered with tapestry, on which is placed a gilt lamp and some pieces of still-life; in the second apartment is a surgeon’s shop, with a countryman undergoing an operation, and a woman standing by him with several utensils: the folding doors show on one side a study, and a man making a pen by candlelight, and on the other side, a school with boys writing, and sitting at different tables, which parts are lighted in a most charming and astonishing manner, so that every feature and character of countenance is distinctly, and most intelligibly delineated. Incredible sums have been given, and still continue to be given for the works of this master, in his own country, and in every polite part of Europe where they are to be found. Some of his best works are now in the royal gallery at Dresden.

I must not omit that comical, dissipated humourist and happy artist, Jan Steen, who was born here in 1636, whose wit and drollery were only surpassed by his wonderful powers in painting, in which such was his astonishing faculty, that he seemed to be more inspired than instructed, for he kept an alehouse for a considerable time, from the cellars of which he drew more for himself than for his customers, and having exhausted his barrels, he replenished them by the product of his art, to which he never devoted himself but upon such occasions, and generally discharged the bills of the brewers and wine merchants with pictures. Although he might have lived in great affluence by his masterly pencil, he was frequently reduced to the most deplorable penury by indolence and dissipation; his faces alone completely indicated the rank and condition of the person depicted. Great prices are now given for the works of this artist, though they sold for small sums in his life time, on account of his being obliged to sell upon the pressure of necessity. A characteristic anecdote is related of this singular artist. In a picture of the crucifixion, having introduced a numerous group of figures, consisting of monks, old women, and dogs, at the foot of the cross, he was asked to explain the reason of such an assemblage; to which he replied, “the clergy and the old women are always the most eager in their inquiries, when any thing curious occurs.” Some years since, another instance of his eccentric turn of mind was sold for a considerable sum at Amsterdam, viz. a painting of the deluge, which he had delineated by introducing a large Dutch cheese, with the word Leyden inscribed upon it, floating in the centre of a sheet of water, which, he said, would incontestably prove that all the world was drowned. The name of Jan Steen naturally introduces that of his great friend Francis Mieres, who was born here in 1635, and was a pupil of Gerard Douw, who, from the rapid progress he made in his studies, used to call him the Prince of his Disciples: in rich transparency, an unusual sweetness of colouring, and an elaborate but delicate touch, he nearly approached his illustrious master. Mieres was generally paid a ducat an hour for his works, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany paid him no less than a thousand rix dollars for one picture. Unfortunately for this artist, he conceived an uncommon friendship for the drunken, droll Jan Steen, which frequently involved him in inconvenience, and disgrace. An anecdote is related of Mieres, in consequence of this association, which in its result did much honour to his feelings; being accustomed to pass whole nights with his friend in the most joyous manner at a tavern, he was returning home very late one evening from his company, when he fell into a common sewer, which had been left open in order to cleanse it, where he must have perished, had not a cobler and his wife, who were in a neighbouring stall, heard his cries, and instantly ran to his relief; having extricated him, although they were total strangers to him, they took care of him for the night, and treated him with all the kindness in their power: the next morning their guest returned to his lodgings, strongly impressed with the humanity and hospitality of his new friends, whom he resolved to reward in a manner worthy of their conduct; and accordingly having painted a picture in his best manner, he returned to his preservers and presented them with it, telling them it was the production of a person whose life they had preserved, and directed them to go and offer it to his friend and patron Cornelius Plaats, who would give the full value for it. The woman, unacquainted with the real value of the present, expected only a moderate gratuity for the picture, and was overwhelmed with surprise when the liberal purchaser paid her eight hundred florins for it. The grand Duke of Tuscany offered three thousand florins for a picture of Mieres, representing a lady fainting, and a physician relieving her. Francis Mieres left two sons and a grandson, all of whom were distinguished artists. John Van Goyen the father-in-law of Jan Steen, was also an artist of great celebrity: he painted a great number of pictures, and his execution was marvellously rapid, of which the following curious anecdote is recorded as a memorable instance: Hoogstraten relates that Van Goyen, Knipbergen, and Parcelles, had agreed each to paint a picture in one day, in the presence of several other artists, their friends, to whose judgment was left the disposal of a considerable sum of money subscribed for that purpose by the contending artists, to be bestowed upon the person who produced the best picture within that period. As soon as Van Goyen took the pencil, without making any previous sketch, he first laid on the light colour of the sky, then he rubbed on several different shades of brown, next masses of light on the foreground in several spots; out of this chaos, he produced trees, buildings, water, distant hills, vessels lying before a sea-port, and boats filled with figures, with almost magical celerity, and exquisite spirit, and finished the whole within the limited time, to the astonishment of the beholders. Knipbergen proceeded with his work in quite a different manner, for instead of beginning to colour his canvass he sketched on his palette the design he had formed in his imagination, and took much pains to give it all imaginable correctness, every rock, tree, waterfall, and other object, was disposed in the manner it was intended to be finished in the painting, and he attempted nothing more than to transfer the sketch upon the canvass; this picture was also finished in the time, and was allowed by the observers to possess much merit. The method observed by Parcelles differed from both, for when he took up his palette and pencils, he sat a long time in deep meditation upon his subject, and having arranged his thoughts, he executed within the time also, a sea-piece, admirably designed and delicately finished. The judges were unanimous in deciding for Parcelles, observing, that though the pictures of Van Goyen and Knipbergen were full of spirit, taste, and good colouring, yet in the picture by Parcelles there was equal merit as well in the handling as the colouring, and more truth, as being the result of great thought and judicious premeditation. William Vandervelde, the celebrated marine painter, was also born here in 1610: the love of his art induced him to remove with his family to England, on account of the superior elegance in the construction of British ships; and he was successively patronised by King Charles II. and King James II. Such was his enthusiasm, that, in order to unite fidelity with grandeur and elegance in his compositions, he would boldly advance in a small light vessel into the very heat of a naval engagement, and make his sketches, in undaunted tranquillity, whilst the balls were flying about him in all directions. Of this bold spirit he exhibited two very memorable instances, before he came to England; one was in the severe battle between the Duke of York and Admiral Opdam, in which the Dutch admiral and 503 men were blown up; and the other, in that great battle, which lasted three days, between Admiral Monck and Admiral de Ruyter, during which engagements Vandervelde plied between the fleets, so that he was enabled to represent every movement of the ships, and every material circumstance of the action, with astonishing minuteness and truth. There were formerly some good private collections of paintings in this city, but the political storms of the country have dispersed them.

About a mile from Leyden there is a very valuable collection by some of the most distinguished Dutch and Flemish masters, belonging to Mr. Gevers, who has a noble mansion, and grounds very tastefully disposed; and who upon all occasions is happy to permit strangers to visit his cabinet, and to show them every hospitality.

Near this city, in the village of Rhynsburg, the assembly of a very singular and equally liberal religious association is held, the members of which are called after the name of the place, Rhynsburgians: this meeting was established by three peasants, who were brothers, of the name of John, Adrian, and Gilbert Van Code, who to an excellent and profitable acquaintance with farming, which they followed, singularly united a profound knowledge of languages, for which they were so celebrated, that Prince Maurice, and Monsieur de Maurier, the then French ambassador, honoured them with several visits, and conversed with them in Latin, Greek, Italian, and French, in each of which they astonished their visitors by their fluency and pronunciation: another brother, William, filled the professorship of the oriental languages in the university of Leyden. In consequence of the churches being left without their pastors, on the expulsion of the remonstrant clergy in the year 1619, the three first-mentioned brothers determined to supply their places, and undertook to explain the Scriptures: they set an example of genuine christianity which has been rarely displayed; and they taught that every one had a right to worship God according to his own form of faith, taking the Bible for his guide. This association meet every Saturday, for the purpose of digesting the discourses of the ensuing Sunday, when, with the sincerest humility, one of the fraternity distributes the bread and wine. After the morning duties of the Sabbath are passed, they reassemble in the evening to return thanks to the Almighty for his favours, and at the same time particularize the instances of his goodness. On Monday morning they part to attend to their different temporal concerns, and at their taking leave, solemnly impress upon each other the sacred obligation, and the blissful result of a perseverance in the pious course which they have hitherto pursued. Such benevolent and exalted principles attract persons of various persuasions to the meeting, who assist in its solemnities, and partake in the pure spirit of its devotion. The religion most followed previous to the revolution, was the presbyterian and calvinistical; before the revolution, none but presbyterians were admitted into any office or post under government, except in the army. The republic, in its early stages, displayed its wisdom in making the calvinistical persuasion predominant, for the country at that period was too poor to erect magnificent temples of worship, and support a train of prelates in the splendor bestowed upon them in other countries, which were more rich, and had a population adequate to the cultivation of the soil. It was of the highest consequence to Holland to encourage population, and they could not more effectually do it, than by a policy equally generous and enlightened, which offered an asylum to all foreigners persecuted for their religion, and discouraged all monastic institutions.

As I was one day roving in this city, I was struck with the appearance of a small board ornamented with a considerable quantity of lace, with an inscription on it, fastened to a house: upon inquiry, I found that the lady of the mansion, where I saw it, had lately lain in, and was then much indisposed, and that it was the custom of the country to expose this board, which contained an account of the state of the invalid’s health, for the satisfaction of her inquiring friends, who were by this excellent plan informed of her situation, without disturbing her by knocking at the door, and by personal inquiries: the lace I found was never displayed but in lying in cases, but without it, this sort of bulletin is frequently used in other cases of indisposition amongst persons of consequence.

It is a painful task not to be able to close my account of this beautiful and celebrated city, without lamenting with the reader the dreadful accident which befel it on the 12th of January last, more terrible and destructive than all the horrors of its siege, the intelligence of which was communicated to me very soon afterwards by a friend in Holland, just as I had fairly written out thus far of my journal. About one o’clock of that day, a vessel laden with forty thousand pounds weight of gunpowder from Amsterdam, destined for Delft, and then lying in the Rapenburg canal, by some means which can never now be known, took fire and blew up with the explosion of a mighty volcano, by which many hundreds of lives were lost, and a great portion of the city destroyed. The king, on hearing of the dreadful catastrophe was sensibly affected, repaired to the city, remained all the following night in the streets, and was to be seen wherever his presence could animate the survivors to stop the progress of the flames, to clear the rubbish of falling buildings, and drag from under the ruins those who had been covered by them: the king offered the palace in the wood to persons of respectability, whose habitations had been overthrown by the shock, until they could secure homes to repair to; empowered the magistrates of this devoted city to make a general collection throughout the whole kingdom, and ordered 100,000 guilders to be paid out of the treasury for the relief of the surviving sufferers.

