A DUTCH BLOOMFIELD. 109 great painter Vandyke said, that he would have been unequalled had he given more tenderness to his colouring, and that in his pencil he was without a rival. In the council chamber there is a fine composition by Bronchorst, who died 1661, representing the Judgment of Solomon, and another of Christ driving the money changers out of the temple; the figures are finely finished, and the architecture, in which he excelled, truly admirable. In the great hall of the physicians and surgeons is a celebrated picture by Cornelius de Morn or Maan, who was born in this town, and who died 1706: the subject of it is a representation of the most celebrated doctors and surgeons of his time: it is in the manner of Titian, and in high estimation. Michael Jansen Mirevelt, who died in 1641, was also born in this town: he was an admirable portrait painter, and is said to have been in such high repute, and so indefatigable, that Sandrart, Descampe, and the authors of the Abrégé de la Vie des Peintres assert, that he painted at least ten thousand portraits, for the smallest of which he never received less than one hundred and fifty guilders, or fifteen pounds. In the surgeons' hall there is a fine picture by this artist. This town has produced also a self-taught poet, who flourished rather more than a century since, of the name 110 DELFT SPIN-HOUSE. of Hubert Noot. This man, who is said to be the father of Dutch pastoral and elegiac poetry, much resembles our Bloomfield in his early difficulties and his talents: he made his verses whilst he laboured, and committed them to memory from not being able to write. After he had taught himself to read, he even sold his wearing apparel to purchase books. He died in 1733: his images are said to be highly poetical, and his versification melodious. 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 floggedWhat 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!— Perhaps the legislature may think that it punishes the poor prostitute of the spill-house, by the oppression of her creditor and her gaoler; and thus, by Justice presenting a variety of shapes, she realizes the remark of our divine bard— We must not make a scarecrow of the law, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror. Measure for Measure, Act III. Scene 5. PASSAGE TO THE HAGUE. 111 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 webfooted animal, and he soon feels out of his proper element when out of a canal. Right merrily did I follow my commissary and his wheelbarrow 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 in 112 A DUTCH DISCUSSION. telligibly expressed our approach to the residence of sovereignty. The single ride from Delft to the Hague would alone have repaid the trouble and occasional anxiety I experienced in getting into, and afterwards out of the country. All the principal country-houses have a wooden letterbox standing upon the margin of the canal, 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 is 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. In the steerage I found three very handsome and wellbred Dutch young ladies seated, one of whom spoke English very well they all insisted upon my being an Englishman the moment I entered the boat: how they could think so, the spirit of physiognomy, if there be such a spirit, must explain; for in my best hours of health and delight, John Bull would scarcely acknowledge me for one of his family. My charming companions talked much of Shakspeare and Milton, with both of whom they seemed to be familiar. They entered with much ability on Desdemona's wish, alluding to her passion for Othello, "that Heaven "had made her such a man." Two of the three fair disputants contended that she would have been more happy had Providence made her a man, and such a man as Othello; the other observed that was impossible, for ast she was deeply in love with the Moor, it would have been irreconcileable to her passion to have been of his own sex, by which she could have felt only friendship for him. I was so pleased with fair my who talked, sung, voyageurs, and laughed, with so much talent, taste, and vivacity, that our two hours or six miles, the distance from Delft to the Hague passed rapidly away, and tempted me not to quit the vessel to visit the village of Ryswick, which lies about half way, and is only about half a mile from the canal, and, I am told, abounds with beauty and richness of scenery. It is known to the political world for the celebrated peace concluded there at a little palace of William III. called the House of Neubeurg, after a nine years' war, on the 20th Q |