Three Years in Europe, 1868 to 1871/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
Holland and Belgium.
It was a fine day, the 2nd November 1886, and at 10 a. m. I left the white cliffs of Dover, and our steamer crossed over a perfectly smooth sea, to Ostend in five hours. Ostend is now one of the finest and busiest watering places in Europe, and has long been the gate to Belgium from the west. I took this route on my way to Germany, and as I passed through Belgium and Holland, I will speak of those countries before I begin my account of Germany.
The little kingdom of Belgium has a chequered and eventful history of its own. For Flanders i. e., the south-western portion of modern Belgium, rose to great importance in the Middle Ages owing to the industries of its inhabitants and the activity of its trade; History of Flanders.and early in the 13th century Bruges was the centre of the famous Hanseatic League. Venetian and Lombard merchants exposed here to the gaze of astonished and rude barons the famed manufactures of India, and the carpets and silk of Persia; and rich argosies from Genoa and Constantinople were unladen at this place. The bold traders and citizens of Bruges and Ghent fought hard and long against the supremacy of France and at last secured complete independence under the Courts of Flanders. But at the latter end of the 14th century, in consequence of the failure of the male line of the house of Flanders, the State became annexed to Burgundy by the marriage of a daughter of the Flemish house with Philip the Bold of Burgundy.
In the next century Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, died without male issue, and Flanders passed over to Maximilian of Austria (afterwards the Emperor of Germany) by his marriage with the daughter of Charles the Bold. The celebrated Charles V. inherited the Netherlands which thus came in the 16th century under the subjection of his son Philip II. of Spain. Spanish bigotry and opression soon drove both Holland and Belgium to rebellion. Holland shook off the hated yoke before the close of the century and began her career of foreign conquest and colonization, but Belgium was unable to do this, and declined in subjection.
In the 17th century Belgium passed to the house of Austria, then reverted to Spain, and at the latter end of the century was conquered by the great Louis XIV. of France who gained here some of his signal victories against the English. In the 18th century it was again ceded to Austria, but towards the close of the century was again conquered by the French Republicans, and remained under Napoleon Bonaparte.
After the fall of Napoleon, the French yoke was shaken off and Belgium and Holland were united under the name of the kingdom of the Netherlands. The union however was distasteful to the Belgians, who since 1830 have formed a separate kingdom of their own.
The line of fine buildings on the shore makes an imposing appearance, as the steamer approaches Ostend. Ostend.To the extreme south is the royal palace, where the king of the Belgians stops when he comes to this favorite seaside place. Further north is the magnificent casino (Kursaal) just where the land juts out into the sea, and further north is the mouth of the harbour with a lighthouse. The Digue, a stone Dyke or bulwark 33 yards broad and 33 feet high runs along the entire length of the coast and forms a favorite and busy promenade where visitors from all parts of Europe crowd in the season.
Leaving Ostend I came to the ancient town of Bruges which as noted before was once a prominent trade centre of Europe, and was long the seat of the independent Counts of Flanders. Bruges."In the 14th century the commerce of the world may be said to have been concentrated in it; factories or privileged companies of merchants from 17 kingdoms were settled here as agents; 20 foreign ministers had hotels within its walls, and natives of many distant countries of which little was then known but their names repaired hither annually." When the queen of France visited it in 1301 A.D. she was struck with the rich and stately dresses of the ladies of Bruges, and is said to have exclaimed, "I thought myself the only queen here, but I see a thousand about me!" The town continued thriving under the Counts of Flanders and then under the Dukes of Burgundy and in the latter end of the 15th century it is said to have had 200,000 inhabitants. The population in the great European towns has doubled or quadrupled or increased ten or twenty times since then, but the glory of Bruges is over, and the present population is less than 50,000.
The perfection to which the inhabitants of Bruges carried the manufacture of wool in the olden days is a matter of history. Edward III. invited many Flemings to England to teach the English in the art of weaving; and Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, instituted in 1430. A. D. in this very town the order of the Golden Fleece. Little of that manufacture is left to the town now. Lace is the only manufacture of importance, and that is on the decline!
The railway station of Bruges is situated on the site of the old Marché du Vendredi where on the 30th March 1128 (over seven centuries and a half ago) the proud burghers of Bruges hurled defiance at the king of France and told his deputies,—History of popular freedom in Europe."Go, tell your master that he is perjured; that his creature William of Normandy (usurper of the sovereignty of Flanders) has rendered himself unworthy of the crown by his infamous extortions; that we have elected a new sovereign and that it becomes not the king of France to oppose us. That it is our privilege alone, as Burghers and Nobles of Flanders to choose our own master." The story of the battle for popular freedom is an old one;—in the middle ages it was first fought by the free towns of Italy and the free towns of Flanders. And though after a severe struggle of centuries the people succumbed under the growing power of Feudalism and of Royalty, still this was for a time only, and the battle has been recommenced and won all over civilized Europe within the last two hundred years.
The cathedral of Bruges is a lofty Gothic brick structure of the 13th and 14th centuries. Cathedral and Notre Dame.The interior is remarkable for its fine proportions and contains many fine paintings by Jacob Van Oost and other Flemish masters. But more interesting than the cathedral is the Notre Dame of Bruges. It was built in the 12th to 15th century, and its magnificent and lofty tower 390 feet high was restored so late as 1858. As in the cathedral, there are many fine paintings here and a group in marble of the Virgin and Christ, ascribed to the chisel of Michael Angelo. But the most interesting objects in Notre Dame are the tombs of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and his daughter Mary, wife of Maximilian of Austria.
Close to the Notre Dame is the Hospital of St. John where sisters of charity have nursed and attended on the sick for upwards of five centuries! Hospital. Flemish painting.In this hospital is a collection of the finest paintings of Memling, one of the earliest of the Flemish masters. Many of his pictures seem to shew how the commerce of the 13th to 15th century directly inspired the Flemish art of the 15th century, and how the mind of the painter drew its first impressions and ideas from the varied costumes, and the manifold types of faces which were witnessed in the thronged marts of Flanders. Though the subjects of these pictures are Biblical, one can find among the groups, faces of weather-beaten mariners, well-nourished and well-shaven priests, burly citizens, and sagacious traders! All Memling's Virgins have a peculiarly beautiful oval face and high forehead.
Within ten minutes' walk to the east from the Notre Dame and the Hospital is the famous Belfrey of Bruges which is the subject of one of Longfellow's happiest compositions. Belfrey.It is 350 feet in height, and the visitor can survey from its top the country for miles and miles all round. The bell of the belfrey has the finest chime of any bell in Europe, but I am not sure that the good people of Bruges do not get too much of this music,—as the bell chimes four times in the hour!
