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diff --git a/old/ltars10.txt b/old/ltars10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6954024 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ltars10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1829 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext of Little Travels and Roadside Sketches +#24 in our series by William Makepeace Thackeray + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +LITTLE TRAVELS AND ROADSIDE SKETCHES + +by TITMARSH + +by William Makepeace Thackeray + + + + +I. FROM RICHMOND IN SURREY TO BRUSSELS IN BELGIUM + +II. GHENT--BRUGES:-- + + Ghent (1840) + + Bruges + +III. WATERLOO + + + + +LITTLE TRAVELS AND ROADSIDE SKETCHES + + + +I.--FROM RICHMOND IN SURREY TO BRUSSELS IN BELGIUM + + +. . . I quitted the "Rose Cottage Hotel" at Richmond, one of the +comfortablest, quietest, cheapest, neatest little inns in England, +and a thousand times preferable, in my opinion, to the "Star and +Garter," whither, if you go alone, a sneering waiter, with his hair +curled, frightens you off the premises; and where, if you are bold +enough to brave the sneering waiter, you have to pay ten shillings +for a bottle of claret; and whence, if you look out of the window, +you gaze on a view which is so rich that it seems to knock you down +with its splendor--a view that has its hair curled like the +swaggering waiter: I say, I quitted the "Rose Cottage Hotel" with +deep regret, believing that I should see nothing so pleasant as its +gardens, and its veal cutlets, and its dear little bowling-green, +elsewhere. But the time comes when people must go out of town, and +so I got on the top of the omnibus, and the carpet-bag was put +inside. + + +If I were a great prince and rode outside of coaches (as I should +if I were a great prince), I would, whether I smoked or not, have a +case of the best Havanas in my pocket--not for my own smoking, but +to give them to the snobs on the coach, who smoke the vilest +cheroots. They poison the air with the odor of their filthy weeds. +A man at all easy in his circumstances would spare himself much +annoyance by taking the above simple precaution. + +A gentleman sitting behind me tapped me on the back and asked for a +light. He was a footman, or rather valet. He had no livery, but +the three friends who accompanied him were tall men in pepper-and- +salt undress jackets with a duke's coronet on their buttons. + +After tapping me on the back, and when he had finished his cheroot, +the gentleman produced another wind-instrument, which he called a +"kinopium," a sort of trumpet, on which he showed a great +inclination to play. He began puffing out of the "kinopium" a most +abominable air, which he said was the "Duke's March." It was +played by particular request of one of the pepper-and-salt gentry. + +The noise was so abominable that even the coachman objected +(although my friend's brother footmen were ravished with it), and +said that it was not allowed to play toons on HIS 'bus. "Very +well," said the valet, "WE'RE ONLY OF THE DUKE OF B----'S +ESTABLISHMENT, THAT'S ALL." The coachman could not resist that +appeal to his fashionable feelings. The valet was allowed to play +his infernal kinopium, and the poor fellow (the coachman), who had +lived in some private families, was quite anxious to conciliate the +footmen "of the Duke of B.'s establishment, that's all," and told +several stories of his having been groom in Captain Hoskins's +family, NEPHEW OF GOVERNOR HOSKINS; which stories the footmen +received with great contempt. + +The footmen were like the rest of the fashionable world in this +respect. I felt for my part that I respected them. They were in +daily communication with a duke! They were not the rose, but they +had lived beside it. There is an odor in the English aristocracy +which intoxicates plebeians. I am sure that any commoner in +England, though he would die rather than confess it, would have a +respect for those great big hulking Duke's footmen. + +The day before, her Grace the Duchess had passed us alone in a +chariot-and-four with two outriders. What better mark of innate +superiority could man want? Here was a slim lady who required +four--six horses to herself, and four servants (kinopium was, no +doubt, one of the number) to guard her. + +We were sixteen inside and out, and had consequently an eighth of a +horse apiece. + +A duchess = 6, a commoner = 1/8; that is to say, + +1 duchess = 48 commoners. + +If I were a duchess of the present day, I would say to the duke my +noble husband, "My dearest grace, I think, when I travel alone in +my chariot from Hammersmith to London, I will not care for the +outriders. In these days, when there is so much poverty and so +much disaffection in the country, we should not eclabousser the +canaille with the sight of our preposterous prosperity. + +But this is very likely only plebeian envy, and I dare say, if I +were a lovely duchess of the realm, I would ride in a coach-and- +six, with a coronet on the top of my bonnet and a robe of velvet +and ermine even in the dog-days. + +Alas! these are the dog-days. Many dogs are abroad--snarling dogs, +biting dogs, envious dogs, mad dogs; beware of exciting the fury of +such with your flaming red velvet and dazzling ermine. It makes +ragged Lazarus doubly hungry to see Dives feasting in cloth-of- +gold; and so if I were a beauteous duchess . . . Silence, vain +man! Can the Queen herself make you a duchess? Be content, then, +nor gibe at thy betters of "the Duke of B----'s establishment-- +that's all." + + +ON BOARD THE "ANTWERPEN," OFF EVERYWHERE. + +We have bidden adieu to Billingsgate, we have passed the Thames +Tunnel; it is one o'clock, and of course people are thinking of +being hungry. What a merry place a steamer is on a calm sunny +summer forenoon, and what an appetite every one seems to have! We +are, I assure you, no less than 170 noblemen and gentlemen +together, pacing up and down under the awning, or lolling on the +sofas in the cabin, and hardly have we passed Greenwich when the +feeding begins. The company was at the brandy and soda-water in +an instant (there is a sort of legend that the beverage is a +preservative against sea-sickness), and I admired the penetration +of gentlemen who partook of the drink. In the first place, the +steward WILL put so much brandy into the tumbler that it is fit to +choke you; and, secondly, the soda-water, being kept as near as +possible to the boiler of the engine, is of a fine wholesome heat +when presented to the hot and thirsty traveller. Thus he is +prevented from catching any sudden cold which might be dangerous to +him. + +The forepart of the vessel is crowded to the full as much as the +genteeler quarter. There are four carriages, each with piles of +imperials and aristocratic gimcracks of travel, under the wheels of +which those personages have to clamber who have a mind to look at +the bowsprit, and perhaps to smoke a cigar at ease. The carriages +overcome, you find yourself confronted by a huge penful of Durham +oxen, lying on hay and surrounded by a barricade of oars. Fifteen +of these horned monsters maintain an incessant mooing and +bellowing. Beyond the cows come a heap of cotton-bags, beyond the +cotton-bags more carriages, more pyramids of travelling trunks, and +valets and couriers bustling and swearing round about them. And +already, and in various corners and niches, lying on coils of rope, +black tar-cloths, ragged cloaks, or hay, you see a score of those +dubious fore-cabin passengers, who are never shaved, who always +look unhappy, and appear getting ready to be sick. + +At one, dinner begins in the after-cabin--boiled salmon, boiled +beef, boiled mutton, boiled cabbage, boiled potatoes, and parboiled +wine for any gentlemen who like it, and two roast-ducks between +seventy. After this, knobs of cheese are handed round on a plate, +and there is a talk of a tart somewhere at some end of the table. +All this I saw peeping through a sort of meat-safe which ventilates +the top of the cabin, and very happy and hot did the people seem +below. + +"How the deuce CAN people dine at such an hour?" say several +genteel fellows who are watching the manoeuvres. "I can't touch a +morsel before seven." + +But somehow at half-past three o'clock we had dropped a long way +down the river. The air was delightfully fresh, the sky of a +faultless cobalt, the river shining and flashing like quicksilver, +and at this period steward runs against me bearing two great +smoking dishes covered by two great glistening hemispheres of tin. +"Fellow," says I, "what's that?" + +He lifted up the cover: it was ducks and green pease, by jingo! + +"What! haven't they done YET, the greedy creatures?" I asked. +"Have the people been feeding for three hours?" + +"Law bless you, sir, it's the second dinner. Make haste, or you +won't get a place." At which words a genteel party, with whom I +had been conversing, instantly tumbled down the hatchway, and I +find myself one of the second relay of seventy who are attacking +the boiled salmon, boiled beef, boiled cabbage, &c. As for the +ducks, I certainly had some pease, very fine yellow stiff pease, +that ought to have been split before they were boiled; but, with +regard to the ducks, I saw the animals gobbled up before my eyes by +an old widow lady and her party just as I was shrieking to the +steward to bring a knife and fork to carve them. The fellow! (I +mean the widow lady's whiskered companion)--I saw him eat pease +with the very knife with which he had dissected the duck! + +After dinner (as I need not tell the keen observer of human nature +who peruses this) the human mind, if the body be in a decent state, +expands into gayety and benevolence, and the intellect longs to +measure itself in friendly converse with the divers intelligences +around it. We ascend upon deck, and after eying each other for a +brief space and with a friendly modest hesitation, we begin anon to +converse about the weather and other profound and delightful themes +of English discourse. We confide to each other our respective +opinions of the ladies round about us. Look at that charming +creature in a pink bonnet and a dress of the pattern of a +Kilmarnock snuff-box: a stalwart Irish gentleman in a green coat +and bushy red whiskers is whispering something very agreeable into +her ear, as is the wont of gentlemen of his nation; for her dark +eyes kindle, her red lips open and give an opportunity to a dozen +beautiful pearly teeth to display themselves, and glance brightly +in the sun; while round the teeth and the lips a number of lovely +dimples make their appearance, and her whole countenance assumes a +look of perfect health and happiness. See her companion in shot +silk and a dove-colored