,beautiful ,europe ,belgium by ,joseph ,e4 ,morris ,i4 ,it needs1 indeed1 an effort of the imagination at the moment of writing to think of ,belgium as in any sense a component part of ,beautiful ,europe4 ,the unhappy cockpit of the ,continent at the actual hour is again in process of accomplishing its frightful destiny--no treaty1 or scrap of paper1 is potent to preserve this last1 and weakest1 of all the nations of ,western ,europe from drinking to the dregs the cup of ruin and desolation4 ,tragic indeed in the profoundest sense--in the sense of ,aristotle--more tragic than the long ruin of the predestined house of ,oedipus--is this accumulated tragedy of a small and helpless people1 whose sole apparent crime is their stern determination to cling at any cost to their plighted word of honour4 ,i have been lately glancing into a little book published about five years ago1 in which a view is taken of the ,belgian character that no one could term indulgent4 ,it is curious1 says the writer in one place1 how few ,belgians1 old or young1 rich or poor1 consider the feelings or convenience of others4 ,they are intensely selfish1 and this is doubtless caused by the way in which they are brought up4 ,and1 again1 in another chapter1 he insinuates a doubt as to whether the ,belgians1 if ever called on1 would even prove good soldiers4 ,but whether the people of a neutral ,state are ever likely to be brave and self-sacrificing is another thing4 ,such a writer certainly does not shrink--as ,burke1 we know1 once shrank--from framing an indictment against an entire people4 ,whether ,belgium1 as a nation1 is self-sacrificing and brave may safely be left to the judgment of posterity4 ,there is a passage in one of ,mr4 ,lecky's books--,i cannot put my finger on the exact reference--in which he pronounces that the sins of ,france1 which are many1 are forgiven her1 because1 like the woman in the ,gospels1 she has loved much4 ,it is not our business now1 if indeed at any time1 to appraise the sins of ,belgium2 but surely her love1 in anguish1 is manifest and supreme4 ,when we contemplate these firstfruits of ,german kultur--this deluge of innocent blood1 and this wreckage of ancient monuments--who can hesitate for a moment to belaud this little people1 which has flung itself thus gallantly1 in the spirit of purest sacrifice1 in front of the onward progress of this new and frightful ,juggernaut8 ,rather one recalls that old persistent creed1 exemplified perhaps in the mysteries1 now of the ,greek ,adonis1 now of ,persian ,mithras1 and now of the ,roman priest of the ,nennian lake1 that it is only through the gates of sacrifice and death that the world moves on triumphant to rejuvenation and life4 ,is it1 in truth1 through the blood of a bruised and prostrate ,belgium that the purple hyacinth of a rescued ,european civilization will spring presently from the soaked and untilled soil8 ,yet even if ,german kultur in the end sweep wholly into ruin the long accumulated treasures of ,belgian architecture1 sculpture1 and painting--if ,bruges1 which to-day stands still intact1 shall to-morrow be reckoned with ,dinant and ,louvain--yet it would still be worth while to set before a few more people this record of vanished splendour1 that they may better appreciate what the world has lost through lust of brutal ambition1 and better be on guard in the future to protect what wreckage is left4 ,all these treasures were bequeathed to us--not to ,belgium alone1 but to the whole world--by the diligence and zeal of antiquity2 and we have seen this goodly heritage ground in a moment into dust beneath the heel of an insolent and degraded militancy4 ,belgium1 in very truth1 in guarding the civilization and inheritance of other nations1 has lavishly wrecked her own4 ,they made me keeper of the vineyards2 but my own vineyard have ,i not kept4 ,luckily1 however1 it is not yet quite clear that the work of waste and ruin is wholly irreparable4 ,one sees in the illustrated ,english papers pictures of the great thirteenth-century churches at ,dixmude1 ,dinant1 and ,louvain1 made evidently from photographs1 that suggest at least that it is not impossible still to rebuild the walls of ,jerusalem4 ,dixmude1 indeed--,i judge from an interior view--is possibly shattered past hope2 but ,dinant and ,st4 ,pierre1 at ,louvain1 so far at least as their fabrics are concerned1 seem to lack little but the woodwork of their roofs4 ,it is only a few years ago since the writer stood in the burnt-out shell of ,selby ,abbey2 yet the ,selby ,abbey of to-day1 though some ancient