The Belfrey stands to the south of the famous market place of Bruges. Hotel de Ville.The Hotel de Ville of Bruges was built in the 14th century, but recently restored. To the west of the Hotel de Ville is the famous and beautiful Chapelle du Saint Sang with its stained glass windows having portraits of the Burgundian princes down to Maria Theresa and Francis I.
Ghent is the capital of east Flanders as Bruges is of west Flanders. Ghent.As a trade mart of western Europe, Ghent does not figure so early as Bruges, and indeed the trade of Ghent was still in its infancy when Bruges was taking the lead in the Hanseatic league. But Ghent soon rose in importance and power, and the twin towns fought side by side the battle of popular freedom against Feudal and Royal authority. Indeed Ghent soon excelled Bruges in power and importance, and in the 13th and 14th centuries the capital of east Flanders wielded a power which many a crowned potentate might have envied. In 1297 the Ghenters repulsed an English army of 24,000 men under the warlike Edward I. and in 1302 they defeated a French army under Count John of Namur in the famous battle of the Spurs. The warlike Edward III. of England was glad to obtain the alliance of the famous Jacques Van Artevelde, Brewer of Ghent, and flattered him by the title of "dear gossip." For a time Artevelde induced his fellow-citizens to remain faithful to Edward against France and the Count of Flanders; but the politic English king sought through his "dear gossip" to obtain a real hold on Ghent. The people of Ghent were too wide awake to allow this, Artevelde's proposal that Edward's son should be elected Count of Flanders was rejected by the Ghenters, and Artevelde was slain in his own house,—a martyr to his friendship to his "dear gossip," Edward III. of England.
His son Philip Van Artevelde was appointed dictator in the civil war against the Count of Flanders, and defeated the Count in a pitched battle at Bruges. But this was only the precursor of ruin. In 1383 Charles VI. of France marched against Ghent, and defeated her army at Rosebek where 20,000 Ghenters are said to have perished on the field. The turbulent city now submitted to the Count of Flanders, and after his death to the house of Burgundy. The turbulent Ghenters rose again in 1448 against the Duke of Burgundy and carried on an unequal war for no less than five years. But feudal power triumphed for a time and in 1453 the people were signally defeated at Gavre and left 16,000 dead on the field.
The town and the whole of Flanders passed to the house of Austria by the marriage of Mary Burgundy with Maximilian—which marriage took place in Ghent in 1477. In 1500 the celebrated Charles V. was born in Ghent and during his reign Ghent progressed so greatly in wealth and population (175,000 souls) that Charles V. is said to have boasted jestingly to his rival Francis I. "Je mettrai votre Paris dans mon Gand" (glove.) Unlike Bruges, Ghent has succeeded in keeping a considerable trade within her limits tn the present day. Her present population is not much under 150,000, her streets are populous and her houses are fine and imposing in apearance. Cotton and linen goods are her principal commodities, and her engine factories have multiplied of late years.
The magnificent cathedral of Ghent with its lofty tower can be seen from miles outside the limits of the town, while in the interior it is one of the most richly decorated churches in Belgium. Cathedral.The crypt was constructed so early as the 10th century and the choir in the 13th century. The last chapter of the order of Golden Fleece was held in the nave of this cathedral by Philip II. in 1559.
Of the numerous paintings of Flemish masters which this cathedral boasts of, two are of more than ordinary importance. One is the celebrated "Adoration of the Immaculate Lamb" by the two brothers Van Eyck. It is said to be the most extensive and imposing work of the Flemish School. The two wings of this picture are at Berlin and Brussels, respectively.
Not far from the cathedral is the celebrated Belfrey of Ghent which in the remote past often called the hardy and turbulent sons of the town to arms. Belfrey.One of the oldest and heaviest bells in the Belfrey bears the significant inscription which in English is,—"My name is Roland, when I am rung hastily then there is fire; when I resound in peals, there is storm in Flanders!" The total height of this Belfrey up to the point of the spire is 375 ft., and the spire is surmounted by a vane consisting of a guilded dragon 10 feet in length which was taken by Count Baldwin VIII. of Flanders from the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople in 1204 A. D. and presented to the Ghenters. There is a story told about the Belfrey of Ghent which is worth repeating. When the cruel and bigoted Duke of Alva proposed to the Emperor Charles V. that he should destroy that turbulent city which had caused him so much annoyance, the enlightened Charles is said to have taken Alva to the top of the Belfrey and pointing to the vast panorama of buildings and shops and churches all round, replied "Combien faudrait il de peaux d'Espagne faire un Gand de cette grandeur?"
Side by side with this ancient Belfrey stands the magnificent Hotel de Ville of Ghent built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Hotel de Ville.The eastern facade with its three tiers of columns is in the Renaissance style, but the facade towards the Rue Haut Pont is elaborately florid Gothic, and is considered one of the finest specimens of Gothic architecture in Belgium. I walked through the lofty council chamber and the gorgeous throne room, where in 1576, a congress of confederates drew up the famous Pacification of Ghent, resolving to expel the hated Spaniards from Netherlands.
A little way to the north of this Hotel is the still more famous Marhé du Vendredi, an extensive open square where, as on a vast stage the principal historical events of the town have been enacted! Market Place.When the Counts of Flanders ruled over Bruges and the whole of Flanders, it was here that the people assembled and paid homage to them in a style of magnificence unknown at the present day; and here too the Counts swore to maintain the laws, privileges, freedoms and customs of the people. When Ghent sided with England against her lord, the Count of Flanders and king of France, it was here that the famous Jacques Van Artevelde incited his fellow citizens to arms. The popular leader fell with his policy as has been stated before and was killed. Domestic dissensions were often witnessed in this square, and in a famous broil between the weavers and fullers of Ghent, no less than 500 men were killed. And lastly when Ghent and all Netherlands groaned under the terrible oppression of the Duke of Alva, it was in this square that his Auto da fe's were enacted and heretics burnt, and many thousands of Ghenters emigrated and left their city half untenanted. A statue of Charles V. stood here till 1796 when the French republicans pulled it down,—and in its place has been erected a bronze statue of the powerful demagogue Jacques Van Artevelde, as if in the act of delivering his celebrated speech persuading his fellow-citizens to enter into an alliance with England, against their master, the Count of Flanders.
