Every one is acquainted with its celebrity for the manufacture of the
favourite perfumed spirit, the eau de Cologne. Originally there was only
a single manufactory of this article, but the demand has now so greatly
increased, that ten different establishments are engaged in it. We were
informed that it sells here for eight francs the case, containing six
bottles. We were anxious to have purchased a few for the benefit of our
fair friends, but the risk of seizure deterred us from gratifying our
wishes.
At this place our agreeable French companion, who had accompanied us
from Berne, took leave of us; his name was M. Gerard Mignon, a Champagne
wine-merchant of Rheims, and had been a captain in the French army; he
intended passing by Aix la Chapelle to Brussels, at which latter place I
promised myself the pleasure of again meeting with him.
We had proposed following the course of the Rhine as far as we could
towards Amsterdam, to which place I had agreed to accompany my friend on
his way to Russia; but on inquiry we found there was no regular water
conveyance, and therefore determined to avail ourselves of a return
Berlin to Cleves, for which we were to pay sixteen francs each; and as
the journey would occupy two days, this was perhaps reasonable enough
for this country.
At nine o’clock on Sunday morning we set out from Cologne, and travelled
throughout the day over heavy sandy roads; on this account our driver
shewed great consideration for his horses, as he stayed to refresh them
every two hours with bread and water; with this view he had provided a
number of loaves before setting out, and which at first we supposed were
intended for his own use. We dined at a town named Nais, and halted for
the night at Crevelt, a small but well built town, celebrated for its
manufactory of silks and velvets.
Our apartments at this place were so grand, that we thought proper to
inquire the price of them, which greatly hurt the landlord’s feelings,
and led him into a long explanation of his honourable principles; he
said he had fixed prices; and I must admit, that on leaving, we had no
cause to think them unreasonable. We had, however, an additional charge
made upon us, in consequence of declining to take supper. The German
innkeepers are sure to be offended if you inquire their charges. It was
Sunday evening, and our host politely invited us to accompany him to
their weekly ball, but we preferred going to bed.
On Monday morning, after an early breakfast, we recommenced our journey;
and again resting our horses every two hours, arrived about twelve
o’clock at a small village, where we dined. In the afternoon, we fell
in with a return vehicle, a kind of cabriolet with two horses, going to
Nimeguen, which kept company with us till four o’clock; when our driver
succeeded in persuading us, that by taking this opportunity we should
reach Nimeguen to-night; as the driver would turn off, leaving Cleves
on the left, and make a nearer cut by a league; whereas, otherwise we
should not be able to advance farther than the latter place this evening,
and unable to proceed by diligence, before noon next day. Anxiety to
get forward, induced us to avail ourselves of this push; but I think we
never, in our whole lives, travelled in so uneasy a vehicle, or over more
wretched roads; in addition, it began to rain very fast, and the curtains
of our carriage were unable to protect us. After passing through a wood,
about seven o’clock, we reached a decent kind of town, where our driver
fed his horses well; first with bread, and afterwards with chopped hay
and corn, placed before them in the street in a portable manger. After
this we proceeded on to Nimeguen, through an exceedingly heavy sandy
road. A short time before we reached this place, we left the Prussian and
entered the Dutch territories, without the least interruption from the
custom-house officers: instead of the usual bureau, we only found an inn
for entertainment; nor were we detained in the least on this account, on
entering Nimeguen, although it is a strongly fortified and frontier town.
We drove to an inn, called the Post Waggon, which, however, we found so
full, that we were obliged to have beds made up in our sitting-room;
the civility with which we were here treated, induced us to give this
arrangement the preference to seeking out another inn. Before retiring
to bed, we secured our places for Utrecht in the diligence, or, as it is
here called, the Post Waggon, and which was to depart at half after six
in the morning.