parasol; in what a graceful Watteau-like +attitude she reclines. The tall courier who has been bouncing +about the deck in attendance upon these ladies (it is his first day +of service, and he is eager to make a favorable impression on them +and the lady's-maids too) has just brought them from the carriage a +small paper of sweet cakes (nothing is prettier than to see a +pretty woman eating sweet biscuits) and a bottle that evidently +contains Malmsey madeira. How daintily they sip it; how happy they +seem; how that lucky rogue of an Irishman prattles away! Yonder is +a noble group indeed: an English gentleman and his family. +Children, mother, grandmother, grown-up daughters, father, and +domestics, twenty-two in all. They have a table to themselves on +the deck, and the consumption of eatables among them is really +endless. The nurses have been bustling to and fro, and bringing, +first, slices of cake; then dinner; then tea with huge family jugs +of milk; and the little people have been playing hide-and-seek +round the deck, coquetting with the other children, and making +friends of every soul on board. I love to see the kind eyes of +women fondly watching them as they gambol about; a female face, be +it ever so plain, when occupied in regarding children, becomes +celestial almost, and a man can hardly fail to be good and happy +while he is looking on at such sights. "Ah, sir!" says a great big +man, whom you would not accuse of sentiment, "I have a couple of +those little things at home;" and he stops and heaves a great big +sigh and swallows down a half-tumbler of cold something and water. +We know what the honest fellow means well enough. He is saying to +himself, "God bless my girls and their mother!" but, being a +Briton, is too manly to speak out in a more intelligible way. +Perhaps it is as well for him to be quiet, and not chatter and +gesticulate like those Frenchmen a few yards from him, who are +chirping over a bottle of champagne. + +There is, as you may fancy, a number of such groups on the deck, +and a pleasant occupation it is for a lonely man to watch them and +build theories upon them, and examine those two personages seated +cheek by jowl. One is an English youth, travelling for the first +time, who has been hard at his Guidebook during the whole journey. +He has a "Manuel du Voyageur" in his pocket: a very pretty, amusing +little oblong work it is too, and might be very useful, if the +foreign people in three languages, among whom you travel, would but +give the answers set down in the book, or understand the questions +you put to them out of it. The other honest gentleman in the fur +cap, what can his occupation be? We know him at once for what he +is. "Sir," says he, in a fine German accent, "I am a brofessor of +languages, and will gif you lessons in Danish, Swedish, English, +Bortuguese, Spanish and Bersian." Thus occupied in meditations, +the rapid hours and the rapid steamer pass quickly on. The sun is +sinking, and, as he drops, the ingenious luminary sets the Thames +on fire: several worthy gentlemen, watch in hand, are eagerly +examining the phenomena attending his disappearance,--rich clouds +of purple and gold, that form the curtains of his bed,--little +barks that pass black across his disc, his disc every instant +dropping nearer and nearer into the water. "There he goes!" says +one sagacious observer. "No, he doesn't," cries another. Now he +is gone, and the steward is already threading the deck, asking the +passengers, right and left, if they will take a little supper. +What a grand object is a sunset, and what a wonder is an appetite +at sea! Lo! the horned moon shines pale over Margate, and the red +beacon is gleaming from distant Ramsgate pier. + + . . . . . . + +A great rush is speedily made for the mattresses that lie in the +boat at the ship's side; and as the night is delightfully calm, +many fair ladies and worthy men determine to couch on deck for the +night. The proceedings of the former, especially if they be young +and pretty, the philosopher watches with indescribable emotion and +interest. What a number of pretty coquetries do the ladies +perform, and into what pretty attitudes do they take care to fall! +All the little children have been gathered up by the nursery-maids, +and are taken down to roost below. Balmy sleep seals the eyes of +many tired wayfarers, as you see in the case of the Russian +nobleman asleep among the portmanteaus; and Titmarsh, who has been +walking the deck for some time with a great mattress on his +shoulders, knowing full well that were he to relinquish it for an +instant, some other person would seize on it, now stretches his bed +upon the deck, wraps his cloak about his knees, draws his white +cotton nightcap tight over his head and ears; and, as the smoke of +his cigar rises calmly upwards to the deep sky and the cheerful +twinkling stars, he feels himself exquisitely happy, and thinks of +thee, my Juliana! + + . . . . . . + +Why people, because they are in a steamboat, should get up so +deucedly early I cannot understand. Gentlemen have been walking +over my legs ever since three o'clock this morning, and, no doubt, +have been indulging in personalities (which I hate) regarding my +appearance and manner of sleeping, lying, snoring. Let the wags +laugh on; but a far pleasanter occupation is to sleep until +breakfast-time, or near it. + +The tea, and ham and eggs, which, with a beefsteak or two, and +three or four rounds of toast, form the component parts of the +above-named elegant meal, are taken in the River Scheldt. Little +neat, plump-looking churches and villages are rising here and there +among tufts of trees and pastures that are wonderfully green. To +the right, as the "Guide-book" says, is Walcheren; and on the left +Cadsand, memorable for the English expedition of 1809, when Lord +Chatham, Sir Walter Manny, and Henry Earl of Derby, at the head of +the English, gained a great victory over the Flemish mercenaries in +the pay of Philippe of Valois. The cloth-yard shafts of the +English archers did great execution. Flushing was taken, and Lord +Chatham returned to England, where he distinguished himself greatly +in the debates on the American war, which he called the brightest +jewel of the British crown. You see, my love, that, though an +artist by profession, my education has by no means been neglected; +and what, indeed, would be the pleasure of travel, unless these +charming historical recollections were brought to bear upon it? + + +ANTWERP. + +As many hundreds of thousands of English visit this city (I have +met at least a hundred of them in this half-hour walking the +streets, "Guide-book" in hand), and as the ubiquitous Murray has +already depicted the place, there is no need to enter into a long +description of it, its neatness, its beauty, and its stiff antique +splendor. The tall pale houses have many of them crimped gables, +that look like Queen Elizabeth's ruffs. There are as many people +in the streets as in London at three o'clock in the morning; the +market-women wear bonnets of a flower-pot shape, and have shining +brazen milk-pots, which are delightful to the eyes of a painter. +Along the quays of the lazy Scheldt are innumerable good-natured +groups of beer-drinkers (small-beer is the most good-natured drink +in the world); along the barriers outside of the town, and by the +glistening canals, are more beer-shops and more beer-drinkers. The +city is defended by the queerest fat military. The chief traffic +is between the hotels and the railroad. The hotels give wonderful +good dinners, and especially at the "Grand Laboureur" may be +mentioned a peculiar tart, which is the best of all tarts that +ever a man ate since he was ten years old. A moonlight walk is +delightful. At ten o'clock the whole city is quiet; and so little +changed does it seem to be, that you may walk back three hundred +years into time, and fancy yourself a majestical Spaniard, or an +oppressed and patriotic Dutchman at your leisure. You enter the +inn, and the old Quentin Durward court-yard, on which the old +towers look down. There is a sound of singing--singing at +midnight. Is it Don Sombrero, who is singing an Andalusian +seguidilla under the window of the Flemish burgomaster's daughter? +Ah, no! it is a fat Englishman in a zephyr coat: he is drinking +cold gin-and-water in the moonlight, and warbling softly-- + + + "Nix my dolly, pals, fake away, + N-ix my dolly, pals, fake a--a--way."* + + +* In 1844. + + +I wish the good people would knock off the top part of Antwerp +Cathedral spire. Nothing can be more gracious and elegant than the +lines of the first two compartments; but near the top there bulges +out a little round, ugly, vulgar Dutch monstrosity (for which the +architects have, no doubt, a name) which offends the eye cruelly. +Take the Apollo, and set upon him a bob-wig and a little cocked +hat; imagine "God Save the King" ending with a jig; fancy a +polonaise, or procession of slim, stately, elegant court beauties, +headed by a buffoon dancing a hornpipe. Marshal Gerard should have +discharged a bombshell at that abomination, and have given the +noble steeple a chance to be finished in the grand style of the +early fifteenth century, in which it was begun. + +This style of criticism is base and mean, and quite contrary to the +orders of the immortal Goethe, who was only for allowing the eye to +recognize the beauties of a great work, but would have its defects +passed over. It is an unhappy, luckless organization which will be +perpetually fault-finding, and in the midst of a grand concert of +music will persist only in hearing that unfortunate fiddle out of +tune. + +Within--except where the rococo architects have introduced their +ornaments (here is the fiddle out of tune again)--the cathedral is +noble. A rich, tender sunshine is streaming in through the +windows, and gilding the stately edifice with the purest light. +The admirable stained-glass windows are not too brilliant in their +colors. The organ is playing a rich, solemn music; some two +hundred of people are listening to the service; and there is scarce +one of the women kneeling on her chair, enveloped in her full +majestic black drapery, that is not a fine study for a painter. +These large black mantles of heavy silk brought over the heads of +the women, and covering their persons, fall into such fine folds of +drapery, that they cannot help being picturesque and noble. See, +kneeling by the side of two of those fine devout-looking figures, +is a lady in a little twiddling Parisian hat and feather, in a +little lace mantelet, in a tight gown and a bustle. She is almost +as monstrous as yonder figure of the Virgin, in a hoop, and with a +huge crown and a ball and a sceptre; and a bambino dressed in a +little hoop, and