up to them possession of the castle: thinking in the language of Shakspeare, "If I depart from thee, I cannot live; "And in thy sight to die, what were it else, Henry IV. Part 2d. Act. 4. History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573, which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered them immortal in the annals of their country. Those heroines, when the garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which Frederic of Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honour. When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame the most renowned he roines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favourite subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors. The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles. long, and about the same number broad, is said to be above six feet deep, and lies between Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and turf. Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists which it had the honour of giving birth to. The first in chronological order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers' shops, and all those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the picturemerchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length he was relieved from his indigence and dependence, by the bounty of his confessor, who seeing his uncommon genuis, was resolved to the extent of his power, to extricate it from the odious shackles which encumbered it, and accordingly advanced him six hundred guilders, by a judicious application of which he emancipated himself from his embarrassments: he now doubled the price of his pictures, and was enabled to give his daughter a marriage portion of twenty thousand guilders. As soon as he was enabled to pay his confessor, he sent the sum he had borrowed, accompanied with a chef-d'œuvre of his works, representing his holy benefactor in the character of St. Hubert kneeling before his horse. All connoisseurs agree that this picture is the finest he ever painted. Wouvermans resided in the Bakenessegragt, a short distance from the church. The depression of mind which his early disappointments excited, never quitted this great artist: a few hours before he died, he ordered a box filled with his studies and designs to be burned, saying, "I was so long unrewarded for my labours, that I wish to prevent my son from being allured by these designs, to embrace so unpromising and uncertain a profession as mine." The works of Wouvermans and Bamboccio were continually placed in competition by the best judges of art, and the latter having painted a picture which was much admired, John de Wilt prevailed upon Wouvermans to paint the same subject, which he executed in a brilliant manner: these pictures were soon afterwards exhibited together to the public, and De Wilt, when the room in which they were placed, was exceedingly crowded, exclaimed in a loud voice, “all our connoisseurs seem to prefer the works of those painters who have studied at Rome; but behold how far the work of Wouvermans who never saw Rome, surpasses the production of him who resided there several years." This observation, which was received with general approbation, and seemed to receive the fiat of the company, so deeply affected the delicate spirits of Bomboccio, that it largely contributed to hurry him to his grave. The justly celebrated Nicholas Berghem, was born here in 1624, and studied under his father, an inconsiderable painter, whose name was Van Haarlem, which Berghem exchanged in the following whimsical manner: whilst he was a pupil of John Van Goyen, who was very fond of him, his father was one day pursuing him in the street, to give him correction for some peccadillo, when his master seeing his father gaining upon him rapidly, cried out to some of his other scholars, Berg-hem! which signifies hide him; from which circumstance he obtained and kept that name. The distinguishing characteristics of Berghem's pictures are breadth, and just distribution of the lights, the grandeur of his masses of light and shadow, the natural attitudes of his figures expressive of their several characters, the just gradation of his distances, the brilliancy, harmony, and transparency of his colouring, the correctness and true perspective of his design, and the elegance of his composition, and his subjects however various are all equally admirable. This great man had the calamity and the infatuation to make an offer of his hand and heart to the daughter of one of the masters under whom he studied, when he left Van Goyen, of the name of Willis, who proved to be one of the most clamorous and sordid termagants that Holland, or perhaps any other country ever produced; by the terror of her tongue, and the fury of her manner, she forced him to slave at his easel without intermission, from the break to the departure of day, and frequently all night long, with out permitting him to have the disposal of a single guilder without her consent: amidst this domestic broil, poor Berghem never lost his temper, he sung, whilst she scolded, as if he thought And do you tell me of a woman's tongue, Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Scene 3. In this increasing state of internal broil, this artist produced some of the finest effusions of his pencil: he was singularly curi ous in purchasing the finest prints and designs of the Italian masters, to improve his own taste, which after his death sold for a large sum of money: by his indefatigable industry, he produced an amazing number of pictures, which now are rarely to be purchased, and then only for prodigious prices. The last that I shall mention is Jacob Ruysdaal, who was born here in 1636, and was the bosom friend of Berghem, who impar U ted to him much of the spirit which adorns his own works. No painter ever possessed a greater share of public admiration than Ruysdaal, a reputation which has remained unimpaired to this, hour. His works are distinguishable by a natural and most delightful tone of colour, by a free, light, firm, and spirited pencil, and by a happy choice of situation. He was fond of introducing water into his paintings, and he was equally fortunate in representing the tumultuous foam of the torrent, as the pellucid transparency of the canal. Ruysdaal was cut off at the age of forty-five. Since the removal of Mr. Hope's collection, there is no private cabinet of pictures in or near Haarlem worthy the attention of the traveller. There is, however, a cabinet of natural history, said to be the finest in Holland, which was formed by Doctor Van Marum, whose electrical experiments have ascertained that the death of animals is coincident with the cessation of irritability: this museum is well arranged according to the Linnean system. I heard of nothing more to detain the traveller at Haarlem. The canal from Haarlem to Amsterdam is clear and spacious, and nearly straight for the first four miles, at the lessening end of which the former city has a very agreeable appearance; but I was surprized to find so very few country-houses, and scarcely an object that denoted our approach to the renowned capital of the kingdom, and, as it has been aptly called, " the great warehouse of the world." About half-way we changed boats, and crossed the enormous sluices which protect the country from inundation in this part: we passed over the waters of the Haarlem Meer and of the river Y, so called from its form resembling that letter, being a branch of the Zuyder Zee. The only object worthy of notice thus far was a large stone building, called the Castle Zwanenburg, the residence of the directors of the dykes and water-works of Rhynland. The cost of constructing and repairing the sluices is paid out of the general taxes. The country here is four or five feet below the level of the river Y, which, however, is rendered perfectly innocuous by the massy and prodigious dams before mentioned, the construction and preservation of which place the indefatigable enterprise and industry of the Hollander in an eminent point of view. |