I quitted Leyden with great reluctance, and entered on board the treckschuyt for Haarlem, which sets off every two hours for that town, distant from Leyden fifteen miles. The canal all the way is broad and clear, and frequently adorned with the yellow fringed water-lily. Nothing could be more beautiful than our passage. As we approached Haarlem, the villas and gardens which nearly all the way adorned the banks of the canal, increased in number, beauty, and magnitude: many of them belong to the most opulent merchants of Amsterdam. Haarlem is not so beautiful as Leyden, but abounds with spacious streets, canals, avenues, and handsome houses: it is about four miles from the sea, and fifteen from Amsterdam: on one side of the canal is the Haarlem meer, or lake, the spring water of which is so celebrated all over Europe for producing the most brilliant whiteness upon the linens bleached here, and the superior property of which cannot be reached by any chymical process. Haarlem was once fortified, but its ramparts now form an agreeable promenade. The bleacheries of this city are too well known to be further mentioned; in all his wandering, the traveller will never enjoy the luxury of snow-white linen in such perfection as at Haarlem: before the war, Scotch and Irish linens used to be sent here to be bleached. There was a considerable manufacture of silks and camblets, but it has experienced a great decline, and the principal trade is bleaching threads and cambric; the inhabitants are calculated at thirty-two thousand. The cathedral, which is said to be the largest in the kingdom, though I am inclined to think that of Utrecht greater, was built in 1472, and the steeple, which is very handsome, was added in 1515. To inspect the internal part of the building, I was obliged to apply to one of the principal clergymen belonging to it, who resides in an adjoining house, and attended by a lady-like looking woman, perhaps his wife, or house-keeper, I was admitted into this venerable pile, where the first object that struck me was the celebrated organ supported upon pillars of porphyry: this instrument is said to be the finest and largest in the world; it occupies the whole west end of the nave. For a ducat paid to the organist, and two florins to the bellows blower, the former will gratify the traveller by playing for an hour; unfortunately for me he was absent in the country, and I did not hear the celebrated vox humana, or pipe, which most admirably imitates the human voice. Of the magnitude of this enormous musical pile, the reader may form some conception when he is informed that it contains eight thousand pipes, some of which are thirty-eight feet in length, and sixteen inches in diameter, and has sixty-four stops, four separations, two shakes, two couplings, and twelve bellows; like an elephant, that with his proboscis can either pluck a violet or raise a tree by its roots, the notes of this wonderful instrument can swell from the softest to the sublimest sounds, from the warbling of a distant bird to the awful tone of thunder, until the massy building trembles in all its aisles. On every Tuesday and Thursday, a voluntary is played upon this organ from twelve till one o’clock, when the doors of the cathedral are thrown open. Many years since the immortal Handel played upon this organ, when the organist, in amazement, pronounced him to be an angel, or the devil. Between two of the columns which support the organ, there is a noble emblematical alto-relievo, with three figures as large as life, by Xavery, representing Gratitude, assisted by Poetry and Music, making an offering to Piety, and a Latin inscription purporting that the organ was erected in 1738, at the town’s expense, the same having been built by Christian Muller of this city. This is the organ which the good people of Rotterdam are endeavouring to rival: the cathedral, like the other churches, is crowded with square wooden monuments, painted with the arms of the deceased on a black ground, with the date of their death in gold letters, but no names: in the wall at the east end of the church, a cannon ball is exhibited, which was fired into it by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, during divine service.

The walks round this city are very beautiful, and at a short distance from it there is a noble wood, in which is a fine walk of stately elms, nearly three miles long, abounding with beautiful scenery: this wood is a rival of that which I have described at the Hague. In this delightful place stands the mansion of Mr. Henry Hope, whose family has been long known for its loyalty and immense wealth: it is said to have cost fifty thousand pounds. Upon the revolution taking place, this gentleman was obliged to seek refuge in England, to the capital of which he had previously transported in safety his magnificent collection of paintings.

The villa, which is built of brick stuccoed, is modern and magnificent, and before the revolution was frequently resorted to by the Prince of Orange and his family, who were much attached to its opulent and liberal owner, which he eminently merited, by having rendered them many important services, particularly in 1788, when it was unsafe for him to appear on the exchange of Amsterdam without military protection. As the pictures were removed, there was nothing in the internal part of the mansion worthy of notice.

Haarlem and its environs are more celebrated than any other spot, for the beautiful flowers which it produces, the soil being peculiarly propitious to their production.

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 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.

Not far from the church, the spot where stood the house of Lawrence Coster, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century, the celebrated inventor of the art of printing, is shewn; formerly there was a statue over the gate where he lived, within this inscription:

MEMORIÆ SACRUM

TYPOGRAPHIA,

ARS ARTIUM OPTIMA

CONSERVATRIX,

HIC PRIMUM INVENTA

CIRCA ANNUM MCCCCXL.

The first book he printed is kept in the town house, in a silver case wrapt up in silk, and is always shewn with great caution, as a most precious relic of antiquity. The glory of this transcendent discovery, which spread light and civilization over the world, and formed a new epoch in its history, was for a long time disputed between Haarlem, Mayence, and Strasburg: the latter, after a laborious investigation, has renounced her pretensions, and the general opinion seems to bestow the palm upon the first city. The manner in which Coster imbibed the first impressions of this divine discovery, is said to have been from his cutting the letters of his name on the bark of a tree, and afterwards pressing a piece of paper upon the characters, until they became legible upon it, which induced him to continue the experiment, by engraving other letters upon wood. Those early principles were soon diffused through France, with considerable improvements, by the enterprising ability of the Etiennes; by the learned Manutius, a celebrated Venetian painter, and the inventor of Italian characters, through Italy; and through the Netherlands by Christopher Plantin, whose printing office at Antwerp was one of the principal ornaments of the town, and who was distinguished for his skill, erudition, and prodigious wealth, created solely by a successful prosecution of his important business.

Mayence contests the honour of the invention, but it is generally believed that a servant of Coster, of the name of Faustus, stole the types of his master on a Christmas-eve, whilst he was attending his devotions at church, and fled with his booty to Mayence. The portrait of Coster is to be seen in most of the booksellers’ shops at Haarlem, and in other principal towns.

A memorable, but not an unusual instance of affection, and of female presence of mind, occurred in this city many years since, at a spot which is still shown with no little degree of national pride, whereon an ancient castle stood, the lord of which was severely pressed by the burghers of the town, who laid siege to it, on account of his tyrannical conduct towards them: driven to the last extremity, and when his life was upon the point of paying the forfeit of his crimes, his lady appeared on the ramparts, and offered to surrender, provided she might be permitted to bring out as much of her most valuable goods as she could carry on her back; which being complied with, she brought her husband out upon her shoulders, preserved him from the fury of the troops, and gave up to them possession of the castle: thinking in the language of Shakspeare,

“If I depart from thee, I cannot live;

And in thy sight to die, what were it else,

But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?”

Henry IV. Part 2d. Act. 4.

History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573, which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered them immortal in the annals of their country. Those heroines, when the garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which Frederic of Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honour.

When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame the most renowned heroines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favourite subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors.

The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles long, and about the same number broad, is said to be above six feet deep, and lies between Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and turf.

Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists which it had the honour of giving birth to. The first in chronological order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers’ shops, and all those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the picture-merchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length he was relieved from his indigence and dependence, by the bounty of his confessor, who seeing his uncommon genius, was resolved to the extent of his power, to extricate it from the odious shackles which encumbered it, and accordingly advanced him six hundred guilders, by a judicious application of which he emancipated himself from his embarrassments: he now doubled the price of his pictures, and was enabled to give his daughter a marriage portion of twenty thousand guilders. As soon as he was enabled to pay his confessor, he sent the sum he had borrowed, accompanied with a chef-d’œuvre of his works, representing his holy benefactor in the character of St. Hubert kneeling before his horse. All connoisseurs agree that this picture is the finest he ever painted. Wouvermans resided in the Bakenessegragt, a short distance from the church. The depression of mind which his early disappointments excited, never quitted this great artist: a few hours before he died, he ordered a box filled with his studies and designs to be burned, saying, “I was so long unrewarded for my labours, that I wish to prevent my son from being allured by these designs, to embrace so unpromising and uncertain a profession as mine.”

The works of Wouvermans and Bamboccio were continually placed in competition by the best judges of art, and the latter having painted a picture which was much admired, John de Wilt prevailed upon Wouvermans to paint the same subject, which he executed in a brilliant manner: these pictures were soon afterwards exhibited together to the public, and De Wilt, when the room in which they were placed, was exceedingly crowded, exclaimed in a loud voice, “all our connoisseurs seem to prefer the works of those painters who have studied at Rome; but behold how far the work of Wouvermans who never saw Rome, surpasses the production of him who resided there several years.” This observation, which was received with general approbation, and seemed to receive the fiat of the company, so deeply affected the delicate spirits of Bamboccio, that it largely contributed to hurry him to his grave.

The justly celebrated Nicholas Berghem, was born here in 1624, and studied under his father, an inconsiderable painter, whose name was Van Haarlem, which Berghem exchanged in the following whimsical manner: whilst he was a pupil of John Van Goyen, who was very fond of him, his father was one day pursuing him in the street, to give him correction for some peccadillo, when his master seeing his father gaining upon him rapidly, cried out to some of his other scholars, Berg-hem! which signifies hide him; from which circumstance he obtained and kept that name. The distinguishing characteristics of Berghem’s pictures are breadth, and just distribution of the lights, the grandeur of his masses of light and shadow, the natural attitudes of his figures expressive of their several characters, the just gradation of his distances, the brilliancy, harmony, and transparency of his colouring, the correctness and true perspective of his design, and the elegance of his composition, and his subjects however various are all equally admirable. This great man had the calamity and the infatuation to make an offer of his hand and heart to the daughter of one of the masters under whom he studied, when he left Van Goyen, of the name of Willis, who proved to be one of the most clamorous and sordid termagants that Holland, or perhaps any other country ever produced; by the terror of her tongue, and the fury of her manner, she forced him to slave at his easel without intermission, from the break to the departure of day, and frequently all night long, without permitting him to have the disposal of a single guilder without her consent: amidst this domestic broil, poor Berghem never lost his temper, he sung, whilst she scolded, as if he thought

And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,

That gives not half so great a blow to hear

As will a chesnut in a farmer’s fire?

Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Scene 3.

In this increasing state of internal broil, this artist produced some of the finest effusions of his pencil: he was singularly curious in purchasing the finest prints and designs of the Italian masters, to improve his own taste, which after his death sold for a large sum of money: by his indefatigable industry, he produced an amazing number of pictures, which now are rarely to be purchased, and then only for prodigious prices.

The last that I shall mention is Jacob Ruysdaal, who was born here in 1636, and was the bosom friend of Berghem, who imparted to him much of the spirit which adorns his own works. No painter ever possessed a greater share of public admiration than Ruysdaal, a reputation which has remained unimpaired to this hour. His works are distinguishable by a natural and most delightful tone of colour, by a free, light, firm, and spirited pencil, and by a happy choice of situation. He was fond of introducing water into his paintings, and he was equally fortunate in representing the tumultuous foam of the torrent, as the pellucid transparency of the canal. Ruysdaal was cut off at the age of forty-five. Since the removal of Mr. Hope’s collection, there is no private cabinet of pictures in or near Haarlem worth the attention of the traveller. There is, however, a cabinet of natural history, said to be the finest in Holland, which was formed by Doctor Van Marum, whose electrical experiments have ascertained that the death of animals is coincident with the cessation of irritability: this museum is well arranged according to the Linnæan system. I heard of nothing more to detain the traveller at Haarlem. The canal from Haarlem to Amsterdam is clear and spacious, and nearly straight for the first four miles, at the lessening end of which the former city has a very agreeable appearance; but I was surprised to find so very few country-houses, and scarcely an object that denoted our approach to the renowned capital of the kingdom, and, as it has been aptly called, “the great warehouse of the world.”

About half way we changed boats, and crossed the enormous sluices which protect the country from inundation in this part: we passed over the waters of the Haarlem Meer and of the river Y, so called from its form resembling that letter, being a branch of the Zuyder Zee. The only object worthy of notice thus far was a large stone building, called the Castle Zwanenburg, the residence of the directors of the dykes and water-works of Rhynland. The cost of constructing and repairing the sluices is paid out of the general taxes. The country here is four or five feet below the level of the river Y, which, however, is rendered perfectly innocuous by the massy and prodigious dams before mentioned, the construction and preservation of which place the indefatigable enterprise and industry of the Hollander in an eminent point of view.

I reached Amsterdam just after the gates had been closed, but my commissaire and I were admitted upon paying a few stivers. As soon as we had entered, every object denoted a vast, populous, and opulent city: every street, and I passed through a great number before I reached my hotel, was tolerably well lighted, but in this respect infinitely inferior to London. At length, after traversing the city about two miles and a half, I reached the principal hotel, called Amsterdam Wappen, or the Arms of Amsterdam, which, in point of magnitude and accommodation, may vie with the first hotels in our own metropolis. Here, after an excellent supper of fish, which the Dutch dress to admiration, and some porter, which was an excellent imitation of that description of beverage for which London is so justly renowned, I found a sopha bed prepared for me, with curtains pendent from the centre, in the French taste, which much prevails in the internal arrangement of the houses of this great city.

In the morning I was awakened by the chimes of some of the churches, which in softness and sweetness resembled the distant sounds of a harp. Although it was seven o’clock, upon looking from the window, I heard the hum and beheld the bustle of business which in other countries characterise mid-day. Under the agreeable influence of a brilliant, cloudless sky, I descended into the street, and mingled with the active, ant-like multitude, every member of which presented a physiognomy full of thought and calculation: gold, gold, seemed to be the only object:

——That yellow slave

Will knit, and break religions; bless the accursed;

Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves,

And give them title, knee, and approbation,

With senators on the bench.

