town of Schermer Horn, the steeples of which, shining amidst the trees, command the superb basins which surround it. The streets extend along the high land in the 3 directions which are open to them, so as to give it a most singular form. In order to reach it, we had travelled along the course of the dyke half way up. On the left, 10 or 15 ft. above our heads, was the great canal common to all these polders, and the sails (of boats?) appearing above the trees every instant hid the sun from us. On the right, at the same distance below us, we saw similar canals and windmills, the sails of which were hardly on a level with us, and in a hollow extending further than we could see, the herds concealed in the tufted grass of the polder. It was completely the world turned upside down. In some countries we are accustomed to see the sails of the windmills higher than the rudders of the ships, and the goats perched above the crags; but in North Holland we must be contented to see every thing different from what it is elsewhere."-Journey in North Holland.

The Beemster is one of the largest, most fertile, and best drained lake beds or polders. It took 4 years to drain it: the undertaking was commenced in 1608. The finest mutton in all Holland is fed upon its pastures. It is filled with large trees, the trunks and lower branches of which are actually painted over with various colours; whether to improve and increase their beauty, or with some view to utility in preserving them from insects or moisture, appears uncertain. But the practice, strange as it will appear, prevails in many other parts of North Holland.

After visiting these singular and interesting polders, the traveller may either return to Alkmaar, or may make his way by canal or highway to Broek and Saardam, through

royal naval academy," through which young sailors must pass before they can enter the Dutch navy as midshipmen.

About 10 miles east of Medemblik, on the Zuider Zee, is Enkhuisen, another decayed town which once sent out 400 vessels to the deep sea herringfishery every year: at present it does not employ 50; and its population is diminished one half. Paul Potter was born here.

Hoorn-Inn: The Oude Doelen is the only tolerable one. In it are some remarkable pictures of the old schuttery (militia), in the Spanish times, by Rottiers, a pupil of Van der Helst. In the Stadhuis is shown the sword of the Spanish Admiral De Bossu, who was taken, after a severe engagement, by the Dutch, commanded by Admiral Derks. This is the native place of the mariner William Schouten, who in 1616 first doubled the southernmost cape of America, which he named, after his birthplace, Cape Hoorn, or Horn. Abel Jansz Tasman, who discovered Van Dieman's Land and New Zealand, was also born here. Hoorn, like many other towns of North Holland, is sadly fallen off in trade and prosperity. From the Helder to Hoorn is a short day's journey.

Purmerende. - Inn, Heerenlogement. Situated at the south angle of the Beemster, on the banks of the Great Canal, and between the three polders or drained lakes, the Beemster, the Purmer, and the Wormer. No one should pass through Purmerende or the Beemster without making trial of the produce of their dairies; the cream, butter, and cheese here are excellent.

Monnikendam.-A village of 2000 inhabitants. From this place travellers may proceed to Broek, and view that curious village; then to Buiksloot, where they may cross by the ferry to Amsterdam, or, taking the road along the dykes, lengthen their journey to Zaandam ; and, after seeing there the cabin of Peter the Great, embark in

the steamer for Amsterdam, as described in Route III.

A trip may be made from Monnikendam to the island of Marken, where the manners and the mode of living of the inhabitants are far more curious, because they preserve their primitive simplicity, than in the dull village of Broek.

The country forming the west shore of the Zuider Zee is so populous, that the line of villages, towns, and gardens is almost uninterrupted. The neat

ness, the order, and active industry displayed at every step is highly interesting. In short, the excursion in North Holland is likely to afford much gratification to any traveller who will undertake it.

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64 Treckschuits go between Amsterdam and Utrecht 3 times a day, making the journey in 7 hours. Besides the ordinary barges there is one drawn by two horses, which goes the distance of 25 miles (to Utrecht) in 4 hours; it is called de vliegende schuit, and is more expensive, but far better appointed, than the others. English travellers will do well to go by this flying barge. An open carriage, holding 8 persons, and drawn by 2 horses, costs 35 guilders, including 5 for tolls, from Amsterdam to Amerongen. calêche from Amsterdam to Utrecht with 2 horses costs 15 guilders, exclusive of about 3 for tolls and 2 the driver.

A

The immediate neighbourhood of Amsterdam may be said to consist of an aggregation of polders. (§ 11.) The most remarkable is that called the Diemer meer, one of the deepest of these drained lakes in all Hol

land its bottom lies 16 ft. below the level of the sea, which is sometimes augmented to 30, at very high tides.

There can be no more pleasing journey, either by land or water, in any part of Holland, than the route between Nieuwersluis and Utrecht. Both sides of the road and of the river Vecht are lined with villas, summer houses, and gardens (§ 13.), belonging principally to merchants of Amsterdam. It is almost an uninterrupted garden all the way, and the taste of the Dutch for horticulture is here seen to perfection. Several very pretty villages are also passed in this part of the journey; the most remarkable are Maarsen, Loenen, Breukelen, and Zuilen.