On Tuesday, soon after leaving Nimeguen, we crossed the Waal (a branch of
the Rhine) on a flying bridge, which had two or three small cabins built
upon it, and masts with flags flying. We here completed our complement
of passengers, and had much disputation respecting places, which a man
belonging to the coach settled in a very rough authoritative manner. We
were tolerably fortunate in our situation, for the carriage was a clumsy
inconvenient machine, with a front, back, and middle seat, intended for
nine passengers, and the roof timbers without lining.
This unfortunate outset was, however, succeeded by an unexpected
interesting conversation: amongst other agreeable companions, we found
a professor of the university of Leyden, who advocated with great warmth
the literary character of his country; and asserted, in particular, that
it had produced a number of poetical works of higher merit than the world
were disposed to admit of; that even his own countrymen had not duly
appreciated them; but that he trusted the efforts, which were then making
at Leyden, to collect and make them public, would tend to remove this
stigma. As none of us were acquainted with the authors he enumerated, he
remained, of course, undisputed master of the field.
The professor’s wife, and their son, were also of the party; the latter
was a handsome lad of fifteen, who sat in the cabriolet, and occupied
himself in smoking a pipe nearly half as long as himself. We expressed
our surprise at his being allowed to indulge himself in this manner, but
his mother stated that he had entered the college, and therefore was of
the age when it was customary to commence inhaling the fumes of this
deleterious herb.
“Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society’s chief joys;
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours,
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.”—COWPER.
But the ladies of Holland are too much used to this custom, to find
it disagreeable; not only habit, but an opinion of its utility, tends
to reconcile them to it. If it possesses any quality in destroying
contagion, I am disposed to imagine that this must depend upon the
stronger poison subduing the weaker, like Aaron’s serpent swallowing up
the rest.
We had also, in our party, a mild, pleasant, and well-informed Swiss
clergyman, the pastor of a protestant church at Hamburgh.
After dining hastily at a village on the road, we continued our journey
through a country, which my friend C⸺ described as beautiful, and
possessing a novel character; we passed Dry Bergen, or three hills, a
place much frequented in summer by the richer inhabitants of Amsterdam
and Utrecht; and afterwards a beautiful village, where there is a
magnificent chateau inhabited by Moravian missionaries; although the
roads were excellent, in consequence of frequently baiting our horses, we
did not reach Utrecht before half after four o’clock; having occupied ten
hours in accomplishing a journey of only forty-two miles.
CHAP. XXX.
UTRECHT—AMSTERDAM.
On arriving at Utrecht, we were prevented from proceeding to Amsterdam
by boat, the same evening, as we had intended, in consequence of heavy
rains; and, by the recommendation of one of our passengers, took up
our quarters at an inferior inn, near which the diligence stopped. The
fire-pan, tobacco, and other accompaniments for smoking, were very
shortly placed before us for our entertainment, and the good people
seemed much astonished that we should prefer the more simple enjoyment of
tea.
This city is celebrated for having been the first to shake off the
galling yoke of Spain in the year 1579. It was here that the seven
provinces formed their alliance, under the counsels of William, prince of
Orange, in a conference known as the treaty of Utrecht.
In the morning, we prepared early to set off by the barge or treckschuyt
for Amsterdam; but, before leaving, we were destined to meet with a
specimen of Dutch manners. The master of the inn made a most exorbitant
charge, and, when my friend questioned it, he repeated the sum in a
rough manner, without deigning to give any other answer, at the same
time, approaching with a menacing aspect; my friend took him by the
shoulder and pushed him off; this lowered his tone, but he was aware that
we had no time to contest it, as we must either set off instantly to gain
the barge, or lose our passage, and therefore obstinately adhered to his
original demand, and upon the principle of choosing the least of two
evils, we thought prudent to comply with it.
After traversing a great part of the city, we fortunately reached the
barge just as it was on the point of starting. There were three cabins,
of different prices, and we had the honour of being placed in the best
or aftermost, for our conveyance in which, and luggage, we were charged
thirty-one stivers each, equal to about half-a-crown; this, for a journey
of twenty miles, we could not complain of. The scenery along this canal,
my friend stated to be beautiful in the extreme; in short, it is regarded
as the most interesting and characteristic picture that this country
displays, and realizes the description of our amiable poet, Goldsmith.
