A Wanderer in Holland

ter

Royal Palace-The New Church-Stained glass-The Old Church-The five carpets-Wedding customs-Dutch wives to-day and in the past-The Begijnenhof-The new religion and the old-The Burgerweesmeisjes-The Eight Orange Blossoms-Dutch music halls-A Dutch

parts-on the Keizersgracht and the Heerengracht-has the beauty of gravity. In Venice the canal is of course also the street: gondolas and barcas are continually gliding hither and thither; but in the Keizersgracht and the Heerengracht the water is little used. One day, however, I watched a costermonger stee

r, to visit in. Accidents are not numerous, but a company exists in Amsterdam whose business it is to rescue such odd dippers as horses and carria

as Church

nd brown, with white window frames, and they rise to a great height, culminating in that curious stepped gable (with a crane and pulley in it) which is, to many eyes, the symbol of the city. I know no houses that so keep their secrets. In every one, I doubt not, is furniture worthy of the exterior: old paintings of Dutch gentlemen and gentlewomen, a landscape or two, a girl with a lute and a few tavern scenes; old silver windmills; and plate upon plate of serene blue Delft. (You may see what I me

second chapter), Owen Feltham the moralist, describes in his Brief Character of t

politick hospitality; for though it reflect yourself in your own figure, 'tis yet no longer than while you are there

All as neat as if you were in a Citizen's Wife's Cabinet; for unless it be them

ir magnificence. Their lining is yet more rich than their outside; not in hangings, but pictures, which even the poorest are there furnisht with. Not a

cot, and that is good discretion to avoid the trouble of making your will every night; for once falling out else would b

anisht seacoale, lest it soyl their buildings, of which the statelier sort are sometimes sen

s Adjut

ato Peren

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ity incident to Iron. Their houses they keep cleaner than their bodies; their bodies than their souls. Goe to one, you shall find

I can recollect. But the quiet reproduction of the stately black fa?ades is the more beautiful thing. An added dignity and repose are noticeable. I said just now that one desired to learn the secret of the calm life of these ancient grachts. But the secret of the actual houses

Damrak is a thoroughfare-its population moving continually either to or from the station. But those who use the Kalverstraat may be said almost to live in it. To be there is an end in itself. Warmoes Straat, parallel with Damrak on the other side of the Bourse, behind the Bible Hotel, is famous for it

midst of which stands the master's statue. The pavement of this plein on Sunday evening in summer is alm

he Jews' quarter, which has, I should imagine, more parents and children to the square foot than any residential region in Europe. I struggled through it at sundown one fin

at 41 Waterloo Plein is still shown; and Rembrand

ay see in certain cafés dealers in these stones turning over priceless little

d watching them being driven in, it is impossible Page 158to believe that stability can ever be attained, every blow of the monkey accounting for so very many inches. When one watches pile-driving in England it is difficult to see the effect of each blow; but during the five or fewer minutes that I sp

ue sight. Breitner has painted several pile-driving scenes

of Rotterdam made merry quite in the manner of an English humorist over Amsterdam's wooden foundations. He twitted the inhabitants with living on the tops of trees, like rooks. But as I lay awake fro

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cture in th

new Bourse looks stable enough to-day. As to its architectural charms, opinions differ. My own feeling is that it is not a style that will wear well. For a permanent public building something more classic

ground for a week every year is some compensation for the suppression of the Kermis, but another story ma

am is its heart: a fact the acquisition of which will help very sensibly. All roads in Amsterdam lead to the Dam, and all lead from it. The Dam gives the city its name-Amstel dam, the dam which stops the river Amstel on its course to the Zuyder Zee. It also gives English and American visit

reigner in Amsterdam to rage and despair, it is, after a tiring day among pictures, to hail a half empty Page 160tram at a fixed point, with Tram-halte written on it, and be treated to a pitying smile from the driver as it rushes by. Upon such mortifications is education based; for one then looks again

is to say that you have come to the city for no other purpose than to pay extravagantly for everything. So stupendous an idea checks even his importunity for a moment, and while he still reels you can escape. The

asionaly stays there, but The Hague holds her true home. The apartments are florid and not very interesting; but if the ascent of the tower is permitted one should certainly make it. It is interesting t

mined features confront one in Bol's canvases again and again in Holland, reposes in full dress on a cannon amid symbols of his victories. Close by, in the Royal Pala

Queen Wilhemina-one of the most satisfying new windows that I know, but quite lacking in any religious suggestion. That poet who c

ty-five cents, and is left to his own devices; but the Old Church has a koster who takes a pride in showing his lions and who deprecates gifts of money. An elderly, clean-shaved man with a humorous mouth, he might be taken for Holland's leading comedian. Instead, he displ

with the civil function; but the little enclosure, like a small arena, in which the church blesses unions, had to me a hardly less business-like appearance than a registry office. The comedian overflows with details. For the covering of the floor, he explains, there are five disti

her being two mirrors in the shape of a heart supporting a bouquet of white flowers. Contemplating this simple imagery she rattles to

idden to the wedding by the receipt of a box of sweets and a bottle of wine known as "Bride's tears". For the wedding day itself there is