Timon of Athens, Act IV. Scene 3.

The first circumstance that afforded novelty was, that amidst all the bustle I seldom met with any carriages on wheels to augment the noise of the scene. Upon enquiry I found, that, by the police laws of Amsterdam, wheel-carriages are limited to a certain number, which is very inconsiderable compared with the size of the city, from an apprehension that an uncontrouled use of them might hazard the foundation of the houses, most of which are built upon piles; for nearly the whole of the ground on which this vast city stands was formerly a morass. A carriage, called by the Dutch a sley, and by the French a traineau, or, on account of its solemnity, un pot de chambre, is used in their room; it is the body of a coach fastened by ropes on a sledge, and drawn by one horse; the driver walks by the side of it, which he holds with one hand to prevent its falling over, and with the other the reins: nothing can be more melancholy than this machine, which holds four persons, moves at the rate of about three miles an hour, and seems more like the equipage of an hospital, than a vehicle in which the observer would expect to find a merry face; yet in this manner do the Dutch frequently pay visits and take the air. It was in allusion to the forest foundation of this wonderful place, that Erasmus sportively observed, when he first visited it, that he had reached a city, the inhabitants of which, like crows, lived upon the tops of trees; and another wit compared Amsterdam to Venice, on account of both having wooden legs.

Amsterdam is situated on the rivers Y and Amstel, from the latter of which it derives its name; it is about nine miles and a half in circumference, of a semicircular form, surrounded with a fosse about eighty feet wide, and a rampart faced with brick, which is in several places dismantled, and twenty-six bastions: it has also eight noble gates of stone, and several draw-bridges: the population is estimated at three hundred thousand. In 1204, with the exception of a small castle, not a building was to be seen upon the scite of this great city, which, from being at first a petty village of fishermen, dilated in the lapse of years, and by the enterprise and industry of the inhabitants, into a magnificent capital, which, at length, upon the shutting up of the navigation of the Scheldt, added the commerce of Antwerp to its own, and became the great emporium of the world. Neither here, nor in any of the cities or towns in Holland, through which I passed, is a stranger annoyed by barriers, productions of passports, or any of those disagreeable ceremonies which distinguish the police of many other countries. In Holland a foreigner finds his loco-motive disposition as little restricted, or encumbered by municipal regulations, as in England. Canals intersect nearly the whole of this city, adorned with avenues of stately elms. Many of the houses are very splendid, particularly those in Kiezer’s gragt, or Emperor’s street, and Heeren gragt, or Lords’ street, where there are many mansions, which, were they not so much concealed by the fan of the trees before them, would have a very princely appearance. Many of the shops are also very handsome, particularly those belonging to jewellers and print-sellers; in the windows of the latter prints of the illustrious Nelson, and of our marine victories, were exposed to view, The druggists here, and in other parts of Holland, use as a sign a huge carved head, with the mouth wide open, placed before the shop windows; sometimes it rudely resembles a Mercury’s head, at others it is surmounted by a fool’s cap. This clumsy and singular sign is called de gaaper, the gaper; what analogy it bears to physic I could not learn; it is very likely to have originated in whim and caprice. Some of the shop boards, called uithang borden, have ridiculous verses inscribed upon them.

The first place my curiosity led me to was the Stadt-house, which is unquestionably a wonderful edifice, considering that Holland furnishes no stone, and that the foundation of the building was boggy; the latter circumstance rendered it necessary to have an artificial foundation of extraordinary construction and magnitude, and accordingly it rests upon thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety-five massy trees, or piles, the first of which was driven on the 20th of January, 1648, and the last on the 6th of October following, when the first stone, with a suitable inscription, was laid; and seven years afterwards the different colleges of magistrates took formal possession of the apartments allotted for their respective offices, but at this time the roof and dome were not completed: the expense of this mighty edifice amounted to two millions sterling. The principal architect was John Van Kampen, who acted under the control of four burgomasters. The area in which it stands is spacious, and was till lately called Revolutie plein; it is disfigured by the proximity of the waag, or weigh-house, a very old shabby building. The form of the Stadt-house is square, its front is two hundred and eighty-two feet, its depth two hundred and fifty-five, and its height one hundred and sixteen. It has seven small porticoes, representative of the seven provinces; the want of a grand entrance is a great architectural defect, which immediately excites the surprise of the traveller; but it was so constructed from the wary precautionary foresight of the magistrates who had the superintendence of the building, for the purpose of preventing free access to a mob, in case of tumult.

One of the first apartments which attracts the attention is the tribunal, on the basement floor; in this room, prisoners who have been found guilty of capital offences are conducted to receive the awful sentence of the law; the entrance is through a massy folding door, decorated with brass emblems, indicative of the purpose to which the chamber is applied, such as Jove’s beams of lightning, and flaming swords—under which are two lines from Virgil,

“Discite Justitiam moniti

“Et non temnere Divos.”

Above, between the rails, are the old and new city arms, and at the bottom are death’s-heads and bones. The whole of the interior is composed of white marble; on the south and north are two eows of fluted pilasters, one above another; on the west side are statues representing four nude women, supporting the cornices which crown the pilasters: two of these figures conceal their faces with their hands, as indicative of shame: in the copartments between are basso-relievos, representing the judgment of Solomon; Zaleucus, the Locrian king, tearing out one of his eyes, to save one of his son’s who had been condemned to lose both for adultery, by a law made expressly against that crime by his father; and Junius Brutus putting his sons to death. Above these are figures representing Romulus and Remus drawing milk from the she wolf, and also of Jupiter: the head of Medusa upon the shield of Pallas is very finely executed. In the north, under a seat of white marble, is a place for the secretary, who pronounces the fatal sentence when the magistrates appear in their robes at a gallery on the west side. On the fore part of the judgement seat is a fine marble statue of Silence, which Dutch gallantry represents under the form of a woman, seated on the ground, with her finger on her mouth, and two children weeping over a death’s-head. On each side of this seat are serpents writhing round a tree, each with an apple in his mouth; the same ornaments also decorate the sides of the door: above the seat is a statue, raised on a black marble pedestal, representing the city of Amsterdam as a virgin, guarded by a lion on each side; above the head of the figure is an imperial crown, protected by a spread eagle; on each side of the pedestal are Neptune and Glaucus, representative of the rivers Y and Amstel, and a little higher are the arms of the four burgomasters, in whose magistracy the first stone of this building was laid, gracefully connected by festoons. On the pedestal is an inscription in letters of gold, commemorative of the laying of the first stone of the building.

The principal bas-reliefs and ornaments in this room, and other parts of this edifice, were made by Artus Quellinus, a celebrated statuary of Antwerp. When the awful doom of the law is to be pronounced, the criminal is brought into this hall guarded, and nothing is omitted in point of solemnity to impress on the mind of the delinquent and the spectators the awful consequences of violating the laws of the country.

A thorough knowledge of human nature dictated the policy of placing this hall on the ground-floor, the brazen door of which opens into a thoroughfare passage through the Stadt-house. I never passed by this door without seeing numbers of the lower orders of people gazing through the rails of it upon the emblematical objects within, and apparently in melancholy meditation, reflecting upon the purposes to which this hall is applied, and upon the ignominious results of deviating from the paths of virtue. On one side of this chamber is a a grand double staircase, which leads to the Burghers’, or Marble Hall: it is 120 feet long, about 57 broad, and 80 high, and is entirely composed of white marble, as are the galleries, which are 21 feet wide on each side, into which the entrances to the different courts of justice, the chamber of domains, of insurance, of orphans, the council-room, the offices of the bank, &c. open. This magnificent room and the surrounding galleries were seen to great advantage, on account of their having been cleaned previous to the coronation of the king, which was intended to have taken place in it about a month after I visited it. A great number of workmen had been employed in scraping, washing, and polishing their marble sides for several months, and their appearance was equally grand and beautiful: the bronze gates and railing which form the grand entrance of the hall are massy, yet exquisitely executed: over this entrance is a colonade of Corinthian pillars of red and white marble. At one end is a colossal figure of Atlas supporting on his shoulders the globe, attended by Vigilance and Wisdom. The roof is painted with allegorical figures. Upon the floor, the celestial and terrestrial globes are delineated in brass and various coloured marbles, arranged in three large circles twenty-two feet diameter; the two external ones representing the hemispheres of the earth, and the centre the planisphere of the heavens.

The Burgomaster’s Cabinet, as it is still called, is a handsome apartment, the entrance of which is adorned with some beautiful carving, emblematical of the use of the apartment. The chimney-piece in this room, representing the triumphs of Fabius Maximus, is worthy of notice. To the left of the Burgomasters’ chamber is a gallery, ten feet deep and thirty broad, where, after the ringing of a bell to give notice, all proclamations, law sentences, and municipal regulations, are promulgated.

The chamber of the treasury ordinary contains a picture of Mary de Medicis as large as life; a chart of Amsterdam as it appeared when first walled round in 1482; and on the bookcases are some curious effigies of the ancient Earls and Countesses of Holland.

The Burgomasters’ apartment is forty-five feet broad and thirty deep, and is in my opinion the handsomest room in the Stadt-house. The marble chimney-pieces are enriched with many exquisitely sculptured basso-relievos by De Wit; but its chief ornament is two paintings; one by Ferdinand Bol, representing Curius at his rural repast; and the other, Fabricius in the camp of Phyrrhus, by Flink. From this room there is a passage to the Execution Chamber, or the Chamber of the last Prayers, where criminals condemned to death take leave of their priest, and pass through a window, the lower part of which is of wood, to enable its being opened level with the floor to the scaffold, which is constructed on the outside, opposite to the weigh-house, and which is raised as high as this part of the building. There is nothing in this room worthy of notice, except its melancholy appropriation. From this room we were conducted to the council chamber, which is forty-five feet wide and thirty deep, where there is a very large painting by Jacob de Wilt, representing Moses and the seventy elders of Israel. Above the chimney-piece to the north is a very fine picture by Flink, the subject Solomon imploring heaven for wisdom. Above this is a scriptural subject, a noble production, from the pencil of Bronkhorst. Some of the basso-relievos which adorn various parts of this room, sculptured by De Wit, are exquisitely fine, particularly a hive of bees, a clock, a sieve and a lamp, a pen and ink-horn. It would puzzle a magician to interpret many of the allegorical devices, but they are all beautifully executed.

In the chamber for marriages, and injuries, there is nothing to arrest the attention of a visitor one minute. In Holland, marriage being a civil contract, when agreed upon in Amsterdam, it is always first performed before the magistrates in this room, without whose fiat the ceremony would be invalid; the clergyman, according to the religion of the parties, performs his functions afterwards. This room is also called, amongst the lower orders of people, the Scolding Chamber, on account of the irritability frequently displayed here by parties of that class, when they come to obtain redress for small offences. We were also led through the chamber for sea affairs, the mercers’ hall, the painters’ chamber, and in this room, but little suited to the treasures which it contains, is a very long picture by Vandyke, in which there is a gray head of an old man, of matchless excellence, which the observer cannot but retire from with regret. The burgomasters of Amsterdam were offered seven thousand florins for this head alone, to be cut out from the rest of the picture. There is also a large picture by Vanderhelst, representing a feast given by the burgomasters of Amsterdam to the ambassadors of Spain, on account of the peace of Munster, which closed a war that had lain waste the Netherlands for eighty years; and many other large and fine paintings by Rubens, Jordaans, and Otho Venius. It is a matter of surprise, that after Holland submitted to the French arms, these exquisite productions should be permitted to remain, upon the walls which they have so long adorned.

In the great, or council of war chamber, there are some good paintings representing the ancient train-bands, and officers in their proper costume; many of which are portraits. In the secretary’s office, a handsome room, amongst other decorations, is a basso-relievo of Silence, which the Dutch are very fond of representing under the form of a woman. Upon my observing to a Dutchman, that in England such a compliment had never been paid to my own lovely country women, he replied: “Yes, but do you not notice that the statuary has placed the finger of the lady upon her mouth, as if he thought that no one of the sex, not even a Dutch female, could preserve silence without keeping her lips forcibly together with her finger.” The convenience of having nearly all the principal public offices, and courts of justice under one roof, is very great; the size of the kingdom, and simplicity of its public transactions, render such a concentration more easy of accomplishment in Holland than in England.