fittings of inestimable value have irreparably perished1 is in some ways not less magnificent1 and is certainly more complete1 than its imperfect predecessor4 ,one takes comfort1 again1 in the thought of ,york ,minster in the conflagration caused by the single madman ,martin in #ahbi1 and of the collapse of the blazing ceilings in nave and chancel1 whilst the great gallery of painted glass1 by some odd miracle1 escaped4 ,is it too much to hope that this devil's work of a million madmen at ,dixmude or ,nieuport may prove equally incomplete8 ,in the imperfect sketch that follows ,i write of the aspect of ,belgium--of its cities1 that were formerly the most picturesque in ,europe2 of its landscapes1 that range from the level fens of ,flanders to the wooded limestone wolds of the ,ardennes--as ,i knew these1 and loved them1 in former years1 before hell was let loose in ,europe4 ,and perhaps1 the picture here presented will in time be not altogether misrepresentative of the regenerated ,belgium that will certainly some day arise4 ,,ii4 ,it is not merely in its quality of unredeemed and absolute flatness that the great fen country of ,flanders is so strongly reminiscent of the great fen country of the ,holland parts of ,lincolnshire4 ,each of these vast levels is equally distinguished by the splendour and conspicuousness of its ancient churches4 ,travelling by railway between ,nieuport and ,dixmude1 you have on every side of you1 if the day be clear1 a prospect of innumerable towers and spires1 just as you have if you travel by railway between ,spalding and ,sleaford1 or between ,spalding and ,king's ,lynn4 ,the difference1 perhaps1 is that the ,lincolnshire churches present finer architectural feature1 and are built of stone1 floated down in barges1 by dyke or fen1 from the famous inland quarries of ,barnack1 in ,northamptonshire2 whilst most of those in ,flanders are built of local brick1 though the drums of the piers and the arches are often of blue limestone4 ,it is remarkable1 certainly1 that these soaring spires should thus chiefly rise to eminence in a setting of dead1 flat plain4 ,it may well be1 indeed1 as some have suggested1 that the character of architecture is unconsciously determined by the type of surrounding scenery2 that men do not build spires in the midst of mountains to compete with natural sublimity that they cannot hope to emulate1 but are emboldened to express in stone and mortar their own heavenward aspirations in countries where ,nature seems to express herself in less spiritual1 or at any rate in less ambitious1 mood4 ,as we cross the level prairie between these two little towns of ,west ,flanders 7we hope to visit them presently71 a group of lofty roofs and towers is seen grandly towards the west1 dominating the fenland with hardly less insistency than ,boston ,stump1 in ,lincolnshire1 as seen across ,wash and fen4 ,this is the little town of ,furnes1 than which one can hardly imagine a quainter place in ,belgium1 or one more entirely fitted as a doorway by which to enter a new land4 ,coming straight from ,england by way of ,calais and ,dunkirk1 the first sight of this ancient ,flemish market-place1 with its unbroken lines of old white-brick houses1 many of which have crow-stepped gables2 with the two great churches of ,st4 ,nicholas1 with its huge square tower1 and of ,st4 ,walburge1 with its long ridge of lofty roof2 and with its ,hotel de ,ville and ,palais de ,justice of about the dawn of the seventeenth century1 is a revelation1 in its atmosphere of sleepy evening quiet1 to those who rub their eyes with wonder1 and find it hard to credit that ,london1 with its unutterable1 external hideousness1 was actually left behind them only that very morning1 and is actually at present not two hundred miles distant4 ,furnes1 in short1 is an epitome1 and ,i think a very charming one1 of all that is most characteristic in ,flanders2 and not the less charming because here the strong currents of modern life that throb through ,ghent and ,antwerp extend only to its threshold in the faintest of dying ripples1 and because you do not need to be told that in its town hall may still be seen hangings of old ,spanish leather1 and that the members of the ,inquisition used to meet in the ante-chamber of the first floor of its ,palais de ,justice1 in order to throw yourself back in memory to those old days of ,lowland greatness from whose struggles ,holland emerged victorious1 but into which ,belgium1 for the time1 sank back oppressed4 ,furnes--in ,flemish ,veurne--is an excellent centre from which to explore the extreme