CHAPTER XXVI.

Beautiful village of Offenbach: bravery of the Hessians: anecdotes

of Mareschal Augerau. Excursion to Darmstadt: minute-posts:

Darmstadt: law’s delay in Germany: agreeable manners of the

Germans: national antipathies. Return to Francfort: gloomy

appearance of the continent. French army on its march against the

Prussians. Return to London 294

TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND.

CHAPTER I.

A CONFESSION ... THE WAR ... AN ADOPTION ... CONFIDENCE IN FORTUNE

SOMETIMES NECESSARY ... HATEFUL CHARACTER OF A SPY ... A MOTIVE FOR

TRAVELLING ... A MORAL ... ANECDOTE OF A ROYAL DESCRIPTION ... MISERIES

OF A DUTCH GALLIOT ... CALVIN AND SERVETUS ... RELIGION AND A ROPE’S

END ... DUTCH ANECDOTE OF FORTITUDE ... ANECDOTE OF A NEWFOUNDLAND

DOG ... APPEARANCE OF HOLLAND FROM THE SEA ... ITS COAST ... A

DILEMMA ... THE MAAS RIVER ... ANECDOTE OF NAPOLEON ... OF A DUTCH

WOMAN ... A DISASTER ... ROTTERDAM DESCRIBED ... LEANING HOUSES.

The public shall be my confessor.—In the summer of last year, whilst the

larger portion of the civilized world was anxiously awaiting the result

of our sincere negotiations for a peace, which, alas! the crafty

ministers of Napoleon, never intended should be other than mere “_romans

politiques_,” the desire of contemplating a country, and a race of

people to me entirely new, induced me to trespass upon their shore.

I resolved upon visiting Holland, although in a state of reluctant war

with my own country, of a war which yet permitted to her commerce a few

stolen embraces with that of England, which forced many a pursy Dutchman

to lament the separation, and in the narcotic atmosphere of his

consoling pipe, to wish for better times. In gratifying my wishes, I was

guilty of assuming a character respected in every country, as well for

its being most wisely and profitably at peace with all the world, as for

its integrity and enterprize: I became an American, and by an act of

temporary adoption, fixed upon Baltimore in North America as the place

of my nativity. A fortunate correspondence in the personal description,

except a slight variation, not easily discoverable, relating to my face

and age, enabled a friend of mine, a _legitimate American_, to

accommodate me with his passport, which after all I might as well have

left behind me, so kindly are the Hollanders disposed towards us.

I was promised by my friend a full description of the principal places

in Baltimore, and of the adjacent country, that I might pass unsuspected

through a cross examination, should any be attempted: the description

never arrived, or arrived too late, and I ascended my chaise, as

ignorant of Baltimore as of the Peruvian Potosi, trusting to that good

_chance_ which has often favoured me, and under the guidance of which

“In my school days, when I had lost one shaft,

I shot his fellow of the self same flight

The self same way, with more advised watch,

To find the other forth; by vent’ring both,

I oft found both.”

_Merchant of Venice_, Act I. Sc. 1.

The stratagem, if not perfectly blameless, was at least intended to be

an inoffensive one; I had no hopes of a peace, and consequently none of

seeing Holland in a more regular mode. I went not to investigate the

nakedness of the land, and by availing myself of its confidence to

penetrate the military depots, the docks and arsenals of a country not

in amity with my own.

I abhor the character of a spy, moving in friendly garb, however useful

his treachery may be to his employers. My imposition extended no farther

than to enable me to make a picturesque tour through an almost aqueous

kingdom, to view its natives in their ordinary habits, to glide upon

their liquid roads, to saunter in their green avenues and flourishing

gardens, and trace the wonderful results of that daring and

indefatigable ingenuity, which has raised the permanent habitation of

man in the ocean, and made successful inroads upon the physical order of

the universe.

But though the deception gave no pang to my conscience, yet, harmless as

it was, (and let me mention it as a moral lesson) it did not escape the

lash of many a petty inconvenience. Often have I been pestered upon the

supposition of my being an American merchant, with interrogations as to

the number of partners I had, how many clerks I kept, and the many other

perplexing queries of minds at once devoted to commerce, and curiosity:

nor did I escape dilemmas infinitely more perilous.

Having thus in all candour confessed my offence, if such it ought in

justice to be called, and which has also met with its due proportion of

chastisement, I trust I shall receive absolution from my reader, and in

that hope I shall now proceed to my narrative.

I intended to have availed myself, as I wish I had done on former

occasions, of the indulgence usually allowed to tours given in the shape

of epistolary correspondence, the ease and familiarity of which render

the tourist less formal, and the critic more indulgent; but the war

presented an obstacle to the adoption of a plan which would have been

more congenial to my mind, and to the nature of the remarks I have to

offer.

In company with two highly esteemed friends, I proceeded to Gravesend:

upon the road, we were charmed, by occasional views of the majestic

Thames, formed by a rich setting sun into the appearance of an inverted

sky, decorated by ships more supported _over_ than _upon_ its bosom, and

a vast expanse of richly cultivated land fading in the mist of a far

distant horizon.

Of the country which I was quitting, and of that to which I was

proceeding, our Charles the Second, a monarch of whom Sir Richard

Bulstrode justly says, that had he loved business as well as he

understood it, he would have been the greatest prince in Europe,

observed, “that the former was the most comfortable climate to live

under, he had ever experienced; as there were more days in the year, and

more hours in the day, that a man could take exercise out of doors in

it, than in any country he had ever known. That during his exile he had

seen many countries, of which none pleased him so much as the Flemings,

who were the most honest and true-hearted people he had ever met with;

and added very prophetically to me, to whom he addressed these remarks,

I am weary of travelling, I am resolved to go abroad no more; but when I

am dead and gone, I know not what my brother will do, I am much afraid

that when he comes to the throne he will be _obliged to travel again_.”

A prediction fatally realized by the wicked folly of the royal object of

it.

At Gravesend we paid six guineas apiece to a Dutch captain, and a little

favourable breeze springing up, we proceeded on board with a large party

composed of specimens of the human race from various parts of the globe,

proceeding, through the indulgence of the government of Holland, to

their various destinations on the continent. The moment we stepped on

board we found we were victims to the most infamous imposition. Six

guineas for a berth in a vessel, which Noah in the first rudiments of

his art, would have made a thousand times more commodious! Figure to

yourself about forty persons stowed in a Dutch galliot of about one

hundred tons burthen, deeply laden with a cargo of chalk, &c. a hold

near the bows covered with straw for the accommodation of thirty-six of

the passengers; a low miserable cabin, four feet high on the deck, which

formed the honey-moon bower of a young Swiss and a pretty English girl

just married; and a little hole astern which, furnished with a couple of

tickings crammed with Dutch peas instead of feathers, constituted the

vestibule, drawing-room and chamber for me and one of my companions.

Hoping for a speedy termination to our marine miseries, we set sail and

slowly creeped down the Thames by the aid of a scanty breeze, which

dying before we had advanced two miles, left us as a legacy to the tardy

tides. Indeed, we almost _tided_ it over to Holland, in the achievement

of which we were six long days and nights; but then the days were serene

and warm, and the nights were adorned by a brilliant moon, and the blue

vault of heaven was spangled over with stars.

Our captain and his crew exhibited twice a day that attention to their

devotions, which is still so characteristic of their country, in spite

of every hostile attack and insidious intrigue of France, in the most

vulgar, impious, and savage era of her bloody revolution. The breakfast

of every morning, and the supper of every evening, were consecrated by a

long shrill anthem, and still longer prayer. The cook was the chaplain,

and the kitchen, a hole of about eight feet by five, the chapel. The

spirit of Calvin, if it be not offered up to the manes of Servetus, must

have smiled with satisfaction at the motley group, surrounding a pot of

boiled peas and pork, and enveloped in a deep fog of steam and smoke,

thus offering up their homage in the language, and according to the

rites of that merciless reformer.

The piety of the commander was carried to an extreme length. One morning

we were disturbed by a great noise: the captain had compelled his son, a

sprightly lad of about nine years old, to read the Dutch Testament for

three days together, and with scarcely any cessation; in consequence of

which the young disciple became restive, and whilst his father’s back

was turned committed the apostles to the deep, for which he received a

tolerable proportion of castigation. Fifty times a day were we annoyed

by our pious commander vociferating to his child,

“Leer, leer, jou luigaart, of dit endje touw zal je leeren.”

“Learn, learn, you idler, or this rope’s end shall teach you.”

I restored our captain, who spoke English very well, to good humour, by

relating to him an anecdote of the activity and cool philosophy of a

Dutch sailor belonging to the fleet under the command of the celebrated

Van Tromp, who immortalized himself by his naval victories over the

Spaniards in 1639, but submitted to the superior skill and prowess of

the British fleet under the command of the sturdy patriotic Blake. At

the time when the hostile fleets were laying very near each other, after

a severe engagement, to refit, a British and Dutch sailor endeavoured to

rival each other by their activity in ascending and descending the

rigging of their respective ships; at last the English sailor astonished

his competitor by standing with his heels in the air upon the truck head

of the main top gallant mast; the Dutchman endeavoured to do the same,

but in the attempt fell upon the deck, from which, with great anguish

and difficulty, he raised himself a little, and exclaiming to the

Englishman, “dere mynheer can you do dat,” expired upon the spot. The

Dutch are very fond of dogs. Our captain had a bitch and two puppies on

board of a very peculiar breed, for which he expressed great attachment,

and he was one day not a little amused at my telling him that at the

commencement of the gallant action which took place between the Nymph

and Cleopatra in the last war, there was a large Newfoundland dog on

board the former vessel, which, as soon as the firing began, ran from

below deck in spite of every exertion of the men to keep him down, and

climbing up into the main chains, there kept up a continual barking, and

exhibited the most violent rage during the whole of the engagement. When

the Cleopatra struck he was amongst the foremost to board her, and

walked up and down her decks as if he participated in the glory of the

victory obtained by the English.