I saw another historical place in Ghent, and that is the gateway of the Feudal Palace of the Counts of Flanders. An old historical palace.The massive and castellated gateway is all that remains of the castle, and is black with age, and seems to look out from its old feudal time into the panorama of modern life and civilization! It was in this castle that Jacques Van Artevelde sumptuously entertained the English king Edward III. and his queen Philippa and it was here that Edward's son John of Gaunt (i. e. Ghent), was horn in 1340.
Brussels has been beautified after the fashion of Paris and some at least of the buildings of Brussels excel the corresponding buildings of Paris in beauty of architecture. Brussels.As in Paris, a circle of Boulevards encloses the central and important portion of Brussels, and like the Parisian Boulevards these Boulevards were really ramparts at one time, and were levelled and converted into pleasant avenues towards the beginning of the present century. The real town is inside this circle of Boulevards. The most important road in the upper town is the Rue Royale, with its continuation the Rue de la Regence. If we follow the line of this road, we will have seen most of the remarkable buildings in the upper i. e. the eastern half of the town.
Let us commence from the extreme south, i. e. where the Rue de la Regence terminates and the magnificent pile of the Palais de Justice towers on the view. Palais de Justice.It looks, from its vastness and grandeur, like an ancient Assyrian or Egyptian monument. The massive pile stands on a square 590 ft. by 560 ft., arises in successive sections gradually diminishing in bulk, until the edifice ends in a small dome and a cross on it, the top of which is 400 feet from the pavement.
The interior of this vast edifice is no less imposing. The flights of stairs ascending to the vestibule are adorned with colossal marble statues of Domosthenes and Lycurgus on one side and of Cicero and Ulpian on the other. Entering the door I looked on the large hall with broad massive pillars rising on all sides, majestic in their simplicity and vastness. I seemed to be looking on some great Doric or Ionic temple of bygone ages, where Herculean men came to worship Titanic gods in silence. After almost losing my way amidst a number of silent and dimly lighted passages and going up and down several spacious flights of marble stairs I found my way into a court room where astute advocates were gesticulating and a crowd of men, mostly of the lower classes, were standing outside the railing. My spell was broken, and I left the great court edifice in all haste! This vast building was inaugurated in 1883 at the Jubilee (50th year) of Belgium's existence as a separate kingdom, and its construction cost two million pounds sterling.
Travelling northwards by the Rue de la Regence I came to the monument of Counts Egmont and Hoorn. Monument.The monument consists of colossal figures in bronze representing Egmont and Hoorn on the way to execution, which took place under orders of the cruel Philip II. of Spain as every reader of Motley knows.
Further north along the Rue de la Regence is the Place Royale one of the finest parts of Brussels. To the right stands the handsome Palais du Comte de Flandre, the heir apparent of Belgium; and on the left is the new Palais des Beaux Arts, a building in classical style with four enormous bronze figures in front, representing Music, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting. Museum and Library.To the west of this is the present Royal Library and museum where there is a large collection of modern paintings.
Place Royale ends here, and Rue Royale begins. To the right are the Royal Palace Palace.and the park stretching in front of it; and at the north end of the park is the Legislative Assembly of the nation. Cathedral.At a short distance from the park is the famous Cathedral of Brussels, an imposing Gothic structure built in the 13th century. Inside the church the lofty and massive stone pillars are majestic in their simplicity, and the lofty windows of stained glass are remarkably fine. The altar also shews exquisite carving on wood for which Belgium pulpits are famous. Opposite the Cathedral is the handsome Banque Nationale of Brussels. Proceeding further north by the Rue Royale we come to the Colonne du Congress to our left, a Doric column 147 feet high and surmounted by the statue of the king in bronze, Congress Column.erected to commemorate the congress of 1831, by which the present constitution of Belgium was established. A little further northwards we come to the point where the Rue Royale meets the circle of Boulevards spoken of above. But the Rue goes beyond this circle, further northwards, as far as the lofty and gilded church of Sante Marie de Schaerbeck which closes Rue Royale in the north, as the Palais du Justice closes its continuation the Rue de la Regence in the south.
These are the most conspicuous places in the eastern or upper town. The western portion of the town is on a far lower level and all the streets therefore from the east to the west go down hill. The Flemish language is still spoken in the lower town while French is generally spoken in the upper town.
The most interesting spot in the lower town is the historic square and structure of the Hotel de Ville. Hotel de Ville.The Hotel de Ville of Ghent is a noble and fine specimen of Gothic architecture, but that at Brussels has a still nobler appearance, while its graceful tower, 370 feet in height is considered to be the finest tower in Belgium. This magnificent structure was built in the 15th century, and its elaborately decorated niches on the facade towards the square are splendid specimens of the decorated style of the period.
The square in front of the Hotel de Ville has witnessed many a stirring event of past times. It was and is still a market place 120 yards by 74 yards, and it was here that the Duke of Alva committed his atrocious butcheries during his reign of terror in the Netherlands. Lamoral, Count Egmont, and Philip de Montmorency, Count Hoorn were among his noblest victims and were executed here.
Opposite the Hotel de Ville is the Maison du Roi built in the 16th century and then used as the seat of Government authorities. Close to the Hotel de Ville are also the old hall of the butchers, the hall of the brasseurs, the hall of the archers, the hall of the skippers, the hall of the carpenters and the hall of the tailors. Each profession in those days had a guild of its own, and the members were bound by a strong esprit de corps which formed the strongest guarantee of their safety and welfare in those troublesome times. In India alone such trade-guilds have degenerated into hereditary castes.
One or two other places in Brussels deserve a passing mention. Of the old fortifications round the town the Porte de Hal is now the sole remnant, and a museum of antiquities has been established here. It is lofty and imposing in appearance, and was used by the cruel Alva as a Bastille or political dungeon. The Museé Wertz contains a collection of pictures of that eccentric painter. Brussels boasts of a line Botanic garden, and the Bois de Cambrai, a part of the old forests of Soignes, is to Brussels what the Bois de Boulogne is to Paris.
From Brussels to the battle-field of Waterloo is only 40 munites by rail, and no tourist who comes to Brussels leaves it without seeing that great battle-field. That great battle has been described a hundred times, not only by military authorities who are entitled to speak on the subject, but also by tourists who are like myself profoundly ignorant of the science of war, but who nevertheless when standing on these undulating fields cannot help recalling the events of the memorable day of battle. I will then follow this favorite practice, and note down some events of the day in order to explain the sites which I visited.