3 Nieuwersluis. Passengers by the trekschuit are here invited to purchase a plateful of fried eels, which are very well cooked at the inn, and deserve to be recommended to the notice of the gourmand.

On approaching Utrecht there are various indications that the traveller is about to bid adieu to the flat land: the country presents partial undulations, and a slight current becomes perceptible in the canals.

At the outskirts of the town the houses encroach so much upon the canal, that it is impossible for a horse to pass along the narrow paved footway; "he is, therefore, unyoked from the trekschuit, and his place is generally supplied by what the traveller would deem a very unsuitable substitute, an old woman. however, tows the boat along with much cheerfulness, without any great apparent effort, and at a tolerably brisk rate."-Boyce.

She,

24. UTRECHT.-Inns: 'T Kasteel van Antwerpen (Castle of Antwerp), on the Oude Gracht, is good; better than that of the same name Op de Ganzenmarkt;- H. des Pays Bas excellent.

Utrecht, called by the Romans Trajectus ad Rhenum (ford on the

Rhine), and in monkish Latin Ultra Trajectum, whence comes its modern name, is situated at the bifurcation of the branch of the Rhine, called the Old Rhine and the Vecht. It contains nearly 44,000 inhabitants. There is a considerable descent from the houses to the surface of the river; a circumstance which distinguishes this from other Dutch towns already described; the cellars under the quays by the water-side are large enough to serve as storehouses and manufactories.

The Stadhuis is a fine modern building. The celebrated Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, which gave peace to Europe, by ending the war of the Spanish succession, was signed at the residence of the Bishop of Oxford, the British Minister, in a house now pulled down, and replaced by a barrack. Many of the preliminary conferences were held in a back room of the old Stadhuis, still remaining. The act of confederation (in 1579), which formed the foundation of the freedom of Holland, and which declared the Seven United Provinces independent of Spain, was signed in the Public Hall (auditorium) of the University. An inscription intended for it ran thus: Atrium sapientiæ, incunabula libertatis.

The tower of the Cathedral, 388 ft. high, detached from the main building, deserves to be ascended on account of the view from it, extending over almost all Holland, a part of Gueldres and North Brabant, and comprehending, it is said, 20 large towns. The nave of the church was thrown down by a storm in 1674. The choir still contains several tombs of bishops of Utrecht; but the building has suffered much from the dilapidations of fanatic iconoclasts. In the part remaining there are some beautiful clustered Gothic pillars, of great height and lightness.

The first bishop was St. Willebrod, an Englishman, who left his own country, in the seventeenth century, to convert the heathen Frisons,

who then possessed the land. He baptised many thousands of them; and the Pope ordained him Bishop over them; while Charles Martel presented to him the castle of Utrecht for his residence, and the surrounding district, as his see.

The University, founded in 1636, has about 600 students. Many of its teachers possess a high reputation. There are collections of natural history, minerals, &c. belonging to it. The late Professor Moll's philosophical apparatus and instruments are very complete.

The Mint of Holland is situated here; the machinery for coining is the same as that so long kept a secret in the Mint of London. The coining is done by atmospheric pressure, and a steam-engine works the air-pump.

Adrian Boyens, afterwards Pope Adrian VI., the tutor of Charles V., was born at Utrecht, in a house still standing on the Oude Gracht: a house built by him still goes by the name of the Pope's house, and now serves as the residence of the Governor.

One of the latest improvements here has been the transformation of the ramparts into Boulevards, so as to render them an agreeable promenade. Since the separation from Belgium, some fortified outworks have been thrown up in front of the town. Their strength lies in the facility with which all access to them may be cut off by inundating the surrounding country. The Mall, called Maliebaan, is an avenue of 8 rows of lime trees, half a mile in length. It is one of the finest in Europe, and was saved from being cut down by the express command of Louis XIV., at a time when his army spared nothing else in Holland.

Agriculturists should view in Utrecht a collection of implements of husbandry, containing all the machines and instruments used in Holland: it was formed at the public expense. At the end of the Mall is the veterinary school, kept up also at the public expense. Medical men will take an in

terest in a large collection of anatomical preparations, wax figures, &c.

Utrecht has some manufactories and bleaching grounds. The gates are shut at night, but admittance is obtained at any hour by paying about 2 pence.

The hire of a carriage with 2 horses, to Rotterdam (Route IX.), 12 leagues, costs 22 gilders.

The road out of Utrecht, after traversing the long avenue of the Mall, passes for a considerable distance on the way to Nymegen,

through a country abounding in wood. Many fine forest trees are seen here, and scarcely any where else in Holland.

Zeist, 5 miles from Utrecht, is remarkable for a Moravian colony settled in it, which deserves to be visited. The whole establishment is distinguished for the order and neatness maintained in it, and is supported by the manufactures of the brothers and sisters. On the left of the road, near Zeist, is a mound of earth, erected in 32 days by the French army of 30,000 men, under Marmont, on the occasion of Napoleon being made Emperor.

About a mile before reaching Amerongen is a château called Zuilestein, the family seat of the now extinct Earls of Rochford. William III. frequently enjoyed the pleasures of

the chase here.