After a passage, during which our patience was put to a severe trial, we

discovered Schouwen, and soon after the Island of Goree, where the wind

began to freshen, and just before we made the mouth of the Maas, we met

and hailed a fine large fishing smack, the captain of which our

commander endeavoured to prevail upon, by the usual and generally

successful application of a little money, to smuggle us into the Briel:

after a long consultation, the captain and crew of the smack, not

considering that all was fish which came to their net, refused to take

charge of us, and to our no very pleasant sensations, instead of

standing out to sea, tacked and returned to the Briel under full press

of canvass. A low slimy shore surmounted by green flags and a few scanty

oziers announced our voyage to be at its close, and we entered the river

of a country which our Hudibrastic Butler thus peevishly describes:

“A country that draws fifty foot of water,

“In which men live as in the hold of nature;

“And when the sea does in upon them break,

“And drowns a province, does but spring a leak;

“That always ply the pump, and never think

“They can be safe, but at the rate they stink;

That live as if they had been run aground,

And, when they die, are cast away and drown’d;

That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey

Upon the goods all nations’ ships convey;

And when their merchants are blown up and crack

Whole towns are cast away in storms and wreck;

That feed like cannibals, on other fishes,

And serve their cousin germans up in dishes,

A land that rides at anchor, and is moor’d,

In which they do not live, but go aboard.”

The Duke of Alva, with more whimsicality and less bitterness, observed,

“that the Dutch were the nearest neighbours to hell of any people on the

earth, for they dwelt the lowest.”

In consequence of the tide being always very rapid when going out, and

the wind again falling, we came to an anchor in the mouth of the Maas.

One of the first objects that saluted our eyes, in this state, was the

telegraph, which was in a state of uncommon activity, and the glasses of

its official attendants often came in direct opposition with ours. The

balls flew up and down with wonderful rapidity for nearly an hour after

we anchored, and sufficiently explained the motive which induced the

captain of the smack to return to port. The signification of the word

Briel, in Dutch, is _spectacle_, which is supposed to have given its

name to this place, on account of the extensive view which its buildings

command of the surrounding country. This town is celebrated for having

given birth to the illustrious warrior I before mentioned, admiral

Cornelius Van Tromp.

In the dead of the night, and in a deep fog, a fishing boat dropped

along side, the master of which told us that the last vessel which had

arrived from England had been confiscated, and all the passengers made

prisoners, and after this exordium offered to conduct us in safety past

the guard-ship if we would give him two guineas apiece: and to secure

our transit, he proposed shutting us all down in his cabin, under

hatchways, for that night and the whole of the next day, and then

dropping past the guard-ship in the evening; during all which time we

must have sat chin to knee, and have been infinitely worse accommodated

than a cargo of African slaves. As we had an aversion from being

introduced into the kingdom in this furtive manner, we persisted in

refusing to quit our vessel, to the no little mortification of our

captain, who having safely deposited our passage money in a large tin

box, was very anxious to get rid of us in any manner. I believe personal

apprehensions induced him to weigh the anchor early next morning, and to

bear away for Maaslandsleys, on the other side of the Maas, where after

the captain had satisfied the commodore commanding the guard-ships

there, to whom he was well known, that we all came from Varel, a little

neutral town to the eastward of the Weser, a fast sailing fishing boat

was provided to take us up to Rotterdam, a distance of twenty-five

miles, at half a guinea a head.

Gladly we bade adieu to our miserable ark, and about six o’clock in the

evening embarked upon the Merwe river, a noble branch of the Maas, the

breadth of which is about a mile, lessening but in a little degree as it

reaches Rotterdam. The water of this river is rather foul, its shores

are beautifully lined with villages, farm houses and avenues of trees. A

botanical gentleman informed me that the eryngium campestre, field

eryngo, so very rare in England, grows in great profusion, and wild, on

either side of the river, and in most other parts of Holland.

When the night advanced, the floating lanterns of the fishermen had a

pleasing and romantic effect, as we glided along with a fine breeze; and

a row of lamps running parallel with a canal supplied by the Merwe,

announced our passing Schiedam, so celebrated throughout Holland for its

distilleries of geneva, of which we were informed there were three

hundred before the Dutch submitted to the arms of France.

When the French troops entered Holland as victors, this beautiful river,

in a season remarkably rigorous, formed a compact road of ice for the

infantry, cavalry, and artillery, of the invaders: dreadful as the

winter was, the French were in want of the most necessary articles of

clothing; even whole battalions were destitute of shoes and stockings,

and centinels frequently did duty with no other covering than a tattered

blanket, and the fragment of a pair of breeches, which time and service

had reduced by instalments to little more than a few shreds: yet they

did not repine.

In a milder climate, after the French took possession of Bologna, a

soldier, whose coat was nearly in the predicament of his military

countryman’s breeches before mentioned, came up to Bonaparte, and begged

that he would order him a new one, to which his general, who had none to

give him, very shrewdly replied, “my good fellow, that will not do, it

will hinder your wounds from being seen.”

When the French troops entered Rotterdam, they were quartered on the

inhabitants, whose good opinion, I was well informed, they soon

conciliated by their quiet conduct and orderly deportment. I afterwards

received the same character of the French troops in other parts of

Holland, from those with whom, I am convinced, they were not very

welcome visitors, on account of the contributions which they levied.

In the faces of our crew, and the scenery on each side of us, before

dusk-fall, we saw those studies to which the exquisite works of the

Dutch school have familiarized every person of taste. About twelve

o’clock we arrived at the boom, or barrier for shipping at Rotterdam,

and here a luckless accident had nearly befallen me. The luggage of the

passengers was deposited in small holds nearly the length of the vessel,

covered over with loose boards: the night was dark, and as by the light

of a solitary lamp we were endeavouring to get at our luggage, a fat

Dutchman’s wife sprung out of the cabin, in which she had been concealed

during our expedition up the river, who thinking that we were molesting

some of her bonnet boxes, in the unguarded violence of her approach,

slipped into one of the holds, the boards of which had been

inadvertently left open by the Swiss bridegroom before mentioned, in an

irritable struggle to obtain his luggage; the oaths and howlings of the

poor lady brought out her husband, a man whom we had remarked for the

unpleasantness of his physiognomy and deportment during the voyage, and

as I stood nearest to his prostrate wife in the act of assisting her, he

charged me with having maliciously occasioned her suffering, and

threatened repeatedly to call the watchmen of the city and send me and

my companions to prison.

It was a long time before I could allay the storm, and dulcify the

temper of this man, which, considering my situation, required some

little forbearance and management of feeling. At length we got on shore,

and after much difficulty and perambulation discovered a comfortable

hotel in the suburbs; the gates of the city being always shut, and the

boom closed at eleven o’clock.

Our hotel lay at the bottom of a most beautiful avenue of trees, running

parallel with the river opposite to the ferry. Our landlord was very

civil, and all his servants spoke French. In the principal apartment was

a print of Napoleon in his coronation robes: I afterwards observed

similiar prints in many other houses in the city.

Many of the principal merchants of Rotterdam have country-houses in

these delightful suburbs. I walked along a line of them, and beheld for

the first time a specimen of the taste of the Dutch in rural scenery:

the gardens, upon a level with the river, and divided from it by a high

raised road, appeared to have been all designed by a mathematician; but

still their neatness and luxuriance left a pleasing impression on the

mind. Upon every gate, or house, a motto indicative of the mind of the

owner, or of the character of the place, presented itself, of which the

following are specimens:

Vreede is myn Lust Haf

Peace is my garden.

Lust en rust

Hope and repose.

Na by Bruten

Almost out of town.

Ziet op u minder

Look upon those beneath you.

N. B. This was inscribed upon a large house that commanded some little

cottages.

Wel te vreeda

Very content, &c. &c.

These inscriptions are seldom used but by opulent tradesmen; amongst the

higher classes they are considered to be a little tinctured with

vulgarity, though, as I found, they sometimes indulge in them: the

villas of the latter are frequently known by names corresponding with

those which are applied to the country residences of the superior

families in England.

In the morning our luggage was inspected by the proper officers, who

gave us very little trouble, and were content with a trifling douceur.

The entrance to the city, towards the river, through the principal gate,

called De Nieuwe Hoofds Poort, a structure infinitely more elegant than

another barrier of this city, called De Oude Hoofds Poort, is very

handsome.

The immediate transition from the tranquillity of the country to the

busy hum of men was very striking: the canals, with their numerous

draw-bridges, as we proceeded to our city hotel, the Mareschal de

Turenne, were lined with vessels of all sorts and sizes; and

notwithstanding the war, every one appeared to be engaged in some active

pursuit or another.

Before hostilities began, it was no uncommon circumstance to see between

three and four hundred merchant ships, from England alone, lying in

these canals and in the Maas; by which a vast commerce is carried on

with the greatest facility and economy, from the centre to the

extremities of the kingdom; and as they communicate with the Rhine and

other large rivers, all the productions of the earth are conveyed at

little expense to many parts of the continent, in a period of

tranquillity.

The number of beautiful streets adorned, as is the case throughout

Holland, with noble rows of trees, is a spectacle at once novel and

beautiful. The trees act as a fan to the houses in hot weather, and

their leaves are said to inhale whatever mephitic air may arise from

such of the canals as are stagnant, and to breathe it out again with

refreshing purity.

In a sick chamber, fresh flowers are _now_ thought salubrious, although,

in no very distant time, they were regarded by the faculty as extremely

noxious.

The city derives its name from the adjoining river Rotte, which unites

with the Merwe, and from the neighbourhood of both to the sea, renders

the situation of this town very eligible for trade, commerce, and

navigation. The pleasure-boats of some of the merchants, which we saw

moored opposite to their houses, appeared to be very clumsy, and

constructed only for smoking or napping in: they were broad, high at the

head and stern, admitted only of one rower, and had a heavy cabin with

moveable glass windows towards the stern.

One of the first appearances which impress a foreigner on his arrival in

Holland is that of the houses, which, built of very small bricks, very

lofty, and filled with large windows, lean forward as they ascend; to

such a rage has this unaccountable passion for avoiding an upright been

carried, that I am sure many of them must be two or three yards out of

the perpendicular: nothing can be more whimsical than the corner houses

of most of the streets. If these houses had not the appearance of being

perfectly stable, from the freshness of their outsides, and from their

presenting no fissures, a stranger would be induced from apprehension of

personal safety, to prefer paddling his way in the very centre of their

canals, to walking in the streets. No scene can at first be more novel

and interesting than that which Rotterdam presents; masts of ships,

enlivened by gay streamers; beautiful stately trees and lofty leaning

houses appear mingled together, and at one view he sees before him the

characteristic features of the country, the city, and the sea.

CHAPTER II.

