Left Lee. (I now transcribe what was dictated by William.) ... Dover, as
interesting as ever, and the French coast very striking as we descended.
Walked under Shakespear's Cliff by moonlight. Met several sailors, none
of whom had ever asked himself the height of the cliff. I cannot think
it can be more than 400 feet at the utmost; how odd that the description
in Lear should ever have been supposed to have been meant for a reality.
I know nothing that more forcibly shows the little reflection with which
even men of sense read poetry. "How truly," exclaims the historian of
Dover, "has Shakespear described the precipice." How much better would
he (the historian) have done had he given us its actual elevation! The
sky looked threatening, a wheel at a great distance round the moon,
ominous according to our westland shepherds. The furze in full
blossom....
_Ostend, half-past 8 o'clock, Sunday morning._-- ... We were driven at a
fierce rate before the wind.... We proceeded till about four o'clock,
when we were--had the same wind continued--within two hours of Ostend.
But now, overhead was a bustle of quick steps, trailing and heaving of
ropes, with voices in harmony. Below me, the vessel _slashed_ among the
waters, quite different from the sound and driving motion I had become
accustomed to.... The phosphorous lights from the oars were beautiful;
and when we approached the harbour, these, in connection with the steady
pillar streaming across the water from the lighthouse, upon the pier;
and afterwards, still more beautiful, when these faded before a
brilliant spectacle (caused by a parcel of carpenters and sailors
burning the tar from the hulk of a large vessel under repair), upon the
beach. I thought if we were to see nothing more this exhibition repaid
us for our day of suffering. But we wished for the painter's skill to
delineate the scene, the various objects illuminated by the burning
ship, the glowing faces of the different figures--among which was a
dog--the ropes, ladders, sands, and sea, with the body of intense bright
fire spreading out and fading among the dim stars in the grey mottled
sky.... Ostend looks well as to houses compared with one of our English
towns of like importance. The tall windows, and the stature of the
buildings, give them a dignity nowhere found with us; but it has no
public buildings of interest. Climbing an oblique path which led up to
the ramparts, a little boy called out in broken English, "Stop, or the
soldiers will put you in prison." Not a living creature to be seen on
that airy extensive walk, everybody cooped in the sultry flat.
Melancholy enough at all times, but particularly so on this great day of
annual celebration. But the joy, if any there is, is strictly confined
to the doing of nothing. A few idle people were playing at a game of
chance, under the green daisy-clad ramparts. I got a glimpse of the
country by climbing the steps to a wind-mill, "snatching a fearful
_joy_" I cannot call it, for the view was tame; the sun however shone
bright on the fields, some of which were yellow as furze in blossom,
with what produce I know not....
_Bruges, Hôtel de la Fleur de Blé; Monday, May 19th._-- ... Bruges loses
nothing of its attractions upon a second visit as far as regards
buildings, etc., but a bustling Fair is not the time to feel the
natural sentiment of such a place. We crept about the shady parts, and
among the booths, and traversed the cool extensive vault under the Hôtel
de Ville, where the butcher's market is held (a thousand times the most
commodious shambles I ever saw), and the bazaars above, and made some
purchases.
_Tuesday 20th._-- ... The thought of Bruges upon the Fair-day never can
disturb the image of that spiritualised city, seen in 1820, under the
subdued light and quiet of a July evening and early morning.... Nothing
can be more refreshing than to flout thus at ease, the awning screening
us from the sun, and the pleasant breezes fanning our temples; ...
cottages constantly varying the shores, which are particularly gay at
this season, interspersed with fruit-tree blossom and the broom flower;
goats tethered on the grassy banks, under the thin line of elms; a
village with a pretty church, midway on the journey; ... the air
delightfully refreshed by the rain; the banks, again low, allow the eye
to stretch beyond the avenue; corn looking well, rich daisy-clad
pastures, and here alive with grasshoppers; large village on both sides
of the canal, bridge between, from which letters are dropped into the
barge, as we pass, by means of a shoe. A sale at a Thames-like chateau;
we take on purchasers with their bargains--chests of drawers, bed and
chamber furniture of all sorts--barge crowded; Catholic priests do not
scruple to interlard their conversation with oaths; the three Towers of
Ghent, seen through the misty air in the distance under the arch of the
canal bridge, give a fine effect to this view; drawing nearer and
gliding between villages and chateaux, the architecture looks very
rich....
_Ghent, Thursday 22nd._--Left Ghent at 7 o'clock by diligence.... Paved
road between trees; elms with scattered oaks; square fields divided by
sluices, some dry, others with water bordered by willows, etc., thin
and low; neat houses and villages, English-looking, only the windows and
window-shutters gaily painted; labourers upon their knees weeding flax;
some corn, very short, but shot into ear; broom here and there in
flower, else a perfect uniformity of surface....
