ROTTERDAM, _August 30, 1841_.
Well, at last I am in Rotterdam, and I assure you I was heartily glad
to reach this city, as one may rest quietly for a few days without
seeing extraordinary sights. Rotterdam is a fine commercial city,
with a population of seventy-four thousand, and exceedingly novel and
interesting to a stranger who has just arrived in the country; but
to one who has made the tour of Holland it possesses none of those
extraordinary sights which a traveller is in duty bound to see. The
remark may appear strange that one becomes tired and exhausted with
sights; but in a long line of travel, in visiting cities in rapid
succession, where a sort of obligation is imposed upon every good
traveller to see all that is remarkable, it becomes laborious.
During the time we tarried at Amsterdam, we made an excursion to
Broeck, celebrated as the cleanest village in the world. It has a
population of eight hundred persons. In making this excursion we passed
through a part of the great ship canal, which is one hundred and
twenty-five feet wide, twenty-one feet deep, and fifty miles long. Two
ships can enter side by side. After leaving this we took a conveyance
which runs by the side of a lateral canal, on which are seen men and
women, harnessed like horses, trailing the canal boats to market. On
arriving at this extraordinary village our carriage was left outside,
as neither horse nor wheel is permitted within the precincts. Our valet
leading the way, we proceeded, in pattens, through the various passages
or lanes, which are paved with brick or little stones, the paths being
composed of shells. I had formed an idea of the extraordinary neatness
of the place from the accounts I had heard of it, but the fantastical
arrangement and construction of the houses exceeded my expectation. The
houses are mostly wood with tile roofs, painted and varnished, which
glitter in the sun. The buildings are most scrupulously painted with
different colors, many representing different temples, and all sorts
of architecture. We were taken to the garden of the rich clergyman of
the village, and the guide-book describes it as surpassing all the
others in its absurdities, and in the miscellaneous nature of its
contents, beating the “groves of Blarney” all to nothing. Here are
pavilions, arbors, summer-houses, pagodas, temples, bridges, &c., the
small canals running through the garden, and indeed through every part
of the village. Most of the front doors are closed during the week
until the housewife opens the door, takes down the shutters, dusts the
china and the furniture, and arranges everything, then closes it for
another week, unless in case of a marriage, a funeral, or christening.
The residents are mostly retired merchants, landed proprietors,
stockbrokers, or other persons who have made fortunes. In one part of
the village are made many Dutch cheeses. We went into the apartments
of the cows in one house, the animals being absent from home in the
fields. The pavement was of Dutch tiles, the walls and partitions of
boards, scrubbed as clean as a dining table. We were permitted to enter
the front door of one of the sanctums after having placed our feet
in list slippers to avoid soiling the floor, and it is said that the
Emperor Alexander, on visiting Broeck, was compelled to comply with
this usage!
Having finished our excursion, we next went to Saardam, a place with
a population of nine thousand, and remarkable for its four hundred
windmills, which are applied to all uses. Some of them are of immense
size, with wings eighty feet in diameter, and have houses attached
to them. One street of windmills is five miles in length. The next
remarkable object for a stranger is the hut of Peter the Great, in
which he lived while working as a ship-carpenter, in 1696. The building
is of rough plank, and consists of two rooms; in one is a cupboard,
used as his sleeping-place, above a loft entered by a ladder. The
property was bought by the sister of the Emperor Alexander, and is
now inclosed in a case of brick-work, with shutters to close in bad
weather. Here you find registers filled with names, and the walls of
the hut are so completely covered that it is almost impossible to
register another name.