THE BOOMPIES ... BAYLE ... PREROGATIVES OF GENIUS ... SPANISH

INSCRIPTIONS ... A DUTCH DINNER ... DUTCH BEGGARS ... A GOOD BARGAIN ...

ANECDOTES OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE BATAVIAN EXECUTIVE BODY ... ANECDOTES

OF THE PASSION OF THE DUTCH FOR TRAFFIC ... ANECDOTE OF LORD NELSON AND

THE DEY OF TUNIS ... HEREDITARY DRESSES ... THE EXCHANGE OF

ROTTERDAM ... ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH THERE ... SEVERAL ANECDOTES OF

THE KING AND QUEEN OF HOLLAND ... PUBLIC OPINION OF THEM ... DUTY OF A

TOURIST.

One of the first places we visited was the Boom-quay, or Boompies, which

extends along the river, about half a mile from the new to the old head,

the two places where the water enters the city, and fills the canals,

which are seven in number: this street is very broad and truly

magnificent; and the prospect from it, over the river, and the opposite

country, highly delightful. Cheyney-walk at Chelsea is a very humble

resemblance to it.

Many of the houses are very noble, and some of them are built of

free-stone, which not being the produce of the country, must have been

brought to the spot at a great expense. In England a rage for expensive

building had so possessed a man whom I knew, and who resided very far

from the capital, that he had many parcels filled with bricks and stones

sent down to his workmen by the mail coach.

The Boom-quay forms a fine mall for the inhabitants of the city, and is

chiefly the residence of the most opulent and elegant families. An

English nobleman, Lord North and Gray, had many years since a superb

house here, which he became entitled to in right of his wife, a rich

Dutch lady.

Upon this quay once resided the celebrated Bayle, the author of the

Historical and Critical Dictionary, and professor of philosophy and

history at Rotterdam, from which he was removed by the influence of M.

Jurieu, who in a violent controversy with him, had illiberally

misrepresented his principles, and driven him to great penury. The

writings of this extraordinary man are so versatile and so adapted to

every one’s taste, that he secured readers amongst divines,

philosophers, physicians, wits, and libertines in every part of Europe.

Saurin, with that antithesis for which he was more known than for the

elegance of his compositions, thus describes him: “Bayle was one of

those extraordinary men, whom it is difficult to reconcile with

themselves, and whose opposite qualities give us room to doubt whether

we ought to consider him as the best, or the worst of men. On the one

hand he was a great philosopher, who knew how to distinguish truth from

falsehood, who could at one view perceive all the consequences of a

principle, and the chain or series, in which they were linked together;

on the other, he was a great sophist, who undertook to confound truth

with falsehood, and knew how to deduce false inferences from the

hypothesis he advanced. On the one hand, he was a man of learning and of

knowledge, who had read all that could be read, and remembered all that

could be remembered; on the other, he was ignorant, or affected to be

so, of the most common things, in respect of which he proposed such

difficulties, as had been answered a thousand times. On the one hand he

attacked the most eminent men, opened a large field of labour for them,

led them through the most difficult ways, and if he did not get the

better of them, at least gave them great trouble, to get the better of

him; on the other, he made use of the worst of authors, to whom he was

lavish of his praise, frequently disgracing his writings by citing such

names as no learned man ever mentioned.” So speaks Saurin of this able

man, whose abilities, however, have been honoured with the usual homage;

they have been allowed to consecrate the place in which they flourished.

No stranger can visit the Boom-quay without being informed that Bayle

resided there, and without having the spot where his little mansion

stood pointed out to him. It is the noble nature of genius to requite

the ingratitude of a thankless country, by shedding upon it unquenchable

lustre, and raising it in the rank of nations.

In several parts of the city, memorials of the inroads of the Spaniards

are traceable, not only in the forms of several of the buildings, but in

several mottos and inscriptions in their language, which are still

legible in many of the old buildings, in this and in other cities.

The number of Jews in Rotterdam is very great, and many of them are of

high respectability, and as much distinguished for their integrity, as

their industry and opulence.

Soon after my arrival I had the pleasure of dining with one of the first

families of that persuasion: our host, a very amiable man, gave us a

true Dutch dinner, consisting of nearly fifteen different sorts of fish,

exquisitely dressed, and served up with vegetables of various kinds. In

Holland, in preparing the fish for the kettle, the head, fins, and tail,

are generally cut off. In this city port wine is scarcely ever drank; it

is by no means gratifying to a Dutch palate. Some was presented to me at

a dinner where I was, but it was so old that all its flavour had

evaporated. The principal wines drank are Claret, Madeira, and the Rhine

wines. I found the bread in Holland every where excellent, and the

coffee every where bad.

I soon found that the received opinion of there being no beggars in

Holland is perfectly erroneous. I was frequently beset by these sons and

daughters of sorrow or idleness, who preferred their petition with

indefatigable pursuit, but in so gentle a tone, that it was evident they

were fearful of the police. They are abundant, but orderly. It was

observed by some English in Holland, that a Dutch beggar is too wise to

waste his breath by asking alms of a Dutchman, and that relief is only

sought from strangers: the fact is, there are so many asylums for

paupers, that a Dutchman acquainted with the legislative provision made

for them, always considers a beggar as a lawless vagabond.

For this reason, and this alone, Charity seldom takes an airing in

Holland: towards the wretched, in the streets, the rich in this country

“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,

That keep their sounds to themselves.”

_Timon of Athens_, Act. I. Sc. 5.

In no country of its size, as will appear in the course of this journal,

are there more charitable institutions, and at the same time a stronger

appetite for accumulation. To make a good bargain is considered by many

a Dutchman as the highest achievement of the human mind. As a proof that

they never suffer their national animosities to interfere with

individual interest, the reader may rely on the following anecdote.

In an early stage of the last war, when the Dutch government rigorously

prohibited the importation of English manufactures, some members of the

executive body entered into an agreement with a mercantile house in

Rotterdam, to supply the requisition for the clothing of the French

army, by a clandestine importation of cloth from England, and the looms

of Yorkshire accordingly clothed ten thousand French soldiers.

The same commercial spirit was observed by the Dutch many years since to

us, when, in a severe battle between the fleets of the Republic and

Great Britain, during a cessation of the fight, for the mutual

accommodation of repairing the damages sustained, some of the officers

of the Dutch ships actually offered the captains of some of ours,

supplies of gunpowder at an advanced price, in consequence of

understanding that two or three of our ships had nearly exhausted their

stores of it.

The Dey of Tunis made a more whimsical offer; when the heroic and

immortal Nelson threatened to blow his capital about his ears, the Dey

sent to his lordship to know the cost of every shot that would be fired,

the answer was nearly a pound sterling; upon which the Dey said, if his

lordship would calculate how many shots would be necessary to demolish

his capital, and send him half the amount in good bills, he would

destroy it himself.

I nowhere saw, except amongst the skippers, that mighty mass of

breeches, in which my expectation had in part clothed every Dutchman’s

frame: but the appearance of many of the men in long flowered

waistcoats, and trunk hose, and the females in short plaited petticoats,

blue stockings, and large round silver buckles projecting over either

side of the foot, was very whimsical. Many of their dresses are

hereditary; and grandfather, father, and son, have in regular succession

proceeded to the altar in the same nuptial breeches. The quays of

Rotterdam are very spacious, and every where embellished with trees; and

the canals deeper and cleaner than in any other of the large cities in

the kingdom.

In consequence of the features of every street being so similar, a

stranger finds uncommon difficulty in reaching the place of his

destination, or in returning to his hotel, without a guide.

After having secured a bedroom and deposited our luggage at the

Mareschal de Turenne, kept by Mr. Crabb, an Englishman, who renders the

character of a maitre d’hotel eminently respectable, by his attention to

foreigners of every description, and to his own countrymen in

particular, by moderate charges and excellent accommodations, we

proceeded to the Exchange at two o’clock, when the merchants assemble.

This building is an oblong square with a covered walk on each side, and

is plain and handsome. It was finished in 1736. I was astonished to find

it crowded in every part, and presenting, in the activity and bustle

which were displayed, every appearance of a great commercial country in

a high state of prosperous tranquillity.

In this Babel assembly the greatest interest for a successful

termination of the negotiation between France and England seemed

anxiously to prevail; and induced a stranger like myself to think that

the interests of Holland were pretty closely interwoven with those of

England.

The arrival of English papers, and of couriers from Paris, never failed

to excite a strong sensation from one end of the city to the other. Upon

the exchange I saw several Englishmen transacting business; and such is

the respect which the Dutch bear towards us, that we soon found the

suspicion of our being English rather increased than damped the

civilities we experienced.

As Rotterdam may be considered, as Bonaparte has recently described the

city of Hamburg, _une ville Anglaise_, in consequence of so many English

families having settled there before the revolution, and also of the

proximity of its port to England, it was with surprise I found that the

new ruler and form of government were so popular as they are in this

city.

In the years 1794 and 1795 the progress of the French arms excited

uncommon consternation in this city, in which a higher veneration for

the stadtholderian government, as established under the influence of

England and Prussia in 1787, existed, than in any other city in the

United Provinces.

As the French advanced, the principal English families fled with great

precipitation, and were followed by many of the Dutch: their flight was

in the most inclement part of a winter remarkably rigorous, and they

were obliged to pass over frozen canals, rivers and deep snows, many by

the most wretched open conveyances, in their way to Helvoetsluys, where

they embarked for that country, which, since the time of the first

Charles, has, thank Heaven! been neither the seat of war, nor of

revolutionary phrenzy.

A short time before we visited Rotterdam, we heard that the king and

queen had visited that city, the only one which they had then honoured

with their presence, except the seat of the royal residence at the

Hague.

Upon their arrival in the city, their majesties and the two princes, in

their carriages, attended by their suite and an escort of horse,

proceeded to the Exchange, where they were waited upon by the principal

functionaries and a deputation of the most opulent merchants of the

city. Their majesties appeared to be much affected by the very

flattering manner in which they were received.

The queen, who is always mentioned by those who have had the honour of

knowing her before and since the wonderful elevation of so many branches

of her family, as a most amiable, enlightened, and accomplished woman,

very much gratified some of the members, and the nation at large, by

observing upon the Exchange: “We are deeply penetrated by the cordiality

with which we have been received in the country; as strangers we could

not, and did not expect such a reception; but we hope to remain long

enough amongst you to secure your esteem, by doing all the good in our

power.” This short address, delivered with that grace and manner, which,

I am informed, are so characteristic of her majesty, captivated all the

Dutchmen present, and spread with great celerity through every part of

the city, and contributed to raise her very high in the public

estimation.