Jews' Quart

ceive instructions at home to which they ventured not to go counter. But the dominion of these lordly dames, all despotic though it were, was ever exerted for the benefit of those who obeyed. It was the earnest and undaunted spirit of their women, which encouraged the Dutch to dare, and their calm fortitude to endure, the toils, privations, and sufferings of the first years of the war of independence against Spain; it was their activity and thrift in the management of their private incomes, that supplied them with the means of defraying an amount of national expenditure wholly unexampled in history; and to their influence is to be ascribed above all, the decorum of manners, and the purity of morals, for which the society of Holland has at all times be

small doorway on the north side. It seems to lead to a private house, but instead you find yourself in a very beautiful little enclosure of old and quaint buildings, exquisitely kept, each with a screen of pollarded chestnuts before it; in the midst of which is a toy white church with a gay little spire

as overthrown in Amsterdam, in 1578, it was taken from them, although they were

ited to Amsterdam by the merchants, and who had made it a condition of acceptance that they shou

but I remember no other case where the new religion is practised, as in the Begijnenhof, in the heart of the enemy's camp. In th

ation of which had not been nullified was retained by the sisterhood in which to bury their dead. The ceremony was very impressive. Twelve of the nuns carried t

ch are exceedingly kind to their poor, and the orphanages and almshouses (Oudemannen and Oudevrouwen houses as they are called) are very numerous. The Municipal Orphanage of Amsterdam is among the most interesting; and it is to this refuge that the girls and boys belong whom one sees so

the interminable interval called the Pause in the middle of the evening), was a series of folk songs and dances by eight girls known as the Orange Blossoms, dressed in different traditional costumes

es of entertainment, where the standard of excellence in such displays is now so high. I did not go to the theatre in Holland. My Dutch was too elementary for that. My predecessor Ireland, however, did so, and saw an amusing piece of literalness introduced into Hamlet. In the

ouse with little extinguisher spires called the St. Anthonysveeg. Here the fish market is held; and the fish market of a city like Amsterdam should certainly be visited. The Old Market is on the west

qualities: we lack foresight, the sense of order and organised industry, and the strength of mind to resist the temptations following upon a great coup. A nation of shopkeepers would not go back on the shop so completely as we do. No nation that is essentially snobbish can be accurately summed up

of Mr. Drystubble, head of the firm of Last and Co., Coffee-brokers, No. 37 Laurier Canal. Max Havelaar was published in the early sixties to draw attention to certain scandals

d-I mean Busselinck and Waterman-to do me out of the custom of Ludwig Stern. As I do not know whether you are familiar with the Exchange, I will tell you that Stern is an eminent coffee-merchant in Hamburg, who always employed Last and Co. Quite accidentally I found that out-I mean that bungling business of Busselinck and Waterman.

guilders by Stern. Our connexion dates from the beginning of the continental system, when we sm

ffee-house, ordered pe

hat, above all things, we were in want of respectable, educated young men to conduct the German correspondence. That, certainly, there were many young Germans in Amsterdam, who possessed the requisite qualifications, but that a respectable firm"-(it is the very truth),-"seeing the frivolity and immorality of young men, and the daily inc

tood at the Exchange, near the seventeenth pillar, has eloped with the daughter of B

Stern)-"that the honoured head of the firm, Ludwig Stern, had a son, Mr.

history of that daughter of Busselinck and Waterman; it won't do any harm to tell it)-"that I, mindfu

all allusion to honorari

e for him as a mother, and have his linen mended in the house"-(that is the very truth, for

that letter. You understand that old Mr. Stern could not very well giv

ages in the manner of that which I have quoted to keep one happy, and to show how entertaining a satirist of his own count

o suffer much acrimonious attack, and was probably called a Little Hollander, but the fragment from an unpublis

this is the man

hang for it. Ho

er body in little pi

eat criminal. He

d clothed and cherished her. I can call witnesses w

r self-sufficiency. Page 170It ill becomes one who

e are witnesses to prove it; and

lted the pieces-and you are satisfied with your cond

-I am

You see, my Lord, tha

y-what!-What ab

me:-on the contrary, he did many t

my Lord, she says

Officer, remove the prisoner, he must h

gue or at Arnheim. In Amsterdam every one is busy in one trade or another. There is no Pall Mall, no Rotten Row. There is no Bond Street or Rue de la Paix,

iately be changed. In summer the flat meadows near the towns, now given up to cows and plovers, would be dotted with cricketers; in winter with football-players. Outriggers and canoes

papers would be stolen; churches would be made more comfortable; hundreds of newspapers would exist where now only a handful are suffi

become pasture land; the dirt of our slums and the gentry of our villages would a

l; and there are now many golf clubs in Holland. The Dutch are excellent also at lawn tennis; and I saw the youth of Franeker very busy in a curious variety of rou

The canals then become the real streets of Amsterdam. A Dutch lady-a mother and a grandmother-threw up her hands as she told me about the skating parties to the Zuyder Zee. The skat

l eruption were taken Page 172to Holland, at the end of the week it would have ceased eve

ng is plain and bare: a man in a balloon would know the amours of the whole populace. What chance has Cupid when there are no groves? But let Holland be afforested and her da

ondent that Louis XIV. described the Dutch as a nation of sh