The whole was designed by the chief of the battalion of engineers. The total height of this stupendous monument is about 36 metres, or 110 French feet; that of the obelisk, exclusive of the socle, is about 13 metres, or 42 French feet. One end of the base of the pyramid is 48 metres, or 148 feet. From the summit of the obelisk the eye ranges over a vast extent of country, Utrecht, Amersfort, Amsterdam, Haarlem, the Hague, Dordrecht, Leyden, Gorcum, Breda, Arnheim, Nimeguen, Bois le Duc, Cleves, Zutphen, Dewenter, Swol, and a great part of the Zuyder Zee, may be distinctly seen on a fine clear day.
Upon this spot it is in contemplation immediately to erect a new city, the building of which, and the cutting of a canal to be connected with the adjoining navigation, have already commenced. Zeyst is a very handsome town, or rather an assemblage of country-houses, it abounds with agreeable plantations and pleasant woods, and is much frequented in the summer by the middling classes of wealthy merchants from Amsterdam, who sit under the trees and smoke with profound gravity, occasionally looking at those who pass, without feeling any inclination to move themselves: what an enviable state of indifference to all the bustle and broil of this world! upon which they seem to gaze as if they were sent into it to be spectators and not actors. Who, upon reflection and sober comparison, would not prefer this “even tenour” to the peril of the chace and the fever of dog-day balls!
The principal hotel here is upon a noble scale, the politest attentions are paid to strangers, and the charges are far from being extravagant. The only striking object of curiosity in the town is a very spacious building, formerly belonging to Count Zinzendorf, and now to a fraternity of ingenious and industrious Germans, amounting to eighty persons, who have formed themselves into a rational and liberal society, called the Herrenhuthers, or Moravians. This immense house, in its object, though not in its appearance, resembles our Exeter ’Change, but infinitely more the splendid depot of goods of every description, kept by a very wealthy and highly respectable Englishman of the name of Hoy at Petersburgh. Upon ringing at the principal entrance, we were received with politeness by one of the brotherhood, in the dress of a layman, who unlocked it and conducted us into ten good sized rooms, each containing every article of those trades most useful, such as watchmakers, silversmiths, saddlers, milliners, grocers, &c. Many of these articles are manufactured by the brethren who have been tutored in England, or have been imported from our country. The artificers work upon the basement story, at the back of the house, and no sound of trade is heard; on the contrary, the tranquillity of a monastery pervades the whole.
After inspecting the different shop-rooms, it will repay the trouble of the traveller to make interest to see the other part of the premises, shown only upon particular application. The refectory is a large room, kept with great cleanliness; and the meals of the fraternity, if I may judge by so much of the dinner as was placed upon the table, are very far from partaking of the simple fare of conventual austerity. A bon vivant would have risen from their table without a murmur. In this room were several music-stands, used every other evening at a concert; the vocal and instrumental music of which is supplied by certain members of the brotherhood, who I was told excelled in that elegant accomplishment. In the chapel, which was remarkably neat, there was an organ, and on the wall was a very energetic address from one of the society upon his retiring from it, handsomely framed and glazed. The dormitory upon the top of the house partook of the same spirit of cleanliness and order. Never was any sectarian association formed upon more liberal and comfortable principles. In short, it is a society of amiable, industrious, and agreeable men, who form a coalition of ingenuity and diligence for their support, and benevolently remit the surplus of their income, after defraying their own expenses, to their brethren established in the East and West Indies, and other parts of the world. They marry whenever they please; but those who taste of this blissful state are not permitted to have chambers in the house, although they may contribute their labours, and receive their quota of subsistence from it.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE MALL OF UTRECHT ... A GASCONADE ... THE RHINE ... CONQUEST OF UTRECHT ... THE CATHEDRAL ... BEAUTIFUL LINES ... ANECDOTES OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONS BORN AT UTRECHT ... THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS ... A DIRECTION ... THE CITY OF ARNHEIM ... ANECDOTE OF BECK ... DUTCHY OF BERG ... CLEVES ... ANECDOTE OF FLINK ... A TEDIOUS FORM ... ANECDOTE OF BROWN BREAD ... THE CONTRAST ... THE RECEPTION ... BONAPARTE’S HATRED OF ENGLISH.
After we had amused ourselves with roving about this agreeable place, we set off for Utrecht. I have before mentioned the manner in which the Dutch compute distances, and although I had for some time been accustomed to hear hours substituted for miles, yet as I was no longer on the canals, it sounded somewhat strange to hear a charming lady of our party observe, which she did with perfect Dutch propriety, when we were speaking of the probable time in which we should arrive at Utrecht: “Surely our horses must be poor indeed if they cannot go six hours in three.” Our road lay through a very rich and beautiful country, well drained, abounding with neat compact little farms, orchards, wood plantations, the lofty and venerable towers of Utrecht appearing full in our view all the way. We passed by the mall, which has a handsome stone entrance, is upwards of a mile in length, and is bordered with a triple row of trees, with a carriage-road on each side. When this city surrendered to the arms of Louis the Fourteenth in 1672, he was uncommonly delighted with this walk, yet, from knowing that it was equally admired by the citizens, he threatened to have every tree felled to the ground, unless they raised a very large contribution, which was immediately produced, and the mall preserved. If the menace of the conqueror was sincere, which I can scarcely believe, he united the tasteless barbarism of a Vandal to the ferocious rapacity of a tyrant. Louis overran this province, and the greatest part of Guelderland, Overyssel, and Holland, at the head of one hundred thousand men, in less than a month, a rapidity of victory almost incredible, though infinitely surpassed by the arms of France in the present times. The progress of the French king was celebrated in the following gasconade:
Una dies Lotharos, Burgundos hebdomas una,
Una domat Batavos luna, quid annus erit?
I think Utrecht one of the most beautiful cities in Holland, next to the Hague, which it is said to exceed in size. The streets are wide, and the buildings handsome, amongst which the hand of the Spanish architect is frequently to be traced. The canals are about twenty feet below the street; and the access to them for the servants of the adjoining houses is by a subterranean passage. These canals are very much neglected, and were covered in all directions with cabbage-stalks, leaves, and other vegetable substances, left to putrefy upon the surface. There I first beheld a branch of the Rhine unmingled with other waters. This mighty river has partaken of the mutability to which every thing sublunary is subjected. Near the village of Cooten, about twelve miles from Utrecht, the traveller may contemplate corn waiving and cattle depasturing where once it rolled its broad majestic waters, now diminished to a little streamlet: its division into the two great copious and navigable streams takes place a little above Nimeguen: the right branch retains the name of the Rhine; the left is called the Waal, a word expressive of a defensive boundary, which separated the ancient Batavians from their hostile neighbours on the southern border: the former, during its superabundance, produced a small branch called the Lack, which ran near the little city of Wyk, by Deurstede, directed its course towards Utrecht, upon which it bestowed the name of Ultra trajectum, passed through Woerden Leyden, and disembogued itself into the German Ocean at Catwyk: the latter branch in rolling its waters toward the sea, incorporated with the Maas, and their united streams were called the New Maas, under which name they flow by Dort, Rotterdam, and other cities, into the sea. Had rivers tongues, as poets feign they have, this much-injured branch of the Rhine might have exclaimed with Wolsey, I now am left
——to the mercy