From the Exchange their majesties proceeded to the Admiralty, and were

gratified, for the first time in their lives, with seeing a man of war,

a seventy-four, launched; and after partaking of a splendid collation,

they passed through the principal streets in a single carriage,

unattended by their body-guard. On this public occasion, the only

external ornament which the king wore was the star of the legion of

honour.

In the department of the admiralty, the king has effected many wise and

salutary regulations. He has abolished all the sinecure offices attached

to it, reduced overgrown salaries, and doubled the hours of labour of

the clerks, who were before almost receiving the wages of idleness from

the country. By this firm and sagacious conduct, the king has already

produced a saving to the state of _two millions sterling a year_.

Before the new constitution, which will be given hereafter, was finally

adjusted, the king declared, that the national debt should be most

sacredly respected, and its guarantee forms accordingly a permanent

feature in that system, and measures have been adopted for its speedy

liquidation. The king has also chosen two gentlemen of high

respectability from the body of the merchants of Rotterdam to be members

of his council.

Before these circumstances, and the previous unsettled condition of the

country are known or reflected upon, it would appear somewhat

paradoxical, that as the interests of the Dutch have a bias in favour of

England, and as their government is of French construction, the ruler

who has been placed over them by events little less than miraculous,

could ever, and especially in so short a time, have made himself

popular; but to the fact I pledge myself, upon the authority of some of

the most respectable and enlightened Dutchmen in different parts of

Holland, repeatedly renewed to me.

It is a subject of congratulation with every Englishman, that a similar

spirit of economy and retrenchment animates the minds of the present

administration, which, during the short period of its elevation to

power, has purified many of the public offices of slothful

supernumeraries, and has to its eternal honour refused to augment the

public burthens by reversionary pensions.

By such instances of public virtue, and the wisdom, vigour, and sound

policy, which reign in the councils of his majesty, the British empire

may ultimately triumph over its enemies, or at least be preserved entire

amidst the general wreck of other nations.

The king of Holland was described to me to resemble his brother

Napoleon, very strongly in size, complexion, manner, thoughtful

taciturnity, and abstemiousness: he is a great invalid, and has received

some severe paralytic shocks in one of his arms, for which, as well as

for the general extreme delicate state of his health, he has been

obliged to visit the baths of Wisbaden, and to drink the waters of the

Spa; which prevented his remaining in Holland but for a very short time,

after the constitution had placed him on the throne, and he was absent

when I was there.

The king has the reputation of being much pleased with the English

character, and very fond of the society of Englishmen; a gratification

which a series of adverse circumstances has prevented him from indulging

in for some time past. I remember, when I was at Paris, during the brief

pause of war, that just gave “a time for frighted peace to pant,” he was

never more happy than when he had one of our countrymen at his splendid

and hospitable table.

The queen is, as she was also described to me, a brunette of

considerable beauty, inclined to the _en bon point_, has a face

expressive of great suavity of mind, and is highly accomplished; she

particularly excels in dancing, in which, for the gracefulness of her

attitudes, she is said to be unrivalled. To this elegant accomplishment

she is particularly attached, and when she travels, is generally

complimented, in any considerable town where she stops for a day or two,

with a public ball, an attention by which she is always much gratified.

Their majesties have two princes who are very young; the eldest is

called Napoleon after the emperor. Should the dynasty of the Bonapartes

experience no convulsive overthrow, it is generally believed that, upon

the demise of that extraordinary being, who has pushed so many kings

from their thrones to make room for the members of his own family, the

crown of France will devolve upon this child.

In detailing these few anecdotes, which to me at least were interesting,

I have been induced by a veneration for truth alone, to give a

representation which, to such as think that nothing favourable, however

deserved, should be reported of those with whom we are not in amity,

will not be very palatable. To an enemy, if not generous, let us at

least be always just. It is as base in principle, as it is dangerous in

politics, to depreciate the popularity of a prince with whom we are at

war, for it obviously leads to a miscalculation of his influence upon

his people, and of the nature and extent of his strength and resources.

I abhor fuming a sovereign with adulation, more especially the ruler of

a country at war with my own; but it is what I owe to my own country to

relate the fact.

CHAPTER III.

COMMISSION COUNTENANCES ... PHYSIOGNOMIES COMPARED ... HOMAGE PAID TO

GENIUS ... ERASMUS’S STATUE ... INSCRIPTION ... REVOLUTIONARY WHIMS ...

LEARNED GALLANTRY ... KISSES ... ANECDOTES OF ERASMUS ... CATHEDRAL OF

SAINT LAWRENCE ... THE RIVAL ORGAN ... CHARITY SCHOOLS ... PUBLIC

EXAMINATIONS ... EFFECTS OF EDUCATION ON THE PUBLIC MIND ... HIS GRACE

THE DUKE OF BEDFORD ... MR. LANCASTER’S SCHOOL.

In my way to the celebrated statue of Erasmus, and indeed wherever I

moved, almost every face I met looked as if it belonged to a soul more

disposed to cultivate the figures of arithmetic, than of rhetoric. I saw

none of those sprightly physiognomies, which abound in the large towns

of England or France, full of smiles, of levity, and carelessness, the

happy owners of which appear as if they basked and frolicked in the

sunshine of every event. Even the Spanish proverb, “thoughts close,

looks loose,” is not observed in this city. An eye prone to the earth, a

look of settled meditation, and a measured pace denote the Rotterdammer.

Yet with these appearances Holland has not been insensible to that

literary merit, in honour of which, in other times and regions, the

Grecians and Romans raised temples, statues, and constituted public

games, to which the Persians, the Arabians, the Turks, and even the

Chinese, presented the most magnificent rewards.

As the inhabitants of Languedoc established floral games, at which they

bestowed golden flowers as prizes to the fortunate poets; as Rome

crowned Petrarch with laurel; as Ravenna erected a marble tomb to the

memory of Dante, and Certaldo a statue to Boccaccio; as delighted

princesses touched with their fragrant lips the cheeks of poets; as the

Venetians paid to Sannazarius six hundred pistoles for six verses; as

Baif received a silver image of Minerva from his native city, and

Ronsard had apartments reserved for him in the palace of Charles IX. of

France, and also the honour of receiving poetical epistles from that

monarch: behold the Hollander has raised a superb bronze figure to the

memory of that great restorer of the Latin tongue, Erasmus.

This statue stands upon an arch crossing a canal, and is nearly ten feet

high; it was finished in 1622, and is said to be the _chef-d’œuvre_ of

Henry de Keiser, a very celebrated statuary and architect. It has been

observed, that in the quality of the different statues which the Dutch

raised to the memory of Erasmus, may be traced the different degrees of

zeal with which his memory was cherished by them.

In 1540 they raised a statue of wood; seventeen years afterwards,

blushing for the little respect they had observed, they exchanged it for

one of blue stone; and in sixty-five years following apotheosized him by

the noble memorial of their veneration, which I contemplated with equal

admiration and delight. In 1572 the Spaniards, Vandal-like, shot at the

stone statue with their muskets, and threw it in the canal, from whence

it was afterwards raised and again set up, by order of the magistrates,

upon the expulsion of the Spaniards; upon whom the Dutch retaliated in

the most spirited and gallant manner, by attacking that nation through

her colonial establishments in the East and West Indies, and in Africa,

and by capturing the rich galleons of their merciless invaders.

The bronze figure is clad in an ecclesiastical habit, with an open book

in his hand. Various attempts have at different times been made to

convert the sage into a turncoat: before the revolution which expelled

the stadtholder and his family, every concavity in his dress was

crammed, on certain holidays, with oranges; during the hey-day of the

republican form of government, amidst the celebration of its festivals,

he was covered with tri-coloured ribbons, when the juice of the orange

was never suffered to pass the lips of a true patriot!! Even the

marigold, first consecrated by poets to the Virgin, and afterwards used

as a symbol of the House of Orange,

“The marigold, whose courtier’s face

Echoes the sun, and doth unlace

Her at his rise,”

was expelled from the gardens of the new republicans. Oh, Liberty! happy

had it been for millions, if all the outrages perpetrated in thy

hallowed name had spent themselves upon ribbons, oranges, and marigolds!

Oudaan the poet has done honour to this star of erudition, whose works

filled ten folio volumes, and whose talents had nearly raised him to

cardinalate under Pope Paul III. in the following lines in Dutch, which

are inscribed on his pedestal:

Hier rees die groote zon, en ging te Bazel onder!

De Rykstad eer’ en vier’ dien Heilig in zyn grav;

Dit tweede leeven geevt, die’t eerste leeven gav:

Maar ’t ligt der taalen, ’t zout der zeden, ’t heerlyk wonder.

Waar met de Lievde, en Vreede, en Godgeleerdheid praald,

Word met geen grav geerd nog met zeen beeld betaald:

Dies moet hier’t lugtgewele Erasmus overdekken,

Nadien geen mind’re plaats zyn tempel kan verstrekken!

Or thus in English:

Erasmus, here, the eloquent and wise,

That Sun of Learning! rose, and spread his beam

O’er a benighted world, through lowering skies,

And shed on Basil’s towers his parting gleam.

There his great relics lie: he blest the place:

No proud preserver of his fame shall prove

The Parian pile; tho’ fraught with sculptur’d grace:

Reader! his mausoleum is above.

The reader may perhaps be pleased with the following anecdote. When

Erasmus was in England, which he visited several times, and where he was

honoured with the friendship of Archbishop Warham, Bishops Tonstal and

Fox, Dean Colet, Lord Montjoy, Sir Thomas More, and other distinguished

men, he mentions a custom then prevalent amongst the females of this

country, the discontinuance of which, considering how much improved they

are since the time of Erasmus, and how their natural charms are

heightened by the grace of the Grecian drapery, must be a subject of

infinite regret with all who love and cherish the sex, as it ought to be

loved and cherished.

ERASMUS.

Sunt hic in Anglia nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandæ, faciles. Est

præterea mos nunquam satis laudandis, sive quò venias, omnium osculis

receperis, sive discedas aliquo, osculis dimitteris. Redis redduntur

suavia; venitur ad te propinantur suavia, disceditur abs te,

dividuntur basia; occurritur alicui, basiatur affatim; denique

quocumque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia.

