ON THE BEACH, SCHEVENINGEN
It might be Brighton or Margate, and, except for the swarm of hooded beach chairs, it might be Coney Island, this popular seaside resort of Holland. Most of the features familiar to those who frequent the sea coast resorts of other lands are to be found at Scheveningen. There is the wide, gradually shelving beach, ceaselessly washed by the rolling surf, crowded with people of all ages and stations, bobbing in the water, frolicking on the beach, or sedately seated in the shaded chairs. Back on the beach runs the long line of hotels and cottages that we find at all great ocean resorts. The pleasure of playing on the seashore is much the same wherever humanity is found, and no matter what the locality may be the pleasure in all places finds pretty much the same forms of expression.
Scheveningen (shay´-ven-ing-en) began its life as a fishing village away back in 1400. It is situated about three miles from The Hague, and has been a bathing resort since 1815, growing in popularity and population until now the annual number of visitors is about 40,000, chiefly Dutch and German, but including also many Britons and Americans. The season runs from the first of June to the end of September, and, just as in the case of other summer resorts, its activities are at their height about the first of August.
Aside from its many attractions as a summer resort, Scheveningen has some historic interest. It was from there that Charles II set sail when he returned to England to assume the crown at the time of the Restoration. This was in 1660. Thirteen years later that sturdy naval hero Admiral de Ruyter engaged in a sea battle off Scheveningen, and there defeated the combined forces of France and England.
DUTCH COUNTRY LIFE AND PEOPLE
For those who would know Holland and the people, no trip would be complete that merely included a few of the prominent cities. Take your pack if you care for tramping, or engage a car if you prefer to ride: you will find the roads good. Then go through the country and meet the people in their simplest condition. The Dutch farmer has not changed in several hundred years. He is a thrifty, contented individual, and his life will interest you. You will find the country families hospitable, and you will learn much from them that the city Hollanders have not told you. As you go through the farm districts you will be impressed with the varied color and the picturesque qualities of everything. And though you may not be an artist you must, in the course of a sojourn in Holland, feel the stir of art consciousness.
Aptly indeed has Holland been called “a land of untouched pictures.”
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC
J. L. Motley.