in a little crown, round which are clustered +flowers and pots of orange-trees, and before which many of the +faithful are at prayer. Gentle clouds of incense come wafting +through the vast edifice; and in the lulls of the music you hear +the faint chant of the priest, and the silver tinkle of the bell. + +Six Englishmen, with the commissionaires, and the "Murray's Guide- +books" in their hands, are looking at the "Descent from the Cross." +Of this picture the "Guide-book" gives you orders how to judge. If +it is the end of religious painting to express the religious +sentiment, a hundred of inferior pictures must rank before Rubens. +Who was ever piously affected by any picture of the master? He can +depict a livid thief writhing upon the cross, sometimes a blond +Magdalen weeping below it; but it is a Magdalen a very short time +indeed after her repentance: her yellow brocades and flaring satins +are still those which she wore when she was of the world; her body +has not yet lost the marks of the feasting and voluptuousness in +which she used to indulge, according to the legend. Not one of the +Rubens's pictures among all the scores that decorate chapels and +churches here, has the least tendency to purify, to touch the +affections, or to awaken the feelings of religious respect and +wonder. The "Descent from the Cross" is vast, gloomy, and awful; +but the awe inspired by it is, as I take it, altogether material. +He might have painted a picture of any criminal broken on the +wheel, and the sensation inspired by it would have been precisely +similar. Nor in a religious picture do you want the savoir-faire +of the master to be always protruding itself; it detracts from the +feeling of reverence, just as the thumping of cushion and the +spouting of tawdry oratory does from a sermon: meek religion +disappears, shouldered out of the desk by the pompous, stalwart, +big-chested, fresh-colored, bushy-whiskered pulpiteer. Rubens's +piety has always struck us as of this sort. If he takes a pious +subject, it is to show you in what a fine way he, Peter Paul +Rubens, can treat it. He never seems to doubt but that he is doing +it a great honor. His "Descent from the Cross," and its +accompanying wings and cover, are a set of puns upon the word +Christopher, of which the taste is more odious than that of the +hooped-petticoated Virgin yonder, with her artificial flowers, and +her rings and brooches. The people who made an offering of that +hooped petticoat did their best, at any rate; they knew no better. +There is humility in that simple, quaint present; trustfulness and +kind intention. Looking about at other altars, you see (much to +the horror of pious Protestants) all sorts of queer little emblems +hanging up under little pyramids of penny candles that are +sputtering and flaring there. Here you have a silver arm, or a +little gold toe, or a wax leg, or a gilt eye, signifying and +commemorating cures that have been performed by the supposed +intercession of the saint over whose chapel they hang. Well, +although they are abominable superstitions, yet these queer little +offerings seem to me to be a great deal more pious than Rubens's +big pictures; just as is the widow with her poor little mite +compared to the swelling Pharisee who flings his purse of gold into +the plate. + +A couple of days of Rubens and his church pictures makes one +thoroughly and entirely sick of him. His very genius and splendor +pails upon one, even taking the pictures as worldly pictures. One +grows weary of being perpetually feasted with this rich, coarse, +steaming food. Considering them as church pictures, I don't want +to go to church to hear, however splendid, an organ play the +"British Grenadiers." + + +The Antwerpians have set up a clumsy bronze statue of their +divinity in a square of the town; and those who have not enough of +Rubens in the churches may study him, and indeed to much greater +advantage, in a good, well-lighted museum. Here, there is one +picture, a dying saint taking the communion, a large piece ten or +eleven feet high, and painted in an incredibly short space of time, +which is extremely curious indeed for the painter's study. The +picture is scarcely more than an immense magnificent sketch; but it +tells the secret of the artist's manner, which, in the midst of its +dash and splendor, is curiously methodical. Where the shadows are +warm the lights are cold, and vice versa; and the picture has been +so rapidly painted, that the tints lie raw by the side of one +another, the artist not having taken the trouble to blend them. + +There are two exquisite Vandykes (whatever Sir Joshua may say of +them), and in which the very management of the gray tones which the +President abuses forms the principal excellence and charm. Why, +after all, are we not to have our opinion? Sir Joshua is not the +Pope. The color of one of those Vandykes is as fine as FINE Paul +Veronese, and the sentiment beautifully tender and graceful. + +I saw, too, an exhibition of the modern Belgian artists (1843), the +remembrance of whose pictures after a month's absence has almost +entirely vanished. Wappers's hand, as I thought, seemed to have +grown old and feeble, Verboeckhoven's cattle-pieces are almost as +good as Paul Potter's, and Keyser has dwindled down into namby- +pamby prettiness, pitiful to see in the gallant young painter who +astonished the Louvre artists ten years ago by a hand almost as +dashing and ready as that of Rubens himself. There were besides +many caricatures of the new German school, which are in themselves +caricatures of the masters before Raphael. + + +An instance of honesty may be mentioned here with applause. The +writer lost a pocket-book containing a passport and a couple of +modest ten-pound notes. The person who found the portfolio +ingeniously put it into the box of the post-office, and it was +faithfully restored to the owner; but somehow the two ten-pound +notes were absent. It was, however, a great comfort to get the +passport, and the pocket-book, which must be worth about ninepence. + + +BRUSSELS. + +It was night when we arrived by the railroad from Antwerp at +Brussels; the route is very pretty and interesting, and the flat +countries through which the road passes in the highest state of +peaceful, smiling cultivation. The fields by the roadside are +enclosed by hedges as in England, the harvest was in part down, and +an English country gentleman who was of our party pronounced the +crops to be as fine as any he had ever seen. Of this matter a +Cockney cannot judge accurately, but any man can see with what +extraordinary neatness and care all these little plots of ground +are tilled, and admire the richness and brilliancy of the +vegetation. Outside of the moat of Antwerp, and at every village +by which we passed, it was pleasant to see the happy congregations +of well-clad people that basked in the evening sunshine, and +soberly smoked their pipes and drank their Flemish beer. Men who +love this drink must, as I fancy, have something essentially +peaceful in their composition, and must be more easily satisfied +than folks on our side of the water. The excitement of Flemish +beer is, indeed, not great. I have tried both the white beer and +the brown; they are both of the kind which schoolboys denominate +"swipes," very sour and thin to the taste, but served, to be sure, +in quaint Flemish jugs that do not seem to have changed their form +since the days of Rubens, and must please the lovers of antiquarian +knick-knacks. Numbers of comfortable-looking women and children +sat beside the head of the family upon the tavern-benches, and it +was amusing to see one little fellow of eight years old smoking, +with much gravity, his father's cigar. How the worship of the +sacred plant of tobacco has spread through all Europe! I am sure +that the persons who cry out against the use of it are guilty of +superstition and unreason, and that it would be a proper and easy +task for scientific persons to write an encomium upon the weed. In +solitude it is the pleasantest companion possible, and in company +never de trop. To a student it suggests all sorts of agreeable +thoughts, it refreshes the brain when weary, and every sedentary +cigar-smoker will tell you how much good he has had from it, and +how he has been able to return to his labor, after a quarter of an +hour's mild interval of the delightful leaf of Havana. Drinking +has gone from among us since smoking came in. It is a wicked error +to say that smokers are drunkards; drink they do, but of gentle +diluents mostly, for fierce stimulants of wine or strong liquors +are abhorrent to the real lover of the Indian weed. Ah! my +Juliana, join not in the vulgar cry that is raised against us. +Cigars and cool drinks beget quiet conversations, good-humor, +meditation; not hot blood such as mounts into the head of drinkers +of apoplectic port or dangerous claret. Are we not more moral and +reasonable than our forefathers? Indeed I think so somewhat; and +many improvements of social life and converse must date with the +introduction of the pipe. + +We were a dozen tobacco-consumers in the wagon of the train that +brought us from Antwerp; nor did the women of the party (sensible +women!) make a single objection to the fumigation. But enough of +this; only let me add, in conclusion, that an excellent Israelitish +gentleman, Mr. Hartog of Antwerp, supplies cigars for a penny +apiece, such as are not to be procured in London for four times +the sum. + +Through smiling corn-fields, then, and by little woods from which +rose here and there the quaint peaked towers of some old-fashioned +chateaux, our train went smoking along at thirty miles an hour. We +caught a glimpse of Mechlin steeple, at first dark against the +sunset, and afterwards bright as we came to the other side of it, +and admired long glistening canals or moats that surrounded the +queer old town, and were lighted up in that wonderful way which the +sun only understands, and not even Mr. Turner, with all his +vermilion and gamboge, can put down on canvas. The verdure was +everywhere astonishing, and we fancied we saw many golden Cuyps as +we passed by these quiet pastures. + +Steam-engines and their accompaniments, blazing forges, gaunt +manufactories, with numberless windows and long black chimneys, of +course take away from the romance of the place but, as we whirled +into Brussels, even these engines had a fine appearance. Three or +four of the snorting, galloping monsters had just finished their +journey, and there was a quantity of flaming ashes lying under the +brazen bellies of each that looked properly lurid and demoniacal. +The men at the station came out with flaming torches--awful-looking +fellows indeed! Presently the different baggage was handed out, +and