Before we ascended to the dome, we were introduced into the great magazine of arms, which extends the whole length of the front and part of the sides of this vast pile: it contains a curious and valuable collection of ancient and modern Dutch arms. Some colours which the French took from the Spaniards have been lately added, as a present from the king to this city, a donation which could not fail affording great gratification to a people, who to this hour hold the Spanish nation in abhorrence. The prospect from the tower, or dome, is very fine and extensive, commanding the whole of the city and its environs, crowded with windmills, the river Y filled with ships, the Zuyder Zee, the Amstel, the Haarlem lake, and the quarter containing the gardens, the admiralty, and ships of war on the stocks. From this elevated spot we were nearer the bronze figures which adorn the front, representing Justice, Wealth, and Strength, and which are of an enormous size: on the other side is a colossal bronze statue of Atlas supporting the world, executed in a masterly manner. The tower contains a vast number of bells, the largest of which weighs between six and seven thousand pounds; the carillons in this dome are remarkably sweet, they play every quarter of an hour an agreeable air, which is executed to admiration. An excellent carilloneur is engaged to entertain the citizens of Amsterdam three times a week; the perfection to which he has brought his performance can only be appreciated by those who have heard it. The brass barrel by which he plays is seven feet and a half in diameter, and weighs four thousand four hundred and seventy-four pounds. The clocks strike the full hour, at the half hour, and upon the expiration of the full hour, repeat it upon a bell of a deeper tone.

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 FETE AT AMSTERDAM ... DANCING DUTCHMEN ... THE BEGUINES ... LADIES OF HOLLAND ... HOUSE RENT ... THE WATER OF AMSTERDAM.

By considerable interest, and with much difficulty, I was admitted to see the prison which occupies one of the courts of the Stadt-house, on two sides of which, below ground, are the dungeons, to which the gaoler conducted us by a lamp: as a place of confinement nothing can be more secure, and as a place of punishment more horrible. After descending a dreary flight of steps, and passing through a long narrow passage, midway vast double doors, thickly plated with iron, were opened, through which we entered, and at the end were stopped by two other massy doors which, upon being unbolted, led to a row of subterranean dungeons. In the first, by the faint light of a rush candle, I discerned the emaciated figure of a man who had been convicted of robbery, attentively reading: he just turned from his book to look at us a moment, and then returned to it; he was condemned to inhabit this cell alone for life! In the next were two young men who, in the forms of Dutchmen, seemed to carry the elastic souls of Frenchmen, that bend to and carol under every human misery; for in this gloomy abode, in which one would suppose resignation would turn to despair, they were whistling and waltzing in the dark; whilst in the third were several women and a young girl, the latter about fifteen, confined for having displayed an early, and rather too violent a fondness for the laws of nature. These miserable beings were also in darkness, except when they closely approached the vast double bars which crossed the windows of their cells, when they were enabled to behold a little light, which faintly reached them through some low oblong apertures on the opposite side of the passage, thickly guarded by similar massy bars, just raised above the level of the court, into which these poor wretches are never permitted to walk; for, deplorable to relate, from the first minute of their commitment till their fate is finally fixed, they are never suffered to quit their gloomy abodes but to appear before their judges in the adjoining hall, where they undergo private examinations, and at length a close trial. The crimes with which these latter unhappy prisoners stood charged were not of a very malignant nature, yet were they, even before the guilt of some of them was established, cut off from light and air, and immured in regions fit only to be a receptacle for the dead. I need scarcely inform the reader that their appearance when they pressed towards the grating, when alone they were distinguishable, was in a high degree squalid and sickly.

None of these miserable wretches were loaded with irons; they would, indeed, have been a very unnecessary augmentation of cruelty, for nothing but the miraculous interference of an angel could have burst their prison-doors, which were doubly cased with iron, and fastened with enormous bolts and locks, whilst the walls of the cells were cased with ponderous masonry, through which, if a prisoner had the means to penetrate, he would afterwards have to encounter all the earth upon which the rest of the Stadt-house stood. The gaoler showed us some irons of a particular construction, and a board which fastened round the neck and one hand, for refractory criminals, but he assured me they had not been used for many years.

The principal secretary of the magistracy showed me the hall of justice, which was also formerly the torture-chamber. Here the miserable sufferer, who refused to confess his guilt, at the pleasure of his barbarous judge, underwent a variety of torments; amongst others, it was usual to fasten his hands behind his neck, with a cord which passed through pullies fastened to a vaulted ceiling, by means of which he was jerked up and down, with leaden weights of fifty pounds each lashed to his feet, until anguish overpowered his senses, and a confession of guilt was heard to quiver on his lips. Some of the iron work by which this infamous process was effected was still adhering to the walls. This ferocious and stupid practice was only abolished in the year 1798. This room is entirely of stone, low, and vaulted; the windows are small, and guarded by vast double bars of iron, and the whole is very little better than a large dungeon. A bar for the prisoner to appear at, a seat for the witness, for only one is most judiciously admitted at a time; a table and raised seats for the judges, and lower ones for the officers attached to the tribunal, form all the arrangements of this gloomy seat of justice. The prisoner is permitted to have a counsellor to plead his cause, and no strangers are admitted on any account. Three days are suffered to elapse between the sentence and its execution in capital cases; during which the prisoner is allowed whatever refreshment he may choose; an indulgence which, from the state of the appetite at such a period, seldom runs the state into much expense. Public punishments are inflicted four times in the course of the year. On these occasions a vast scaffold is erected, as I have mentioned, in the great area between the stadt-house and the weighing or custom-house, upon a level with the first floor of the former building, through which the criminals enter to the spot assigned for them to receive their punishment: those who are to be whipped receive that punishment with considerable severity, and are not permitted to retire till those who are to die have suffered death, which is inflicted by decapitation with the sword or hanging, though the latter is most frequent. On these melancholy occasions, the chief magistrates attend in their robes, and nothing is omitted to augment the solemnity of the scene.

In consequence of its being expected that though a culprit is to suffer death, he is to receive the fatal stroke in the precise mode prescribed by the law, a magistrate who presided at the execution of a murderer a few years since, had nearly subjected himself to a severe punishment. The guilt of the criminal was aggravated by cruelty, and he was condemned to lose his life by decapitation, in which case the law directs that it shall be severed by one stroke of the sword: previous to his quitting the chamber of the last prayers he laid a wager with a friend who attended him that he had suggested an expedient by which the executioner should not be able to perform his office; and accordingly, the moment he knelt to receive the fatal stroke, he rolled his head in every direction so violently, and so rapidly, that the executioner could not strike him with any probability of decollating him at one blow; and after many fruitless aims, was compelled to renounce the attempt. The officers who were entrusted to see to the execution of the sentence were in the greatest dilemma; in vain did they try by argument to persuade the fellow to remain still, and quietly have his head taken off; he was remanded back to prison, and after an hour’s deliberation, the presiding magistrate, upon his own responsibility, ordered the gallows to be brought out, upon which he caused him to be executed. The judges and lawyers took alarm, and half the city felt as if the murderer had been murdered; and nothing but the high character, rank, and influence of the magistrate, by whose resolute orders the miscreant at length paid the forfeit of his life, preserved him from the most unpleasant consequences for enforcing the spirit of the law after a different fashion from that prescribed. Capital punishments are very rare: four malefactors were executed in 1799, and nine since. The Dutch entertain a frightful opinion of the criminal laws of England, which they consider very sanguinary, from the great number of delinquents who are annually put to death there.

The strong apartments which formerly contained the vast treasures of the bank, and the offices attached to that wealthy concern, are on the ground-floor, where several clerks are employed to transact the business of that celebrated establishment. From the wise measures adopted by the king, who made, as I have before observed, the recognition of the national debt one of the first measures of his government, the national creditor has no apprehensions. Before the war, this institution, which was a bank of deposit, was supposed to contain the greatest quantity of bullion in the world, and popular credulity dwelt with ostentatious fondness upon the extent of its accumulated treasures, which they resembled to a Peruvian mine; its pile of precious metals was valued at the enormous sum of forty millions. The regulations which governed deposits made in this bank were as follow: the person depositing cash or bullion received a credit in the books for the amount, and a receipt for the same, which expired at the end of six months, was given, renewable upon paying a small per centage for warehouse rent: if such receipt expired before the money or bullion was redeemed, neither the one nor the other could be afterwards removed, but for it an equivalent in bank credit was given, which receipt could afterwards be converted into cash in the market. Another regulation was, that not a florin of the cash or bullion invested should ever be removed by way of loan. This compact between the bank and the creditor was always considered inviolable. A rumour was circulated, with equal celerity and anxiety, soon after the arrival of the French in Holland, highly injurious to the responsibility of the institution, and a deputation of merchants waited respectfully on the directors of the bank, to solicit satisfaction as to its solvency; to which an answer, couched in general terms, but favourable to its responsibility, was given. Owing to the unshaken stability which it had displayed, from 1672, when Louis the Fourteenth, at the head of a victorious army, was expected every hour to have made his triumphal entry into Amsterdam, to 1795, when the French fixed the destiny of the country, this answer was received with perfect confidence and security in the bank, and any doubt upon the subject was considered to be the result of party malignity. Upon the French taking possession of Amsterdam, a complete investigation of the business followed, and the official report of the provisional representatives of the city announced, that

“No deficiency whatever will exist in the said bank, and the debits and credits will precisely balance, with this exception, that instead of species, there have been received into the said bank, from time to time, as securities for large sums advanced by it within the last fifty years, a very considerable number of bonds, viz.

“Seventy bonds of the India Company of Amsterdam, guaranteed by the states of that province, being each of 100,000 florins banco, at three per cent. interest; besides a similar one of 50,000 banco, on which there will be due, according to the calculation of the said clerks, the sums of 249,000 florins banco, for interest. On account of which bonds, the treasurer of the said city is debited in the aforesaid balance 6,273,000 florins banco.

“Besides these, there are fifty bonds, each for 24,000 florins, on account of the provinces of Holland and West Friesland, belonging to the loan-office of this city, on which, according to the information of the clerks, the bank has advanced, agreeable to the aforesaid balance, the sum of 838,857 florins banco, on which there will be due for interest 30,000 florins. In addition to which, the loan-office owes the bank, conformable to the same information, the sum of 1,715,000 florins banco.

“That further, if every thing shall appear as has been stated by the said clerks, and sterling being converted into stock, the treasurer of the city will, in addition, owe to the bank, and for which it was made debtor at the closing of the accounts above alluded to,

the sum of	38,358 2 0
And what it owed at the actual closing of the accounts,	155,314 6 8
Making together, banco, Florins	193,672 8 8

“That there is also due, from the said bank, 227,264 2 8, for which bonds were originally given; but according to the clerk’s statement were burnt; but for which the city notwithstanding paid interest annually to the bank.

“That it is nevertheless obvious, that the city is responsible for this sum, as well as for the whole, as it ought to be considered with respect to it, not only as guarantee, but as actual debtor to the bank.

“That moreover, among other things in the said bank, there has been found in substance all the specie for which accountable receipts have been given, agreeable to the list made out, and delivered to the committee of commerce and marine by the cashiers of the bank, and which can, in consequence, be at all times drawn out by the holders of the said receipts, in exchange for them, when it shall please them so to do.

“The aforesaid provisional representatives have, therefore, not only taken the requisite, and most efficacious measures, that henceforward there shall not be delivered from, nor advanced by, the said bank, contrary to its original institution, any specie whatsoever, by any authority, either as a loan, or in any other illegal manner; but also that the said bonds, lodged in the said bank as securities, as aforesaid, shall be liquidated as soon as possible, and generally, that this city, as debtor to the bank, shall, with all practicable dispatch, discharge in cash the balance of its account with the said bank, which being done, the provisional representatives declare, that there can exist no deficiency of any kind soever; and that they will, without delay, take into their serious consideration, and will carry into immediate effect, the means to obtain this end.”