west point of ,belgian ,flanders1 which is also the extreme west point of ,belgium as a whole4 ,flanders1 be it always remembered1 does not terminate with mere1 present-day1 political divisions1 but spreads with unbroken character to the very gateways of ,calais and ,lille4 ,hazebrouck1 for example1 is a thoroughly ,flemish town1 though nearly ten miles1 in a beeline1 inside the ,french border--,flemish not merely1 like ,dunkirk1 in the architecture of its great brick church1 but also actually ,flemish in language1 and in the names that one reads above its shop doors4 ,in particular1 excursions may be pleasantly made from ,furnes--whose principal inn1 the ,noble ,rose1 is again a quaint relic of the sixteenth century--to the two delightful little market-towns of ,dixmude and ,nieuport-,ville3 ,i write1 as always1 of what was recently1 and of what ,i have seen myself2 to-day they are probably heaps of smoking ruin1 and sanguinary altars to ,german kultur4 ,nieuport-,ville1 so called in distinction from its dull little watering-place understudy1 ,nieuport-les-,bains1 which lies a couple of miles to the west of it1 among the sand-dunes by the mouth of the ,yser1 and is hardly worth a visit unless you want to bathe--,nieuport-,ville1 in addition to its old yellow-brick ,halles1 or ,cloth ,hall1 and its early ,tour des ,templiers1 is remarkable for its possession of a fascinating church1 the recent restoration of which has been altogether conservative and admirable4 ,standing here1 in this rich and picturesque interior1 you realize strongly the gulf in this direction between ,belgium and ,france1 in which latter country1 in these days of ecclesiastical poverty1 loving restoration of the kind here seen is rare1 and whose often neglected village churches seldom1 or never1 exhibit that wealth of marble rood-screen and sculptured woodwork--of beaten brass and hammered iron--that distinguishes ,belgian church interiors from perhaps all others on earth4 ,the church has also some highly important brasses1 another detail1 common of course in most counties of ,england1 that is now never1 or hardly ever1 found in ,france4 ,chief1 perhaps1 among these is the curious1 circular brass--,i hope it has escaped--with figures of husband1 wife1 and children1 on a magnificently worked background1 that is now suspended on the northwest pier of the central crossing4 ,very ,belgian1 too1 in character is the rood-beam1 with its three figures of ,our ,lord in ,crucifixion1 of the ,virgin1 and of ,st4 ,john2 and the striking ,renaissance rood-screen in black and white marble1 though not as fine as some that are found in other churches4 ,rood-screens of this exact sort are almost limited to ,belgium1 though there is one1 now misplaced in the west end of the nave1 and serving as an organ-loft1 in the church of ,st4 ,gery at ,cambrai--another curious link between ,french and ,belgian ,flanders4 ,dixmude 7in ,flemish ,diksmuide71 nine and a half miles south from ,nieuport1 is an altogether bigger and more important place1 with a larger and more important church1 of ,st4 ,nicholas1 to match4 ,my recollection of this last1 on a ,saturday afternoon of heavy showers towards the close of ,march1 is one of a vast interior thronged with men and women in the usual dismal1 black ,flemish cloaks1 kneeling in confession1 or waiting patiently for their turn to confess1 in preparation for the ,easter ,mass4 ,here the best feature1 till lately1 was the glorious ,flamboyant rood-screen1 recalling those at ,albi and the church of ,brou1 in ,france2 and remarkable in ,belgium as one of the very few examples of its sort 7there is1 or was1 another in ,st4 ,pierre1 at ,louvain7 of so early a period1 in a land where rood-screens1 as a body1 are generally much later in date4 ,it is difficult1 in dealing with ,flanders1 to avoid a certain amount of architectural description1 for architecture1 after all1 is the chief attraction of the country1 save perhaps in ,ghent and ,bruges1 where we have also noble pictures4 ,even those who do not care to study this architecture in detail will be gratified to stroll at leisure through the dim vastness of the great ,flemish churches1 where the eye is satisfied everywhere with the wealth of brass and iron work1 and where the ,belgian passion for wood-carving displays itself in lavish prodigality4 ,such wealth1 indeed1 of ecclesiastical furniture you will hardly find elsewhere in ,western ,europe--font covers of hammered brass1 like those at ,hal and ,tirlemont2 stalls and confessionals and pulpits1 new and old1 that are mere masses