in the very worst vehicle I ever entered, and at the very +slowest pace, we were borne to the "Hotel de Suede," from which +house of entertainment this letter is written. + +We strolled into the town, but, though the night was excessively +fine and it was not yet eleven o'clock, the streets of the little +capital were deserted, and the handsome blazing cafes round about +the theatres contained no inmates. Ah, what a pretty sight is the +Parisian Boulevard on a night like this! how many pleasant hours +has one passed in watching the lights, and the hum, and the stir, +and the laughter of those happy, idle people! There was none of +this gayety here; nor was there a person to be found, except a +skulking commissioner or two (whose real name in French is that of +a fish that is eaten with fennel-sauce), and who offered to conduct +us to certain curiosities in the town. What must we English not +have done, that in every town in Europe we are to be fixed upon by +scoundrels of this sort; and what a pretty reflection it is on our +country that such rascals find the means of living on us! + + +Early the next morning we walked through a number of streets in the +place, and saw certain sights. The Park is very pretty, and all +the buildings round about it have an air of neatness--almost of +stateliness. The houses are tall, the streets spacious, and the +roads extremely clean. In the Park is a little theatre, a cafe +somewhat ruinous, a little palace for the king of this little +kingdom, some smart public buildings (with S. P. Q. B. emblazoned +on them, at which pompous inscription one cannot help laughing), +and other rows of houses somewhat resembling a little Rue de +Rivoli. Whether from my own natural greatness and magnanimity, or +from that handsome share of national conceit that every Englishman +possesses, my impressions of this city are certainly anything but +respectful. It has an absurd kind of Lilliput look with it. There +are soldiers, just as in Paris, better dressed, and doing a vast +deal of drumming and bustle; and yet, somehow, far from being +frightened at them, I feel inclined to laugh in their faces. There +are little Ministers, who work at their little bureaux; and to read +the journals, how fierce they are! A great thundering Times could +hardly talk more big. One reads about the rascally Ministers, the +miserable Opposition, the designs of tyrants, the eyes of Europe, +&c., just as one would in real journals. The Moniteur of Ghent +belabors the Independent of Brussels; the Independent falls foul of +the Lynx; and really it is difficult not to suppose sometimes that +these worthy people are in earnest. And yet how happy were they +sua si bona norint! Think what a comfort it would be to belong to +a little state like this; not to abuse their privilege, but +philosophically to use it. If I were a Belgian, I would not care +one single fig about politics. I would not read thundering +leading-articles. I would not have an opinion. What's the use of +an opinion here? Happy fellows! do not the French, the English, +and the Prussians, spare them the trouble of thinking, and make all +their opinions for them? Think of living in a country free, easy, +respectable, wealthy, and with the nuisance of talking politics +removed from out of it. All this might the Belgians have, and a +part do they enjoy, but not the best part; no, these people will be +brawling and by the ears, and parties run as high here as at Stoke +Pogis or little Pedlington. + +These sentiments were elicited by the reading of a paper at the +cafe in the Park, where we sat under the trees for a while and +sipped our cool lemonade. Numbers of statues decorate the place, +the very worst I ever saw. These Cupids must have been erected in +the time of the Dutch dynasty, as I judge from the immense +posterior developments. Indeed the arts of the country are very +low. The statues here, and the lions before the Prince of Orange's +palace, would disgrace almost the figurehead of a ship. + +Of course we paid our visit to this little lion of Brussels (the +Prince's palace, I mean). The architecture of the building is +admirably simple and firm; and you remark about it, and all other +works here, a high finish in doors, wood-works, paintings, &c., +that one does not see in France, where the buildings are often +rather sketched than completed, and the artist seems to neglect the +limbs, as it were, and extremities of his figures. + +The finish of this little place is exquisite. We went through some +dozen of state-rooms, paddling along over the slippery floors of +inlaid woods in great slippers, without which we must have come to +the ground. How did his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange manage +when he lived here, and her Imperial Highness the Princess, and +their excellencies the chamberlains and the footmen? They must +have been on their tails many times a day, that's certain, and must +have cut queer figures. + +The ball-room is beautiful--all marble, and yet with a comfortable, +cheerful look; the other apartments are not less agreeable, and the +people looked with intense satisfaction at some great lapis-lazuli +tables, which the guide informed us were worth four millions, more +or less; adding with a very knowing look, that they were un peu +plus cher que l'or. This speech has a tremendous effect on +visitors, and when we met some of our steamboat companions in the +Park or elsewhere--in so small a place as this one falls in with +them a dozen times a day--"Have you seen the tables?" was the +general question. Prodigious tables are they, indeed! Fancy a +table, my dear--a table four feet wide--a table with legs. Ye +heavens! the mind can hardly picture to itself anything so +beautiful and so tremendous! + +There are some good pictures in the palace, too, but not so +extraordinarily good as the guide-books and the guide would have us +to think. The latter, like most men of his class, is an ignoramus, +who showed us an Andrea del Sarto (copy or original), and called it +a Correggio, and made other blunders of a like nature. As is the +case in England, you are hurried through the rooms without being +allowed time to look at the pictures, and, consequently, to +pronounce a satisfactory judgment on them. + +In the Museum more time was granted me, and I spent some hours with +pleasure there. It is an absurd little gallery, absurdly imitating +the Louvre, with just such compartments and pillars as you see in +the noble Paris gallery; only here the pillars and capitals are +stucco and white in place of marble and gold, and plaster-of-paris +busts of great Belgians are placed between the pillars. An artist +of the country has made a picture containing them, and you will be +ashamed of your ignorance when you hear many of their names. Old +Tilly of Magdeburg figures in one corner; Rubens, the endless +Rubens, stands in the midst. What a noble countenance it is, and +what a manly, swaggering consciousness of power! + +The picture to see here is a portrait, by the great Peter Paul, of +one of the governesses of the Netherlands. It is just the finest +portrait that ever was seen. Only a half-length, but such a +majesty, such a force, such a splendor, such a simplicity about it! +The woman is in a stiff black dress, with a ruff and a few pearls; +a yellow curtain is behind her--the simplest arrangement that can +be conceived; but this great man knew how to rise to his occasion; +and no better proof can be shown of what a fine gentleman he was +than this his homage to the vice-Queen. A common bungler would +have painted her in her best clothes, with crown and sceptre, just +as our Queen has been painted by--but comparisons are odious. Here +stands this majestic woman in her every-day working-dress of black +satin, LOOKING YOUR HAT OFF, as it were. Another portrait of the +same personage hangs elsewhere in the gallery, and it is curious to +observe the difference between the two, and see how a man of genius +paints a portrait, and how a common limner executes it. + +Many more pictures are there here by Rubens, or rather from +Rubens's manufactory,--odious and vulgar most of them are; fat +Magdalens, coarse Saints, vulgar Virgins, with the scene-painter's +tricks far too evident upon the canvas. By the side of one of the +most astonishing color-pieces in the world, the "Worshipping of the +Magi," is a famous picture of Paul Veronese that cannot be too much +admired. As Rubens sought in the first picture to dazzle and +astonish by gorgeous variety, Paul in his seems to wish to get his +effect by simplicity, and has produced the most noble harmony that +can be conceived. Many more works are there that merit notice,--a +singularly clever, brilliant, and odious Jordaens, for example; +some curious costume-pieces; one or two works by the Belgian +Raphael, who was a very Belgian Raphael, indeed; and a long gallery +of pictures of the very oldest school, that, doubtless, afford much +pleasure to the amateurs of ancient art. I confess that I am +inclined to believe in very little that existed before the time of +Raphael. There is, for instance, the Prince of Orange's picture by +Perugino, very pretty indeed, up to a certain point, but all the +heads are repeated, all the drawing is bad and affected; and this +very badness and affectation, is what the so-called Catholic school +is always anxious to imitate. Nothing can be more juvenile or +paltry than the works of the native Belgians here exhibited. Tin +crowns are suspended over many of them, showing that the pictures +are prize compositions: and pretty things, indeed, they are! Have +you ever read an Oxford prize-poem! Well, these pictures are worse +even than the Oxford poems--an awful assertion to make. + +In the matter of eating, dear sir, which is the next subject of the +fine arts, a subject that, after many hours' walking, attracts a +gentleman very much, let me attempt to recall the transactions of +this very day at the table-d'-hote. 1, green pea-soup; 2, boiled +salmon; 3, mussels; 4, crimped skate; 5, roast-meat; 6, patties; 7, +melons; 8, carp, stewed with mushrooms and onions; 9, roast-turkey; +10, cauliflower and butter; 11, fillets of venison piques, with +asafoetida sauce; 12, stewed calf's-ear; 13, roast-veal; 14, roast- +lamb; 15, stewed cherries; 16, rice-pudding; 17, Gruyere cheese, +and about twenty-four cakes of different kinds. Except 5, 13, and +14, I give you my word I ate of all written down here, with three +rolls of bread and a score of potatoes. What is the meaning of it? +How is the stomach of man to be brought to desire and to receive +all this quantity? Do not gastronomists complain of heaviness in +London after eating a couple of mutton-chops? Do not respectable +gentlemen fall asleep in their arm-chairs? Are they