For this sum, amounting to upwards of nine millions of florins, the proper investments had been made, but of the deposits, which ought to have been permanent, in consequence of the expiration of the receipts, not a florin remained in the caves of the bank. It appeared that the directors, like the magistrate who presided at the execution of the murderer, beneficially for the state, no doubt had departed from the strict letter of the law, and instead of suffering so much wealth to remain in a state of unproductive inertion, they had duplicated the energies of credit by judicious and advantageous loans of it to a variety of merchants and tradesmen. This statement excited the highest indignation against the directors, who were, in the violence of that party-spirit which then raged in Holland, branded with every epithet which appertains to the real national defaulter. The deficiency thus explained could have no injurious influence upon the bank, with regard to the cash receipts which were unexpired, unless the debts due to the bank, upon such accommodations, should not be regularly discharged. But no explanation could appease the popular fury, which connected this politic deviation from the strict letter of an unwise law into high treason against the state, and loudly demanded, that all the directors of the bank, and persons entrusted with the management of any other public fund, should be put under arrest: to such a height was this spirit carried, that many of the members of the old government would have been sacrificed to the animosity of faction, and revolutionary vengeance, had not the French general interfered, and by a humane proclamation addressed to people enlightened by the benign effects of public education, averted their anger.

On the 16th of February, 1795, upon the promulgation of the abolition of the stadtholderate, a general fraternization took place in Amsterdam, and a complete oblivion of all public animosities. This federation was celebrated, as I was informed, with all imaginable pomp. The carillons in the towers of the Stadt-house, and the principal churches, played the most enchanting patriotic airs, the tri-coloured flag waived upon their spires, and salutes from the bastions, artillery, and men of war, augmented the vivacity of this eventful day. Nothing could surpass the grotesque drollery exhibited in various parts of the city: the gaiety of the French character completely electrified the sobriety of the Batavian. Grave Dutch brokers, whose blood had long ceased to riot, who thought that the great purposes of life were answered when the duties of the bureau were discharged; who, could they have compared, would have preferred the brick of the exchange, to the “verd’rous wall of Paradise,” who had never moved but with a measured funeral pace, were seen in large full-bottomed wigs, and with great silver buckles, mingling in the national dance, with the gay ethereal young Parisian conscripts, so that it might be said of the Dutchman,

“He rises on his toe: that spirit of his

In aspiration lifts him from the earth.”

Troilus and Cressida, Act IV. Scene 8.

To such an elevation did the national spirit and ardour rise, that upon a requisition requiring every person to deliver up all the uncoined gold and silver, or plate (spoons and forks excepted) for the use of the state, there appeared to be no reluctance to obey it, and as these state offerings exceeded the estimate required, it is likely that none were concealed. When these contributions exceeded in value the amount of the taxes, to which the contributor was liable, a receipt was given for such excess, and carried to his credit, in the next payments; with these assistances, the government immediately directed its attention to the deplorable state of its marine, which under the last of the Stadtholders, had experienced the most ruinous and fatal neglect, in consequence of the influence of the British cabinet upon the imbecile mind of that unfortunate prince. When it is considered upon the breaking out of the last war with Holland, how numerous and valuable were the Dutch ships detained in British ports, what havoc our cruisers made on her commerce, by intercepting her rich merchant vessels, and blockading her ports, what a stagnation of internal trade must have followed, and what enormous sums were extorted by the French army and its generals, the reader may form some opinion of the prodigious opulence of this country, which, under the pressure of such calamities, is still enabled to raise her head with such few marks of suffering.

Amsterdam has no noble squares, which add so much to the splendor of London, nor is there any bridge worthy of being noticed, except that which crosses the river Amstel, which is built of brick, has thirteen arches, and is tolerably handsome: on the river looking towards this bridge, there is a fine view of the city, which I preferred sketching, to a more expanded one on the coast immediately opposite to the city, in the north of Holland. The only association throughout Holland, which resembles a monastic one, is that of the Beguines, who reside in a large house appropriated to their order, which is surrounded with a wall and ditch, has a church within, and resembles a little town; this sisterhood is perfectly secular, the members of which wear no particular dress, mingle with the inhabitants of the city, quit the convent, and marry when they please: but they are obliged, as long as they belong to the order, to attend prayers at stated periods, and to be within the convent at a certain hour every evening. To be admitted of this order, they must be either unmarried or widows without children, and the only certificate required is that of good behaviour, and that they have a competence to live upon. The restraints are so very few, that a Beguine may rank next to a happy wife: they have each an apartment and a little flower-garden, and take no vows of celibacy or of any other sort; in short, the whole establishment may be considered as a social retirement of amiable women, for the purpose of enjoying life in an agreeable and blameless manner. How superior this to living

A barren sister all your life,

Chaunting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon!

Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I. Scene 1.

The ladies of Holland, if I may judge from those with whom I had the honour and happiness of associating in Amsterdam, are very amiable, thoroughly well bred, well educated, speak English, French and German, and they are very polite and courteous to strangers: they are also remarkable for their attention to decorum and modesty; the unmarried, without prudery, are highly virtuous, and the married present a pattern of conjugal fidelity. They are also very fond of dancing, particularly of waltzing, and they are much attached to English country dances, in which the most graceful Parisian belle seldom appears to any advantage.

The interior of the houses belonging to the higher classes in Amsterdam is very elegant; the decoration and furniture of their rooms is very much in the French style: they are also very fond of having a series of landscapes, painted in oil colours, upon the sides of the rooms, instead of stucco or paper, or of ornamenting them with pictures and engravings. The average rent of respectable houses, independent of taxes, is from one thousand to twelve hundred florins. The dinner hour, on account of the exchange, is about four o’clock in this city, and their modes of cooking unite those of England and France: immediately after dinner the whole company adjourn to coffee in the drawing-room.

The water in this part of Holland is so brackish and feculent that it is not drank even by the common people. There are water-merchants, who are constantly occupied in supplying the city with drinkable water, which they bring in boats from Utrecht and Germany, in large stone bottles: the price of one of these bottles, containing a gallon, is about eight pence English. The poor, who cannot afford to buy it, substitute rain-water. The wines drank are principally claret and from the Rhine. The vintage of Portugal has no more admirers here than at Rotterdam, except amongst young Dutchmen, who have either been much in England, or are fond of the taste and fashions of our country.

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.

The laws in Holland against nocturnal disturbers of the peace are very severe. A few months before I was in Amsterdam, two young gentlemen of family and fortune had been condemned to pay ten thousand florins for having, when “flushed with the Tuscan grape,” rather rudely treated two women of the lower orders. The night police of Holland would form an excellent model for that of England. The watchmen are young, strong, resolute and well appointed, but annoying to a stranger; for they strike the quarter-hour with a mallet on a board; which disturbs his repose, unless he is fortunate enough to sleep in a back room, or until he becomes accustomed to the clatter. Midnight robberies and fires very seldom occur: to guard against the spreading of the latter, there are persons appointed, whose office it is to remain all day and all night in the towers or steeples of the highest churches, and as soon as they discern the flame, to suspend, if it be in the day, a flag; if in the night, a lantern towards the quarter of the city in which it rises, accompanied by the blowing of a trumpet. This vigilance, and the facility of procuring water in summer, the natural caution of the people, and their dread of such an accident, conspires to render it a very rare visitor. An average calculation of fires which occur in London, where a regular account of all such accidents are registered, by each fire insurance company having an establishment of firemen and engines, may be collected from the register of one year, commencing from Michaelmas 1805, viz. three hundred and six alarms of fire attended with little damage, thirty-one serious fires, and one hundred and fifty-five alarms, occasioned by chimneys being on fire, amounting in all to four hundred and ninety-two accidents. The English fire insurance companies calculate on an alarm of fire every day, and about eight serious fires in every quarter of a year. This is a frightful estimate, and when it is considered, that scarcely a fire of any material extent has been known in the memory of man to have broken out in either of the universities, or in any of the inns of court, where it would be most likely they would occur, on account of the frequent carelessness of the inhabitants, little doubt can remain on the minds of any one, that infinitely the greater number of fires which happen are the fatal consequences of diabolical design.

Although, owing to the great frugality and industry of the people, an insolvent debtor is rather a rare character, consequently held in more odium in Holland than in most other countries, yet the laws of arrest are milder there than in England. If the debtor be a citizen or registered burgher, he is not subject to have his person seized at the suit of the creditor, until three regular summonses have been duly served upon him, to appear in the proper court, and resist the claim preferred against him, which process is completed in about a month; after which, if he does not obey it, his person is subject to arrest, but only when he has quitted his house; for in Holland a man’s dwelling is held even more sacred than in England, and no civil process whatever is capable of being served upon him, if he stands but on the threshold of his home. In this sanctuary he may set at defiance every claimant; if, however, he has the hardihood to appear abroad, without having satisfied or compromised his debt, he is then pretty sure, from the vigilance and activity of the proper officers, to be seized; in which case he is sent to a house of restriction, not a prison for felons, where he is maintained with liberal humanity, the expenses of which, as well as of all the proceedings, must be defrayed by the creditor. Under these qualifications, every debtor is liable to arrest, let the amount of the debt be ever so small. The bankrupt laws of Holland differ from ours in this respect, that all the creditors must sign the debtor’s certificate, or agreement of liberation; but if any refuse, the ground of their refusal is submitted to arbitrators, who decide whether the bankrupt shall, notwithstanding, have his certificate or not.

A passenger can seldom pass a street without seeing one or more public functionaries, I believe peculiar to this country; they are called aanspreeker, and their office is to inform the friends and acquaintances of any one who dies, of the melancholy event. The dress of these death-messengers is a black gown, a band, a low cocked hat with a long crape depending behind. To pass from the shade of death to the light of love: a singular custom obtains upon the celebration of marriage amongst genteel persons, for the bride and bridegroom to send each a bottle of wine, generally fine hock, spiced and sugared, and decorated with all sorts of ribbands, to the house of every acquaintance; a custom which is frequently very expensive. The Dutch have also a singular mode of airing linen and beds, by means of a trokenkorb, or fire-basket, which is about the size and shape of a magpie’s cage, within which is a pan filled with burning turf, and the linen is spread over its wicker frame, or to air the bed, the whole machine is placed between the sheets. With an exception of the streets I have mentioned, and some others in that quarter of the city, they are not remarkable either for beauty or cleanliness. They are all paved with brick, and none of them have any divided flagstone footpath for foot-passengers: however, the pavement is more handsome and comfortable than that of Paris; although in both cities the pedestrian has no walk that he can call his own, yet in Amsterdam is he more secure than in the French capital, on account of the few carriages, and the skill and caution of the drivers. In no capital in the world, not even excepting Petersburg, is the foot-passenger so nobly accommodated as in London. Most of the streets in Amsterdam are narrow; and many in which very opulent merchants reside, and great traffic is carried on, are not more than sixteen or seventeen feet wide.

The canals of this city are very convenient, but many of them most offensively impure, the uniform greenness of which is chequered only by dead cats, dogs, offal, and vegetable substances of every kind, which are left to putrefy at the top, until the canal scavengers, who are employed to clean the canals, remove them: the barges which are used on these occasions, and the persons employed in them, present a very disgusting appearance; the mud which is raised by them, forms most excellent manure, and the sum it fetches in Brabant, is calculated to be equal to the expenses of the voyage. Some of the most eminent Dutch physicians maintain that the effluvia arising from the floating animal and vegetable matter of these canals, is not injurious, and in proof, during a contagious fever which ravaged this city, it was observed, that the inhabitants who resided nearest to the foulest canals, were not infected, whilst those who lived near purer water, only in few instances escaped; but this by no means confirms the assertion, because those inhabitants who lived adjoining to foul canals, were inured to contagion from its habitual application, for the same reason that medical men and nurses generally escape infection, from being so constantly exposed to it. The fair criterion would be to ascertain whether, when the city is healthy, such quarters of it continue more so. The effluvia arising from putrid animal matter, by the medical people of this country, and of almost every other, is considered far from being innoxious, but infinitely less injurious than that evolved by the decomposition of vegetables: at the same time there are many offensive smells that are far from being unwholesome, for instance, that of the bilge-water of a ship, and others might be enumerated. The water of these canals is in general about eight or nine feet deep, and the mud at the bottom about six more. Except in very foggy nights, few deaths by drowning, considering the amount of the population, occur in these canals, and fewer would still happen, if they were guarded against by a railing, which is rarely erected in any part of the city. At night, as the city is well lighted, a passenger, unless he is blind, or very much inebriated, a disgraceful condition, which as I have before observed is not often displayed in Holland, is not very likely to experience a watery death.