of sculptured wood-work2 tall tabernacles for the reception of the ,sacred ,host1 like those at ,louvain and ,leau1 that tower towards the roof by the side of the ,high ,altars4 ,most of this work1 no doubt1 is post-,gothic1 except the splendid stalls and canopies 7,i wonder1 do they still survive7 at the church of ,st4 ,gertrude at ,louvain2 for ,belgium presents few examples of mediaeval wood-work like the gorgeous stalls at ,amiens1 or like those in half a hundred churches in our own land4 ,much1 in fact1 of these splendid fittings is more or less contemporary with the noble masterpieces of ,rubens and ,vandyck1 and belongs to the same great wave of artistic enthusiasm that swept over the ,netherlands in the seventeenth century4 ,belgian pulpits1 in particular1 are probably unique1 and certainly1 to my knowledge1 without parallel in ,italy1 ,england1 or ,france4 ,sometimes they are merely adorned1 like the confessionals at ,st4 ,charles1 at ,antwerp1 and at ,tirlemont1 with isolated figures2 but often these are grouped into some vivid dramatic scene1 such as the ,miraculous ,draught of ,fishes1 at ,st4 ,andrew's1 at ,antwerp1 or the ,conversion of ,st4 ,norbert1 in the cathedral at ,malines4 ,certainly the fallen horseman in the latter1 if not a little ludicrous1 is a trifle out of place4 ,from ,furnes to ,ypres it is a pleasant journey across country by one of those strange steam-trams along the road1 so common in ,belgium and ,holland1 and not unknown in ,france1 that wind at frequent intervals through village streets so narrow1 that you have only to put out your hand in passing to touch the walls of houses4 ,this is a very leisurely mode of travelling1 and the halts are quite interminable in their frequency and length2 but the passenger is allowed to stand on the open platform at the end of the carriage--though sometimes nearly smothered with thick1 black smoke--and certainly no better method exists of exploring the short stretches of open country that lie between town and town4 ,belgian towns1 remember1 lie mostly thick on the ground--you are hardly out of ,brussels before you come to ,malines1 and hardly out of ,malines ere you sight the spire of ,antwerp4 ,in no part of ,europe1 perhaps1 save in parts of ,lancashire and ,yorkshire1 do you find so many big towns in so limited a space2 yet the strips of country that lie between1 though often intolerably dull1 are 7unlike the strips in ,yorkshire7 intensely rural in character4 ,belgian towns do not sprawl in endless1 untidy suburbs1 as ,sheffield sprawls out towards ,rotherham1 and ,bradford towards ,leeds4 ,belgian towns1 moreover--again unlike our own big cities in ,england--are mostly extremely handsome1 and generally contrive1 however big1 to retain1 at any rate in their heart1 as at ,antwerp1 or in the ,grande ,place at ,brussels1 a striking air of antiquity2 whilst some fairly big towns1 such as ,malines and ,bruges1 are mediaeval from end to end4 ,this1 of course1 is not true of ,belgian ,luxembourg and the region of the ,ardennes1 where the population is much more sparse2 where we do not stumble1 about every fifteen miles or so1 on some big town of historic name2 and where the endless chessboard of little fields that lies1 for example1 between ,ghent and ,oudenarde1 or between ,malines and ,louvain1 is replaced by long contours of sweeping limestone wold1 often covered with rolling wood4 ,ypres is distinguished above all cities in ,belgium by the huge size and stately magnificence of its lordly ,cloth ,hall1 or ,halles des ,drapiers4 ,so vast1 indeed1 is this huge building1 and so flat the surrounding plain1 that it is said that it is possible from the strangely isolated hill of ,cassel1 which lies about eighteen miles away to the west1 just over the border1 in ,france1 on a really clear day--,i have only climbed it myself1 unluckily1 in a fog of winter mist--to distinguish in a single view1 by merely turning the head1 the clustering spires of ,laon1 the white chalk cliffs of ,kent1 and this vast pile of building1 like a ship at sea1 that seems to lie at anchor in the heart of the sounding plain4 ,nothing1 perhaps1 in ,europe is so strangely significant of vanished greatness--not even ,rome1 with its shattered ,forum1 or ,venice1 with a hundred marble palaces--as this huge fourteenth-century building1 with a facade that is four hundred and thirty-six feet long1 and with its lofty central tower1 that was built for the pride and need of ,ypres1 and as a market for the barter of its priceless linens1 at a time when ,ypres numbered a population of two