This is a dismal heavy looking town--_so_ melancholy! the Scheld shut up!
the grass growing in the streets! those streets so empty of inhabitants!
and it was so famous once. _Atuatum nobile Brabantiæ opidum in ripâ
Schaldis flu. Europæ nationibus maximè frequentatum. Sumptuosis tam
privatis quam publicis nitet ædificiis_[54], say the not very old books
of geography when speaking of this once stately city;
But trade’s proud empire sweeps to swift decay,
As ocean heaves the labour’d mole away.