“The slow canal, the yellow-blossom’d vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail,
The crowded mart, the cultivated plain.”
We heard them very merry in the fore cabin, but had the one we occupied
to ourselves until about noon, when two elderly Dutch ladies, who were
conversant in French, joined us, and proved agreeable companions,
although they were negative characters.
We rested for a short time at a house of entertainment on the banks of
the canal, where we were refreshed with buttered rolls, which had slices
of cheese laid between the divided halves. At half after two, we arrived
at Amsterdam, and took up our residence at the Wapen van Amsterdam,
instead of the City of Hamburg Hotel, to which we had been recommended,
a mistake we were not aware of until some hours afterwards; however, it
was one of the best inns in the place, so that we had no reason to feel
disappointed. At the table d’hôte, charged thirty stivers per head, we
met with a countryman of ours, Mr. W., with his wife and daughter; and
after dinner, were conducted by him to a coffee-house, where, from the
English papers, we became acquainted with the particulars of her late
majesty’s death.
On the following day, August the 16th, notwithstanding it was disposed
to be rainy, we accompanied Mr., Mrs., and Miss W⸺ to Broeck, and
Saardam. After passing in a ferry-boat to Brocksluyh, we engaged a
tilted carriage, capable of containing nine persons, constructed like a
caravan, the sides with neat open work, and canvas curtains to keep out
the weather.
We arrived at Broeck for breakfast, and the day now proving fine, our
party were delighted with the novel and extraordinary appearance,
and cleanliness of this little paradise. In each house, there is one
particular door which is always kept closed, except on the occasion of a
wedding or funeral. The gardens are the very picture of elegant neatness;
in some of them the shrubs are arranged and cut into the shapes of tables
and chairs, or other fanciful forms; the ground is laid out in pleasing
walks and parterres, and the eye enchanted with the most beautiful
variety of flowers.
We now proceeded to Saardam, where the first circumstance which attracted
our notice, was a new married couple, returning from church to take
coffee, previous to enjoying the wedding dinner; on this occasion, we
were informed that the bride’s fortune was a number of _windmills_, an
article that Amsterdam and its neighbourhood abounds with. Our leading
object, however, was to visit the house once occupied by Peter the Great,
consisting of two small rooms with an enclosed recess for a bed; the
door of which we opened, while some of us stepped within the frame on
which the bed had rested. A board was suspended from the ceiling, with an
inscription in the Dutch and Russian languages, of which, the following
is a translation.
“Nothing is too little for a great man.”
The Emperor Alexander visited this spot in the year 1813, and left two
Latin inscriptions on marble, commemorative of the event.
After this, we walked about the village, visited the church, and returned
to Amsterdam for a late dinner, highly gratified with our day’s excursion.
We devoted the greater part of the next day to examining the city of
Amsterdam, which is so intersected with streets, canals, and bridges,
bearing a strong similarity to each other, that it is not an easy matter
to gain an accurate knowledge of it. It takes its name from the river
_Amstel_, and _Dam_, signifying a mound, raised to prevent this river
from overflowing the surrounding country. The city is principally built
upon piles, driven into the morass to form a solid foundation, and of
which it is said, that no less than thirteen thousand are fixed under the
Stadt-house alone. We visited the Exchange, one of the finest buildings
of the kind in Europe. After this, we entered a Jew’s synagogue, the
noisy and discordant devotion of which, soon tired us, so that we were
glad to take our departure, particularly as we had no expectation of
being permitted to bid for the key of the sanctum sanctorum. We regretted
this day, parting from our new and agreeable acquaintance, Mr. W⸺ and his
family, who left us for Utrecht.
On the following morning, one of the partners of the bank of Messrs.
Melvil and Co. with whom I had done business the day before, called to
rectify some trifling error in the discounts, and understanding that I
was proceeding alone, kindly gave me a letter of introduction to a friend
at the Hague.
The time was now approaching, when my friend C⸺ felt compelled to
separate from me; he had from day to day deferred his departure for St.
Petersburg, in hopes of effecting a more agreeable arrangement for his
journey, than had previously offered itself; for he would have been
obliged to have pursued his journey partly by canal, and partly by land,
and the latter night and day, for nearly a week unremittingly, through a
wild country, and along dreadful roads. He had, however, some prospect,
as far as Hamburg, of the company of the Swiss clergyman, who travelled
with us from Nimeguen to Utrecht, but here he was disappointed, for this
gentleman was uncertain when he could depart, and on account of the
advanced state of the summer, and possibility of the winter setting in
early, my friend thought it imprudent to delay any longer; he therefore
concluded upon setting out in the evening of Sunday the 19th, by a vessel
which crosses the Zuyder sea to Lemner, from whence he was to proceed
by diligence or canal to Groningen, where he would find a conveyance to
Bremen and Hamburg.
On Sunday morning, we visited the new church, the organ of which is said
to be the largest in Europe, and to exceed the celebrated one at Haarlem.
After this, we went to the Stadt-house, one of the most magnificent
buildings in Europe; the foundation-stone of which, was laid in the year
1648; it is built of freestone, two hundred and eighty-eight feet in
length, two hundred and thirty-five broad, and one hundred and sixteen
in height, to the top of the roof. The grand saloon is one hundred
and twenty feet long, and one hundred high. We ascended the tower,
the view from whence my friend C⸺ described to be most extensive, and
extremely beautiful, commanding the whole of the town and harbour, and a
considerable surface both of land and water.
We were anxious to have visited the dock-yard, and a variety of other
places in this interesting city, but it became necessary that we should
prepare for our respective departures, as I had determined to set off to
Haarlem, on my way to Brussels, at five in the evening; and much of our
time was frittered away in the unavoidable arrangements for conveyances,
&c. I was induced, in preference to taking the diligence for Rotterdam,
to pass by the barge through the Hague, as this would afford me the
better opportunity of gaining an acquaintance with the country and its
inhabitants.
I shall not attempt to enter into any particular description of the city
of Amsterdam, but merely observe, that I was forcibly impressed with an
idea of its similarity to Venice; both are situated on marshy grounds,
in the immediate vicinity of the sea, and intersected by canals, which
divide them into innumerable small islands; but the farther parallel is
certainly in favour of the latter; for although Pope tells us, that
“Venice from dirt, and sea-weeds rose;”
yet I think the natural salubrity of its climate, as well as the general
superiority of its buildings, and more extensive display of specimens
of the fine arts, would prove greater attractions in the eyes of the
stranger. With respect to the point of salubrity, the canals of Venice
are more uniformly covered with water than those of Amsterdam, which
offer a surface of mud, and hence fewer noxious exhalations are here
generated; not that I am ignorant that Venice is far from being a
healthy summer residence, in consequence of injurious miasmata, raised
from its very foundations, by the intensity of the solar ray.
The atmosphere of Amsterdam is greatly impregnated with moisture, and
the place necessarily very damp, which must favour the production and
aggravation of rheumatic disease; the liability to which, is perhaps
the best excuse that can be made for the general use of tobacco by its
inhabitants.
It is true, that the above custom also suits the calculating notions of
the Dutch. I am on this point forcibly reminded of the observation of a
solitary and smoking Dutchman, when Dr. Moore had expressed, through the
medium of an interpreter, his regret at being unable to converse with
him, in consequence of his ignorance of the Dutch language; and which was
to this effect: “They ought to console themselves for the accident of
not understanding each other; for as they had no connexions, or dealings
in trade together, their conversing could not possibly answer any useful
purpose.”
The moment now arrived, when I was to be separated from my very kind
friend, with whom I had, on the present tour, travelled more than
fourteen hundred miles; we cheered the painful moments of parting, by
the anticipations of soon meeting again. We fortunately had little time
to spend in useless regrets, for the boat, when we reached the canal,
was on the point of setting off, and they make it a rule to wait for no
one; even an English gentleman, who was in expectation of the momentary
arrival of two friends to accompany him, was obliged to stay behind,
because they would not tarry an instant after the signal bell had rung.
This was a source of regret to my friend, as he had taken much pains to
interest him in my favour, and, indeed, I promised myself some pleasure
from travelling in his company. Not that my heart was sufficiently
frenchified, to be capable of suddenly expanding to the warmth of a new
friendship; no! I preferred indulging in the delightful emotions inspired
in it, by the recollections of my late amiable companion; of whose
uniform kindness, and anxious concern for me, I shall never—never cease
to be most sensible.
CHAP. XXXI.
JOURNEY FROM AMSTERDAM TO BRUSSELS.
I was now once more left to my own resources, and shortly ascertained,
that there were two young Dutchmen on board who were acquainted with
English. Their father, I afterward found, was a merchant, retired from
business in order to secure, under the present depressed state of trade,
the fruits of his former industry. The sons had learnt English, as a
necessary accomplishment for the duties of their father’s office, the
concerns of which lay chiefly in England.
Haarlem is distant seven miles from Amsterdam, and the journey occupies
nearly three hours; about midway we arrived at a village, where we had to
change both the canal and barge, walking through the town, our luggage
being conveyed by barrowmen. On our arrival at Haarlem, the captain,
after arranging with his other passengers, accompanied me to the Lion
d’Or, to which I had been recommended. Before entering the inn, I was
not a little surprised by the landlord’s daughter inquiring from me in
English, where my friend was. I replied that I was alone; and she asked
whether I had not had a friend with me; on satisfying her, and saying
that he was gone to Hamburg, she offered to take care of me, and in case
I was proceeding to the Hague and Rotterdam, to give me letters to houses
where I should receive every attention. Of course I endeavoured to learn
how she had acquired any knowledge of me, which she explained by stating,
that her father had been the day before, at our inn at Amsterdam, and had
become acquainted with my intention of visiting Haarlem, and that they
looked out for me as an uncommon traveller.
While I was taking refreshment, the gentlemen with a lady, who had been
disappointed in their passage by our barge, arrived, and as they were
proceeding to Leyden on the following morning, I determined to avail
myself of their invitation to accompany them.
We arose early in the morning to walk over the town, which is of great
antiquity, having been a flourishing place as early as 1155; but the most
interesting object, is the statue of Lawrence Coster, once an alderman of
this city, and the asserted inventor of the art of printing, and which
stands in the _grand place_. It is true that the honour of the above
invention is disputed with Coster and Haarlem, by various other towns of
Germany, as Mentz, Strasburg, &c.; but there is strong ground to consider
Coster entitled to the priority of claim, as the dates of some of the
books of his printing are anterior to those of Faust, or any other of
his competitors. Adrianus Junius, who was born at Hoorn, in 1507, tells
us, that Coster hit upon this invention as he was walking in a wood
near Haarlem, by cutting the bark of beech-trees into letters, and then
stamping them upon paper as a seal; and that he afterwards extended and
improved his discovery, and set up a printing office in his house, and
that Faust, or Fust, who was a servant of his, one day, while the family
were at church, stole away his types and other materials, and fled with
them to Mentz, where he commenced business as a printer.
The first book which Coster brought out, and his original types, are
preserved in the Stadt-house for the inspection of the curious; we had
not, however, time to examine them, nor even to hear the celebrated
organ of this city, for we did not arrive on the day before until after
evening service had concluded; and to hear it at any other time, is a
gratification which must be handsomely paid for.