3 AMERONGEN. Inn, the Post, or Red Hart (Rode Hart): civil people, but very high charges, and not very good accommodation. Lord Athlone has a seat near this.

Before reaching Rheenen, on the right-hand side, somewhat below the road, at the entrance of a meadow, under some willow trees, the English traveller will remark the mounds under which the bones of some hundreds of his countrymen are mouldering. In 1794 the hospital of the Duke of York's army was at Rheenen, and the mortality very great; this spot was the cemetery of the hospital.

RHEENEN. - Inn, Koning van Boheme; is a town of 1600 inhabitants, on the middle branch of the Rhine. There is nothing here for a stranger to see but an old Gothic church. Here died the unfortunate Elector Frederick V., son-in-law of James I., when driven from his kingdom of Bohemia. A large quantity of tobacco is cultivated in this district. The traveller must not think of stopping at the inn at Rheenen: he will find tolerable accommodation at de Ridder's inn at Grebbe, a few miles further, where there are some fortified lines, now abandoned.

The road runs along an elevated terrace by the side of the Rhine, to Wageningen. Inn, Hof van Guelderland, not good; it is an inconsiderable town of about 3000 inhabitants, supposed to be the ad Vada of the Romans: it is connected with the Rhine by a short canal.

Beyond Wageningen the traveller crosses the Rhine by a flying bridge; the road then runs on the back of a high but narrow dyke, the Thieler dam, enclosing a flat district of meadow land, called the island of Betuwe, because isolated by the 2 arms of the Rhine called Lek and Waal; it retains in its name a memorial of the ancient inhabitants of this country, the Batavi. At Lent, a small village on the Waal, with a tolerable inn, opposite Nymegen, a flying bridge of boats conveys carriage and passengers across the Waal to.

4 NYMEGEN. Inns. Hôtel des Pays Bas the best, clean, with carpets, and near the steam boats, but dear. Plaat's Royal; Rotterdamer Wagen, near the Quai. None very good. Nymegen is situated on the left bank of the Waal; it has 17,500 inhabitants: the Romans called it Noviomagus. It is a frontier fortress of Holland, strongly defended, and built on the side and slope of a hill, called the Hoenderberg, on which the Romans formed a permanent camp to protect their

Belgic possessions from inroads of the Germans. The Town Hall, ornamented in front with two rows of statues, is chiefly remarkable as the place where the treaty of 1678, between Holland, France, and Spain, was signed. It contains portraits of the ambassadors upon this occasion, and a few Roman antiquities, dug up in the neighbourhood, where the ground is constantly disclosing similar relics of the Roman settlement here. The sword with which the Counts Egmont and Horn were beheaded is also shown here. The Great Church of St. Stephen, begun 1272, is an interesting Gothic building of brick, and contains, in the centre of the ancient choir, the handsome monument of Catherine de Bourbon, wife of Adolphus of Egmont.

Upon an elevation which for Holland, is considerable, stood the Castle of Valkenhof, said to have been built by Julius Cæsar, and inhabited afterwards by Charlemagne. It was demolished in 1797 by the French. The only parts now remaining are two very curious chapels: one near the brow of the hill, of a circular shape, is probably as old as the time of Charlemagne. The space of ground adjoining it, once a part of the ramparts of the town, is planted with trees, and serves as a public walk, overlooking the river and quay. On another eminence a little higher up rises a tower called Belvedere, said to be part of a chateau of the Duke of Alva. The view from it is interesting, comprehending the rivers which branch off at the head of the delta of the Rhine; viz., the Rhine, the Waal, and the Yssel; with the Maas flowing on the south. The views from Berg-en-dal, Beek, and Upbergen in the neighbourhood will also leave agreeable impressions in the minds of those who have seen them.

Diligences go daily from this place to Amsterdam in 9 hours; Utrecht, in 5 hours; the Hague, in 12 hours; Cologne, in about 18 hours; and

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The Diemermeer polder, outside the walls of Amsterdam, is one of the lowest drained lands in Holland.

MUIDEN. When the forces of Louis XIV. had succeeded in taking Naarden, the Dutch let in the sea near this point, laid the whole country under water as far as Amsterdam. They thus effectually checked the advance of the invading army, and saved the Low Countries from subjugation. Since that time, enormous sluice gates have been erected here. The Dutch historian Hooft resided in the Château. A short distance south of Mui

den is Weesp, at the mouth of the Vecht; this place has many distilleries of gin, which is particularly in request for the American market. Amsterdam is supplied with water from a place called Nichtevecht, higher up on the Vecht.

3 NAARDEN. Inn, Hof van Holland. A fortress fortified by Coerhorn, on the Zuider Zee, with 2000 inhabitants: it was taken by the Spaniards under Frederick of Toledo, who burnt it to the ground, after having put to the sword all its inhabitants without distinction of age or sex. It was again taken, in 1762, by the French, and afterwards recovered by William III. It forms the key of all the water communications of Holland. Beyond this the road turns away from the sea.

3 AMERSFOORT.—Inn, Doelen, not