“The women in England are divinely beautiful, affable, and good

humoured. There is a custom also here, which can never be sufficiently

commended. When you go any where, you are received by all with

_kisses_; when you depart, you are dismissed with _kisses_. On your

return, _kisses_ are again bestowed on you. When they visit you,

_kisses_ are presented; when they go away, _kisses_ also pass between

you. If you meet any body, _kisses_ are plentifully distributed. In

short, whatever you do, wherever you go, you are sure of _kisses_ in

abundance.”

This is language sufficiently warm to prove that Erasmus carried the

feelings of a man under the cowl of a monk. Erasmus was very

accomplished: he is said to have imbibed from Hans Holbein a fine taste

for painting, and to have painted several pictures whilst in the convent

at Gouda.

Holbein owed the patronage of Henry VIII. to Erasmus, for at his request

it was that he came to London, and by him was introduced to Sir Thomas

More, who employed and entertained him in his own house for three years,

during which his likenesses, and the execution of his works, attracted

the notice of the king, who took him into his service, and paid him as

long as he lived: although he once hazarded the severest displeasure of

his royal and turbulent patron; for being dispatched by Cromwell to

paint the Lady Ann of Cleves, Holbein so flattered her with his pencil,

that Henry was induced to marry her; but when he discovered how plain

she really was, his anger turned from the painter to the minister, and

poor Cromwell lost his head because the unhappy Ann was denounced by her

royal husband for “a Flanders’ mare,” and not the Venus depicted by

Holbein.

Amongst the churches, the only one I saw worthy of notice was the

cathedral of St. Lawrence, the tower of which I ascended, and from its

top commanded the greater part of the south of Holland. The body of the

church is very large. The walls, like all the rest of the Dutch

churches, are saddened over with a great number of sable escutcheons,

and the floor covered with rush bottom chairs for the congregation when

assembled. A magnificent brass ballustrade of exquisite workmanship,

separates the choir from the nave.

The church is used for various purposes: the synod of the province and

the presbytery of the town used to assemble in it; I was informed they

still continue to do so; and at the fairs, booths are erected in it.

The only monuments worthy of attention, and those merit but little, are

erected to the memories of Admiral Cornelius de Witt, Johannes a Brakel,

and Admiral Korlenaar. A magnificent organ has been building for some

years in this church: a very large but inadequate sum of money has been

subscribed for this superb instrument, which is intended to rival the

celebrated one at Haarlem, but much more money will be necessary for

that purpose: the object of this measure is not out of homage to St.

Cecilia, but from a commercial spirit, that repines at hearing of the

number of persons who flock to Haarlem to hear its boasted instrument,

by which considerable sums of money in the course of the year are

expended in that city.

To the honour of Holland, her seminaries of learning have always been

favourite objects with her government; and I was well informed, that to

the further promotion of this great and vital source of the morals,

order, and glory of nations, the king has devoted much of his

consideration.

To the choirs of this cathedral, the scholars of the charity schools of

the city, attended by their masters and professors, repair twice a year

to undergo a public examination, in the presence of the principal

officers of the state resident in the city, who are distinguished for

their learning, attended by some of the clergy. The rector, or first

professor, opens the meeting with a short speech in praise of

_Literature and the Civil Magistracy_: such of the pupils as are about

to remove to the university, pronounce an oration in praise of some

illustrious prince, or of Erasmus; on the dignity, ornament, and utility

of sound learning to a state; in praise of commerce and industry; on the

baneful consequence of passion and indolence; on fortitude, patience,

concord, and other moral virtues; they then conclude with a compliment

to their masters for their care of them, and to the magistrates for

honouring them with their presence; and finally, take leave of their

school-fellows, whom they exhort to pursue their studies indefatigably,

and to live in amity with each other.

The principal magistrates then present each of them with some classical

author, superbly bound and gilt: the juniors, who are to remove to the

higher classes, then come forward, and compliment the magistrates and

their masters in a sentence or two either of verse or prose. The effect

of this ceremony is increased by the organ playing at its commencement

and close.

The reader will, I am sure, be gratified with this brief description of

a plan so generative of every good to the nation which adopts it.

Children, as soon as they can think, discover that they are the peculiar

care of their country; they are taught to respect its laws, and by

descanting upon, to imitate its most shining examples, and to repay the

paternal solicitude of the government, by becoming useful or ornamental

members of its community.

Amidst the political storms which have agitated Holland for so many

years, more fatal to its prosperity than those of the ocean, in which it

almost appears to float, education has never been neglected: to bestow

upon his children decent and useful instruction, has ever formed the

anxious care of the Hollander: he feels that whilst he trains their

minds to habits of investigation and industry, he secures to them, under

any form of government, the sources of support and advancement.

This general diffusion of useful instruction made Holland what she was

in the most shining periods of her history, and whenever its

enlightening influence shall cease to be felt, as a commercial country

she must decline.

The very few instances of cruelty which occurred in Holland during the

late revolution, have been very justly attributed to the happy effects

of education. Whenever any disposition to severity evinced itself, an

appeal to reason and humanity inclined it to forgive: a memorable proof

of this statement will hereafter appear in the account of some of the

revolutionary movements which occurred at Amsterdam.

Even an English merchant would be astonished to see the wonderful

arithmetical attainment of stripling clerks in any of the Dutch

compting-houses, and the quantity of complicated business which they

discharge in the course of the day, the order of their books, the

rapidity and certainty of their calculation, according to the commercial

habits and exchange of different countries, and the variety of languages

which they speak; to which may be added, the great regularity and length

of their attendance, and the decency and propriety of their deportment.

With proper modifications, what an example for our own government, with

respect to the sister kingdom, does Holland present! And here I cannot

but lament my inability to do justice to the illustrious nobleman, to

whose care his majesty has with sound wisdom and discrimination

committed the administration of his government in Ireland. In his Grace

the Duke of Bedford, that unhappy and long neglected island has found an

able, zealous, and resolute friend and patron; who, shunning every

ostentatious display, and almost the eye of observation, has conferred

upon that country the salutary benefits of those measures which do

honour to the christian, the statesman, and the governor.

To this nobleman, and to Lord Somerville, the British nation is indebted

for having discerned the utility, and encouraged the progress of a

system of education, which has entirely originated from the benevolent

zeal and ability of Mr. Lancaster, a member of a religious community

long known, as well for the purity of their minds as for the simplicity

of their dress and deportment, who, after many arduous experiments, has

matured a plan by which one thousand poor children may be taught and

governed by one master, for the trifling expense of five shillings per

annum for each child: a plan which is eminently honourable to its

meritorious discoverer, and promises fair to effect an incalculable

amelioration in the habits and condition of the rising generation.

We are not allowed upon the continent to be a people of much _creative

faculty_, but this plan is solely of British growth, and till lately

wholly unknown to political economists of every other country. This

cheap and efficacious system, which has received, to their lasting

honour, the cordial approbation and support of their Majesties and the

Royal Family, his Grace the Duke of Bedford is anxious to introduce into

Ireland, wholly free from religious proselytism, and which would

powerfully accelerate those comprehensive and enlightened measures, to

which another great friend to Ireland has, with uncommon promptitude and

assiduity, obtained the assent of the imperial parliament; I allude to

that amiable and able statesman Sir John Newport, the present chancellor

of the exchequer of Ireland.

May the happy effects of such a measure be as forcibly experienced in

that country, as they have been in this which I am describing!

CHAPTER IV.

THE COINS ... PRACTICE OF VAILS-GIVING IN HOLLAND ... FRUIT AND

VEGETABLE SELLERS ... DUTCH PASSION FOR SCRUBBING AND MOPPING ...

WHIMSICAL SARCASM OF A TRAVELLER ... SINGULAR OFFENCE OFFERED TO A

CHAMBER-MAID ... DUTCH PRINTS OF LORD NELSON ... TREATMENT OF OUR

COUNTRYMEN AT VERDUN ... DUTCH COMPARED WITH THE CHINESE ... PRIVATE

COLLECTIONS OF PAINTINGS ... BRIEF ANECDOTE OF THE VANDERWERFS ...

REMARKS ON DUTCH AND FLEMISH SCHOOLS ... DORT ... ANECDOTES OF

DISTINGUISHED PERSONS THERE ... ANECDOTE OF COWPER ... INTERPOSITION OF

PROVIDENCE.

It is with great reluctance I approach the subject of the currency of

Holland, but as I hope to be read by some one who may hereafter visit

that country, as much a stranger as I was to it, it is fit that I should

not omit it; and I hereby apprize all my _chair-travelling_ readers of

my intention, that they may _leap_ over my _table_ of coins if they

choose so to do.

SILVER COINS.

A doyt. Worth about half a farthing.

A stiver. About a penny at par. Twelve stivers are generally, but not

in every part of Holland, considered equal to a shilling. This coin

resembles a silver penny.

Dubbeltje, or two stiver piece. This coin is very convenient small

change.

A quarter guilder, or five stiver piece. This coin, I am told, is very

rare; I met with none of it.

A zesthalven, or five stivers and four doyts. This is a piece of base

metal, and equal to an English six-pence; it is very convenient for an

English traveller, on account of its precise value being known.

Schellingen, of various kinds, the size of which determines the value,

unless they are stamped.

Six and a half stiver piece. A silver piece, little larger than a

six-pence, and the eighth part of a rix-dollar.

Eight stiver piece. A larger, but thinner piece than a schellingen,

not much in circulation.

Ten stiver piece. Worth half a guilder, very scarce.

Twelve and a half stiver piece. Not much in use.

Thirteen stiver piece. A Zealand coin, and much in circulation.

A guilder or florin, or twenty stiver piece. The legitimate coin of

Holland, by which they calculate, and is the best silver.

Twenty-four stiver piece, or half a rix-dollar.

Twenty-six stiver piece.

Twenty-eight stiver piece. There are many sorts of this in Holland: it

is usual to receive five in a lot, each of which is equal to seven

guilders.

Thirty stiver piece, or dollar. Of the value of half a crown English,

and about that size.

Thirty-one and a half stiver piece, or half a ducatoon. They are rare.

Forty stiver piece, or two guilder piece. Not common.

Fifty stiver piece. The antient rix-dollar; not much in use.

Fifty-two stiver piece, or modern rix-dollar. Much in circulation: in

Amsterdam, and several other places, they will not pass for more than

50 or 51 stivers. In Zealand they are worth 53.

Sixty stiver piece, called a three guilder piece. Much in use.

