reliquary studded with jewels—amongst them a splendid black diamond which once belonged to Marie, Queen of Scots—in which the Holy Blood is annually carried in procession through the streets in the month of May. This reliquary was the gift of the burghers of Bruges in 1614; the original reliquary was destroyed by the Protestants in 1578. The relic is exposed for the veneration of the faithful every Friday in the upper chapel from eight till eleven thirty, and the ceremony of Benediction which then takes place is singularly impressive.
The beautiful groined archway which pierces the Maison de l’ancien Greffe leads to a region where there are exquisite views: from the centre of the Great Fishmarket, the backs of the buildings of which we have just been speaking—they are no less fascinating than their façades; and from the Pont de l’âne Aveugle the loveliness of the Roya, and the façade of the Palais du Franc where, in the great council chamber, is Lancelot Blondeel’s famous chimney-piece. The approach to this building is through the Palais de Justice in the Place du Bourg. Bearing to the right through the Little Fishmarket, most picturesque, we presently reach the Marché aux Herbes, the Quai de Rosaire and the Dyver, where the scenery is no less charming. The great red house on the further bank of the Roya is the house where Malvenda hid the Holy Blood, and the majestic spire in the distance the spire of Notre Dame. Almost at the end of the Dyver there is a little street called the rue de Grœninghe, which branches off the main thoroughfare between two walled gardens. That on the left is the site of the ancient abbey of Eeckhout, a very peaceful place, where in summer-time there are roses in abundance and old-world herbs and flowers, and, on a crumbling wall, snap-dragon. The gabled house hard-by, with a little Gothic window, was formerly the residence of the provosts of Notre Dame; the picturesque group of buildings in the distance, which, amid thick foliage, cluster round its spire, is the old palace of Louis of Gruthuise; the garden beyond the narrow stream, the garden of the nuns of St. André. Let the traveller linger awhile in this tranquil spot and, if he will, for twopence half-penny, refresh himself with a beautiful bunch of roses.
Continuing his walk along the rue de Grœninghe the tourist will presently see a wrought-iron grill at the end of an impasse which gives on the river. Let him approach it and look through the railings. Here there is a nook which strangers rarely find; many who have lived in the city for years do not know of it, and yet it is perhaps the most beautiful of all the beautiful spots in Bruges. To discover this priceless jewel is the main object of our journey. Here the Roya is often a rushing torrent. On one side of the stream, rising clean out of the water, is the oldest wing of the Gruthuise; on the other a walled garden with lofty trees spreading their branches over the river which, to the right, disappears beneath an archway piercing an old house, once part of the palace; in the near background, immediately facing the grill, is the choir of Notre Dame with its grove of flying buttresses, and beyond, towering high above all, the majesty of its steeple—the grandest and the fairest thing in brick or stone which the genius of man has yet created. It was from this lovely spot, or rather a few yards higher up stream, that Mr. Railton took the beautiful sketch of the Hôtel Gruthuise which appears on p. 287.
Hard-by, on the bank of this same river, a little higher up stream, stands the Beguinage (see map), that most picturesque cloister where the quaint dwellings of the nuns—for each Beguin has her own home, her own purse and her own household—fringe a fair and spacious green planted with lofty elms, a very tranquil spot where the ghost of the thirteenth century still lingers. The convent church dates from the year 1245, but it has been so changed and spoiled by repeated restorations that little of the original building remains, and it can no longer, perhaps, be called beautiful. But, notwithstanding, it has a certain charm which is quite its own. It is so picturesque and so clean and so quiet and so comfortable, and with it all there is such a quaint, old-world atmosphere about the place that many a much more beautiful church is far less attractive. And the worshippers who frequent it!—the very precise and deliberate and ceremonious old ladies who totter across the green to church at intervals throughout the day—from angelus to angelus, and there let down their long black trains and put on their white choir veils, and presently, with much curtseying to one another and many genuflections before the high altar, together chant their breviary in feeble, quavering tones, whilst the old caretaker, in a secluded corner, calmly tells her beads or knits stockings.
The entrance to the Beguinage is by the Place de la Vigne, over a bridge which spans the Roya, whence there are beautiful views of that stream, of the Beguins’ little gardens, of their church, of the old lockhouse at the head of the Minne Water, of the lake itself beyond, and, in the far background, of those lovely wooded ramparts, where all night long in summer-time the nightingale intones his psalmody.
The canals of Bruges are all of them exceedingly beautiful. The great canal, which enters the city on the eastern side between the Porte de Gand and the Infantry Barracks, and divides it into two unequal parts, is interesting from end to end, and as there are roads on each side, and it is spanned by five bridges, there is no difficulty in exploring it. The most picturesque route is from the Bourg by the rue de l’âne Aveugle and the terrace which skirts the backwater of the Roya—the Quai des Marbriers, as it is called, and the Quai Vert. Hard-by the spot where the main stream of the Roya—a vista here of ancient gables with the Poorters Logie and its charming tower in the distance—empties itself into the canal is the old tavern which Rubens is said to have frequented. It stands in the rue des Blanchisseurs, a narrow lane off the road which skirts the right-hand bank of the canal, and is called the Vlissinghe. A most interesting old place this, the tourist should not fail to visit it. The accompanying sketch is of the back of the house.