However, to guard as much as possible against the gloomy consequence of these casualties, the keepers of all inns and taverns, and all apothecaries in Amsterdam, and in every other city in Holland, are compelled under a heavy penalty to keep a printed paper containing the most approved method of resuscitating the suspended animation of drowned persons, in a conspicuous part of their houses. The government is also very liberal in distributing rewards to those who, at their personal peril, rescue a fellow-creature from destruction. Upon such occasions, gold, silver, or medals are bestowed, according to the risk and rank of the preserver. The first society for the restoring of drowned persons was formed in this city in 1767, and the utmost encouragement was every where given throughout the united provinces, by the magistrates in particular, and afterwards by the states-general, and the success of it has been equal to its humanity. To the Dutch nation the English are indebted for these admirable institutions, by which so many of our countrymen have at various times been snatched from the gripe of death, and restored as it were to a new existence, and to their agonized families. It is a curious circumstance to remark, that the visible disarrangement which the human frame experiences, from being a considerable time in water, is very little, so little that many are the instances where the sufferer has, in the first instance, displayed all the indicia of death, and has within a few hours been enabled to thank his deliverer in person. The body, during this temporary suspension of animation, resembles a clock, upon its pendulum being accidently stopped, its works are not mutilated nor shaken out of their proper places, but are competent to renew their functions the moment the former is touched by some friendly hand.

As a memorable illustration, I beg to relate an anecdote of an illustrious hero and august personage, who shedding light and happiness upon nearly forty millions of beings, and ruling once the most extensive empire upon the face of the earth, felt that he added a new ray of glory and happiness to his imperial dignity in preserving, by his own perseverance, a miserable fellow-creature from a watery grave.

In one of the journeys which his Imperial Majesty the Emperor Alexander made through Poland, as he was riding alone, his attendants being considerably behind him, on the banks of the little river Wilia, which flows between Kouna and Wilna in Lithuania, he perceived some persons assembled near the edge of the water, out of which they appeared to be dragging something; he instantly alighted, and on approaching the spot, found it to be the body of a man apparently lifeless. Urged by those exalted sensibilities which regard rank and power only as bounties delegated by heaven for the benefit of mankind, the monarch, without any other assistance than that of the ignorant boors about him, who from his uniform could only conceive him to be an officer of rank, drew the apparent corpse completely from the water, and laid it on the side of a bank, and with his own hands took off the wet clothes of the poor sufferer, and began to rub his temples and breast, which he continued to do for a considerable time with the most ardent anxiety, but found all his efforts to restore animation ineffectual: in the midst of this humane occupation, the Emperor was joined by the gentlemen of his suite, amongst whom were Prince Wolkousky, and Count Liewen, two Russian noblemen, and Dr. Weilly, his majesty’s principal surgeon, an English gentleman of distinguished professional talents, who always travels with, and is scarcely ever from his majesty. They united their exertions to those of the Emperor, and when Dr. Weilly attempted, but in vain, to bleed the poor creature, his majesty supported and chafed his arms, and lent every other assistance in his power: for three hours were they thus employed with all the ardour of humanity, but saw no symptoms of returning life, and Dr. Weilly pronounced the patient irrecoverable.

Fatigued as the Emperor was with these unceasing exertions, he would not relinquish the work as a hopeless one, but by his own example and language, urged and encouraged Dr. Weilly to renew his labours, which, solely in obedience to his Imperial Majesty’s wishes, and completely despairing of success, he recommenced; and as the whole party were making the last effort, the emperor had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing the blood flow from the puncture, and of hearing a faint groan issue from the lips of his patient.

The emotions of his Imperial Majesty at this moment were indescribable, and in the fulness of his transport he exclaimed in French, “Great God! this is the brightest day of my life!” and tears of joy sparkled in his eyes, to ratify the feelings of his heart. Every exertion was now redoubled, and as humanity loves to dwell upon the minutest circumstances of this affecting scene, I must not omit to relate, that when Dr. Weilly looked round for something to stop the blood with, the Emperor with vivid promptitude took out his handkerchief, tore it in pieces, with his own hands bound the sufferer’s arm, and remained with him until he completely recovered, when he conveyed him to a place where proper care could be administered to him; at parting, he ordered him a liberal present of money, and afterwards, upon his return to his capital, as if grateful to him for so large a portion of felicity, settled a pension upon him and his family. The sensations of the patient, when he was informed of the exalted rank of his preserver, can be better felt than described. The poor inhabitants of that part of Poland, who were but rude artists, fabricated four snuff-boxes, on the lids of which they delineated, as well as they were able, this striking and exemplary event, which they presented to the Emperor and the gentlemen who assisted him in this work of humanity. Such is the heart of a prince, who, almost unassailable in his mighty empire, and moved alone by the elevated desire of impeding the gigantic progress of a power which aims at universal domination, renounced all the pleasure of tranquillity, and at the head of his gallant legions thundered at the gates of princes, to awaken them from their fatal lethargy, and to invoke them to oppose the common enemy of the world.

Alas! the solemn invocation was faintly and imperfectly obeyed. In vain did the heroic Alexander endeavour to impart to other chiefs, whose humiliation, if not destruction, must be the fruits of their supineness, that divine energy which actuated his own bosom. The historian, whilst with rapture he dwells upon the valor and the disinterested energy of Alexander, with burning blushes will relate the mournful results which followed the dire neglect of his solemn and unexampled appeal. To his renewed struggles in this mighty and august cause, the eyes of England, with whom his name will ever be consecrated, and of prostrate nations panting, without the spirit to contend for their deliverance, are turned with ardent anxiety. May glory crown the arms of such a prince, and may his days be long in the land!

The exchange here is in the same style of architecture as that of Rotterdam, but larger. My astonishment here was even greater than what I experienced at the latter place; for, at the exchange hour, it was overflowing with merchants, brokers, agents, and all the busy motley characters who belong to commerce. From the prevailing activity, the appetite for accumulation here appeared to have experienced no checks from the inevitable calamities of war. My surprise was augmented by reflecting, with these appearances before me, upon the present and former commercial condition of the country. The principal causes which contributed to render Amsterdam so rich before the two last wars, were the invincible industry, the caution, and frugality of the people. The ancient merchants of Amsterdam preferred small gains with little risk, to less probable, and to larger profits: it was their creed, that more fortunes were raised by saving and economy, with moderate advantages, than by bold, expensive, and perilous speculations. This golden rule they transmitted to their posterity, who have exhibited no great disposition to deviate from it. A Dutch merchant of the present day almost always calculates the chances for and against his success in any undertaking, which he will immediately relinquish unless they are very greatly in his favour, and as nearly reducible to certainty as possible: he very rarely over-trades himself, or extends his schemes beyond his capital: such was the foundation upon which the commerce of Amsterdam was raised.

The principal sources of commercial wealth to Holland arose from her herring and Greenland fisheries, which employed a great portion of her population. The superior manner in which the Dutch pickle and preserve their herrings is peculiar to themselves, nor has it been in the power of England, or any other country, to find out the secret which lies, it is said, in the manner of gilling and salting those fish. The persons who are acquainted with the art, are bound by an oath never to impart it, hitherto religiously adhered to, and the disclosure of it is moreover guarded against by the laws of the country. This national source of wealth has been greatly impeded, in consequence of the Dutch having no herring fisheries of their own, but being obliged to seek them on the English coast at the proper season, where, particularly off Yarmouth, the herring shoals have been known to be six and seven feet deep with fish. The permission granted to the Dutch fishermen, to prosecute their occupation unmolested on our coasts, notwithstanding the war, was frequently withdrawn by our cruisers. Last year a private agreement took place between the two countries, and the indulgence was renewed, by which the Dutch were very abundantly supplied with their favourite fish: so much esteemed is it, that the first herring cured was always presented to the stadtholder, and opulent families have been known to give seven shillings, and even a guinea, for the first herrings brought to market.

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 WORKHOUSE ... THE PLANTATION ... PRIESTS HOW SUPPORTED ... PARISH REGISTERS ... THE POOR ... LITERARY SOCIETIES ... FELIX MERITIS ... MODERN DUTCH PAINTERS.

For more than a century the Dutch East India Company enjoyed the monopoly of the fine spices, comprehending nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, &c. which constituted the principal branch of the Asiatic as well as the European commerce of Holland: 360,000lbs. cloves were annually sent to Europe, and about 150,000lbs. were sold in India; 250,000lbs. of nutmeg, the produce of the island of Banda, used to be sold in Europe, and 100,000lbs. in India. In Europe also 400,000lbs. of cinnamon used to be brought to market, and 200,000lbs. consumed in India. Batavia presents a wonderful instance of the enterprise of the Dutch, who, born themselves in a marshy country, below the level of the ocean, erected a kingdom in the fifth degree of north latitude, in the most prolific part of the globe, where the fields are covered with rice, pepper, and cinnamon, and the vines bear fruit twice a year. Although this colony remains to Holland, the Dutch spice market must have very materially suffered, from the vigilance of our ships of war in various parts of the world, and particularly from the recent capture of her valuable spice ships returning home richly laden from that colony. The Dutch also carried on a large trade in rice, cotton, and pepper, and the Java coffee, which was thought to be second only to that of Mocha. The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that the amount of the spice exports should every year be the same. The Dutch East India Company was enabled to make this calculation in consequence of having acquired a tolerably exact knowledge of the quantity of each kind of spice that would be necessary for the consumption of the European markets, and never permitting any more to be exported. In this branch of trade they had no competition, and they were enabled to keep the price of their spices as high as they chose, by ordering what remained unsold at the price they had fixed upon it, to be burnt. Their spices gave them an influence upon the trade of the north of Europe, in consequence of their being highly prized by the different nations on the shores of the Baltic, who furnished the Dutch with their grain, hemp, flax, iron, pitch, tar, masts, planks, &c. The surrender of Curraçoa to the British arms must also be severely felt. This island was always of great importance to the Dutch, the possession and commerce of which they were very desirous of retaining and extending. The Dutch West India Company, many years since, refused to exchange it for the Spanish island of Porto Rico. The commerce of Curraçoa formerly took up yearly about fifty large ships, upon an average of 300 tons each, and the quantity of goods annually shipped from Holland amounted to 500,000l. and the returns nearly doubled that sum. The exports from Holland consisted of German and Dutch linens, checks, East India goods, woollen and cotton manufactures, spices, cinnamon, building materials, and many other articles of ease and luxury. The imports to Europe were indigo, coffee, sugar, hides, cotton, dye-wood, tortoiseshell, varinas, Porto Rico tobacco, and occasionally cochineal. The Dutch also carried on a very flourishing trade to Turkey and the Levant, by selling their own, the Irish and English cloths, and purchasing tea, cocoa, ginger, and thread. The commercial intercourse also between Holland and England was very important, in which the balance in specie was greatly against the Dutch, which induced many, who were ignorant of their real character, to conclude, that they never could support so prodigious a drain of specie as they have invariably experienced in such communications; an impression which subsides when it is considered that the Dutch consumed but little of what they imported from England, and that what they purchased they resold in an improved condition to other countries. A nation can only become rich from trade when its exports for the use of foreign states is in a greater proportion than its imports for its own consumption. An impression has gone forth, that a nation cannot be impoverished if the importation of foreign merchandize be purchased abroad by native commodity and not with specie; whereas upon a nation striking the balance of her account with the country she may have dealt with, it will be found that the deficiency on the side of her exportation must be made up in specie. Hence an industrious and frugal people like the Dutch will, when their country is in a state of tranquillity, possess great advantages over most other nations. Industry increases the native commodity, whether it arises from the soil or the manufacture, and increases the exportation. Frugality will lessen the consumption, and of course increase the exportation of native, and reduce the importation of foreign produce, for home consumption. The excess of all native commodities is sure of a market, of which those who can sell the cheapest will be the masters: hence a frugal and industrious people will be able to live and accumulate, where those who are neither could not live. This spirit of industry and frugality has been for ages, and still continues to be the guardian of this nation, by which it was enabled to support its many, long, and costly wars, and finally to force the king of Spain, its ancient master, to recognise its independent sovereignty. Although the Hollanders, before the last war, were the undisputed proprietors of the Indian spices, of the silks of India and China, and of the fine cotton manufactures of Indostan, till a period at no great distance the common people wore plain woollen cloth, and fed on fish and vegetables. So universally powerful was this propensity to economy, that formerly the common people, and even opulent merchants, never changed their fashions, and left off their clothes only because they were worn out. They have been known to purchase the coarse English cloth for their own wear, and sell their own fine Leyden cloths to Germany, Turkey, Portugal, and other countries: they also bought the cheapest butter and cheese in the north of England, and in Ireland, for their own consumption, and sent the best of those articles produced in their own country to foreign markets. The wealth which many individuals accumulated by their parsimonious habits was astonishing. The following anecdote will place this part of the national character in a striking point of view. As the marquis of Spinola and the president Richardot were going to the Hague in the year 1608, for the purpose of negotiating a truce with the Dutch, they saw on their way eight or nine persons step out of a little boat, and seat themselves upon the grass, where they made a frugal repast upon some bread, cheese, and beer; each person taking his own provisions from a wallet which he carried behind him. Upon the Spanish ambassadors inquiring of a peasant who these travellers were, he replied, to their no little astonishment, “they are the deputies of the states, our sovereign lords and masters.” Upon which the ambassadors exclaimed, “We shall never be able to conquer these people; we must make peace with them.” In the history of Sparta we can only look for a similar instance of virtuous simplicity.

