Of the tombs in this Church, I shall only mention two, as distinguished from the rest by their costliness, magnificence and antiquity. They are made of copper, well guilt. One of them is the tomb of Mary, heiress to the Ducal House of Burgundy; and the other, that of Charles (commonly called the Hardy), Duke of Burgundy, her father.
In Bruges there were four great Abbeys, and an amazing number of Convents and Nunneries. The buildings, I presume, yet stand; but there is little doubt that their contents, of every kind, have been, before this, put in requisition, and each part of them, of course, applied to its natural use.
The Church once belonging to the Jesuits, is built in a noble style of architecture: and that of the Dominicans has not only its external merits, but its internal value; for, besides the usual super-abundance of rich chalices, &c. it possesses some very great curiosities——
As, first, a very curious, highly wrought pulpit——beautiful in itself, but remarkable for the top being supported by wood, cut out, in the most natural, deceptive manner, in the form of ropes, and which beguile the spectator the more into a belief of its reality, because it answers the purposes of ropes.
Secondly, a picture——and so extraordinary a picture! Before I describe it, I must apprise you that your faith must be almost as great as that of a Spanish Christian to believe me——to believe that the human intellect ever sunk so low as, in the first instance, to conceive, and, in the next, to harbour and admire, such a piece. But I mistake——it has its merit; it is a curiosity——the Demon of Satire himself could not wish for a greater.
This picture, then, is the representation of a Marriage!——but of whom? why, truly, of Jesus Christ with Saint Catharine of Sienna. Observe the congruity——Saint Catharine of Sienna lived many centuries after the translation of Jesus Christ to Heaven, where he is to sit, you know, till he comes to judge the quick and the dead!——But who marries them? In truth, Saint Dominic, the patron of this Church! The Virgin Mary joins their hands——that is not amiss——But, to crown the whole, King David himself, who died so long before Christ was born, plays the harp at the wedding!
My dear Frederick, I shall take it as no small instance of your dutiful opinion of me to believe, that such a picture existed, and made part of the holy paraphernalia of a Temple consecrated to the worship of the Divinity: but I assure you it is a fact; and as I have never given you reason to suspect my veracity, I expect you to believe me in this instance, improbable though it seems: for such a farrago of absurdities, such a jumble of incongruities, impossibilities, bulls and anachronisms, never yet were compressed, by the human imagination, into the same narrow compass.
I protract this Letter beyond my usual length, on purpose to conclude my account of Bruges, and get once more upon the road.
The Monastery of the Carthusians, another Order of Friars, is of amazing size, covering an extent of ground not much less than a mile in circumference. The Carmelites, another Order, have a Church here, in which there is raised a beautiful monument, to the memory of Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover, a Peer of England——But the Monastery called the Dunes, a sect of the Order of Saint Barnard, is by far the noblest in the whole city: the cloisters and gardens are capacious and handsome; the apartment of the Abbot is magnificent and stately, and those of the Monks themselves unusually neat. Those poor mortified penitents, secluded from the pomps, the vanities and enjoyments of life, and their thoughts, no doubt, resting alone on hereafter, keep, nevertheless, a sumptuous table, spread with every luxury of the season——have their country-seats, where they go a-hunting, or to refresh themselves, and actually keep their own coaches.
Among the Nunneries there are two English: one of Augustinian Nuns, who are all ladies of quality, and who entertain strangers at the grate with sweetmeats and wine; the other, called the Pelicans, is of a very strict Order, and wear a coarse dress.