_Antwerp._-- ... Disappointed by the first view of Antwerp standing in
nakedness.... Few travellers have been more gratified than we were
during our two days' residence in this fine city, which we left, after
having visited the Cathedral, and feasted our eyes on those magnificent
pictures of Rubens, over and over again; and often was this great
pleasure heightened almost to rapture, when, during mass, the full organ
swelled and penetrated the remotest corners of that stately
edifice--here we were never weary of lingering; but none of the churches
did we leave unvisited; that of St. James was the next in interest to
us, which contained Rubens' family monument; a chapel or _recess_ railed
off, as others are, in which hung a beautiful painting by the great
master himself bearing date 23rd May, --64; a mother presenting a child
to an old man, said to be Rubens' father; three females behind the old
man, and R. himself, in the character of St. George, holding a red flag
among a group of angels hovering over the living child. The drapery of
the principal female figure is a rich blue. R.'s three wives are
represented in this exquisite picture. Besides the several churches, so
rich in fine paintings, we spent much time in the museum--formerly the
Convent des Recollects--an extremely interesting place, independent of
the treasure now contained in it.... The picture by which _I_ was most
impressed was a Christ on the Cross, by Van Dyck; there was a chaste
simplicity about this piece which quite riveted me; the principal figure
in the centre, St. Dominique in an attitude of contemplation; the St.
Catherine embracing the foot of the Cross, and lifting a countenance of
deep searching agony, which, compared with the expression of patient
suffering in that of the Saviour, was almost too much to look upon, yet
once seen it held me there....
_Saturday 24th._--At 9 o'clock we left Antwerp by the diligence....
Breda looked well by moonlight, crossed by steamboat the _Bies
Bosch_ near Dort, which town we reached by half-past six on Sunday
morning, May 26th. We are now in the country of many waters.... Mounted
the tower, which bore the date 1626; an interesting command of
prospect--Stad-house, Bourse, winding streets, trees and rivers (the
Meuse) intermingled; walks, screened by trees, look cool. The eye
follows five streams from different parts of the handsome town into the
country; vessels moving upon them in all directions....
_Rotterdam._--Walked to the "Plantation," a sort of humble Vauxhall.
About sunset, seated upon the banks of the Meuse; sails gliding down,
white and red; the dark tower of the Cathedral; a glowing line of
western sky, with twelve windmills as grand as castles, most of them at
rest, but the arms of some languidly in motion, crimsoned by the setting
sun. A file of grey clouds run southward from the Cathedral tower. The
birds, which were faintly warbling in the pleasure-ground behind us when
we sate down, have now ceased. Three very slender spires, one of which
we know to be the Hôtel de Ville, denote, together with the Cathedral
tower, the neighbourhood of a large town.
_Tuesday 27th._-- ... Left Rotterdam at ten o'clock. As we crossed the
bridge, the fine statue of Erasmus, rising silently, with eyes fixed
upon his book, above the noisy crowd gathered round the booths and
vehicles, which upon the market-day beset him, and backed by buildings
and trees, intermingled with the fluttering pennons from vessels
unloading their several cargoes into the warehouses, produced a curious
and very striking contrast.... The stately stream down which we floated
took us to the royal town of the Hague. Arriving there at five o'clock,
we immediately walked to the wood, in which stands the Palace; charming
promenades, pools of water, swans, stately trees, birds warbling,
military music--the _Brae Bells_; the streets similar to those at Delf;
screens of trees, sometimes on one side, but generally on both sides of
the canal; bridges at convenient distances across.... Looked with
interest upon the ground where the De Wits were massacred, to which we
were conducted by a funny old man, of whom we purchased a box. The spot
is a narrow space, passing from one square to another, if I recollect
right, near to the public building, whence the brothers had been dragged
by the infuriated rabble. Horse-chestnut trees in flower everywhere.
_Wednesday 28th._-- ... Looked into the fine room where the lottery is
kept, which interested us, as well as the countenances of those who were
working at fortune's wheel, and those who were eagerly gaping for her
favours. Above all, the King's Gallery most attracted us with its
magnificent collection of pictures....
_Leyden, Thursday 29th._--Arose, and found that our commodious chamber
looked upon pleasure-walks, which we at once determined must be the
University garden, naturally giving to this place the sort of
accommodations found in our own seats of learning, but no such luxury
belongs to the students of Leyden. The ground with its plantations
through which these walks are carried, and upon which the sun now so
cheerfully shone, was formerly covered with buildings that were
destroyed, together with the inhabitants, by an explosion which took
place in a barge of gunpowder in 1806, then lying in the neighbouring
canal....
There are no colleges, or separate dwellings, in Leyden, for the
students; they are lodged with different families in the town. Our
guide had three at his house from England, as he told us. A wandering
sheep lying at the threshold, as we passed a good-looking house in the
street; were told that this was a pensioner upon the public, that it
would lie there till it was fed, and then would pass on to some other
door. This animal had been brought up the pet of a soldier once
quartered at Leyden, and when he changed his situation his favourite was
sent into the fields, but preferring human society, it could not be
confined amongst its fellows, but ever returned to the town, and,
begging its daily food, it passed from door to door of those houses
which its old master had frequented, obstinately keeping its station
until an alms was bestowed--bread, vegetables, soup, nothing came wrong,
and as soon as this was received, the patient mendicant walked quietly
away.