The battle was not fought at Waterloo but further southwards. The allied army under Wellington had its centre at Mount St. Jean over a mile to south of Waterloo village, while Napoleon had his centre at Belle Alliance, another mile further south, but his army was disposed in a semicircle, almost surrounding the allies in the east, south, and west. Wellington had 68,000 troops, only 24,000 of them English, 30,000 Germans, and 14,000 Netherlanders. Napoleon had 72,000 troops. Napoleon therefore was stronger in his forces until the Prussians came from the east and changed the fortunes of the day.
| | Mont | | |
| St. Jean | | ||
| Haye | | Papelotte | |
| Sainte | | ||
| Hougomont | | ||
| Belle | | ||
| Alliance | | ||
| Plancenoit | |||
The allied army with its centre Mont St. Jean held three advanced posts, if I may so call them. Waterloo.The Chateau of Hougomont which with its massive buildings and gardens and plantations formed an excellent little fort was held by the English. I saw its ancient walls riddled with bullets, and still bearing marks of the eventful day. And inside it I saw the chapel where a fire broke out and was happily extinguished, and the well in which hundreds of dead bodies were buried after the battle. The loopholes too made by the English in the garden walls also exist to this day. The height of Haye Sainte was held by the Germans under Major Von Baring. Here I saw on the wall a tablet dedicated to the brave Germans who fell in defending this place. Papelotte etc. to the east were also held by the Germans under the Duke of Weimar.
The battle began at 11 a. m. and Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, precipitated himself against Hougomont Chateau which continued to be the scene of desperate fighting and of fearful slaughter all through the day. Several times the French burst inside the enclosure and into the orchard, but the English aided by the strength of their position gallantly defended the Chateau and it was never taken. At two o'clock Marshal Ney attacked the centre of the allies, intending to break through the centre and take the left wing of the allies in the rear. The French took possession of the garden of Haye Sainte and stormed Papelotte, when the indomitable Picton came forward with his division and forced back the French, and died in the endeavour. Somerset's Household brigade came up to the scene, and the gallant Highlanders dashed into the enemy supported by Col. Ponsonby's Inniskillens, Scots Greys, and Royal Dragoons, and they pushed back the French almost to Belle Alliance, where the English were in turn checked and repulsed with fearful slaughter.
The English and the Germans now formed themselves into squares and the French cavalry hurled itself impetuously on these famous squares, and thinned their ranks but could not break them. Both in the centre and in the east however the French gained considerable advantages, they stormed La Haye Sainte after a heroic resistance by the Germans under Major Von Baring, and they also stormed Papellote. This was about 5 p. m. The victory of the French was now a matter of certainty.
An event had happened however which dashed the hopes of the French to the ground. At 4-30, the Prussians approached the battle-field and began their cannonade from Frechemont, near Papellote, in the extreme east. Henceforward Napoleon tried the impossible task of beating the English and Germans in front of him, and beating the Prussians towards the east. For nearly four hours Napoleon fought this desperate game, hurling his troops on the English and Germans in front and sending battallion after battallion eastwards to keep the Prussians from advancing. The attempt was futile because it was impossible. At 7 p. m. Napoleon hurled his imperial guard, commanded by the indomitable Ney against the English and the Germans, while another wing of his army under Laban was still desperately fighting against the Prussians who had advanced as far as Plancenoit. The double game could not succeed and did not succeed. The English and the Germans gallantly received and drove back the Imperial Guards, while the Prussians pressed harder and harder on Plancenoit and captured it soon after 8 p. m. All was lost then, and Napoleon and the French fled from the field.
Such was the battle of "Waterloo" which popular English writers of the day described as exclusively their victory, which the Prussians mainly attribute to their desperate and heroic fighting, which the Germans claim as their victory as well as that of the English and the Prussians, and which the Netherlanders have celebrated by building a huge mound or hill on the battle-field with the Belgian lion on the top of it, looking towards France!
There was a fearful loss of life on that eventful day, and the number of the killed and wounded shews pretty clearly the share that each nation had in securing the victory. The English head the list with the frightful loss of 6932; the Prussians too lost nearly as many; i. e. 6682, and a fitting memorial has been erected for them at Plancenoit. The Germans lost 4494, and the Netherlanders some thousands. The French must have lost over 20,000 in fighting simultaneously against the allied nations.
There have been greater victories in modern warfare, but probably none more important. For in that battle ended the glory of the greatest conqueror of modern times, and the greatest man that the world has ever produced. Alexander conquered vaster kingdoms, because he fought with vast undisciplined forces, and Cæsar won his laurels and victories too against defenceless barbarians. The spectacle of a general fighting against nations equally great and civilized, equally rich and powerful, equally brave and disciplined as his own, fighting them all round with a matchless celerity which baffled all combination, fighting and beating them in every single instance for nearly 20 years, has only once been presented by the world and that was in Napoleon! At Moscow he met his first disaster, at Leipsic he received his first defeat,—at Waterloo he fell, never to rise again.
If any readers find the above account of the battle somewhat tourist-like, I can only inform them in explanation that it was penned, in an atmosphere of smoke, in a humble inn at Waterloo,—in the midst of a running conversation French (and very bad French on my part) with the elderly but amiable landlady who knew all about the battle of course! As soon as it was time for the train to start, I paid her for tea and cigars, thanked her for her courtesy and left for Brussels.
Antwerp rose in importance as a place of commerce as Bruges fell in the 15th century, Antwerp.and in the 16th century Antwerp is said to have been the most prosperous and wealthy place in Europe, surpassing Venice itself! "Thousands of vessels are said to have lain in the Schelde at one time, while a hundred or more arrived and departed daily. The great fairs held here attracted merchants from all parts of the civilized world."
The terrors of the Spanish regime so graphically described by Motley were the principal cause of Antwerp's fall. Thousands of industrious manufacturers left their home and fled to England where they established factories and stimulated the trade of England. In 1576 the Spanish soldiers killed about 7000 of the inhabitants of Antwerp, and during the fourteen months after the capture of the town by the Duke of Parma the population dwindled rapidly.
As Antwerp declined under these circumstances, commercial prosperity left her and travelled northwards to Holland as it had previously travelled from Bruges to Antwerp. As the Dutch shook off the Spanish yoke and rose in power, they took care to divert all the trade of Antwerp to their own ports. Amsterdam rose as Antwerp fell, and in 1648 it was resolved that no sea-going vessel should ascend to Antwerp!
After over a hundred and fifty years, Napoleon Bonaparte tried to receive the prosperity of this place. He deepened the river, enlarged the harbour, strengthened the fortifications and spent two million pounds sterling in the construction of docks and basins. The prosperity of the town revived under these enlightened endeavours of the great conqueror, and received a fresh stimulus when Holland was united to Belgium in 1815 and Antwerp was allowed to trade with the Dutch colonies. It suffered during the revolution of 1830-32 and the separation of Holland from Belgium, but has been rapidly reviving within the last quarter of a century.
