But Within This
Watery Inclosure, Were Little Artificial Elevations Covered With A
Closely-Shaven Turf, And Plantations Of Shrubbery, And In The More
Extensive And Ostentatious Of Them, Were What Might Be Called Groves And
Forests.
Before one of these houses was a fountain with figures, mouths of
lions and other animals, gushing profusely with water, which must have
been pumped up for the purpose, into a reservoir, by one of the windmills.
Passing through Schiedam, still famous for its gin, and Delft, once famous
for its crockery, we reached in a couple of hours the Hague, the cleanest
of cities, paved with yellow brick, and as full of canals as Rotterdam. I
called on an old acquaintance, who received me with a warm embrace and a
kiss on each cheek. He was in his morning-gown, which he immediately
exchanged for an elegant frock coat of the latest Parisian cut, and took
us to see Baron Vorstolk's collection of pictures, which contains some
beautiful things by the Flemish artists, and next, to the public
collection called the Museum. From this we drove to the Chateau du Bois,
a residence of the Dutch Stadtholders two hundred years ago, when Holland
was a republic, and a powerful and formidable one. It is pleasantly
situated in the edge of a wood, which is said to be part of an original
forest of the country. I could believe this, for here the soil rises above
the marshy level of Holland, and trees of various kinds grow irregularly
intermingled, as in the natural woods of our own country.
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