one of his finest; his Christ Dead, and Christ on the Cross are also very fine. Van Dyck was a pupil of Rubens as stated before. The master's pictures seem to indicate more power and life, but the pupil avoids his master's principal fault, viz., heaviness in figure, and the massing of flesh. I also visited a museum of modern paintings and a private collection of some celebrated paintings. "The Annunciation to the Shepherds" by the French painter Ary Scheffer is the best of this collection.
On the 8th November I left Antwerp for Rotterdam in Holland. But before concluding my account of Belgium I must not forget to make mention of the wooden shoes of Flanders with which boys and girls, and men and women too love to clatter over the rough paved stone streets,—nor of the dogs of Flanders which in every town here draw small carts and tradesmen's waggons like ponies,—nor of the famous lace for the manufacture of which Brussels is famous all over the world. I visited a manufactory of hand-made lace and saw one woman in particular engaged in the intricacies of a bit of lace which she was making as she told me with 2000 pins and 4000 bobbins! I paid my fine of course in buying a bit of lace perfectly useless to me!
What a wonderful difference is observable as one crosses the frontiers of Belgium and comes into Holland! Belgium and Holland compared.Belgium is under French influence and French in its appearance and associations. French may be said to be the language of Belgium, and even