Antwerp is now the arsenal of Belgium and is one of the strongest fortresses in Europe. But its fame throughout the civilized world rests neither on its past history nor on its present strength, but on the immortal works of the master painter Rubens, many of whose best paintings as well as those of Van Dyck are in Antwerp. The town is redolent of their fame.
The cathedral of Antwerp is pronounced to be the largest and the most beautiful Gothic building in the Netherlands. Cathedral.Its magnificent and elaborately decorated tower rises to a height of 405 feet and the workmanship all over the exterior is elaborate and delicate. The interior is imposing in its simplicity, all its previous decorations having been removed and destroyed during a famous popular revolution in the 16th century described by Motley in one of his most striking passages. Three of the finest paintings of Rubens form the most valuable treasure of this cathedral; viz.—The "Descent from the Cross," the "Elevation of the Cross" and the "Assumption of the Virgin."
The Hotel de Ville of Antwerp is in the Renaissance style but is not so fine as those of Brussels or Ghent. Hotel de Ville.Close to the Hotel de Ville are the guildhall of the archers, the hall of the coopers, the hall of the tailors, and the hall of the carpenters,—all old historic halls of the trade guilds of the town. The most interesting building, however, in this place is the palace of Charles V. which is carefully preserved in its antiquated beauty.
A little to the south of the Hotel de Ville is the broad Schelde with ships of heavy tonnage, and a line of wharves full of the bustle of modern commerce. One relic of Feudalism still frowns however on the Schelde, and that is a portion of the "Steen," the old castle of Antwerp which the enlightened Emperor Charles V. made over to the people, but which in the reign of his bigoted son Philip II. was the seat of the Spanish Inquisition! The dark and subterranean dungeons and "Oubliettes" inside still bear witness to the dreadful history of the building. It is now used (like the Porte de Hall of Brussels) as a museum of antiquities.
The museum of Antwerp contains a fine collection of the celebrated paintings of the Flemish school, and specially those of Rubens and Van Dyck. Museum.Rubens's Crucifixion of Christ between two thieves is the best, and his adoration of the Magi and Christ on Straw are also considered master-pieces. Van Dyck's Entombment struck me as 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 the lower classes who speak Flemish, speak French also. The great towns of Belgium like Brussels and Antwerp are beautiful imitations of Paris, the Belgian Cafés and Restaurants are like French Cafés and Restaurants, the beautiful and gorgeous cathedrals and churches of Belgium are like the magnificent French Churches, and preach the same Roman Catholic religion to the same Celtic people. In Holland the traveller is struck with a vast difference in all these respects. He suddenly comes amidst a vigorous self asserting long-headed Tuton race, speaking a Tuton tongue, living in the bustle of trade and activity. They don't make much show in the way of fine churches, and have not much pageantry in their religion, but they have by sheer industry,—by dykes and drainage,—won a great part of their country from the sea, they have intersected their fields by a system of canals which one would think was possible only in small gardens, and in their large towns they have as many canals as there are streets! These towns do not pretend to the beauty of Paris or of Brussels, but are merely systems of canals,—successions of quays, wharves and jetties, with hundreds of vessels and ships eternally unloading their cargoes from the far Indies! Towns with regular streets and uniform houses with canals and wharves and numerous heavy laden ships,—a country protected by dykes, intersected by a regular net-work of canals, and dotted over with thousands of wind-mills,—a population hard-working, pushing, self-asserting and selfish if you like—that is Holland! That is the tough Tuton race who have erenow contested with England for the empire of the seas, and who next to England possess the finest and most flourishing colonies, and have in recent years, in war and in peace, obstinately pushed themselves forward and made England recoil before her in South Africa.
Historically the fall of Belgium was the rise of Holland. In the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries when Bruges and Ghent were fighting the battle of popular freedom, Holland was scarcely known to history. The Counts of Holland who had their hunting grounds at the Hague (Hedge or Enclosure) united the fishing town of Amsterdam with it in the 14th century. Holland passed with Belgium under the house of Burgundy and then under Austria, and in the 16th century both the kingdoms groaned under Spanish bigotry and oppression. Here the glorious period of Belgian history ends and that of Holland begins. Belgium remained a Roman Catholic country, but Holland had embraced the new Protestant faith and was therefore principally an object of wrath to its Spanish rulers. The glorious battle of independence which Holland waged at the close of the 16th century under William the Silent has been worthily told by Motley in his Dutch Republic. Belgium remained under the Spanish yoke, and became the possession of the great powers by turns,—of Spain, Austria and France as has been stated before. Holland on the contrary threw off the Spanish yoke after a most heroic war, and her independence was recognized by Spain in 1609. Trade followed in the wake of independence, commercial prosperity which had left Bruges for Antwerp now led to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and the commercial enterprise and naval power of Holland knew no bound! The vigor of Cromwell and the genius of Blake scarcely restrained that power, while in the time of Charles II. of England, the Dutch defeated the combined fleets of the English and the French in 1673. The foreign colonies and possessions of the Dutch multiplied every year,—and at the present date they are, next to the English, the greatest colonists in the world. Sumatra, Java, a part of Borneo, and the whole of Celebes and Mollucca islands in Asia own the Dutch rule and have a population of over twenty millions! And when it is considered that these results have been achieved by a people who have scarcely a country of their own to live in except what they have wrested from the sea by sheer industry and ingenuity, that their population in their motherland is only about 4 millions which is one-eighth of the population of the British Isles, the enterprise and activity and vigor of this hard-headed race can well be imagined.
Holland was a republic before the time of Napoleon. Napoleon conquered Holland and made his brother king of it. But that regime was overthrown in 1813 and Holland now had a king of her own in Frederick of the House of Orange. Belgium and Holland were united after Waterloo, as had been stated before, but the two nations were different in race, different in religion, and different in feelings and associations, and the patched-up union did not last long, and in 1830 Belgium was separated from the kingdom of Holland.
Coming from Antwerp to Rotterdam I came over the celebrated bridge over the Hollandich Diep. Thirteen stone buttresses, each fifty feet long, support fourteen iron arches with a Span of 110 ft. each. Immediately after crossing this bridge the train came to Dordreht or Dort where in 1572 the first assembly of the independent states of Holland was held which led to the foundation of the Republic of the united Dutch Provinces. Shortly after leaving Dort the train crossed the Mass and came into Rotterdam situated on the right bank of that river. Dort.The Railway line runs northwards (towards Amsterdam) right through the town of Rotterdam over an iron viaduct,—another triumph of Dutch engineering skill.
