At the corners, are the statues of Religion, Liberty, Justice, and Fortitude, of which the first rests upon a piece of black marble, on which is inscribed in golden letters the name of Christ; and the second holds a cap, with the inscription Aurea Libertas. On the four sides of the canopy are the devices of the Prince, with the inscriptions Jehovah.—Je maintiendrai Piété et Justice.—Te Vindice, tuta Libertas.—And, Sævis tranquillus in Undis.
There are many other ornaments, which give dignity or elegance to the structure, but cannot be described without tediousness. The well-known Epitaph is certainly worth transcribing:
D. O. M. et eternæ memoriæ Gulielmi Nassoviæ, supremi Auransionensium Principis, Patr. patriæ, qui Belgii fortunis suas posthabuit et suorum; validissimos exercitus ære plurimum privato bis conscripsit, bis induxit; ordinum auspiciis Hispaniæ tyrannidem propulit; veræ religionis cultum, avitas patriæ leges revocavit, restituit; ipsam denique libertatem tantum non assertam, Mauritio Principi, paternæ virtutis hæredi filio, stabiliendam reliquit. Herois vere pii, prudentis, invicti, quem Philip. II. Hisp. R. Europæ timor, timuit; non domuit, non terruit; sed empto percussore fraude nefanda sustulit; Fœderat. Belgii provinc. perenni memor. monum. fec.
"To God the best and highest, and to the eternal memory of William of Nassau, Sovereign Prince of Orange, the father of his country, whose welfare he preferred to that of himself and his family; who, chiefly at his own expence, twice levied and introduced a powerful army; under the sanction of the States repelled the tyranny of Spain; recovered and restored the service of true religion and the ancient laws of the country; and finally left the liberty, which he had himself asserted, to be established by his son, Prince Maurice, the heir of his father's virtues. The Confederated Belgic Provinces have erected this monument, in perpetual memory of this truly pious, prudent and unconquered Hero, whom Philip II. King of Spain, the dread of Europe, dreaded; never overcame, never terrified; but, with wicked treachery, carried off by means of an hired assassin."
The tomb of Grotius is in the same church, which is a stately building of brick and stone, but has nothing of the "dim religious light," that sooths the mind in Gothic structures. Upon the steeple are many small bells, the chimes rung upon which are particularly esteemed, both for tone and tune.
On the opposite side of a very large market-place is the Town-house, an old building, but so fresh and so fantastic with paint, as to have some resemblance to a Chinese temple. The body is coloured with a light, or yellowish brown, and is two stories high to the roof, in which there are two tier of peaked windows, each under its ornament of gilded wood, carved into an awkward resemblance of shells. Upon the front is inscribed, "Delphensium Curia Reparata," and immediately over the door "Reparata 1761."
The Oude Kerk, or Old Church, is in another part of the town, and is not remarkable, except for the tombs of Leuwenhoek, Peter Heine and Van Tromp. That of Leuwenhoek has a short inscription, in Latin almost as bad as that of a verse epitaph upon Grotius, in the other church. He was born, it appears, in October 1632, and died in August 1723. The tombs of Heine and Van Tromp are very handsome. There are the effigies of both in white marble, and one of the victories gained by the latter is represented in alto relievo. On account of the tombs, both churches are open, during certain hours in the day; and a beadle, or, perhaps, an almsman, is placed in each, who presents a padlocked box, into which money may be put for the poor.
In this town is the chief arsenal of the province of Holland, except that the magazine of powder is at the distance of about a mile from it, near the canal to Rotterdam. In 1787, when the dissensions between the States General and the Prince of Orange were at their height, a provincial free corps seized this arsenal, and held it for the States till the return of the Prince of Orange to the Hague, a few weeks afterwards.
Having seen what was pointed out to our notice, at Delft, and learned that its extensiveness was owing to the residence of a great number of retired merchants from Rotterdam, we left it in a trechtschuyt for the Hague, having little other notion of it in our minds, than that it is very dull and very rich, and of a size, for which there is no recompense to a stranger, except in considering, that its dullness is the rest of those, who have once been busy, and that its riches are at least not employed in aggravating the miseries of poverty by ostentation.