Sixty-three stiver piece, or ducatoon. Coined when the Spaniards were

in the country.

GOLD COINS.

A ducat. A beautiful coin, of the purest fine gold. The Jews and the

brokers generally deal in this coin, for which they receive two or

three stivers profit on each. It is thin, and remarkably pleasant to

the touch; and as a proof of its purity, it will bear to be frequently

bent, without breaking. Upon almost every part of the continent this

coin bears a premium, and is current throughout Europe.

A double ducat is ten guilders ten stivers.

Rider, fourteen guilders.

Half rider, seven guilders. These are current through the provinces.

I would recommend the traveller to carry with him a sufficient number of

guineas for his return to England, as they are scarce and very dear; for

twelve guineas I paid an exchange of 35–4 agio 104 on 145, or 13_l._

4_s._ 6_d._

COINS.

No alteration has taken place in the legends of the coins of Holland.

Since the revolution there has been a copious silver coinage, but the

florin has remained the same for more than a century. The old calendar

is adhered to, with the slight alterations rendered necessary by a

change in the name and spirit of the government.

The practice of vails-giving still continues in Holland. Previous to my

going to dine with some acquaintances which I made at Rotterdam, I was

particularly reminded by a friend who knew the habits of the country,

not to forget to carry a few florins with me, as the servant who opened

the door, upon my quitting the house, would expect either one or two of

those pieces. This abominably mean practice existed in England in a

higher degree, and still continues in part in the shape of card money.

If I remember correctly, we are indebted to Mr. Hanway the

philanthropist, whose life is given in a very entertaining manner by his

pupil and protégé, Mr. Pugh, for the abolition of giving vails to

servants; previous to which, a gentleman of moderate income could

scarcely afford to dine with an opulent and fashionable friend.

In houses of great resort in Holland, servants are in the habits of

purchasing their places of their masters free of wages, solely for the

douceurs which custom rigidly exacts from the visitor. At one table a

friend of mine, a thoughtless Englishman, was reminded of his having

forgotten the usage, by having a quantity of soup poured over his new

coat by _accidental design_.

In the streets I was much gratified by seeing the fruit and vegetable

sellers: the fruit was abundant, very fresh, and fine, and such as is

usually to be found at the same season in England: the vegetables are

remarkably excellent, and are submitted to the eye in the cleanest and

most attractive manner. The Dutch potatoes are small and uncommonly

good; I think they are, if possible, superior to those of Ireland.

The proximity of the houses to the canals enables the Dutch women to

indulge to the full extent of their wishes, in scrubbing and mopping

their passages and rooms, which they do from the first to the last blush

of day; indeed, cleanliness in their houses is carried to a painful

excess. All the strong features of an English Saturday evening, viz.

mops, pails, scrubbing-brushes, dusters, fullers’ earth, are in active

use every hour of the day, in Holland; and a little hand garden-engine

is in perpetual requisition, for washing the outside of the windows.

But the aqua-terrene nymphs to whose hands these right useful

instruments are committed, appear to be so solicitous of removing every

feculent impression of the foot in their white-tiled halls, of giving a

brilliant polish to the brass knockers, and of preserving the furniture

of the rooms unsullied, that they frequently neglect to purify their own

persons; the charms of which are to be often seen mingled with, if not

obscured by, the accretions of long neglect and inattention.

Some travellers have extended similar remarks to the higher classes of

the female sex, but unquestionably with more spleen than truth.

I had the honour of being acquainted with many Dutch ladies of

respectability, and found them to be very neat in their persons, but my

first remark too powerfully applies to the lower orders of the sex: they

have no leisure to attend to themselves: to them, with a little

transposition of the sentiment, may be applied the facetious lines that

described a once celebrated opposition financier.

“It is said that his thoughts have been so long directed

To the _national debt_ that his _own_ are neglected.”

I remember while at Amsterdam a servant was very angry because I would

not suffer her to wash my bedroom every day. It might be supposed that

in a climate which must be naturally very humid, the natives would

prefer having dry rooms as long as possible.

Upon some of the canals I saw Rhine boats of extraordinary dimensions;

they were principally laden with hardware, and their owners and families

resided wholly on board, in a suite of cabins, generally raised upon the

deck, which, in point of commodious arrangement, of neatness and

comfort, cannot easily be surpassed on shore. Upon the fore and aft part

of the deck their ware is exposed to sale, and below are prodigious

depots of the same articles. These vessels are frequently six months in

their voyage up and down the Rhine, in consequence of their stopping at

those cities or towns situated on its banks, where the owners are likely

to have a market for their merchandize.

The reader will be surprised to hear that in several shops I saw many

prints of our illustrious Nelson, in which the artist, in order to

prevent the beholder from doubting that he had lost the sight of one eye

in the service of his country, had the optic completely removed from its

socket, and left a large frightful hole, for the purpose of illustrating

this part of his heroic history.

At an excellent _table d’hote_, at the Mareschal de Turenne, I had the

happiness of meeting several of my countrymen, who were returning to

England after a long and most unjust detention at Verdun; from them I

learned that specie was abundant in France, and that Napoleon scarcely

admitted any paper to be in circulation; that the roads were no longer

farmed, but by the aid of a small additional duty on salt, were put into

the finest condition, and that no toll whatever was taken in any part of

the empire. They said, that in point of restriction, they were not

rigidly treated, but that there were no bounds to the rapacity of those

appointed to look after them, particular of the _gens d’armes_.

The collections of paintings in Rotterdam are not numerous, but very

select: perhaps no people upon the face of the earth ever displayed a

more inveterate and immoveable attachment to every thing of native

growth than the Dutch, except the Chinese, who consider improvement as

penal innovation, and who confined a native in irons for life, because

he ventured to make a boat upon a new construction, by which it sailed

faster than any other.

This immoveable adhesion to old customs in the Dutch, is the more

singular, as from their commercial character, they have been in constant

intercourse with the natives of every quarter of the globe, the various

produces of which they have brought into their own canals, but not for

adoption, imitation, or, generally speaking, for consumption, but solely

for profitable re-sale.

This spirit, or if you like to call it so, this _amor patriæ_, is

strongly evinced in all their collections of paintings: in only one or

two private cabinets in Holland are to be found any productions of the

Italian and Venetian schools.

The finest private cabinet belongs to M. Vanderpals, a very rich and

respectable merchant; it is principally filled by the works of those

delightful masters Nicholas Berchem, and Linglebach; of the former I

shall give a few striking anecdotes when I reach Haarlem, the place of

his nativity; of the latter I shall briefly speak when I describe

Frankfort on the Maine, where he was born.

M. Vanderpot, another wealthy merchant, has also a very large and well

selected collection of the Dutch and Flemish painters. M. Lockhorst, a

gentleman of commercial distinction, has also a fine assortment of

pictures of the same school.

The proprietors of these valuable productions are always ready with the

greatest politeness to gratify strangers with the sight of them. Amongst

other artists, Rotterdam has the honour of giving birth to the Chevalier

Vanderwerf, who was born in 1659, and received his first instructions

from Picolet, a portrait painter; he afterwards studied under Eglon

Vanderneer, under whom he made a rapid improvement: he principally

confined himself to historical subjects of a small size. The Elector

Palatine conceived a great fondness for him, from accidentally seeing

some of his performances in that style; this prince honoured him with

every mark of esteem and beneficence. He conferred upon him the honour

of knighthood, ennobled his descendants, gave him a chain of gold and a

medal, and his portrait set with diamonds of great value, and allowed

him a noble pension, besides paying him munificently for his

productions; and upon the wife of Vanderwerf presenting him with a

picture drawn by herself, their royal patron bestowed upon her husband

six thousand florins, and on the lady a magnificent toilette of silver.

What a model of munificence and liberal policy for princes! The pictures

of this eminent master are very rare, and bear very high prices. He is

principally celebrated for the roundness and relief of his figures; his

defect lay in a coldness of colouring. Upon his pictures he laboured

with unsparing toil, which injured the spirit of his productions.

His brother, Peter Vanderwerf, was born near Rotterdam in 1665, and was

the pupil of his brother Adrian. His principal subjects were portraits

and conversations, which entitled him to rank as a very able artist, and

as a further proof of it, a small picture of his sold, in 1713, for five

hundred and fifty guilders; and another, a copy from one of his brother

Adrian’s, for eight hundred guilders. I did not hear of any living

painter at Rotterdam of very distinguished eminence, a circumstance

somewhat singular, when it is considered how many fine artists, though

inferior to Vanderwerf, that city has produced.

The perfection to which the Dutch and Flemish schools arrived, proves

that great artists may be formed, without the assistance of great

galleries. The present low state of the French school demonstrates, that

the most magnificent collection ever known, containing the renowned and

exalted specimens of art, and opened to the inspection of every one with

a becoming spirit of liberality, cannot form good artists. The St.

Jerome of Corregio, and the St. Cecilia of Michael Angelo, have created

no successful disciple since their arrival at Paris.

At Dort, or Dordreght, a city of great antiquity, about nine miles from

Rotterdam, resides a celebrated artist of the name of Varestage, aged

about fifty; he is justly celebrated for his candlelight subjects, which

are masterly: one of his works, a school by candlelight, and a number of

children, is spoken of as truly exquisite. On account of his eyes

growing weak, he has altered his manner, and at present confines himself

to large figures, portraits, and conversations.

As I was informed there was nothing very attractive at Dort, I did not

visit that city: it is however famous for having given birth to several

able men. John Gerard Vossius studied there in 1577, and wrote a great

number of learned works; he was the father of Issac Vossius, also a man

of profound erudition. Our King Charles humourously observed of him,

alluding to his credulity and infidelity, “that he would believe any

thing _but the Bible_.”

Adrian Junius was born here in 1511, and was considered to be one of the

most profound men of his country, and wrote many learned works. Dr.

Johnson observes of Junius, in the preface to his Dictionary, “the

votaries of the northern muses will not perhaps easily restrain their

indignation, when they find the name of Junius thus degraded by a

disadvantageous comparison, (alluding to Skinner); but whatever

reverence is due to his diligence, or his attainments, it can be no

criminal degree of censoriousness, to charge that etymologist with want

of judgment, who can seriously derive _dream_ from _drama_, because life

is a drama, and a drama is a dream.”