Except as a typical old Dutch town and as an immense place of commerce, Rotterdam is not very interesting. Rotterdam.It has almost as many canals as streets, and draw-bridges over the busy canals are frequently going up and down to let the vessels pass below and the men above alternately. The streets are regular, and the town considering its trade, is a pretty cleanly one,—but there is little to see except a succession of quays and docks and shipping on every side which remind one unpleasantly of the east end of London. I saw the church of St. Lawrence which though an old Gothic edifice will not bear comparison with the Belgian churches. I also saw the great market with the statue of Erasmus in it. The Stadhuis or town hall is an ordinary large house with a fine Ionic portico. The best part of Rotterdam for the tourist is the Park in the extreme west end which is very pretty indeed.
On Tuesday morning I left for the Hague which is a far prettier place and one far more interesting from a historical point of view. No town in Holland possesses so many broad and handsome streets, lofty and substantial houses and spacious and imposing squares as the Hague. Hague.There is little or no commerce here but the Hague has been from the 16th century downwards the political capital of Holland as Amsterdam is its commercial capital, and hence its beauty and cleanliness. The king's palace is here, as well as the upper and lower houses of the Parliament of Holland and most of the head Government offices.
The celebrated Binnenhof of the Hague is of mediæval origin and was once surrounded and defended by a moat. Binnenhof.Count William of Holland first built a palace here about 1260 and his son Florens V. enlarged it and made the Hague his capital in 1291. The brick building of the time of Florens V. called the Hall of the Knights still stands in the center of the Binnenhof. To the east of the Knight's Hall is the Geregtshof or the Court of Justice, while to the north and south of it stand the chambers of the States General, the Parliament of the kingdom of Holland. I saw the fine Treves Saloon, built as a reception room by Stadholder William III. who was king of England, and I also saw the Lower House, the Dutch House of Commons. The Upper House was closed today.
To the west of Binnenhof is Buitenhof which is now occupied by some Government offices; while between the Binnenhof and the Buitenhof, Buitenhof.and a little to the north, stands the celebrated old state prison of Holland, called Gevangen Poort,—the scene of the tortures connected with the Spanish inquisition. It makes one's flesh creep to go through these dark chambers with the old instruments of torture carefully arranged therein. Finger-screws, thumb-screws and arm-screws, benches on which unfortunate prisoners were laid while their legs and arms were broken by an iron bar stroke by stroke, Instruments of torture in Europe.spiked girdles which held them fast while they were put under the lash, chains, and swords, and axes and the knife of the guillotine of more recent times are all arranged in one dark chamber. Another chamber in which prisoners were starved to death is shewn to visitors, and by an exquisite refinement of cruelty the window of this chamber is made face to face with the kitchen of the prison, so that the prisoners might see and smell the food through the iron grating of their chamber while they were being starved to death. Upstairs I saw the chamber in which the well known torture of the water-drops was inflicted on prisoners. The prisoner was fastened to a seat and water drop by drop fell on his head. The sensation was not unpleasant at first, but soon the drops caused an exquisite torture under which the prisoner groaned and yelled until he died after three or four days. A hole in the stone below, caused by the dripping of the water is shewn to visitors. What exquisite and ingenious inventions of cruelty,—what devices discovered by man to torture man! What tales of cruelty, of exquisite and frightful torture, of the breaking of bone after bone, of the wrenching of joint after joint, these cold dark vaults and chambers could tell if they could speak. Imagination shudders to think of what men and women have suffered day after day, month after month, in these dark vaults for the cause of righteousness and of liberty. Let us hope those dark days of ingenious cruelty are gone,—never to return again! Modern civilization has still much of wars and blood-shed, of conquests and cruelty to answer for, but the day of slow deliberate ingenious torture is, let us hope, gone for ever,—and it is in so far a gain in the cause of humanity.
I saw the room in which the famous Cornelius de Witt was imprisoned on a charge of conspiracy against William III. in 1672. His brother John de Witt, the Grand Pensionary, hastened to the tower to give him relief, but the infuriated populace who had been induced to believe in the guilt of the brothers forced their way into the prison, seized the two brothers and literally tore them to pieces with savage cruelty, maiming the dead bodies, ripping open the hearts and hanging them head downwards in the square outside. The scene is graphically described in one of Dumas's novels, the "Tulipe Noire," I think, but judging from the pictures one sees here of the scene, no description can sufficiently portray the horror of the scene.
Westward from this place is the Grootee kerk (church of St. James) a Gothic edifice of the 15th century, and near it is the Stadhuis, or Town Hall, Town Hall and Palace.a fine building in the picturesque Dutch style. Northwards is the king's palace,—a very ordinary building as it seemed to me.
Immedialely to the east of Binnenhof is the house erected by Prince Maurice of Nassau, and therefore called Mauritshuis, and which is now the picture-gallery. It contains many remarkable pictures of the old masters, of which Rembrandt's School of Anatomy and Paul Potter's bull have a world-wide celebrity. Picture Gallery.The former represents the celebrated Anatomist Nicholas Tulp, a friend of Rembrandt, explaining the anatomy of the arm of a corpse lying before to a number of listeners whose faces portray the keen eagerness of listeners in various expressions and attitudes. The latter is a very realistic and life-like picture of bull, a cow, a sheep, a ram and a lamb with shepherd standing. They are both very fine and realistic pictures, but why they should have a world-wide celebrity is what professional connoisseurs alone can explain!
I saw two other picture-galleries, one the Municipal Museum and the other a private one in Baron Steengracht's house. West of Mauritshuis is an extensive square adorned with a statue of William I. the liberator of Holland, and to the north of the town is a fine park with an imposing national monument to commemorate the restoration of Dutch independence in 1813 after the fall of Napoleon. Soon after I left the Hague for Leyden.
What Cambridge and Oxford are in England, what Upsala is in Sweden, that is Leyden in Holland,—the University town of the kingdom. Leyden.It is sometimes called the Athens of the west, and in its reputation as a learned University it yields to no place in Europe. The eminent jurist Grotius and the eminent philosopher Des Cartes lived and wrote here.
Leyden has yet another claim to the interest of the student of history. For it was here that a great battle against oppression and religious bigotry was fought in 1574. The terrible siege of Leyden by the Spanish lasted from October 1573 to March 1574, and then a sort of blockade went on till October 1574. No account of a siege that I have ever read, not even Macaulay's graphic account of the siege of Londonderry is so thrilling as the siege of Leyden as told by Motley. William of Orange at last caused the dykes to be pierced and the country around being inundated, and he relieved the besieged by ship. The town was thus saved from the very jaws of the cruel enemy.