fit for mental +labor? Far from it. But look at the difference here: after dinner +here one is as light as a gossamer. One walks with pleasure, reads +with pleasure, writes with pleasure--nay, there is the supper-bell +going at ten o'clock, and plenty of eaters, too. Let lord mayors +and aldermen look to it, this fact of the extraordinary increase of +appetite in Belgium, and, instead of steaming to Blackwall, come a +little further to Antwerp. + +Of ancient architectures in the place, there is a fine old Port de +Halle, which has a tall, gloomy, bastille look; a most magnificent +town-hall, that has been sketched a thousand of times, and opposite +it, a building that I think would be the very model for a +Conservative club-house in London. Oh! how charming it would be to +be a great painter, and give the character of the building, and the +numberless groups round about it. The booths lighted up by the +sun, the market-women in their gowns of brilliant hue, each group +having a character and telling its little story, the troops of men +lolling in all sorts of admirable attitudes of ease round the great +lamp. Half a dozen light-blue dragoons are lounging about, and +peeping over the artist as the drawing is made, and the sky is more +bright and blue than one sees it in a hundred years in London. + +The priests of the country are a remarkably well-fed and +respectable race, without that scowling, hang-dog look which one +has remarked among reverend gentlemen in the neighboring country of +France. Their reverences wear buckles to their shoes, light-blue +neck-cloths, and huge three-cornered hats in good condition. To- +day, strolling by the cathedral, I heard the tinkling of a bell in +the street, and beheld certain persons, male and female, suddenly +plump down on their knees before a little procession that was +passing. Two men in black held a tawdry red canopy, a priest +walked beneath it holding the sacrament covered with a cloth, and +before him marched a couple of little altar-boys in short white +surplices, such as you see in Rubens, and holding lacquered lamps. +A small train of street-boys followed the procession, cap in hand, +and the clergyman finally entered a hospital for old women, near +the church, the canopy and the lamp-bearers remaining without. + +It was a touching scene, and as I stayed to watch it, I could not +but think of the poor old soul who was dying within, listening to +the last words of prayer, led by the hand of the priest to the +brink of the black fathomless grave. How bright the sun was +shining without all the time, and how happy and careless every +thing around us looked! + + +The Duke d'Arenberg has a picture-gallery worthy of his princely +house. It does not contain great pieces, but tit-bits of pictures, +such as suit an aristocratic epicure. For such persons a great +huge canvas is too much, it is like sitting down alone to a roasted +ox; and they do wisely, I think, to patronize small, high-flavored, +delicate morceaux, such as the Duke has here. + +Among them may be mentioned, with special praise, a magnificent +small Rembrandt, a Paul Potter of exceeding minuteness and beauty, +an Ostade, which reminds one of Wilkie's early performances, and a +Dusart quite as good as Ostade. There is a Berghem, much more +unaffected than that artist's works generally are; and, what is +more, precious in the eyes of many ladies as an object of art, +there is, in one of the grand saloons, some needlework done by the +Duke's own grandmother, which is looked at with awe by those +admitted to see the palace. + +The chief curiosity, if not the chief ornament of a very elegant +library, filled with vases and bronzes, is a marble head, supposed +to be the original head of the Laocoon. It is, unquestionably a +finer head than that which at present figures upon the shoulders of +the famous statue. The expression of woe is more manly and +intense; in the group as we know it, the head of the principal +figure has always seemed to me to be a grimace of grief, as are the +two accompanying young gentlemen with their pretty attitudes, and +their little silly, open-mouthed despondency. It has always had +upon me the effect of a trick, that statue, and not of a piece of +true art. It would look well in the vista of a garden; it is not +august enough for a temple, with all its jerks and twirls, and +polite convulsions. But who knows what susceptibilities such a +confession may offend? Let us say no more about the Laocoon, nor +its head, nor its tail. The Duke was offered its weight in gold, +they say, for this head, and refused. It would be a shame to speak +ill of such a treasure, but I have my opinion of the man who made +the offer. + +In the matter of sculpture almost all the Brussels churches are +decorated with the most laborious wooden pulpits, which may be +worth their weight in gold, too, for what I know, including his +reverence preaching inside. At St. Gudule the preacher mounts into +no less a place than the garden of Eden, being supported by Adam +and Eve, by Sin and Death, and numberless other animals; he walks +up to his desk by a rustic railing of flowers, fruits, and +vegetables, with wooden peacocks, paroquets, monkeys biting apples, +and many more of the birds and beasts of the field. In another +church the clergyman speaks from out a hermitage; in a third from a +carved palm-tree, which supports a set of oak clouds that form the +canopy of the pulpit, and are, indeed, not much heavier in +appearance than so many huge sponges. A priest, however tall or +stout, must be lost in the midst of all these queer gimcracks; in +order to be consistent, they ought to dress him up, too, in some +odd fantastical suit. I can fancy the Cure of Meudon preaching out +of such a place, or the Rev. Sydney Smith, or that famous clergyman +of the time of the League, who brought all Paris to laugh and +listen to him. + + +But let us not be too supercilious and ready to sneer. It is only +bad taste. It may have been very true devotion which erected these +strange edifices. + + + +II.--GHENT--BRUGES. + + +GHENT. (1840.) + + +The Beguine College or Village is one of the most extraordinary +sights that all Europe can show. On the confines of the town of +Ghent you come upon an old-fashioned brick gate, that seems as if +it were one of the city barriers; but, on passing it, one of the +prettiest sights possible meets the eye: At the porter's lodge you +see an old lady, in black and a white hood, occupied over her book; +before you is a red church with a tall roof and fantastical Dutch +pinnacles, and all around it rows upon rows of small houses, the +queerest, neatest, nicest that ever were seen (a doll's house is +hardly smaller or prettier). Right and left, on each side of +little alleys, these little mansions rise; they have a courtlet +before them, in which some green plants or hollyhocks are growing; +and to each house is a gate, that has mostly a picture or queer- +carved ornament upon or about it, and bears the name, not of the +Beguine who inhabits it, but of the saint to whom she may have +devoted it--the house of St. Stephen, the house of St. Donatus, the +English or Angel Convent, and so on. Old ladies in black are +pacing in the quiet alleys here and there, and drop the stranger a +curtsy as he passes them and takes off his hat. Never were such +patterns of neatness seen as these old ladies and their houses. I +peeped into one or two of the chambers, of which the windows were +open to the pleasant evening sun, and saw beds scrupulously plain, +a quaint old chair or two, and little pictures of favorite saints +decorating the spotless white walls. The old ladies kept up a +quick, cheerful clatter, as they paused to gossip at the gates of +their little domiciles; and with a great deal of artifice, and +lurking behind walls, and looking at the church as if I intended to +design that, I managed to get a sketch of a couple of them. + + +But what white paper can render the whiteness of their linen; what +black ink can do justice to the lustre of their gowns and shoes? +Both of the ladies had a neat ankle and a tight stocking; and I +fancy that heaven is quite as well served in this costume as in the +dress of a scowling, stockingless friar, whom I had seen passing +just before. The look and dress of the man made me shudder. His +great red feet were bound up in a shoe open at the toes, a kind of +compromise for a sandal. I had just seen him and his brethren at +the Dominican Church, where a mass of music was sung, and orange- +trees, flags, and banners decked the aisle of the church. + +One begins to grow sick of these churches, and the hideous +exhibitions of bodily agonies that are depicted on the sides of all +the chapels. Into one wherein we went this morning was what they +called a Calvary: a horrible, ghastly image of a Christ in a tomb, +the figure of the natural size, and of the livid color of death; +gaping red wounds on the body and round the brows: the whole piece +enough to turn one sick, and fit only to brutalize the beholder of +it. The Virgin is commonly represented with a dozen swords stuck +in her heart; bleeding throats of headless John Baptists are +perpetually thrust before your eyes. At the Cathedral gate was a +papier-mache church-ornament shop--most of the carvings and reliefs +of the same dismal character: one, for instance, represented a +heart with a great gash in it, and a double row of large blood- +drops dribbling from it; nails and a knife were thrust into the +heart; round the whole was a crown of thorns. Such things are +dreadful to think of. The same gloomy spirit which made a religion +of them, and worked upon the people by the grossest of all means, +terror, distracted the natural feelings of man to maintain its +power--shut gentle women into lonely, pitiless convents--frightened +poor peasants with tales of torment--taught that the end and labor +of life was silence, wretchedness, and the scourge--murdered those +by fagot and prison who thought otherwise. How has the blind and +furious bigotry of man perverted that which God gave us as our +greatest boon, and bid us hate where God bade us love! Thank +heaven that monk has gone out of sight! It is pleasant to look at +the smiling, cheerful old Beguine, and think no more of yonder +livid face. + +One of the many convents in this little religious city seems to be +the specimen-house, which is shown to strangers, for all the guides +conduct you thither, and I saw in a book kept for the purpose the +names of innumerable Smiths and Joneses registered. + +A very kind, sweet-voiced, smiling nun (I wonder, do they always +choose the most agreeable and best-humored sister of the house to +show it to strangers?) came tripping down the steps and across the +flags of the little garden-court, and welcomed us with much +courtesy into the neat little old-fashioned, red-bricked, gable- +ended, shining-windowed Convent of the Angels. First she showed us +a whitewashed parlor, decorated with a grim picture or two and some +crucifixes and other religious emblems, where, upon stiff old +chairs, the sisters sit and work. Three or four of them were still +there, pattering over their laces and bobbins; but the chief part +of the sisterhood were engaged in an apartment hard by, from which +issued a certain odor which I must say resembled onions: it was in +fact the kitchen of the establishment. + +Every Beguine cooks her own little dinner in her own little pipkin; +and there was half a score of them, sure enough, busy over their +pots and crockery, cooking a repast which, when ready, was carried +off to a neighboring room, the refectory, where, at a ledge-table +which is drawn out from under her own particular cupboard, each nun +sits down and eats her meal in silence. More religious emblems +ornamented the carved cupboard-doors, and within, everything was +as neat as neat could be: shining pewter-ewers and glasses, snug +baskets of eggs and pats of butter, and little bowls with about a +farthing's-worth of green tea in them--for some great day of fete, +doubtless. The old ladies sat round as we examined these things, +each eating soberly at her ledge and never looking round. There +was a bell ringing in the chapel hard by. "Hark!" said our guide, +"that is one of the sisters dying. Will you come up and see the +cells?" + +The cells, it need not be said, are the snuggest little nests in +the world, with serge-curtained beds and snowy linen, and saints +and martyrs pinned against the wall. "We may sit up till twelve +o'clock, if we like," said the nun; "but we have no fire and +candle, and so what's the use of sitting up? When we have said our +prayers we are glad enough to go to sleep." + +I forget, although the good soul told us, how many times in the +day, in public and in private, these devotions are made, but fancy +that the morning service in the chapel takes place at too early an +hour for most easy travellers. We did not fail to attend in the +evening, when likewise is a general muster of the seven hundred, +minus the absent and sick, and the sight is not a little curious +and striking to a stranger. + +The chapel is a very big whitewashed place of worship, supported by +half a dozen columns on either side, over each of which stands the +statue of an Apostle, with his emblem of martyrdom. Nobody was as +yet at the distant altar, which was too far off to see very +distinctly; but I could perceive two statues over it, one of which +(St. Laurence, no doubt) was leaning upon a huge gilt gridiron that +the sun lighted up in a blaze--a painful but not a romantic +instrument of death. A couple of old ladies in white hoods were +tugging and swaying about at two bell-ropes that came down into the +middle of the church, and at least five hundred others in white +veils were seated all round about us in mute contemplation until +the service began, looking very solemn, and white, and ghastly, +like an army of tombstones by moonlight. + +The service commenced as the clock finished striking seven: the +organ pealed out, a very cracked and old one, and presently some +weak old voice from the choir overhead quavered out a canticle; +which done, a thin old voice of a priest at the altar far off (and +which had now become quite gloomy in the sunset) chanted feebly +another part of the service; then the nuns warbled once more +overhead; and it was curious to hear, in the intervals of the most +lugubrious chants, how the organ went off with some extremely +cheerful military or profane air. At one time was a march, at +another a quick tune; which ceasing, the old nuns began again, and +so sung until the service was ended. + +In the midst of it one of the white-veiled sisters approached us +with a very mysterious air, and put down her white veil close to +our ears and whispered. Were we doing anything wrong, I wondered? +Were they come to that part of the service where heretics and +infidels ought to quit the church? What have you to ask, O sacred, +white-veiled maid? + +All she said was, "Deux centiemes pour les suisses," which sum was +paid; and presently the old ladies, rising from their chairs one by +one, came in face of the altar, where they knelt down and said a +short prayer; then, rising, unpinned their veils, and folded them +up all exactly in the same folds and fashion, and laid them square +like napkins on their heads, and tucked up their long black outer +dresses, and trudged off to their convents. + +The novices wear black veils, under one of which I saw a young, +sad, handsome face; it was the only thing in the establishment that +was the least romantic or gloomy: and, for the sake of any reader +of a sentimental turn, let us hope that the poor soul has been +crossed in love, and that over some soul-stirring tragedy that +black curtain has fallen. + +Ghent has, I believe, been called a vulgar Venice. It contains +dirty canals and old houses that must satisfy the most eager +antiquary, though the buildings are not quite in so good +preservation as others that may be seen in the Netherlands. The +commercial bustle of the place seems considerable, and it contains +more beer-shops than any city I ever saw. + +These beer-shops seem the only amusement of the inhabitants, until, +at least, the theatre shall be built, of which the elevation is now +complete, a very handsome and extensive pile. There are beer-shops +in the cellars of the houses, which are frequented, it is to be +presumed, by the lower sort; there are beer-shops at the barriers, +where the citizens and their families repair; and beer-shops in the +town, glaring with gas, with long gauze blinds, however, to hide +what I hear is a rather questionable reputation. + +Our inn, the "Hotel of the Post," a spacious and comfortable +residence, is on a little place planted round with trees, and that +seems to be the Palais Royal of the town. Three clubs, which look +from without to be very comfortable, ornament this square with +their gas-lamps. Here stands, too, the theatre that is to be; +there is a cafe, and on evenings a military band plays the very +worst music I ever remember to have heard. I went out to-night to +take a quiet walk upon this place, and the horrid brazen discord of +these trumpeters set me half mad. + +I went to the cafe for refuge, passing on the way a subterraneous +beer-shop, where men and women were drinking to the sweet music of +a cracked barrel-organ. They take in a couple of French papers at +this cafe, and the same number of Belgian journals. You may +imagine how well the latter are informed, when you hear that the +battle of Boulogne, fought by the immortal Louis Napoleon, was not +known here until some gentlemen out of Norfolk brought the news +from London, and until it had travelled to Paris, and from Paris to +Brussels. For a whole hour I could not get a newspaper at the +cafe. The horrible brass band in the meantime had quitted the +place, and now, to amuse the Ghent citizens, a couple of little +boys came to the cafe and set up a small concert: one played ill on +the guitar, but sang, very sweetly, plaintive French ballads; the +other was the comic singer; he carried about with him a queer, +long, damp-looking, mouldy white hat, with no brim. "Ecoutez," +said the waiter to me, "il va faire l'Anglais; c'est tres drole!" +The little rogue mounted his immense brimless hat, and, thrusting +his thumbs into the armholes of his waistcoat, began to faire +l'Anglais, with a song in which swearing was the principal joke. +We all laughed at this, and indeed the little rascal seemed to have +a good deal of humor. + +How they hate us, these foreigners, in Belgium as much as in +France! What lies they tell of us; how gladly they would see us +humiliated! Honest folks at home over their port-wine say, "Ay, +ay, and very good reason they have too. National vanity, sir, +wounded--we have beaten them so often." My dear sir, there is not +a greater error in the world than this. They hate you because you +are stupid, hard to please, and intolerably insolent and air- +giving. I walked with an Englishman yesterday, who asked the way +to a street of which he pronounced the name very badly to a little +Flemish boy: the Flemish boy did not answer; and there was my +Englishman quite in a rage, shrieking in the child's ear as if he +must answer. He seemed to think that it was the duty of "the +snob," as he called him, to obey the gentleman. This is why we are +hated--for pride. In our free country a tradesman, a lackey, or a +waiter will submit to almost any given insult from a gentleman: in +these benighted lands one man is as good as another; and pray God +it may soon be so with us! Of all European people, which is the +nation that has the most haughtiness, the strongest prejudices, the +greatest reserve, the greatest dulness? I say an Englishman of the +genteel classes. An honest groom jokes and hobs-and-nobs and makes +his way with the kitchen-maids, for there is good social nature in +the man; his master dare not unbend. Look at him, how he scowls at +you on your entering an inn-room; think how you scowl yourself to +meet his scowl. To-day, as we were walking and staring about the +place, a worthy old gentleman in a carriage, seeing a pair of +strangers, took off his hat and bowed very gravely with his old +powdered head out of the window: I am sorry to say that our first +impulse was to burst out laughing--it seemed so supremely +ridiculous that a stranger should notice and welcome another. + +As for the notion that foreigners hate us because we have beaten +them so often, my dear sir, this is the greatest error in the +world: well-educated Frenchmen DO NOT BELIEVE THAT WE HAVE BEATEN +THEM. A man was once ready to call me out in Paris because I said +that we had beaten the French in Spain; and here before me is a +French paper, with a London correspondent discoursing about Louis +Buonaparte and his jackass expedition to Boulogne. "He was +received at Eglintoun, it is true," says the correspondent, "but +what do you think was the reason? Because the English nobility +were anxious to revenge upon his person (with some coups de lance) +the checks which the 'grand homme' his uncle had inflicted on us in +Spain." + +This opinion is so general among the French, that they would laugh +at you with scornful incredulity if you ventured to assert any +other. Foy's history of the Spanish War does not, unluckily, go +far enough. I have read a French history which hardly mentions the +war in Spain, and calls the battle of Salamanca a French victory. +You know how the other day, and in the teeth of all evidence, the +French swore to their victory of Toulouse: and so it is with the +rest; and you may set it down as pretty certain, 1st, That only a +few people know the real state of things in France, as to the +matter in dispute between us; 2nd, That those who do, keep the +truth to themselves, and so it is as if it had never been. + +These Belgians have caught up, and quite naturally, the French +tone. We are perfide Albion with them still. Here is the Ghent +paper, which declares that it is beyond a doubt that Louis Napoleon +was sent by the English and Lord Palmerston; and though it states +in another part of the journal (from English authority) that the +Prince had never seen Lord Palmerston, yet the lie will remain +uppermost--the people and the editor will believe it to the end of +time. . . . See to what a digression yonder little fellow in the +tall hat has given rise! Let us make his picture, and have done +with him. + + +I could not understand, in my walks about this place, which is +certainly picturesque enough, and contains extraordinary charms in +the shape of old gables, quaint spires, and broad shining canals-- +I could not at first comprehend why, for all this, the town was +especially disagreeable to me, and have only just hit on the reason +why. Sweetest Juliana, you will never guess it: it is simply this, +that I have not seen a single decent-looking woman in the whole +place; they look all ugly, with coarse mouths, vulgar figures, mean +mercantile faces; and so the traveller walking among them finds the +pleasure of his walk excessively damped, and the impressions made +upon him disagreeable. + +In the Academy there are no pictures of merit; but sometimes a +second-rate picture is as pleasing as the best, and one may pass an +hour here very pleasantly. There is a room appropriated to Belgian +artists, of which I never saw the like: they are, like all the rest +of the things in this country, miserable imitations of the French +school--great nude Venuses, and Junos a la David, with the drawing +left out. + + +BRUGES. + +The change from vulgar Ghent, with its ugly women and coarse +bustle, to this quiet, old, half-deserted, cleanly Bruges, was very +pleasant. I have seen old men at Versailles, with shabby coats and +pigtails, sunning themselves on the benches in the walls; they had +seen better days, to be sure, but they were gentlemen still: and so +we found, this morning, old dowager Bruges basking in the pleasant +August sun, and looking if not prosperous, at least cheerful and +well-bred. It is the quaintest and prettiest of all the quaint and +pretty towns I have seen. A painter might spend months here, and +wander from church to church, and admire old towers and pinnacles, +tall gables, bright canals, and pretty little patches of green +garden and moss-grown wall, that reflect in the clear quiet water. +Before the inn-window is a garden, from which in the early morning +issues a most wonderful odor of stocks and wallflowers; next comes +a road with trees of admirable green; numbers of little children +are playing in this road (the place is so clean that they may roll +in it all day without soiling their pinafores), and on the other +side of the trees are little old-fashioned, dumpy, whitewashed, +red-tiled houses. A poorer landscape to draw never was known, nor +a pleasanter to see--the children especially, who are inordinately +fat and rosy. Let it be remembered, too, that here we are out of +the country of ugly women: the expression of the face is almost +uniformly gentle and pleasing, and the figures of the women, +wrapped in long black monk-like cloaks and hoods, very picturesque. +No wonder there are so many children: the "Guide-book" (omniscient +Mr. Murray!) says there are fifteen thousand paupers in the town, +and we know how such multiply. How the deuce do their children +look so fat and rosy? By eating dirt-pies, I suppose. I saw a +couple making a very nice savory one, and another employed in +gravely sticking strips of stick betwixt the pebbles at the house- +door, and so making for herself a stately garden. The men and +women don't seem to have much more to do. There are a couple of +tall chimneys at either suburb of the town, where no doubt +manufactories are at work, but within the walls everybody seems +decently idle. + +We have been, of course, abroad to visit the lions. The tower in +the Grand Place is very fine, and the bricks of which it is built +do not yield a whit in color to the best stone. The great building +round this tower is very like the pictures of the Ducal Palace at +Venice; and there is a long market area, with columns down the +middle, from which hung shreds of rather lean-looking meat, that +would do wonders under the hands of Cattermole or Haghe. In the +tower there is a chime of bells that keep ringing perpetually. +They not only play tunes of themselves, and every quarter of an +hour, but an individual performs selections from popular operas on +them at certain periods of the morning, afternoon, and evening. I +have heard to-day "Suoni la Tromba," "Son Vergin Vezzosa," from the +"Puritani," and other airs, and very badly they were played too; +for such a great monster as a tower-bell cannot be expected to +imitate Madame Grisi or even Signor Lablache. Other churches +indulge in the same amusement, so that one may come here and live +in melody all day or night, like the young woman in Moore's "Lalla +Rookh." + +In the matter of art, the chief attractions of Bruges are the +pictures of Hemling, that are to be seen in the churches, the +hospital, and the picture-gallery of the place. There are no more +pictures of Rubens to be seen, and, indeed, in the course of a +fortnight, one has had quite enough of the great man and his +magnificent, swaggering canvases. What a difference is here with +simple Hemling and the extraordinary creations of his pencil! The +hospital is particularly rich in them; and the legend there is that +the painter, who had served Charles the Bold in his war against the +Swiss, and his last battle and defeat, wandered back wounded and +penniless to Bruges, and here found cure and shelter. + +This hospital is a noble and curious sight. The great hall is +almost as it was in the twelfth century; it is spanned by Saxon +arches, and lighted by a multiplicity of Gothic windows of all +sizes; it is very lofty, clean, and perfectly well ventilated; a +screen runs across the middle of the room, to divide the male from +the female patients, and we were taken to examine each ward, where +the poor people seemed happier than possibly they would have been +in health and starvation without it. Great yellow blankets were on +the iron beds, the linen was scrupulously clean, glittering pewter- +jugs and goblets stood by the side of each patient, and they were +provided with godly books (to judge from the binding), in which +several were reading at leisure. Honest old comfortable nuns, in +queer dresses of blue, black, white, and flannel, were bustling +through the room, attending to the wants of the sick. I saw about +a dozen of these kind women's faces: one was young--all were +healthy and cheerful. One came with bare blue arms and a great +pile of linen from an outhouse--such a grange as Cedric the Saxon +might have given to a guest for the night. A couple were in a +laboratory, a tall, bright, clean room, 500 years old at least. +"We saw you were not very religious," said one of the old ladies, +with a red, wrinkled, good-humored face, "by your behavior +yesterday in chapel." And yet we did not laugh and talk as we used +at college, but were profoundly affected by the scene that we saw +there. It was a fete-day: a mass of Mozart was sung in the +evening--not well sung, and yet so exquisitely tender and +melodious, that it brought tears into our eyes. There were not +above twenty people in the church: all, save three or four, were +women in long black cloaks. I took them for nuns at first. They +were, however, the common people of the town, very poor indeed, +doubtless, for the priest's box that was brought round was not +added to by most of them, and their contributions were but two-cent +pieces,--five of these go to a penny; but we know the value of +such, and can tell the exact worth of a poor woman's mite! The +box-bearer did not seem at first willing to accept our donation--we +were strangers and heretics; however, I held out my hand, and he +came perforce as it were. Indeed it had only a franc in it: but +que voulez-vous? I had been drinking a bottle of Rhine wine that +day, and how was I to afford more? The Rhine wine is dear in this +country, and costs four francs a bottle. + +Well, the service proceeded. Twenty poor women, two Englishmen, +four ragged beggars, cowering on the steps; and there was the +priest at the altar, in a great robe of gold and damask, two little +boys in white surplices serving him, holding his robe as he rose +and bowed, and the money-gatherer swinging his censer, and filling +the little chapel with smoke. The music pealed with wonderful +sweetness; you could see the prim white heads of the nuns in their +gallery. The evening light streamed down upon old statues of +saints and carved brown stalls, and lighted up the head of the +golden-haired Magdalen in a picture of the entombment of Christ. +Over the gallery, and, as it were, a kind protectress to the poor +below, stood the statue of the Virgin. + + + +III.--WATERLOO. + + +It is, my dear, the happy privilege of your sex in England to quit +the dinner-table after the wine-bottles have once or twice gone +round it, and you are thereby saved (though, to be sure, I can't +tell what the ladies do up stairs)--you are saved two or three +hours' excessive dulness, which the men are obliged to go through. + +I ask any gentleman who reads this--the letters to my Juliana being +written with an eye to publication--to remember especially how many +times, how many hundred times, how many thousand times, in his +hearing, the battle of Waterloo has been discussed after dinner, +and to call to mind how cruelly he has been bored by the +discussion. "Ah, it was lucky for us that the Prussians came up!" +says one little gentleman, looking particularly wise and ominous. +"Hang the Prussians!" (or, perhaps, something stronger "the +Prussians!") says a stout old major on half-pay. "We beat the +French without them, sir, as beaten them we always have! We were +thundering down the hill of Belle Alliance, sir, at the backs of +them, and the French were crying 'Sauve qui peut' long before the +Prussians ever touched them!" And so the battle opens, and for +many mortal hours, amid rounds of claret, rages over and over +again. + +I thought to myself considering the above things, what a fine thing +it will be in after-days to say that I have been to Brussels and +never seen the field of Waterloo; indeed, that I am such a +philosopher as not to care a fig about the battle--nay, to regret, +rather, that when Napoleon came back, the British Government had +not spared their men and left him alone. + +But this pitch of philosophy was unattainable. This morning, after +having seen the Park, the fashionable boulevard, the pictures, the +cafes--having sipped, I say, the sweets of every flower that grows +in this paradise of Brussels, quite weary of the place, we mounted +on a Namur diligence, and jingled off at four miles an hour for +Waterloo. + +The road is very neat and agreeable: the Forest of Soignies here +and there interposes pleasantly, to give your vehicle a shade; the +country, as usual, is vastly fertile and well cultivated. A farmer +and the conducteur were my companions in the imperial, and could I +have understood their conversation, my dear, you should have had +certainly a report of it. The jargon which they talked was, +indeed, most queer and puzzling--French, I believe, strangely +hashed up and pronounced, for here and there one could catch a few +words of it. Now and anon, however, they condescended to speak in +the purest French they could muster; and, indeed, nothing is more +curious than to hear the French of the country. You can't +understand why all the people insist upon speaking it so badly. I +asked the conductor if he had been at the battle; he burst out +laughing like a philosopher, as he was, and said "Pas si bete." I +asked the farmer whether his contributions were lighter now than in +King William's time, and lighter than those in the time of the +Emperor? He vowed that in war-time he had not more to pay than in +time of peace (and this strange fact is vouched for by every person +of every nation), and being asked wherefore the King of Holland had +been ousted from his throne, replied at once, "Parceque c'etoit un +voleur:" for which accusation I believe there is some show of +reason, his Majesty having laid hands on much Belgian property +before the lamented outbreak which cost him his crown. A vast deal +of laughing and roaring passed between these two worldly people and +the postilion, whom they called "baron," and I thought no doubt +that this talk was one of the many jokes that my companions were +in the habit of making. But not so: the postilion was an actual +baron, the bearer of an ancient name, the descendant of gallant +gentlemen. Good heavens! what would Mrs. Trollope say to see his +lordship here? His father the old baron had dissipated the family +fortune, and here was this young nobleman, at about five-and-forty, +compelled to bestride a clattering Flemish stallion, and bump over +dusty pavements at the rate of five miles an hour. But see the +beauty of high blood: with what a calm grace the man of family +accommodates himself to fortune. Far from being cast down, his +lordship met his fate like a man: he swore and laughed the whole of +the journey, and as we changed horses, condescended to partake of +half a pint of Louvain beer, to which the farmer treated him-- +indeed the worthy rustic treated me to a glass too. + +Much delight and instruction have I had in the course of the +journey from my guide, philosopher, and friend, the author of +"Murray's Handbook." He has gathered together, indeed, a store of +information, and must, to make his single volume, have gutted many +hundreds of guide-books. How the Continental ciceroni must hate +him, whoever he is! Every English party I saw had this infallible +red book in their hands, and gained a vast deal of historical and +general information from it. Thus I heard, in confidence, many +remarkable anecdotes of Charles V., the Duke of Alva, Count Egmont, +all of which I had before perceived, with much satisfaction, not +only in the "Handbook," but even in other works. + +The Laureate is among the English poets evidently the great +favorite of our guide: the choice does honor to his head and heart. +A man must have a very strong bent for poetry, indeed, who carries +Southey's works in his portmanteau, and quotes them in proper time +and occasion. Of course at Waterloo a spirit like our guide's +cannot fail to be deeply moved, and to turn to his favorite poet +for sympathy. Hark how the laureated bard sings about the +tombstones at Waterloo:-- + + + "That temple to our hearts was hallow'd now, + For many a wounded Briton there was laid, + With such for help as time might then allow, + From the fresh carnage of the field conveyed. + And they whom human succor could not save, + Here, in its precincts, found a hasty grave. + And here, on marble tablets, set on high, + In English lines by foreign workmen traced, + The names familiar to an English eye, + Their brethren here the fit memorial placed; + Whose unadorned inscriptions briefly tell + THEIR GALLANT COMRADES' rank, and where they fell. + The stateliest monument of human pride, + Enriched with all magnificence of art, + To honor chieftains who in victory died, + Would wake no stronger feeling in the heart + Than these plain tablets by the soldier's hand + Raised to his comrades in a foreign land." + + +There are lines for you! wonderful for justice, rich in thought and +novel ideas. The passage concerning their gallant comrades' rank +should be specially remarked. There indeed they lie, sure enough: +the Honorable Colonel This of the Guards, Captain That of the +Hussars, Major So-and-So of the Dragoons, brave men and good, who +did their duty by their country on that day, and died in the +performance of it. + +Amen. But I confess fairly, that in looking at these tablets, I +felt very much disappointed at not seeing the names of the MEN as +well as the officers. Are they to be counted for nought? A few +more inches of marble to each monument would have given space for +all the names of the men; and the men of that day were the winners +of the battle. We have a right to be as grateful individually to +any given private as to any given officer; their duties were very +much the same. Why should the country reserve its gratitude for +the genteel occupiers of the army-list, and forget the gallant +fellows whose humble names were written in the regimental books? +In reading of the Wellington wars, and the conduct of the men +engaged in them, I don't know whether to respect them or to wonder +at them most. They have death, wounds, and poverty in contemplation; +in possession, poverty, hard labor, hard fare, and small thanks. +If they do wrong, they are handed over to the inevitable provost- +marshal; if they are heroes, heroes they may be, but they remain +privates still, handling the old brown-bess, starving on the old +twopence a day. They grow gray in battle and victory, and after +thirty years of bloody service, a young gentleman of fifteen, fresh +from a preparatory school, who can scarcely read, and came but +yesterday with a pinafore in to papa's dessert--such a young +gentleman, I say, arrives in a spick-and-span red coat, and calmly +takes the command over our veteran, who obeys him as if God and +nature had ordained that so throughout time it should be. + +That privates should obey, and that they should be smartly punished +if they disobey, this one can understand very well. But to say +obey for ever and ever--to say that Private John Styles is, by some +physical disproportion, hopelessly inferior to Cornet Snooks--to +say that Snooks shall have honors, epaulets, and a marble tablet +if he dies, and that Styles shall fight his fight, and have his +twopence a day, and when shot down shall be shovelled into a hole +with other Styleses, and so forgotten; and to think that we had in +the course of the last war some 400,000 of these Styleses, and some +10,000, say, of the Snooks sort--Styles being by nature exactly as +honest, clever, and brave as Snooks--and to think that the 400,000 +should bear this, is the wonder! + +Suppose Snooks makes a speech. "Look at these Frenchmen, British +soldiers," says he, "and remember who they are. Two-and-twenty +years since they hurled their King from his throne and murdered +him" (groans). "They flung out of their country their ancient and +famous nobility--they published the audacious doctrine of equality-- +they made a cadet of artillery, a beggarly lawyer's son, into an +Emperor, and took ignoramuses from the ranks--drummers and +privates, by Jove!--of whom they made kings, generals, and +marshals! Is this to be borne?" (Cries of "No! no!") "Upon them, +my boys! down with these godless revolutionists, and rally round +the British lion!" + +So saying, Ensign Snooks (whose flag, which he can't carry, is held +by a huge grizzly color-sergeant,) draws a little sword, and pipes +out a feeble huzza. The men of his company, roaring curses at the +Frenchmen, prepare to receive and repel a thundering charge of +French cuirassiers. The men fight, and Snooks is knighted because +the men fought so well. + +But live or die, win or lose, what do THEY get? English glory is +too genteel to meddle with those humble fellows. She does not +condescend to ask the names of the poor devils whom she kills in +her service. Why was not every private man's name written upon the +stones in Waterloo Church as well as every officer's? Five hundred +pounds to the stone-cutters would have served to carve the whole +catalogue, and paid the poor compliment of recognition to men who +died in doing their duty. If the officers deserved a stone, the +men did. But come, let us away and drop a tear over the Marquis of +Anglesea's leg! + +As for Waterloo, has it not been talked of enough after dinner? +Here are some oats that were plucked before Hougoumont, where grow +not only oats, but flourishing crops of grape-shot, bayonets, and +legion-of-honor crosses, in amazing profusion. + +Well, though I made a vow not to talk about Waterloo either here or +after dinner, there is one little secret admission that one must +make after seeing it. Let an Englishman go and see that field, and +he NEVER FORGETS IT. The sight is an event in his life; and, +though it has been seen by millions of peaceable GENTS--grocers +from Bond Street, meek attorneys from Chancery Lane, and timid +tailors from Piccadilly--I will wager that there is not one of them +but feels a glow as he looks at the place, and remembers that he, +too, is an Englishman. + +It is a wrong, egotistical, savage, unchristian feeling, and that's +the truth of it. A man of peace has no right to be dazzled by that +red-coated glory, and to intoxicate his vanity with those +remembrances of carnage and triumph. The same sentence which tells +us that on earth there ought to be peace and good-will amongst men, +tells us to whom GLORY belongs. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Little Travels and Roadside Sketches + |