INDEX

TO SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE
TRADE AND MANUFACTURES OF BELGIUM.

BELGIUM.

CHAPTER I.

OSTEND AND BRUGES.

Ostend, the Harbour—Canal Docks—Police—Economy of a private carriage for a party on the continent—General aspect of Ostend—Effluvia—Siege in 1604—Fortifications—Promenade—Sands and sea-bathing—Commerce—Bruges, the railroad—Belgium naturally suited to railroads—Old canal travelling to Bruges superseded—Appearance of the city—Its style of ancient houses—The streets—Canals and gardens—Squares—Style of public edifices—Resembles Pisa—Ancient history of Bruges—Its old palaces—Marriages of Charles the Rash and Mary of Burgundy—Singular marriage custom of the middle ages—House in which the Emperor Maximilian was confined—Residences of Edward IV. of England, and of Charles II.—Commercial greatness of Bruges—The Hanseatic League—Her tapestries—The order of the Golden Fleece instituted in her honour—Saying of the Queen of Philip the Fair—Story of the Burghers at the court of John of France—Her present decay—Air of reduced nobility—Costume of the middle classes—Grave demeanour of the citizens—No traces of the Spaniards to be found in the Low Countries—Flemish sculptures in wood—Pictures—No modern paintings in Bruges—Collection in the Church of St. Sauveur—Characteristics of the early Flemish school—The paintings in the Museum—Statue of Van Eyck—His claim to be the inventor of oil painting—Collection in the Chapel of the Hospital of St. John—Story of Hans Memling—The cabinet of St. Ursula—The folding-doors of the Flemish paintings—The Hospital of St. John—Statue by Michael Angelo—Tombs of Mary of Burgundy and Charles the Rash—The tower of Les Halles—Carillon—Splendid view—The Palais de Justice—Superb carved mantel-piece—Hotel de Ville—Its statues destroyed by the French revolutionists—Diamond setters—Comparison of Bruges and Tyre—Mr. Murray’s hand-books—The manufacture of lace in Belgium.

September, 1840.

At sunset when about ten to fifteen miles from land, we had the first sight of the coast of the “Low Countries,” not as on other shores discernible by hills or cliffs, but by the steeples of Nieuport, Ostend, and Blankenburg rising out of the water; presently a row of wind-mills, and the tops of a few trees and houses, and finally a long line of level sand stretching away towards Walcheren and the delta of the Scheldt. Within fourteen hours from heaving up our anchor at the Tower, we cast it in the harbour of Ostend, a narrow estuary formed where the waters of a little river have forced their way through the sand-banks to the sea. An excellent quay has been constructed by flanking the sides of this passage with extensive piers of timber, whilst the stream being confined by dams and sluices above, is allowed to rush down at low water, carrying before it to the sea, any silt which may have been deposited by the previous tide.

At the inner extremity of the harbour, spacious basins have been constructed for the accommodation of the craft which ply upon the Canal de Bruges, which connects that town with Ghent and Ostend, but its traffic is now much diminished by the opening of the railroad, as well as from other causes.