It would be an inexpiable offence to pass over the name of Albert Kuyp,

or Cuyp, who was born here, son of the well known Jacob Gerritze Kuyp,

whose pupil he was, and whom he infinitely surpassed. The former

excelled in whatever he attempted to represent; the diffusion of his

lights is as exquisite as it is natural, and the very times of the day

in which he painted are immediately discoverable; the misty haze of the

morning, the brilliant lustre of noon, the last blush of evening, and

the lunar beam of night from his hands, presented the closest imitations

of nature, and the utmost powers the art is susceptible of. Most of his

subjects were furnished by his native city and the adjacent scenery,

particularly his celebrated representation of the cattle-market at Dort,

and the square where the troops exercised: his works are much sought

after, and preserved as great curiosities; and yet, though now so highly

prized, they fell into so much disrepute, that not many years since, a

large collection of his best pictures sold for eight guineas apiece, so

uncertain is the opinion and taste of the public.

——“He that depends

“Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,

“And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye?

“With every minute you do change a mind,

“And call him noble that was now your hate;

“Him vile that was your garland.”

_Coriolanus_, Act I.

Even our immortal Cowper experienced the severity of popular caprice. So

diffidently did he think of his abilities, that he offered his first

poems to his publisher; reserving only as a remuneration, a few copies

to present to his friends, from an apprehension that his works might

produce rather loss than profit. These productions were, on their first

appearance, very rudely handled by most of the reviewers, and nearly the

whole of the copies lay like so much waste paper for a long time in the

bookseller’s shop.

Some time afterwards, not wholly discouraged by this mortifying neglect,

he presented through the hands of a friend, his manuscript copy of that

divine poem, “_The Task_” upon the same terms, the merit of which,

dispelled the folly or ignorance of the town, as the rays of the sun

pierce through and absorb the mist, and Cowper took a high rank amongst

the living great men of his century; the fame of “The Task” brought into

light his former discarded productions, and their sale has ever since

continued to augment the wealth of his bookseller, the venerable and

much respected Johnson.

The following very interesting and extraordinary circumstance occurred

at Dort in the year 1785, which is still the frequent narrative of the

young and old of that city, who relate it with mingled sensations of awe

and delight, as an interposition of Divine Providence in favour of a

widow and her family of this city. This woman, who was very industrious,

was left by her husband, an eminent carpenter, a comfortable house with

some land, and two boats for carrying merchandize and passengers on the

canals. She was also supposed to be worth ten thousand guilders in ready

money, which she employed in a hempen and sail-cloth manufactory, for

the purpose of increasing her fortune and instructing her children (a

son and two daughters) in useful branches of business.

One night about nine o’clock, when the workmen were gone home, a person

dressed in uniform, with a musket and broad sword, came to her house,

and requested a lodging. “I let no lodgings, friend,” said the widow,

“and besides, I have no spare bed, unless you sleep with my son, which I

think very improper, on account of your being a perfect stranger to us

all.” The soldier then shewed a discharge from Diesbach’s regiment

(signed by the Major, who gave him an excellent character), and a

passport from Compte Maillebois, governor of Breda. The widow, believing

the stranger to be an honest man, called her son, and asked him if he

would accommodate a veteran, who had served the republic thirty years

with reputation, with part of his bed. The young man consented; the

soldier was accordingly hospitably entertained; and at a seasonable hour

withdrew to rest.

Some hours afterwards, a loud knocking was heard at the street door,

which roused the soldier, who moved softly down stairs, and listened at

the hall door, when the blows were repeated, and the door almost broken

through by a sledge, or some heavy instrument. By this time the widow

and her daughters were much alarmed by this violent attack, and ran

almost frantic through different parts of the house, exclaiming “Murder!

Murder!” The son having joined the soldier with a case of loaded

pistols, and the latter screwing on his bayonet and fresh priming his

piece, which was charged with slugs, requested the women to keep

themselves in a back room out of the way of danger. Soon after the door

was bursted in, two ruffians entered, and were instantly shot by the

son, who discharged both his pistols at once. Two other associates of

the dead men immediately returned the fire, but without effect, when the

intrepid and veteran stranger, taking immediate advantage of the

discharge of their arms, rushed on them like a lion, ran one through the

body with his bayonet, and whilst the other was running away, lodged the

contents of his piece between his shoulders, and he dropped dead on the

spot. The son and the stranger then closed the door as well as they

could, reloaded their arms, made a good fire, and watched till

day-light, when the weavers and spinners of the manufactory came to

resume their employment, who were struck with horror and surprise at

seeing four men dead on the dunghill adjoining the house, where the

soldier had dragged them before they closed the door.

The burgomaster and his syndic attended, and took the depositions of the

family relative to this affair. The bodies were buried in a cross-road,

and a stone erected over the grave, with this inscription: “Here lie the

remains of four unknown ruffians, who deservedly lost their lives, in an

attempt to rob and murder a worthy woman and her family. A stranger who

slept in the house, to which Divine Providence undoubtedly directed him,

was the principal instrument in preventing the perpetration of such

horrid designs, which justly entitles him to a lasting memorial, and the

thanks of the public. John Adrian de Gries, a discharged soldier from

the regiment of Diesbach, a native of Middleburgh in Zealand, and

upwards of seventy years old, was the David who slew two of these

Goliaths, the rest being killed by the son of the family. In honorem, a

gratitudine ergo, Dei optimi maximi, pietatis et innocentæ summi

protectoris, magistratus et concilium civitatis Dortrechiensis hoc

signum poni curavere, xx. die Nov. annoque salutis humanæ, 1785.”

The widow presented the soldier with one hundred guineas, and the city

settled a handsome pension on him for the rest of his life.

CHAPTER V.

LICENSED BROTHELS ... REMARKS UPON THEM ... DUTCH LITERARY MEETING

DESCRIBED ... SPITTING POTS ... PIPES, DUTCH EXTRAVAGANT IN THEM ...

SMOKING ... HISTORICAL ANECDOTE OF TOBACCO ... GENERAL TEMPERANCE OF THE

DUTCH ... ARBITRARY POWER OF POLICE MASTERS ... TRAVELLING IN HOLLAND

VERY CHEAP AND VERY AGREEABLE ... CANAL TO DELFT ... DUTCH SAWING

MILLS ... ENGLISH CIRCULAR MASONRY MILLS ... DUTCH LANGUAGE ... SPECIMEN

OF THE ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND GERMAN LANGUAGES.

It is matter of surprise to the contemplative traveller to observe in a

country apparently so mechanically moral and regular as Holland, the

glaring defects of the most loose and meretricious government: in the

hearts of the finest cities are to be found brothels surpassing in

iniquity all such seats of impurity in any other nation, in which the

horrible novelty of the most savage oppression is united to a public,

licensed, and authorised display of vice and profligacy. I mean the

spill-houses, to one of which my laquais de place conducted me about ten

o’clock at night, when those scenes of revelry open. In a street, in an

inferior quarter of the town, the sound of fiddles and dancing announced

the approach to one of these houses: presently my guide stopped before

one of them, into the saloon of which he introduced me by pulling aside

a curtain drawn before the door, near which, in a little raised

orchestra, two fiddlers were scraping; upon benches at the other end of

the room were seven or eight females, painted and dressed in all their

finery, with large silver buckles, loose muslin robes, massy gilt

ear-rings, and ornaments of the same metal round the head. Most of them

looked very jaded. As soon as I entered, a bottle of wine and glasses,

and pipes and tobacco, were put before me, for which I paid a florin,

and which is considered as the premium of admission.

These miserable wretches were all prostitutes and prisoners, confined to

this haunt of vice, and never suffered to pass its threshold until

enabled, out of the wages of prostitution, to redeem themselves. The way

in which they are ensnared into this brothel-dungeon is worthy of

notice. The keeper of it hears of some girl who is in debt, frequently

occasioned by dressing beyond her means, to set off her person to

advantage at some of the music-rooms or other public places; he

approaches her, pities her, offers her money to discharge her debts,

advances her more for immediate and future purposes; she becomes his

debtor: in a short time he seizes upon her person, and bears her away to

his bagnio, and receives the profligate produce of her disgrace and

infamy; and this scene of compound enormity is tolerated by the

government, and has so continued for many years, till time has hardened

the cruel practice into a custom which has become inoffensive to the

people.

One of these poor wretches approached me; the affected gaiety of her

deportment, so entirely discordant with the genuine feelings of a mind

exposed to scenes of such humiliating profligacy, was in no little

degree distressing; but I observed she drank the wine I gave her with a

heavy heart, and some money I presented her with, excited expressions of

gratitude, but no emotions of delight; from which I concluded that she

was merely the channel through which my present would pass to her brutal

gaoler; an apprehension which was confirmed to me by my lacquey upon my

quitting this scene of complicated wretchedness.

It is a curious circumstance that to Solon, the wisest amongst the wise

men of Greece, is attributed the origin of brothels: his motives may be

appreciated in the following extracts. “Nicandre raconte dans le

troisième livre des choses remarquables de Colophon, que le legislateur

Solon a été le premier qui ait bâti un temple à _Venus Pandemos_.

Philemon (Athenée liv. xiii. p. 569.) loue beaucoup la sage indulgence

que Solon a témoignée par cette loi pour la foiblesse humaine: ‘Solon,

tu as vraiment été le bienfaiteur du genre humain! car on dit que c’est

toi qui a le premier pensé à une chose bien advantageuse au peuple ou

plutôt au salut public. Oui, c’est avec raison que je dis ceci, lorsque

je considère notre ville pleine de jeunes gens d’un temperament

bouillant, et qui en consequence se porteraient à des excès

impermissables. C’est pourquoi tu as acheté des femmes, et les as

placées dans des lieux, où, pourvues de tout ce qui leur est nécessaire,

elles deviennent communes à tous ceux qui en veulent.’” “Nicander

relates in the third book of remarkable circumstances of Colophon, that

the legislator Solon was the first who built a temple to Venus Pandemos.

Philemon praises much the wise indulgence which Solon has shown by this

law to human infirmity. ‘Solon! thou hast truly been the benefactor of

the human race! for it is said that thou first thought of a measure

greatly beneficial to the people, or rather to the public good. Yes, I

say it with reason, when I see our town full of young men of warm

constitutions, and who in consequence would indulge in censurable

excesses. Therefore thou hast purchased women, and fixed them in places,

where, provided with every thing they want, they become accessible to

all who desire an intercourse with them.’”