Another source from which Amsterdam derived great wealth was the exchange and banking business. From her peculiar situation, vast credit; and extensive correspondence with every nation upon the face of the globe, this city has been the channel through which nearly three parts of the money remitted from one state to another in Europe have passed, and which have enriched the merchants by the customary commissions upon such remittances: to which may be added the duties payable upon all imports received from the manufactures of the western part of Germany, upon all goods which in their transit by the Rhine and by the Maas to foreign markets must pass through Amsterdam or Rotterdam, from which Holland must have derived a considerable revenue. In short, in other and better times, the trade with Great Britain, Persia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cochin and its dependencies, Molucca, China, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Pomerania, Livonia, the possession of that important promontory the Cape of Good Hope, and the commerce of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Maas, all contributed to raise Amsterdam to the commercial renown which she once enjoyed. Yet, notwithstanding, under all her difficulties, arising from her territorial and marine losses by the war, the severity of the English blockade, the activity of the English cruisers, and of the French privateers, Holland still continues to carry on a considerable intercourse with her old connexions through the medium of neutral bottoms, secured by insurances effected frequently at the enormous premium of 20l. per cent.

To return to the Exchange of this great city: I was much struck with the confluence of people which surrounded one gentleman, who stood with his back towards one of the pillars, and were very eager to get a word or a whisper from him: upon inquiry this proved to be the acting partner of the house of Messrs. Hope; a house that, before the last war, could at any time dictate the exchange to Europe. This place is infested by a great number of Jew fruiterers, who practise all sorts of stratagems to set off their fruit, such as pinning the stalk of a fresh melon upon the bottom of a stale and rotten one, which had nearly succeeded with me. The melons in Holland are remarkably fine; and as a proof of their cheapness, I need only mention, that one morning, when strolling through the streets, I gave no more than the value of ten pence for a very large one, exquisitely flavoured.

I was much pleased with seeing the marine school, which, although its object is to form a nursery for naval officers, was, strange to relate, much neglected by the stadtholderian government, and was originally instituted, and afterwards supported, by the patriotic spirit of private individuals. The pupils are the children of citizens of all classes, and are received from seven to twelve years of age, upon the payment of a very moderate yearly stipend. Their education and treatment are the same as in similar institutions here and in other countries. In the yard is a brig completely rigged, for the instruction of the boys.

In the north-east part of the city stands the Rapshuys, or rasp-house, in which criminals, whose offences are not of a capital nature, are confined. A narrow court receding from the street, in which are the keeper’s lodge and apartments for the different officers, form the entrance of this prison. Over the gate are some insignificant, painted, wooden figures, representing criminals sawing logwood, and Justice holding a rod over them. The gaoler, apparently a good natured, merry fellow, showed me into the inner court, forming an oblong square, on three sides of which the cells of the prisoners, and on the fourth side the warehouses, containing the ground dying wood, are arranged. This yard is very much encumbered with piles of logwood, which sadly reduce the miserable pittance of space allotted for the prisoners to walk in. In one corner, in terrorem, is a whipping-post, with another little figure of Justice holding a rod. In this yard I saw some of the men sawing the Campeachy-wood, with a saw of prodigious large teeth, which appeared to be a work of extreme labour; and upon my so expressing myself to the gaoler, through my laquais de place, he informed me, that at first it required a painful exertion of strength, but that the prisoners by practice were enabled to saw it with ease, and to supply their weekly quota of two hundred pounds weight of sawed pieces, and also to make a variety of little articles in straw, bone, wood, and copper, to sell to those who visited the prison. The prison dress consists of a jacket, or surtout of white wollen, white shirts, hats, flannel stockings, and leather shoes. The conduct of these unfortunate persons is annually reported to the magistrate, who regulates the period of their confinement, where the case will admit of an exercise of discretion, by such report.

In a corner of the yard I was shown a cell, in which, if the person who is confined in it does not incessantly pump out the water let into it, he must inevitably be drowned; but the gaoler informed me, that it had not been used for many years, and that it was now only an object of terror. In the warehouses, which are very shabby, were piles of rasped wood for dyeing various colours; amongst others, the Evonymus Europæus, the Morus Tinctoria, and the Hæmotoxylum Campechionum. I was informed, that women who are attached to the prisoners, are permitted to visit them at stated periods, without any restraint, by which one of the great political objects of Holland, the encouragement of population, does not suffer by this wholesome separation of the faulty from the blameless members of society. The number of prisoners amounted to 124; they were far from looking healthy; this I attributed more to the height of the walls enclosing the yard, which, as well as the number of logwood piles, must greatly impede the circulation of the air, than to excess of toil and severity of treatment. The prisoners are not encumbered with irons, and I should think an escape from such a prison might be easily effected.

From the rasp-house I proceeded to the work-house, in the east quarter of the city, close to the Muider and Prince Gragts, an establishment which I believe has no parallel in the world. It is a vast building: the purposes to which it is applied are partly correctional and partly charitable. The number of persons within its walls, when I saw it, amounted to seven hundred and fifty of both sexes, and the annual expense is about one hundred thousand florins. In the rooms belonging to the governors and directresses, are some exquisite pictures by Vandyke, Rembrandt, and Jordaens. In a vast room very cleanly kept and well ventilated, were an immense number of women, occupied in sewing, spinning, &c.; amongst them was a fine, handsome, hearty looking Irish woman, who had been confined two years at the instance of her husband, for being more fond of a little true Schidam gin than of her liege spouse. In another vast apartment, secured by massy iron railing and grated windows, were about seventy female convicts, who appeared to be in the highest state of discipline, and were very industriously and silently engaged in making lace, &c. under the superintendency of a governess. From the walls of the room were suspended instruments of punishment, such as scourges, irons for the legs, &c. which, we were informed, were not spared upon the slightest appearance of insubordination. These women are always kept apart from the rest. The wards of the men, and the school-rooms for a great number of children, who are educated and maintained under the same roof, as well as the dormitories, were in the highest state of neatness. In another part of this building, never shown to strangers, were confined about ten young ladies, of very respectable, and some of very high families, sent there by their parents or friends for undutiful deportment, or some other domestic offence. They are compelled to wear a particular dress as a mark of degradation, obliged to work a stated number of hours a day, and are occasionally whipped: they are kept apart by themselves, and no one but a father, mother, brother, or sister, can see them during their confinement, and then only by an order from one of the directors. Husbands may here, upon complaint of extravagance, drunkenness, &c. duly proved, send their wives to be confined and receive the discipline of the house; and wives their husbands, for two, three, and four years together. The allowance of food is abundant and good; and each person is permitted to walk for a proper time in the courts within the building, which are spacious. Every ward is kept locked, and no one can go in or out without the especial permission of the proper officer.

Close to this place is the plantation, a very large portion of ground within the city, laid out in avenues, and a great number of little gardens, formed into several divisions by streets of pretty country and summer-houses; and the whole is surrounded by canals. To this rus in urbe, such of the citizens and their families repair in the summer to dine or drink tea, whose finances, or spirit of economy will not admit of their having a house in the country. To render these rural indulgences as cheap as possible, three or four families join in renting one small cottage, or perhaps a summerhouse and garden. Never did any spot devoted to the pleasure of nature exhibit more silence and solemnity: no sports, no pastime, no laugh nor gambol: the females drink their tea and work, and the men smoke in peaceful taciturnity, and scarcely move their eyes from their different occupations, unless some very animating and attractive object passes.

In my way from the plantation to the elegant country residence of a Dutch merchant of high respectability, I passed, a few miles from Amsterdam, two burial places of the Jews, who wisely bury their dead in the country; the other inhabitants follow the baneful practice of burying in the churches and church-yards in the city, where the catholics deposit their dead very frequently in protestant churches. In Holland the honours of funeral pomp are scarcely ever displayed: the spirit of economy, which seems to be the tutelar saint of these moist regions, seldom incurs a further expense than a plain coffin, which costs little, and some genuine tears or sighs, which cost nothing. To describe the numerous churches, chapels, and conventicles of the religions of all persuasions, who since the revolution live in cordial amity with each other, and with the government, under which they enjoy the rights of equal citizenship, would be a laborious and not a very interesting labour. The quakers here, and in every other town in Holland, are very few: the Jews and the anabaptists are very numerous, and there are many Roman Catholics. Before the revolution the clergy of the established church were paid by the government; they, as well as every other priest or pastor, are now supported at fixed salaries, raised rateably amongst the inhabitants of the parishes in which they officiate, each sect supporting its own minister. In every parish registers of births, marriages, and deaths are regularly kept. The church-yards are not disgraced, like ours, with low facetious epitaphs, more calculated to make the living merry, than to lead them to serious meditation. Each parish maintains its own poor, under the control of a council. They have also, as with us, outdoor poor. The sabbath is kept in Holland with the same solemnity as in England. The great number of noble charitable institutions in Amsterdam, in which the sick and the friendless of all persuasions are received and cherished, without any recommendation but that of affliction, cannot fail to impress a stranger with admiration, though to enumerate them here would not be very entertaining to the reader.

There are several literary societies in Amsterdam, which are supported with equal spirit and liberality. The Felix Meritis is the principal public institute; it is supported by private subscriptions: no money is paid upon admission; foreigners are admitted with a subscriber’s ticket, but no native can be received unless he is a subscriber. This place is a large building, containing some fine apartments, particularly the music-room, which, during the concerts, is much resorted to by the most opulent and fashionable families, many of whom play, with the assistance of professional performers. There are also rooms devoted to philosophy and the arts. In the painting-room I was shown some works of the modern Dutch painters, which were not above mediocrity; they appear to have lost that exquisite art of colouring, which so eminently distinguished their predecessors. This circumstance is very singular, considering how many ingenious artists this city has produced, amongst whom may be enumerated the three Does, Griffier, Schellinks, the celebrated Adrian, and William Vandervelde, &c. M. Smit, and Mr. De Winter, very opulent merchants, have a fine collection of paintings. Mr. Van Brenton has also a valuable cabinet, in which are the only Venetian pictures supposed to be in Holland; and in the surgery is a noble picture by Rembrandt.

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.

The Dutch theatre is large and handsome, and has a noble front. On the night I was there, Madam Wattier performed: she occupies the same place in the public estimation in Holland as the immortal Siddons does in that of England: she is advanced in years, but still continues to display great tragic qualities: at the same time her manner is rather too vehement for an English auditor. The principal dancer in the ballet was Mademoiselle Polly, who dances with great agility. The scenery is good. During the interval between the acts, the people quit the house, to take refreshments and walk in the open air: upon these occasions the national spirit is again displayed: as there is no half-price, little boys hover round the doors, and bid upon each other for the purchase of the re-admission tickets of those who come out, for the purpose of re-selling them at a profit. The French theatre is small but neat, and tolerably well supplied with performers. After the play it is usual to go out to the Rondell, where the higher classes of the women of the town assemble to waltz. This assembly-room, like the spill-house of Rotterdam, is frequented by tradesmen, their wives and their children. After hearing so much of this place, I was greatly disappointed on viewing it. The assembly-room is small and shabby, the music wretched, and adjoining is a small square court, with three or four trees in it, scantily decorated with about a dozen lamps. Such is the celebrated Rondell of Amsterdam, which the Dutch who have never visited England contend is superior to our Vauxhall.