The traveller who comes to this place to see monuments and historical structures will however be much disappointed. Leyden is a quiet town with some canals and one or two important streets, and scarcely any superb buildings. University.The University building is quite a commonplace one and the lecture-hall about which Neibuhr has written in glowing terms would in its size and appearance scarcely satisfy the second-year students in a second-rate college in Calcutta! I saw the celebrated hall however with the reverence due to its old associations as well as the different faculties of the University,—Medicine, Law, Literature, Theology, Mathematics, &c. The students of the University, about 800 in number, have a gathering place of their own, called the Minerva Club, which is a fine building.
There is a canal still surrounding the town, but the enclosing ramparts exist no longer. A very old circular edifice like a fort still exists in the town and is called the Burg. Its first mention in authentic history is in the 10th century and chroniclers connect it with the Anglo-Saxon conqueror Hengist.
The Stadhuis or Town Hall of Leyden is a successful example of the Dutch style of architecture of the 18th century. Town Hall.An inscription on it is remarkable and in English would run thus;—"When the black famine had brought to death nearly six thousand persons, then God the Lord repented of it, and gave us bread again, as much as we could wish." This refers to the Spanish siege of 1574. The University was instituted soon after this siege, and it is said, was given as a reward to the people for their heroic resistance by William of Orange. The church of St. Peter is the largest in Leyden, but that of St. Pancras is the finest.
The most interesting object in Leyden however, next to the University, is its admirable collection of antiquities. The Egyptian Courts are specially rich, there being a large collection of stones and statues with hieroglyphics—a vast number of ancient papirii, Museum.dating from thousands of years before Christ, and also a large collection of sarcophagri and of mummies,—not only of human bodies but also of sacred birds, sacred crocodiles, sacred dogs, cats, monkeys, &c. Some of the dead bodies are exposed and one human figure still in good preservation and with features which are quite recognizable, date from 1400 B. C. i. e. over 3000 years! The Roman and Greek Courts are poor, but there is a curious collection of statues of Hindu gods and sacred bulls,—all obtained, from the Dutch possession of Java. Brahma with his four faces, Siva with his garland of skulls, Vishnu sitting in meditation, numerous statues of Ganesa with his elephant head, a large and well executed figure of the sacred bull of Siva, a spirited statue of Durga and many other statues of Hindu gods are preserved here. That all these should have been found in the shrines and temples of Java shews what an intimate connection must have subsisted between Java and India in ancient days when Hindus had not yet contracted the senseless prejudice against crossing the seas.
Haarlem is on the way from Leyden to Amsterdam. In ancient times this place was the residence of the Counts of Holland, Haarlem.and the present stadhuis or Town Hall marks the site of the ancient palace. In front of the stadhuis stands the imposing and lofty church of Haarlem erected in the 15th century. In front of this church and in the centre of the market is the statue of Caxton, whom the Dutch claim to be the inventor of printing while the Germans claim that honour for their countrymen Gutenberg. Haarlem like Leyden sustained a terrible siege by the Spaniards for seven months, but the resistance though noble and heroic, was ineffectual. Ten thousand citizens are said to have perished in making the defence and even women led by the heroic Kenu Simons Hasselaar took a share in it. But the city fell at last and the cruel conqueror,—the son of the notorious Duke of Alva—executed the noble commandant, the whole of the Protestant clergy and 2000 of the surviving brave defenders! Such cruelty works its own ruin, and the Spaniards were driven from the town four years later.
At last I reached the capital of Holland. In the close of the eleventh century a small number of fishermen built their poor huts in the spot where the river Amstel flows into the river Y, Amsterdam.and the united stream flows into Zuider Zee. Those huts were the commencement of one of the greatest trade centres of the modern world. The lord of Amstel built a castle here in 1204 and constructed the dam on the Amstel which has given rise to the name of the town. In 1311 the town was united to Holland and in the same century it gradually rose in importance as exiled citizens from the older trade centres in Belgium came to settle here. But it was in the 16th century when Antwerp was ruined by the Spanish war and the Spanish inquisition that the manufacturers and traders of the town sought asylum in thousands in Amsterdam, and the extent and population of Amsterdam were nearly doubled in the closing fifteen years of the 16th century. Early in the seventeenth century Spain recognized the independence of Holland, and Amsterdam took the lead in the vast commercial enterprises of Holland and the celebrated Dutch East India Company was started here. The armies of Louis XIV. in the 17th century did not reach as far as Amsterdam, but in the commencement of the present century the Dutch republic was dissolved and Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Louis Napoleon became king of Holland and resided in Amsterdam. But on the fall of Napoleon Holland became a separate kingdom as stated before, with Prince William Frederick as the king.
The capital of Holland does not boast of the beauty of Paris, or even of Brussels, but is a unique and wonderful city for its canals. The whole town may be described as a system of concentric canals dividing the city into 90 islands which are connected by means of nearly 300 bridges! A tourist therefore, having to go from the centre of the town to the outskirts has nothing but canal after canal to cross, and passes by hundreds of boats everywhere, even in the heart of the town.
But more wonderful than what you see in Amsterdam is what you do not see. These rows of houses which stretch on every direction alongside the canals in this vast city are not built on soild earth as A city built on piles!in the other parts of the world but on piles of wood driven into the sand and loam underneath. It takes one completely by surprise when, looking at the forest of solid and substantial houses on every side of him in Amsterdam, he is suddenly told that every one of these thousands of houses is built on piles of wood, and that man lives here (as Erasmus of Rotterdam said in jest) on tops of trees, like rooks!
The loam and sand which form the ground of Amsterdam cannot support masonry buildings, and hence every house is built on piles driven into the sand. The vast solid-looking and substantial Royal Palace of Amsterdam rests on 13,659 piles! The magnificent Gothic New Church by the side of the Palace is built on 6,000 piles! The Exchange house of Amsterdam has a foundation of 3,469 piles! And so on with every other house here. It gives one a feeling of uneasiness to think that the magnificent and solid hotel in which he is stopping stands on thousands of wooden piles, and that it is within the range of possibility that the whole structure may sink under heavy weight as the great corn magazine of Amsterdam did in 1822, when stored with 3,500 tons of grain!
Holland was a republic in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the present Palace of Amsterdam was therefore not a royal Palace but simply the Town Hall of Amsterdam. Palace.It is unfit to be a royal palace as it stands in the open market-place without any sort of enclosure or compound of its own. Otherwise it is a noble massive building, and the apartments which are shewn to the public, are richly adorned with sculptures in white marble and nobly furnished.