The Dutch are so familiarized to these scenes, that parents frequently

carry their children to them; from the hope of preserving them from

vicious propensities, by placing before their eyes the nauseous and

frightful images of suffering profligacy. Such an experiment in morals

would be somewhat dubious in its operations; for vice like deformity

ceases to disgust in proportion as it is contemplated. Such ideas never

enter the sober brains of such visitors; they go to spend an hour, which

to them is mirthful, and the poor wretches I have mentioned augment the

pleasures of the scene by the gaudiness of their finery, and the company

add to its vivacity. In the beauty of its plumage, “they forget the

dying bird.”

Through considerable interest I was enabled to see the Rasp-House, or

prison for male and female culprits: it is a large quadrangular

building; most of the cells and rooms look towards the yard, which is

considerably below the level of the street. The food is wholesome and

abundant, and the chambers are kept very neat. I saw in this place

nothing objectionable but the period allowed to the prisoners for taking

exercise, which is infinitely too short and infrequent, each person

being allowed to walk in the yard only once in the week; the consequence

is, that few of the prisoners looked healthy.

Holland is justly celebrated for its public charities. In Rotterdam,

before the last war, there were many benevolent institutions, some of

which have inevitably languished, and others expired, in consequence of

the political convulsions of the country and the usually impoverishing

effects of long hostility.

In the streets I was surprised to see the horses shod in the shameful

and clumsy manner they are: the shoe is behind elevated to a

considerable height, so that the poor animal must suffer from the

position into which he is always forced, resembling that of a lady in a

high-heeled pair of shoes of the last century.

At my hotel I was much gratified by the whimsical appearance of a

meeting called the _Society of Variety and Unity_, which was held there:

about eighty Dutchmen of the middling classes of life were assembled in

one of the rooms, to discuss philosophical, but more particularly

religious questions: when I entered the room, one of their members was

addressing the body upon the subject of death, as I was informed. His

eloquence appeared to be as sluggish as the canal opposite; the motto of

the fraternity was well illustrated by what appeared; the only _variety_

I saw was in their pipes, and their _unity_ was effected by the fumes of

their tobacco, which seemed to blend them in one common mass of smoke.

I had not been two days in Holland without witnessing the abominable

custom of introducing a spitting pot upon the table after dinner, into

which, like the Kava bowl used amongst the natives of the South-sea

islands, each person present who smokes, and that generally comprehends

all who are present, discharges his saliva, which delicate depositary is

handed round as regularly as the bottle. This custom is comparable in

point of delicacy with that of washing the mouth and cleaning the teeth

with a napkin after dinner, as in England, or picking the latter with a

fork, as in France.

The Dutch are proverbial for smoking. The moment I entered any

coffee-house, pipes and tobacco were introduced, as if the waiters were

in dread of my imbibing some pestilent disease, without this sort of

fumigation, and expressed uncommon surprise, when they remarked that I

declined using them. The Dutch will insist upon it that smoking is not

only as necessary to preserve their constitutions, as paint is to

protect the exterior of their houses from the effects of their moist

climate, but that the vapour invigorates the mind, which mounted like an

aerial spirit upon a cloud, pours forth treasures of reflection with a

brilliancy little short of inspiration.

The Dutch go to an astonishing expense in their pipes, which assume an

endless variety of shapes, and are decorated sometimes with the most

coxcombical figures painted upon the head or cup of it, according to the

taste of its possessor.

Many of the opulent Hollanders use a pipe, the head of which is made of

a clay which is very rare, and found only in Turkey, of so beautiful a

colour, that is called the Meerschaum, or _froth of the sea_; for this

piece of luxury the value of eight and even ten guineas is frequently

paid.

The lower orders of society, and many of the higher, carry in their

pockets their pipe, a pricker to clear the tube, a piece of tinder made

in Germany from the large mushrooms growing on old trees, resembling

spunge, a small steel and flint to kindle the fire with, and a box

frequently capacious enough to contain a pound of tobacco.

It is curious to observe how naturally a pipe depends from a Dutchman’s

mouth, and with what perfect facility he smokes without the assistance

of either hand: he literally appears to have been formed by nature to

breathe through this tube, with which he rides on horseback, drives in a

carriage, and even dances. I have seen little boys take this instrument

and puff away with an apparently instinctive predilection for the

transatlantic weed. Smoking is a Dutchman’s panacea, he thinks it good

in all cases, whether of consumptions, or plethora, nervous debility, or

fiery fever: as a masticatory, tobacco is but little used even by the

fishermen, sailors and boors; and I was surprised to find, that in the

social shape of snuff, it seemed to have not many admirers.

Tobacco had many enemies to contend with. In 1610, the smoking of

tobacco was known at Constantinople, but it was thought so injurious a

custom, that to remove it by ridicule, a Turk who had been found

smoking, was conducted about the streets with a pipe transfixed through

his nose: it was a long time before the Dutch cultivated the plant

themselves; previous to that period they purchased it, and that the very

refuse of the English. In 1615, tobacco began to be sown about Amsfort

in Holland.

By James I. the practice of smoking was severely and most whimsically

denounced in a work, called “_King James the Sixth’s_ (of Scotland)

_Counterblast to Tobacco_,” in which the royal pedant states, “that some

gentlemen of his courts were accustomed to expend no less than three or

four hundred pounds a year upon this indulgence.” He also says, “that it

was used as a powerful aphrodisiac.” He particularly deplores the case

of delicate, wholesome, clean complexioned wives, whose husbands were

not ashamed to pollute them with the _perpetual stinking torment_ of

tobacco smoke: the concluding sentence of this extraordinary composition

is somewhat laughable. “The use of tobacco,” he says, “is a custom

loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain,

dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest

resembling the horrid Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

Few would wish to withhold from a Dutchman the narcotic enjoyment of his

pipe, when they reflect, that he seeks no other species of oblivion to

his care; for, I believe, notwithstanding a Dutchman’s eulogium upon his

pipe, that it produces more oblivion than inspiration: he is scarcely

ever seen intoxicated: indeed, drunkenness is held unpardonably infamous

in Holland. To keep bad accounts, and to be seen inebriated, are equally

disgraceful; and hence the use of wines and spirituous liquors is much

less in Holland than in England.

The Dutch agree with Cassio’s reasoning:

——“Oh! that men should put an enemy into their mouths, to steal away

their brains! That we should with joy, revel, pleasure, and applause,

transform ourselves into beasts!”

_Othello_, Act II. Scene 3.

The spill-houses are not the only objectionable instances of the abuse

of the government; the police master is suffered to misuse his authority

to a shameful excess. Instead of bringing delinquents to justice, he is

in the frequent habit of privately compromising public offence, and

putting the sum paid into his own pocket. Some time before I was in

Rotterdam, a burgher who had been guilty of adultery, paid twenty

thousand guilders to this minister of justice, who thus partaking of the

commercial spirit of his country, becomes a merchant in delinquency.

I saw in several shops a great number of articles of English manufacture

exposed to sale, particularly Manchester goods. The Dutch manufacture

their own woollens, and they are esteemed to be very good. The black

cloth of Holland is very well known, which is infinitely of a deeper and

superior colour than ours. The principal cloth manufactures are at

Leyden and Tielburg. There are also very capital and flourishing

manufactures of velvets, silk, and carpets, at Hilversom; and those of

linen and table-cloths, which are exquisite, at Overyssel; and numerous

paper-mills.

The population of Rotterdam is estimated at sixty thousand inhabitants.

Upon the whole, it is a gloomy place to live in; a constant iteration of

the same canals, bridges, boats, houses, and figures, will soon damp the

spirits of a traveller, unless naturally very vivacious. There is no

theatre, no place of public amusement, but the spill-houses I have

described, which are as much, at least to feeling minds, not accustomed

to them, entitled to that appellation, as any of our houses of

correction.

Here I bade adieu to my companions and friends, who proceeded direct to

Germany, where I promised to rejoin them. I was by no means sorry to

follow a lacquey to that quarter of the suburbs where the Delft boats

set off every two hours, with my portmanteau, and to bid adieu to

Rotterdam. Our treckschuyt lay ready for starting; at two o’clock, a

little bell fastened on the outside of a house where the director

resides, announced that all was ready; the horse was fastened to a very

long, and rather a thin line, and we slipped through the _liquid road_,

sensible of moving only from passing the objects that lined the sides of

the canal, consisting for a considerable way of pretty houses and

avenues of trees.

The treckschuyt is a long barge divided into two apartments; the after

one, called the ruif or roof, possesses superior accommodations, and

will hold from eight to a dozen persons, and the other from forty to

fifty: this vessel, which is drawn by a single horse, moves so precisely

at the rate of four miles an hour, that the Dutch always compute by the

hour instead of the mile.[1] In the cabin or roof, there are four

oblique windows, which move up and down, a table in the middle, with a

long drawer filled with pipes. The seats are covered with handsome

cushions; but the prime accommodations are a spitting-box, and a little

iron pot filled with burning turf, to furnish the smokers with fire for

their pipes. The price is about three pence an hour: this part is

generally occupied by persons of a superior condition. So steady is the

motion of the vessel, that the passenger may read, write, or draw in it,

without interruption.

Footnote 1:

The Dutch boors are also so regular in smoking their pipes, that in

calculating the distances of places, they say they are so many pipes

asunder.

The treckschuyts preserve an easy intercourse between the most distant

parts of the kingdom, and the cheapness of their conveyance places them

within the reach of the most slender purse. Every thing relative to

these vessels is conducted with such admirable punctuality, that the

passenger can tell to the smallest cost in the kingdom what his expenses

will amount to, and to a minute when he shall arrive at the end of his

journey, in which, if it be long, he carries his provision with him, or

purchases a frugal meal at the house where the boat stops a few minutes

for that purpose. At those places where the treckschuyts stop on account

of the course of the canal being interrupted, and where passengers are

in consequence obliged to quit one vessel to go to another, there are

females who offer refreshments for sale, consisting of little rolls and

small birds, and slices of cold baked eels, fastened to a small stick.

The treckschuyts are all under the direction of government, and are

truly punctual, convenient, cheap, and agreeable. The town of Delft was

about twelve miles, or three hours distant. On the sides of the canal,

the surface of the water was frequently covered by the _nymphæa alba_, a

magnificent white water-lily, whose expanded and unsullied flowers had a

charming effect, particularly when intermixed with _menyanthes

nymphoides_, the yellow fringed water-lily, which are very uncommon in

England.