_Haarlem._-- ... Reached Haarlem at five o'clock; went directly to the
Cathedral, mounted the tower, an hour too early for the sunset; a
splendid and interesting view beyond any we have seen. Looking eastward,
the canal seen stretching through houses and among the trees, to the
spires of Amsterdam in the distance. A little to the right, the Mere of
Haarlem spotted with vessels, the river Spaaren winding among trees
through the town; steeple towers of Utrecht beyond the Mere. The Boss, a
fine wood and elegant mansion built by ---- Hope, now a royal residence;
new kirk, fine tower; the sea, and sand-hills beyond the flats glowing
under a dazzling western sky. The winding Spaaren again among green
fields brings the eye round to the Amsterdam canal, up which we shall
glide....
_Friday 30th._-- ... We were floating between stunted willows towards
Amsterdam, the birds sweetly warbling, but the same unvaried course
before us. I have, however, a basket at my feet containing pots of
fragrant geranium, and a beautiful flowering fern, brought, I suppose,
from the market where we saw the commodities offered for sale. The
groups of figures, with their baskets and stalls of vegetables, ranged
along the shady avenues, have often a striking effect; the fanciful
architecture towering above, as seen from the end of one of the market
streets, especially if the view be terminated by a spire or a lofty
tower.... The spires of Amsterdam, and different spires and shipping,
rise beyond the flat line of the water. The same cold north wind is
breathing in the sunshine, now that we are not within the screen of the
trees. The plains are scattered with cattle, and a broken line of Dutch
farm-houses, which we have hitherto in vain looked for, stretch at a
field's distance from the canal. Having now resumed our seats, reeds and
pools diversify our course; and drawing nearer Amsterdam, I must put
away my book, to look after the pleasure-houses and gardens; the first
presents a bed of full-blown China roses.
_Amsterdam, Saturday 31st_.... _Brock._--After walking one hour and five
minutes by the side of the canal, upon a good road, through a tract of
peat-mossy rich pasturage, besprinkled with cattle, and bounded by a
horizon broken by spires, steeple-towers, villages, scattered farms, and
the unfailing windmill--seen single or in pairs, or clustered, at short
distances everywhere--we are now seated beneath the shelter of a
friendly windmill; the north wind bracing us, and the swallows
twittering under a cloudless grey sky above our heads.... After
twenty-six minutes' further walk, the canal spreads into a circular
basin, upon the opposite margin of which stands the quaintly dressed
little town of Brock. The church spire rises from amid elegantly neat
houses, chiefly of wood, much carved and ornamented, and covered with
glazed tiles.... In each of these houses is a certain elaborately
ornamented door by which at their wedding the newly-married pair, and
perhaps their friends, enter. It is then closed, and never opened again
until the man or his wife is carried out a corpse.... The streets are
paved with what are called Dutch tiles, but certainly not the polished
slabs we have been accustomed to give this name to--more like our
bricks, of various colours arranged in patterns, as Mr. B. would like
the floors of his sheds, etc., to be. A piece of white marble often
forms the centre to some device; where the flooring in a garden happens
to be uniform in colour, a pattern is formed by a sprinkling of sand,
which seems to lie as a part of the flooring unmoved under a fresh
blowing wind....
_Saardam, Sunday evening, June 1st._--We have had a delightful trip
to-day to Saardam, another North Holland town. Visited the hut, and
workshop, in which Peter the Great wrought as a carpenter....
_Monday, June 2nd._--Am thankful to rest before we depart from
Amsterdam, in which I would not live to be Queen of Holland; yet she is
mistress of the most magnificent palace I ever saw, furnished
substantially, and in excellent taste, by Louis Buonaparte. The edifice
formerly belonged to the city, the Stad-house, and was presented to him
as a compliment upon his elevation to the throne.... At five this day we
are to depart for Utrecht, most happy to turn our faces homeward, and to
leave this watery country, where there is not a drop fit to drink....
_Antwerp, June 5th._--Arose at seven, and have revisited most, indeed
all, that best pleased us before--and accomplished our wish to mount the
Cathedral tower, and under favourable skies; a glorious sunset upon the
Scheldt; the clouds, the shadow of the spire, the spire itself, the town
below, the country around, our own enjoyments--these we shall ever
remember, but we are to be off to Malines, at seven o'clock in the
morning....
_Wednesday 11th._-- ... Adventures we have had few; William's eyes
being so much disordered, and so easily aggravated, naturally made him
shun society, and crippled us in many respects; but I trust we have
stored up thoughts, and images, that will not die.