On quitting Amsterdam we took the railroad to Haarlem, which route
is accomplished in thirty minutes. It has a population of twenty-four
thousand, and its environs are very pretty. The main attraction here
is the great organ, which is celebrated over the world. Its size
is immense, filling up the whole end of the Cathedral; it has five
thousand pipes, the largest fifteen inches in diameter; two of them are
thirty-two feet, and eight sixteen feet long. Its power is wonderful
when played on by the organist in private, with all the variety of
mutations which it is capable of. The charge for a private performance
is thirteen guilders, for one person or a party, equal to five dollars
and fifty cents. An English gentleman had just employed the organist
and finished when our party applied for his services. The imitation of
the flute, fife, and piano, followed by the loud charge of the trumpet,
was an admirable performance; after which came the tinkling of bells,
which one could scarce believe came from the pipes, and then came “the
storm,” grand and terrific beyond description, the mimic thunder roared
frightfully, and the walls of the building fairly seemed to tremble.
The great diapason produced a sound like the whizzing of the machinery
of a cotton factory. All these efforts are to show the strength and
power of the instrument. An ordinary performance is of the most rich
and melodious character.
Our next city to visit on the route was Leyden, celebrated in the
annals of Holland as having resisted the siege of the Spanish army in
1573–4 for four months, and displayed the most resolute patriotism.
At a period of extreme exhaustion, when bread had not been seen for
seven weeks, and pestilence had followed famine and carried off six
thousand inhabitants, and when the people were subsisting on horses,
dogs, cats, and other foul animals, then it was they came to the
resolution to open the dykes and inundate their country to overwhelm
the cruel enemy, sooner than submit. History records that the expedient
had not an immediate effect, but as if Providence soon and directly
interfered, the wind suddenly changed and brought in the sea to the
walls of the city, drowning thousands of the Spaniards; and when that
was accomplished, veered as suddenly about and carried most of the
flood back again so as to enable them to repair the dykes. Among all
the collections of Dutch paintings are some portraying the horrors of
that dreadful siege.
Leyden has a population of thirty-five thousand, and differs but
little from other Dutch cities, being intersected by canals in every
direction, most of them bordered by rows of trees; the suburbs are
beautiful, with many pretty villas and flower gardens. There are
several collections of Chinese and Japanese articles, as the Dutch
carry on a great trade with the East. I cannot enumerate the objects of
interest further in Leyden, as I must bear in mind the Hague, the next
city which we visited, and which is the residence of the Court.
The population of the Hague is about fifty-five thousand. It is
situated about three miles from the sea-shore, intersected by canals in
every direction, the waters of which present less activity that those
of any other city in Holland. We visited Scheveningen, a small fishing
town near the sea shore, riding through an avenue of fine shade trees.
The bathing establishments are much resorted to by the nobility and
persons of distinction on the Continent, who take up their residence
here during the summer. The “Dunes,” so called here, are immense banks
of sand, thrown up by the wind, and forming a natural barrier against
the encroachments of the sea. The sand being very light is scattered
by the wind, but in order to preserve the ridges or embankments from
injury they are secured by being planted with rushes, or matted over
with straw and reeds. Here are also windmills which pump up the water
from the ocean, which runs down the Hague, and displaces the stagnant
water from the canals, forcing it into another canal which leads it
to the river Meuse. The Hague possesses the finest picture gallery in
Holland, and the Royal Cabinet is highly interesting and instructive.
The Japanese collection is the largest in Europe. Among a thousand
other relics I saw the armor of Admiral Von Tromp, bearing marks of
several bullets. He was engaged in no less than thirty-two sea fights,
conquered the English under Blake in 1652, and afterwards sailed
through the British Channel with a broom at his masthead, signifying
that he would sweep the ocean of all foes.
Since our arrival at the Hague we have made an excursion to Schiedam,
famous for its fine gin, of which there are one hundred and seventy-two
distilleries in that small town. Thirty thousand pigs are fed on the
refuse grain. It is a neat, pretty village, surrounded by comfort and
cheerfulness. Throughout Holland I find the people are more moral,
cleanly, temperate, industrious, and strict in their observance of the
Sabbath, than in any other part of the Continent that I have visited.
It is a country of comfort and extortion--the latter because the taxes
are high and the necessaries of life dear.