The herb-market is also a fine square, as well as the horse-market or sablon; both of which are environed by some excellent buildings. The Place Royal, situated near the palace and park, is an airy situation, and contains the two principal hotels, the Bellevue, and the Hotel de Flandres. The museum, and the botanic garden are also situated by this square; in the former is deposited the cradle of Charles the Fifth, and the chair in which
“The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell.”
This museum contains also a number of interesting objects of nature and art; amongst the former a good collection of minerals, and amongst the latter, an extensive one of paintings; and which comprises a few valuable originals.
In company with a friend, Mr. M’M⸺, to whom my warmest acknowledgments are due for his unceasing attentions in conducting me to, and explaining its various parts, I made the complete tour of this city along the ramparts, commencing at the gate of Namur. These ramparts appeared in a bad state, not calculated for a fashionable promenade; we passed an old fort with a very few guns upon it, and these certainly not in fighting order. We did not complete the tour on the first day, but left off at what was lately named Port Napoleon, but now Port Guillaume; this is a handsome modern structure.
On the following day we completed our tour, finishing at Port Namur; in the course of this walk we passed a number of persons employed in making a boulevard, and building a wall from a depth of six feet to the surface to support it.
One afternoon we went to examine the environs around the royal palace of Lacken, and might without much difficulty have been admitted into the palace itself, had it not been too late in the afternoon; we were informed, however, that it offered nothing particularly magnificent or interesting; with its grounds it is enclosed within a wooden fence, which altogether does not comprise an area of two miles in circumference, certainly not an extensive domain for a royal residence, in the neighbourhood of so fine a city.