With a large and very agreeable party, I made an excursion into North Holland, where we visited Brock, one of the most curious, and one of the prettiest villages in Holland. The streets are divided by little rivulets; the houses and summer-houses, formed of wood painted green and white, are very handsome, though whimsical in their shape, and are all remarkably neat. They are like so many mausoleums, for the silence of death reigns throughout the place. The inhabitants, who have formed a peculiar association amongst themselves, scarcely ever admit a stranger within their doors, and hold but little intercourse with each other. During our stay, we saw only the faces of two of them, and those by a stealthy peep. They are very rich, so much so, that many of their culinary utensils are of solid gold. The shutters of the windows in front of the houses are always kept shut, and the principal entrance is never opened but on the marriage or the death of one of the family. The pavement of the street is tesselated with all sorts of little pebbles and cockle-shells, and is kept in such exquisite order, that a dog or a cat is never seen to trespass upon it; and it is said, that formerly there was a law which obliged all passengers to take off their shoes in the summer when they walked upon it; that a man was once reprimanded for sneezing in the streets; and latterly, a clergyman, upon being appointed to fill the church on the demise of a very old predecessor, was treated with great shyness by his flock because he did not (unwittingly) take off his shoes when he ascended the pulpit. The gardens of this village produce deer, dogs, peacocks, chairs, tables, and ladders, cut out in box. Such a museum of vegetable statuary I never witnessed before. Brock represents a sprightly ball-room well lighted up, without a soul in the orchestra or upon the floor. From Brock we proceeded to Saardam, which at a small distance seems to be a city of windmills. The houses are principally built of wood, every one of which has a little fantastic baby-sort of garden. Government has discontinued building ships of war here, which used to be a source of great prosperity to the town; however, its numerous paper and sawing mills employ a vast number of hands, and produce great opulence to the place. We paid our homage to the wooden cottage where Peter the Great resided when he came to this place to learn the art of ship-building; it is very small, and stands in a garden, and is in tolerable preservation. The women in North Holland are said to be handsomer than in any other part of the country. As I was very desirous of commencing my tour on the Rhine, I was glad to return to Amsterdam.

The climate of Holland is moist, but far from being unpleasant or unwholesome, although some travellers have thought proper to say it consists of six months of rain and six months of bad weather. The principal divisions of the country are at present the same as they were during the republic, namely, Holland, Overyssel, Zealand, Friesland, Utrecht, Groningen, Guelderland, and Zutphen, besides the Texel and other islands; but the king has it in contemplation, it is said, of speedily dividing the kingdom into ten departments. Holland contains 113 cities or large towns, 1400 villages, and nearly 2,800,000 inhabitants. The military force of Holland amounts to about 40,000 cavalry and infantry. A population and a force which cannot but astonish the reader, when he reflects upon the size, soil, and position of the country.

I intended to have taken the treckschuyt to Utrecht, as the river Amstel is all the way lined with the most beautiful country-houses and grounds in Holland; but as some friends of mine in Amsterdam obligingly proposed accompanying me, and were strongly desirous that I should see Naarden, Soestdyke, and some other places in our way, the boat was relinquished for the carriage. I however recommend the traveller not to omit going to Utrecht by water. Excellent carriages and horses are always to be procured at a large livery stable keeper’s who resides near the Utrecktsche Poort, or Utrecht Gate, in Amsterdam, close to the house from which the Utrecht treckschuyts proceed: for these he must make the best bargain he can, as he will be wholly at the mercy of the proprietor. The inconvenience and imposition arising from travelling in Holland are frequently severely felt, on account of there being no regular posting. In Amsterdam the price of a carriage for the day is fourteen florins, and for this the coachman provides for himself and horses. The back of our carriage towards the horses, folded into two divisions, resting upon the fixed seat, so that when the cushion was placed upon it, the seat was only a little raised; thus the coach became either close or open: the roof was fixed. In this vehicle, with a pair of good horses, we set off for Naarden, a clean, pretty little town, and more skilfully and strongly fortified than any other town in Holland: here the same tranquillity reigns as in most of the other Dutch country towns. From the ramparts, which present a very agreeable walk, there is a fine view of the Zuyder Zee on the northern side, the water of which being in many places very shallow, at a distance resembled moving mounds of sand. Here, and throughout the journey, our coachman gave the preference to coffee, of which the Dutch are remarkably fond, instead of wine or spirits, with his dinner. From economy, as I observed at this place and elsewhere, the middling people keep a bit of sugar-candy in their mouth when they drink tea or coffee, instead of using sugar in the way we do. Our host regaled us after dinner with a volunteer dessert of some very delicious pears, which grew in very great profusion in his garden.

From this place to Soestdyke, one of the two country palaces of the king allowed by the constitution, the roads are very sandy, and we were obliged to take four horses. In the neighbourhood of Naarden the country is covered with buckwheat; which, after we had advanced about four English miles, began to undulated, and present a very beautiful appearance. The many spires and chimnies of villages peeping above the trees in all directions, the small divisions of land, the neat and numerous little farm houses which abounded on all sides of us, presented a picture of industry and prosperity seldom seen in any other country. The sound wisdom displayed by the Dutch in preventing the overgrowth and consolidation of farms, cannot fail to strike the observation of the traveller, and particularly an English one. By this admirable policy, Holland is enabled to maintain its comparatively immense population, under the great disadvantage of a soil far from being genial; hence it is but little burthened with paupers, and hence the abundance of its provision. In England, on the contrary, the farmers, grown opulent by availing themselves of the calamities of unproductive seasons, and consequent scarcity, have for many years past omitted no opportunity, by grasping at every purchase, to enlarge their estates, and hence a portion of land which, if separated into small allotments, would give food and a moderate profit, to many families, is now monopolized by one; and those who ought to be farmers on a small scale, are now obliged to toil as labourers in the fields of their employer, at wages that are not sufficient, if their families are numerous, to prevent the necessity of their applying for parochial aid. If some legislative provision could be effected to restrain this monstrous and growing evil, by that ardent and cordial lover of his country, and particularly of the lower classes of society, Mr. Whitbread, who has laudably in parliament applied his enlightened mind to ameliorate the condition of the poor, it would be one of the most beneficial measures that ever received the fiat of the British senate. I do not repine to see the farmers, or any other respectable class of men, receive and enjoy the honest fruits of their own enterprize and industry: I could see with less regret all those decent and frugal habits of the farm which once characterized the yeomanry of England superseded by the folly and fashion of the gay and dissipated; the farmer drinking his bottle of port instead of some cheap salubrious ale; his daughter, no longer brought up in the dairy, returning from a boarding-school, to mingle the sounds of her harp with the lowing of cows, or reluctantly going to the market of the adjoining town, tricked out in awkward, misplaced finery, with a goose in one hand and a parasol in the other, did not the poor classes of society become poorer, and the humble more humiliated, by the cause of this marvellous metamorphosis in rural economy. In Holland, I was well informed, there is not a farm that exceeds fifty acres, and very few of that extent. There the economy observed in and about the “peasant’s nest,” is truly gratifying: the farmer, his wife, and a numerous progeny, exhibit faces of health and happiness; their dwelling is remarkable for its neatness and order throughout; in the orchard behind, abounding with all sorts of delicious fruits, the pigs and sheep fatten; three or four sleeky cows feed in a luxuriant adjoining meadow; the corn land is covered with turkies and fowls, and the ponds with ducks and geese. Such is the picture of a Dutch farm.

Notwithstanding the enormous tax upon land, and a tax upon cattle per head, an imposition unknown to any other country, the expense of contributing to the support of the dykes, the duty on salt, and a variety of other charges, amounting to more than fifty per cent. on the value of their land, the beneficial effects arising from small farms and the simplicity, diligence, and economy of the Dutch farmer, enable him to discharge those expenses, and his rent, with punctuality, and with the surplus of his profit to support his family in great comfort. To these causes alone can be attributed the astonishing supplies which are sent to the different markets. North Holland, so celebrated for its cheese, supplies Enkuysen, upon an average, with two hundred and fifty thousand pounds weight of that valuable article of life, and Alkmaar with three hundred thousand, per week. In a very small space in the isle of Amak, within about two English miles of Copenhagen, no less than four thousand people, descendants of a colony from East Friesland, invited over by one of the kings of Denmark to supply the city with milk, cheese, butter, and vegetables, are enabled to live and flourish, and continue to supply that city with these articles. I remember being highly delighted with seeing their dwellings and little luxuriant gardens; nor did I ever see so many persons living within so small a space, except in an encampment. An experienced English agriculturist who had visited Holland, informed me that he thought the Dutch farmers did not sufficiently dress their land. The vegetable soil is in general so thin, that trees in exposed situations are usually topped, to prevent their being thrown down by the wind. In that part of Holland which I am describing, on account of its being well sheltered, there is a large growth of wood. Upon leaving the romantic and exquisitely picturesque village of Baren, we entered the royal chace, which occupies a vast track of ground in this forest. The trees are generally poor and thin, but I saw some fine beeches among them. On the borders of this chace are two country villas, in the shape of pagodas, belonging to a private gentleman, the novelty and gaudy colouring of which served to animate the sombre appearance of the forest behind.

In the evening we reached the principal inn at Soestdyke, lying at the end of a very long avenue in the forest, chiefly filled with young oaks, a little fatigued with the tedium produced by the heavy roads through which we had waded; however, after some refreshing tea taken under the trees, near the house, we proceeded to view the palace, formerly a favourite sporting chateau of the Orange family. A tolerable plain brick house on the left of the entrance, composed the lodge, and after passing through a large court, we ascended by a flight of steps to the principal entrance of this palace, if palace it may be called, for a residence more unworthy of a prince I have never seen. The only part of the house in any degree deserving of notice was the hall, the sides of which were decorated with the emblems of rural recreation, the implements of husbandry, and all the apparatus of hunting, fishing, and shooting, tolerably well executed. The rooms were principally white-washed, and destitute of furniture: the windows were large, and the panes of glass very small, fastened with lead, such as are used in cottages: in short, the whole palace presented the appearance of a country mansion in England of the date of Charles the First, deserted by the family to whom it belonged, and left to the care of the tenants who rent the estate to which it belongs. Nothing could be more dreary and desolate. The king and queen partook of a cold collation here a short time before I visited it, provided by the family who rented the place of the state, and occupied it when we visited it. I was not surprised to hear that the royal family staid only one hour, during which they scarcely ventured out of a large naked room at the back part of the house, called the grand saloon: one of the young princes gave a son of the gentleman who occupied the premises, an elegant watch set round with brilliants. I could not help reflecting a little upon the disgust this visit must have given to the queen, who had just arrived from Paris, and from all the voluptuous and tasteful magnificence of the new imperial court. The palace is surrounded by a ditch half filled with green stagnant water, the dulness of which was only relieved by the croaking of a legion of undisturbed frogs. The gardens and grounds, which abounded with hares, are very formally disposed into dull, unshaded, geometrical walks. After supper, a brilliant moon and cloudless night, attracted us into one of the most beautiful and majestic avenues of beeches I ever saw, immediately opposite the palace: as we sat upon a bench, looking through an opening upon the bright bespangled heavens, the description of our divine bard stole upon my mind:

—Look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patterns of bright gold!

There’s not the smallest orb, which thou behold’st,

But in its motion like an angel sings.

Merchant of Venice, Act I. Sc. 1.

In this wood are several genteel country-houses, many of which were formerly occupied by those who belonged to the Orange court. The inn here is much frequented, the accommodations of which are good, by the people of Amsterdam, who frequently make parties to it; and it is the great resort of those married couples fresh from the altar, until the honey-moon is in her wane.

In the morning about five o’clock we set off for Zeyst, or Ziest, and passed through a large tract of champagne country, interspersed with short brushwood, the dull monotony of which was at last relieved by a vast pyramid, erected by the French troops who were encamped in the immense open space in which it stands, amounting to 30,000 men, under the command of Gen. Marmont. On the four sides are the following inscriptions: