a bottle of claret. Before the hotel all was bustle, from the number of carriages filled with genteel people proceeding to, and returning from the Hague, to and from which boats are passing every half hour.

Here, as in every inn in Holland, however humble, the guest has always the comfort of a silver fork placed by his side, and a tablecloth of snowy whiteness in the room where I dined was a glass china cupboard, and every article within it bore shining testimony to its having received a due proportion of diurnal care. Delft is a large but gloomy town, and as silent as a monastery, except in the street immediately leading to the Hague; apon quitting which, no sound was to be heard but that of mops and buckets :` narrow, green, stagnant canals divide most of the streets, which are generally, for some little distance before the houses, paved with black and white marble. However the principal part of the town is handsome, having two spacious streets, with broad canals bor dered with trees.

Although the taciturnity of the place would induce a stranger to think its population small, it reckons 13,000 inhabitants, 6,000 of whom, since the war, have been reduced to the class of paupers. I met with two or three inhabitants who spoke good English, and expressed in terms of feeling misery, the heavy losses and distresses which they had sustained by a rupture with England; yet, strange as it may appear, they seemed to think well of their new government, and spoke with great esteem of their king, of whom they said they well knew he felt the impolicy of a war with England as much as any Dutchman, and that he would rejoice at the hour when the great political events which were passing in other parts of the world would admit of a renewal of amity and free intercourse with that country-they spoke of the government of the Stadtholder with contempt, and of the Republic with detestation.

I visited the new church, the tower of which is

very

fine, and of a prodigious altitude. The view from the steeple of this church is esteemed the most beautiful in Holland, and is remarkably fine and extensive; but the beauty of the scenery is principally at a distance, as the land immediately surrounding the town is boggy, do.ted with piles of white turf. The chimes of this church, or as they are called, the carillons, are very numerous, consisting of four or five hundred bells, which are celebrated for the sweetness of their tones. This species of music is entirely of Dutch origin, and in Holland and the countries that formerly belonged to her, it can only be heard in great perfection. The French and Italians have never imitated the Dutch in this taste; we have made the attempt in some of our churches, but in such a miserable bungling manner, that the nerves of even a Dutch skipper would scarcely be able to endure it.

These caruions are played upon by the means of a kind of keys communicating with the bells, as those of the piano forte and organ do with strings and pipes, by a person called the carilloneur, who is regularly instructed in the science, the labour of the practical part of which is very severe, he being almost always obliged to perform in his shirt with his collar unbuttoned, and generally forced by exertion into a profuse perspiration, some of the keys requiring a two pound weight to depress them: after the performance, the cariiloneur is frequently obliged immediately to go to bed by pedals communicating with the great bells, he is enabled with his feet to play the base to several sprightly and even difficult airs, which he performs with both his hands upon the upper species of keys, which are projecting sticks, wide enough asunder to be struck with violence and celerity by either of the two hands edgeways, without the danger of hitting the adjoining keys. The player uses a thick leather covering for the little finger of each hand, to prevent the excessive pain which the violence of the stroke, necessary to produce sufficient sound, requires: these

musicians are very dextrous, and will play pieces in three parts, producing the first and second treble with the two hands on the upper set of keys, and the base as before described. By this invention a whole town is entertained in every quarter of it; that spirit of industry which pervades the kingdom, no doubt, originally suggested this sudorific mode of amusing a large population, without making it necessary for them to quit their avocations one moment to enjoy them. They have often sounded to my ear, at a distance, like the sounds of a very sweet hand-organ; but the want of something to stop the vibration of each bell, to prevent the notes of one passage from running into another, is a desideratum which would render this sort of music still more highly delightful. Holland is the only country I have been in, where the sound of bells was gratifying. The dismal tone of our own on solemn occasions, and the horrible indiscriminate clashing of the bells of the Greek church in Russia, are, at least to my ear, intolerable nuisances. I afterwards learnt that the carillons at Amsterdam have three octaves, with all the semi-tones complete on the manual, and two octaves in the pedals; each key for the natural sound projects near a foot, and those for the flats and sharps, which are played several inches higher, only half as much. The British army were equally surprized and gratified, by hearing upon the carillons of the principal church at Alkmaar, their favourite air of "God save the king" played in a masterly manner, when they entered that town.

In this church is a superb monument raised to the memory of William the First, the great Prince of Orange, in the east end of the church. The Dutch, with their accustomed frugality, do not much indulge in mausoleums and statues.

In the spin-house, or bridewell, were several female prisoners, many of whom had been confined for several years, for respecting the genial laws of nature more than the sober laws of the nation, and some of

them, for the same offence, had been publicly and severely flogged-What a contradiction in this government does its spin and its spill-houses present! In one place it sanctions prostitutes, and in the other imprisons and scourges them!

The stranger will find nothing to detain him in this melancholy town long. In Holland every traveller naturally becomes amphibious: the constant contemplation of so much water quickly engenders all the inclinations of a web-footed animal, and he soon feels out of his proper element when out of a canal. Right merrily did I follow my commissary and his wheel-, barrow with my baggage through the whole town, until I reached the Hague gate, when my favorite conveyance, the treckschuyt, was ready to start. The boat-bell rung, all the party got on board, and away we glided, passing on each side of us the most lovely close scenery. Instead of seeing, as had been represented to me in England, a dull monotonous scene of green canals, stunted willows, and from a solitary house or two, foggy merchants, stupidly gazing in fixed attention upon frog water, the canal was enlivened with boats of pleasure and traffic continually passing and repassing, the noble level road on the right, broad enough to admit four or five carriages abreast, thickly planted with rows of fine elms, the number of curricles and carriages, and horses, driving close to the margin of the water, the fine woods, beautiful gardens, country houses, not two of which were similar; the eccentricity of the little summer temples hanging over the edges of the canal, the occasional views of rich pasture land, seen as I saw them, under a rich warm sky, formed a tout ensemble as delightful as it was novel, and very intelligibly ex pressed our approach to the residence of sovereignty. The single ride of Delft to the Hague would alone have repaid the trouble and occasional anxiety Lex: perienced in getting into, and afterwards out of the Country.

All the principal country-houses have a wooden fetter-box standing upon the margin of the canals into which one of the boatmen, upon the treckschuyt being steered close to the adjoining bank, without stopping, drops the letters and parcels directed to the family residing there. In no part of the continent iş social intercourse and communication so frequent, cheap, and certain.

For keeping the dams and roads in repair, turnpikes are established at proper distances, and the care of their repair is confided to directors, who are always gentlemen of high respectability, and receive a fixed salary for their services. The principal roads are kept in good condition; and on account of the flatness of the country, are very easy for the horses, but the bye roads are intolerably bad.

As we approached the Hague, the scenery became more refined and beautiful, and the last light of a setting sun purpled the lofty edifices of that celebrated city it was quite dusk as we passed the water-houses, in which the royal yachts are contained, the rich gilded carving of which was just visible through the grated doors; and after gliding along the suburbs, which, were well lighted, though not in this respect compar able with London, I disembarked, bade adieu to my charming companions, and proceeded with my usual attendant, through the greater part of the city to the Mareschal de Turenne, an excellent hotel, but at a most inconvenient distance from the place where the Delft boats stop, and where the others for Leyden or Haarlem start from.

The morning after my arrival there was a grand review of the Dutch troops, who presented a very soldierly appearance; that of the body-guard, both horse and infantry, was very superb in military ap pointments. I was well informed that the king felt so secure in his government, that there was not at this time twenty French soldiers in the country, and that, accompanied by his queen, he was attending to YOL. XXVIL,

DD