The New Church which was built in the 15th century and restored after the fire of 1645 Churches.is one of the finest in Holland. The Old Church was built about 1300 A.D.
The finest sight in Amsterdam, however, is the famous Ryks Museum, just completed and containing some paintings which have a world-wide celebrity. Museum.Foremost among them is Rembrandt's Night-watch which is allowed the place of honor in the Museum. It is Rembrandt's largest and most celebrated work, and represents a company of Arquebusiers emerging from their guild house on their nightly round. To the left of this room is a large room containing works of Flemish, German, French, Italian and Spanish masters. I noticed in this room some fine pictures of Guido Reni and Caravaggio, and also the celebrated painting of Rubens representing the old prisoner who was condemned to death by starvation, but whose life was saved by his daughter giving him her breast when she came to visit him.
Holland is a country of canals, and Amsterdam is the centre of an extensive system of canals on all sides. The two most important are the North Holland Canal, 130 ft. broad and constructed in 1819 to 1825, and the North Sea Canal from 200 to 330 ft. wide and completed only in 1876. Both these canals were constructed to connect Amsterdam with the German Ocean. Canals.The North Holland Canal runs from Amsterdam northwards and meets the German Ocean at Helder. But this magnificent work, 46 miles long, was unable to meet the growing requirements of trade and the North Sea Canal was therefore excavated recently, running from Amsterdam due westwards to the German Ocean. Huge gates protect the entrances to both the canals, and keep the water in the required height, irrespective of the height of the sea.
An excursion from Amsterdam to Helder is very interesting. The Railway line runs through a uniformly level country (the province of North Holland) and crosses the North Holland Canal two or three times until both the Railway line and the canal terminate at Helder. North Holland.A great part of this province (North Holland) is 12 to 15 feet below the level of the sea from which it is protected on the west (i. e. towards the German Ocean) by natural Dunes or sand hills carefully preserved and improved, and on the east side (i. e. towards the Zuider Zee) by lofty embankments. The province so carefully wrested from the sea is one of the richest in Holland, and the sheep here are the best that can be obtained in Europe both for meat and for wool. The process of draining marshes and lakes and so wresting new lands from the sea is still going on. The principal Polders (reclaimed lands) are the Beemster, Purmer, Schermer and the Polder of Haarlem. And it is now proposed to convert the whole of the Zuider Zee into a Polder or reclaimed land! If this magnificent scheme is realized, Holland will gain 700 square miles of country and the Geography of the World will be changed! Smiling fields and beautiful pasture lands with thousands of wind-mills and quiet orderly villages will mark the site which is still a waste and a sea in our atlases!
Leaving Amsterdam I came to the historic town of Zandaam within a quarter of an hour. Zandaam.What a forest of wind-mills here! What vast store-houses of timber here, what an industry in wood work and planks! An Emperor of a great country once came to this place and worked in disguise as a carpenter to benefit his kingdom! The very cottage in which Peter the Great worked is still pointed out to visitors. But Peter could not preserve his incognito long, and so went back to Amsterdam where he worked unmolested in the Dockyards of the company. The history of kings and princes does not often preserve episodes like this!
The next important station after I left Zandaam was Alkmaar meaning All-sea, as the place was, before human industry made it into a town. Alkamaar.The town now contains a population of nearly 15,000 and is renowned in Dutch history for its stout and successful resistance against the Spanish in 1573. The place is now the centre of the extensive cheese trade of North Holland. The market meets on Fridays and is frequented by the whole of the peasantry of North Holland in their quaint dresses and gaily painted waggons.
The last place on the line is Helder where the North Holland Canal Helder.terminates and runs into the sea. In the last century it was merely a fishing village, but Napoleon Bonaparte saw the strategical importance of the place and in 1811 caused fortifications to be made here, which have since been completed by the Dutch. Helder is now a large town with a population of 20,000, and is also the naval arsenal of Holland. The capacious wharves and magazines of the Dutch navy and the naval Cadet school are here, and a part of the Dutch navy is always stationed here. The great Helder Dyke is worth a visit. It is 5 miles in length and 12 feet in width and descends into the sea to a distance of 200 ft. at an angle of 40. Fort Kykduin is at the highest point of this Dyke, and a lofty light house, not far off, is seen from miles out in the sea. The sea in its highest tides never reaches the summit of this wonderful dyke constructed of Norwegian granite and the people have some reason for boasting "God made the sea, we made the shore."
This spot, Helder, witnessed one of the noblest triumphs of the Dutch navy. It was here that Dr. Ruyter and Van Tromp signally defeated the combined fleet of the English and the French on the 21st August 1673. The English sustained yet another reverse close to this place. In 1799, 10,000 English and 13,000 Russians landed here to induce the Dutch to revolt against Napoleon's regime. The Russians were signally defeated at Bergen and the English were defeated at Castricum.
The North Sea Canal as I have stated before is a direct and short cut North Sea Canal.from the Y near Amsterdam to the German Ocean due west. It is a broad and splendid canal, and looks like a river broad and deep enough for ships and steamers of the heaviest tonnage. Nearly the whole of Amsterdam's trade with the world passes now through this canal. I went along the whole length of it, starting by a steamer from Amsterdam, and reaching the seaside port of Ymuinden in less than two hours. It so happened the mail steamer to the Dutch colony of Java left the same day, and I saw her passing. Mail steamers leave Amsterdam for Java once in every 10 days. There is a bi-weekly service between Amsterdam and London, and I saw the steamer for London lying in anchor in the canal.
At Ymuinden the entrance of the canal from the sea is protected by a magnificent lock consisting of three huge gates, the middle one being 72 feet wide, and the two sides one 36 feet each. Further out, where the canal actually meets the sea,—the place is protected by two solid extensive piers, 34 miles long and running out into the sea, so as to make an extensive harbour. Two lofty lighthouses are erected on this spot.
My last excursion from Amsterdam was to the Zuider Zee. Meuderberg is a pretty little watering place in the Zuider Zee 712 miles to the east of Amsterdam, Zuider Zee.and I travelled this distance by a steam tram car. The bathing season is over and the cafés and hotels of Meuderberg are now deserted and the fine parks and oak gardens are now yellow in the approach of winter. I saw the embankment along the coast of the Zuider Zee, to protect the low country on its shore. The Zuider Zee is an inland sea, though not very deep, I fancy, and its water is salt but not quite so salt as sea water. I have already alluded to the proposal of converting this vast sea into fine pasture lands and cultivated fields!