hundred thousand souls 7almost as big as ,leicester at the present day71 and was noisy with four thousand busy looms2 whereas now it has but a beggarly total of less than seventeen thousand souls 7about as big as ,guildford71 and is only a degree less sleepy than ,malines or ,bruges-la-,morte4 ,ypres1 again1 like ,arras1 has lent its name to commerce1 if diaper be really rightly derived from the expression linen of ,ypres4 ,the ,cloth ,hall fronts on to the ,grande ,place1 and1 indeed1 forms virtually one side of it2 and behind1 in the ,petite ,place1 is the former cathedral of ,st4 ,martin4 ,this is another fine building1 though utterly eclipsed by its huge secular rival1 that was commenced in the thirteenth century1 and is typically ,belgian1 as opposed to ,french1 in the character of its architecture1 and not least in its possession of a single great west tower4 ,this last feature is characteristic of every big church in ,belgium--one can add them up by the dozen3 ,bruges1 ,ghent1 ,louvain 7though ruined1 or never completed71 ,oudenarde1 ,malines1 ,mons--save ,brussels1 where the church of ,ste4 ,gudule1 called persistently1 but wrongly1 the cathedral1 has the full complement of two1 and ,antwerp1 where two were intended1 though only one has been actually raised4 ,this tower at ,ypres1 however1 fails to illustrate--perhaps because it is earlier1 and therefore in better taste--that astounding disproportion in height that is so frequently exhibited by ,belgian towers1 as at ,malines1 or in the case of the famous belfry in the market-place at ,bruges1 when considered with reference to the church1 or town hall1 below4 ,in front of the ,high ,altar1 in the pavement1 is an inconspicuous square of white stone1 which marks the burial-place of ,cornelius ,jansen1 who died of the plague1 as ,bishop of ,ypres1 in #afch4 ,the monument1 if you can call it monument1 is scarcely less insignificant than the simple block1 in the cemetery of ,plainpalais at ,geneva1 that is traditionally said to mark the resting-place of ,calvin4 ,yet ,jansen1 in his way1 proved almost a second ,calvin in his death1 and menaced the ,church from his grave with a second ,reformation4 ,he left behind in manuscript a book called ,augustinus1 the predestinarian tenor of which was condemned finally1 though nearly a century later1 by ,pope ,clement ,,xi41 in #agac1 in the ,bull called ,unigenitus4 ,jansenism1 however1 had struck deep its roots in ,france1 and still survives in ,holland at the present day1 at ,utrecht1 as a sect that is small1 indeed1 but not altogether obscure4 ,jansen himself1 it may be noted1 was a ,hollander by birth1 having been born in #aehe at ,akkoi in that kingdom4 ,if ,ypres is to be praised appropriately as a still delightful old city that has managed to retain to a quite singular degree the outward aspect and charm of the ,middle ,ages1 one feels that one has left one's self without any proper stock of epithets with which to appraise at its proper value the charm and romance of ,bruges4 ,of late years1 it is true1 this world-famed capital of ,west ,flanders has lost something of its old somnolence and peace4 ,malines1 in certain quarters1 is now much more dead-alive1 and ,wordsworth1 who seems to have visualized ,bruges in his mind as a network of deserted streets1 whence busy life hath fled1 might perhaps be tempted now to apply to it the same prophetic outlook that he imagined for ,pendragon ,castle3 ,viewing ,as in a dream her own renewing4 ,one hopes1 indeed1 that the renewing of ,bruges will not proceed too zealously1 even if ,bruges come safely through its present hour of crisis4 ,perhaps there is no big city in the world--and ,bruges1 though it has shrunk pitiably1 like ,ypres1 from its former great estate in the ,middle ,ages1 has still more than forty thousand souls--that remains from end to end1 in every alley1 and square1 and street1 so wholly unspoilt and untouched by what is bad in the modern spirit1 or that presents so little unloveliness and squalor in its more out-of-the-way corners as ,bruges4 ,bruges1 of course1 like ,venice1 and half a dozen towns in ,holland1 is a strangely amphibious city that is intersected in every direction1 though certainly less persistently than ,venice1 by a network of stagnant canals4 ,on the other hand1 if it never rises to the splendour of the better parts of ,venice--the ,piazza and the ,grand ,canal--and lacks absolutely that charm of infinitely varied1 if somewhat faded or even shabby1 colour that characterizes the ,queen of the ,adriatic1 there is yet certainly nothing monotonous in her monotone of mellow red-brick2 and certainly nothing so dilapidated1 and tattered1 and altogether poverty-stricken as one stumbles against in ,venice in penetrating every narrow lane1 and in sailing up almost every canal4 ,of ,venice we may perhaps say1 what ,byron said of ,greece1 that ,hers is the loveliness in death ,that parts not quite with parting breath2 whilst in ,bruges we recognize gladly1 not death or decay at all1 but the serene and gracious comeliness of a dignified and vital old age4 ,we cannot1 of course1 attempt1 in a mere superficial sketch like this1 even to summarize briefly the wealth of objects of interest in ,bruges1 or to guide the visitor in detail through its maze of winding streets4 ,two great churches1 no doubt1 will be visited by everyone--the cathedral of ,st4 ,sauveur and the church of ,notre ,dame--both of which1 in the usual delightful ,belgian fashion1 are also crowded picture-galleries of the works of great ,flemish masters4 ,the ,see of ,bruges1 however1 dates only from #aeei2 and even after that date the ,bishop had his stool in the church of ,st4 ,donatian1 till this was destroyed by the foolish ,revolutionaries in #agii4 ,in a side-chapel of ,notre ,dame1 and carefully boarded up for no reason in the world save to extort a verger's fee for their exhibition1 are the splendid black marble monuments1 with recumbent figures in copper gilt1 of ,charles the ,bold1 who fell at ,nancy in #adgg 7but lives for ever1 with ,louis ,,xi4 of ,france1 in the pages of ,quentin ,durward71 and of his daughter1 ,mary1 the wife of the ,emperor ,maximilian1 of ,austria1 who was killed by being thrown from her horse whilst hunting in #adhb4 ,these two tombs are of capital interest to those who are students of ,belgian history1 for ,charles the ,bold was the last male of the ,house of ,burgundy1 and it was by the marriage of his daughter that the ,netherlands passed to the ,house of ,hapsburg1 and thus ultimately fell under the flail of religious persecution during the rule of her grandson1 ,spanish ,philip4 ,close to ,notre ,dame1 in the ,rue ,st4 ,catherine1 is the famous old ,hospital of ,st4 ,jean1 the red-brick walls of which rise sleepily from the dull waters of the canal1 just as ,queens' ,college1 or ,st4 ,john's1 at ,cambridge1 rise from the sluggish ,cam4 ,here is preserved the rich shrine1 or chasse1 resembling a large ,noah's ark1 of ,st4 ,ursula1 the sides of which are painted with scenes from the virgin's life by ,hans ,memling1 who1 though born in the neighbourhood of ,mayence1 and thus really by birth a ,german1 lived for nearly a quarter of a century or more of his life in ,bruges1 and is emphatically connected1 like his master ,roger van der ,weyden and the brothers ,van ,eyck1 with the charming early ,flemish school4 ,there is a story that he was wounded under ,charles le ,temeraire on the stricken field of ,nancy1 and painted these gemlike pictures in return for the care and nursing that he received in the ,hospital of ,st4 ,jean1 but this story1 says ,professor ,anton ,springer1 may be placed in the same category as those of ,durer's malevolent spouse1 and of the licentiousness of the later ,dutch painters4 ,these scenes from the life of ,st4 ,ursula are hardly less delightfully quaint than the somewhat similar series that was painted by ,carpaccio for the scuola of the ,saint at ,venice1 and that are now preserved in the ,accademia4 ,early ,flemish painting1 in fact1 in addition to its own peculiar charm of microscopic delicacy of finish1 is hardly inferior1 in contrast with the later strong realism and occasional coarseness of ,rubens or ,rembrandt1 to the tender poetic dreaminess of the primitive ,italians4 ,certainly these pictures1 though finished to the minutest and most delicate detail1 are lacking in realism actually to a degree that borders on a delicious absurdity4 ,st4 ,ursula and her maidens--whether really eleven thousand or eleven--in the final scene of martyrdom await the stroke of death with the stoical placidity of a regiment of dolls4 ,all the faces are essentially ,flemish1 and some of the virgins display to great advantage the pretty national feature of the slight curl in one or in both lips4 ,a little farther along the same street is the city ,picture ,gallery1 with a small but admirable collection1 one of the gems of which is a splendid ,st4 ,christopher1 with kneeling donors1 with their patron saints on either side1 that was also painted by ,memling in #adhd1 and ranks as one of his best efforts4 ,notice also the portrait of the ,canon ,van de ,paelen1 painted by ,jan van ,eyck in #adcf1 and representing an old churchman with a typically heavy ,flemish face2 and the rather unpleasant picture by ,gerard ,david of the unjust judge ,sisamnes being flayed alive by order of ,king ,cambyses4 ,by a turning to the right out of the ,rue ,st4 ,catherine1 you come to the placid ,minne ,water1 or ,lac d',amour1 not far from the shores of which is one of those curious beguinages that are characteristic of ,flanders1 and consist of a number of separate little houses1 grouped in community1 each of which is inhabited by a beguine1 or less strict kind of nun4 ,in the house of the ,lady ,superior is preserved the small1 but very splendid1 memorial brass of a former inmate1 who died at about the middle of the fifteenth century4 ,wander where you will in the ancient streets of ,bruges1 and you will not fail to discover everywhere some delightful relic of antiquity1 or to stumble at every street corner on some new and charming combination of old houses1 with their characteristic crow-stepped1 or corbie1 gables4 ,new houses1 ,i suppose1 there must really be by scores2 but these1 being built with inherent good taste 7whether unconscious or conscious ,i do not know7 in the traditional style of local building1 and with brick that from the first is mellow in tint and harmonizes with its setting1 assimilate at once with their neighbours to right and left1 and fail to offend the eye by any patchy appearance or crudeness4 ,hardly a single street in ,bruges is thus without old-world charm2 but the architectural heart of the city must be sought in its two market-places1 called respectively the ,grande ,place and the ,place du ,bourg4 ,in the former are the brick ,halles1 with their famous belfry towering above the structure below it1 with true ,belgian disregard for proportion in height4 ,it looks1 indeed1 like tower piled on tower1 till one is almost afraid lest the final octagon should be going to topple over6 ,in the ,place du ,bourg is a less aspiring group1 consisting of the ,hotel de ,ville1 the ,chapelle du ,saint ,sang1 the ,maison de l',ancien ,greffe1 and the ,palais de ,justice--all very ,flemish in character1 and all1 in combination1 elaborately picturesque4 ,in the ,chapel of the ,holy ,blood is preserved the crystal cylinder that is said to enshrine certain drops of the blood of ,our ,saviour that were brought from the ,holy ,land in #aadi by ,theodoric1 ,count of ,flanders1 and installed in the ,romanesque chapel that he built for their reception1 and the crypt of which remains1 though the upper chapel has long since been rebuilt1 in the fifteenth century4 ,at certain stated times the relic is exhibited to a crowd of devotees1 who file slowly past to kiss it4 ,some congealed blood of ,our ,lord is also said to be preserved1 after remarkable vicissitudes of loss and recovery1 in the ,norman ,abbey of ,fecamp2 and mediaeval ,gloucestershire once boasted as big a treasure1 which brought great concourse and popularity to the ,cistercian house of ,hayles4 ,pass beneath the archway of the ,maison de l',ancien ,greffe1 cross the sluggish canal1 and turn sharply to the left1 and follow1 first the cobbled ,quai des ,marbriers1 and afterwards its continuation1 the ,quai ,vert4 ,pacing these silent promenades1 which are bordered by humble cottages1 you have opposite1 across the water1 as also from the adjacent ,quai du ,rosaire1 grand groupings of pinnacle1 tower1 and gable1 more delightful even1 in perfection of combination and in mellow charm of colour1 than those domes and towers of ,oxford whose presence ,wordsworth confessed1 in a very indifferent sonnet1 to overpower his soberness of reason4 ,in ,brussels1 he says elsewhere in his journal1 the modern taste in costume1 architecture1 etc41 has got the mastery2 in ,ghent there is a struggle2 but in ,bruges old images are still paramount1 and an air of monastic life among the quiet goings-on of a thinly-peopled city is inexpressibly soothing4 ,a pensive grace seems to be cast over all1 even the very children4 ,this estimate1 after the lapse of considerably more than half a century1 still1 on the whole1 stands good4 ,in ,ghent there is a struggle4 ,approaching ,ghent1 indeed1 by railway from ,bruges1 and with our heads full of old-world romance of ,philip van ,artevelte1 and of continually insurgent burghers 7for whom ,ghent was rather famous71 and of how ,roland1 my horse without peer1 brought good news from ,ghent1 one is rather shocked at first1 as we circle round the suburbs1 at the rows of aggressive new houses1 and rather tempted to conclude that the struggle has now ended1 and that modernity1 as at ,brussels1 has won the day at ,ghent4 ,luckily the doubt is dissipated as we quit the splendid ,sud station--and ,belgium1 one may add in parenthesis1 has some of the most palatial railway-stations in the world--and find ourselves once again enmeshed in a network of ancient thoroughfares1 which1 if they lack wholly the absolute quiet1 and in part the architectural charm1 of ,bruges1 yet confront us at every corner with abundance of old-world charm4 ,i suppose the six great things to be seen in ,ghent are the cathedral of ,st4 ,bavon 7and in the cathedral the great picture of the ,adoration of the ,lamb1 by ,hubert and ,jan van ,eyck72 the churches of ,st4 ,michel1 with a ,crucifixion by ,van ,dyck1 and ,st4 ,nicholas2 the wonderful old houses on the ,quai des ,herbes2 the splendidly soaring ,belfry2 and possibly the ,grande ,beguinage1 on the outskirts of the town4 ,the cathedral has the usual solitary west tower1 as at ,ely1 that we have now come to associate--at ,ypres and ,bruges--with typical ,belgian churches4 ,the great ,van ,eyck is hung in a chapel on the south of the choir1 and the services of the verger must be sought for its exhibition4 ,the paintings on the shutters are merely copies by ,coxie1 six of the originals being in the ,picture ,gallery in ,berlin4 ,their restoration to ,ghent1 one hopes1 will form a fractional discharge of the swiftly accumulating debt that ,germany owes to ,belgium4 ,the four main panels1 however1 are genuine work of the early fifteenth century1 the reredos as a whole having been begun by ,hubert1 and finished by ,jan van ,eyck in #adcb4 ,the centre-piece is in illustration of the text in the ,apocalypse 7v4 #ab73 ,worthy is the ,lamb that was slain to receive power1 and riches1 and wisdom1 and strength1 and honour1 and glory1 and blessing4 ,one may question1 indeed1 if figurative language of the kind in question can ever be successfully transferred to canvas2 whether this literal lamb1 on its red-damasked table1 in the midst of these carefully marshalled squadrons of ,apostles1 ,popes1 and ,princes1 can ever quite escape a hint of something ludicrous4 ,one may question all this1 yet still admire to the full both the spirit of devotion that inspired this marvellous picture and its miracle of minute and jewel-like execution4 ,there are scores of other good pictures in ,ghent1 including 7not even to go outside ,st4 ,bavon's7 the ,christ among the ,doctors by ,francis ,pourbus1 into which portraits of ,philip ,,ii4 of ,spain1 the ,emperor ,charles ,v41 and the infamous ,duke of ,alva--names of terrible import in the sixteenth-century history of the ,netherlands--are introduced among the bystanders2 whilst to the left of ,philip is ,pourbus himself1 with a greyish cap on which is inscribed ,franciscus ,pourbus1 #aefg4 ,but it is always to the ,adoration of the ,mystic ,lamb that our steps are first directed1 and to which they always return4 ,it is hard1 indeed1 that necessities of space should compel us to pass so lightly over other towns in ,flanders--over ,courtrai1 with its noble example of a fortified bridge1 and with its great picture1 by ,van ,dyck1 of the ,raising of the ,cross that was stolen mysteriously a few years ago from the church of ,notre ,dame1 but has since1 like the ,joconde at the ,louvre1 been recovered and replaced2 over ,oudenarde1 with its two fine churches1 and its small town hall that is famous for its splendour even in a country the ,hotels de ,ville of which are easily the most elaborate 7if not always the most chaste or really beautiful7 in ,europe2 and over certain very minor places1 such as ,damme1 to the north-east of ,bruges1 whose silent1 sunny streets1 and half-deserted churches1 seem to breathe the very spirit of ,flemish mediaevalism4 ,of the short strip of ,flemish coast1 from near ,knocke1 past the fashionable modern bathing-places of ,heyst1 ,blankenberghe1 and ,ostende1 to a point beyond ,la ,panne--from border to border it measures roughly only some forty miles1 and is almost absolutely straight--,i willingly say little1 for it seems to me but a little thing when compared with this glorious inland wealth of architecture and painting4 ,recently it has developed in every direction1 and is now almost continuously a thin1 brilliantly scarlet line of small bungalows1 villas1 and lodging-houses1 linked up along the front by esplanades and casinos1 where only a few years ago the fenland met the sea in a chain of rolling sand-dunes that were peopled only by rabbits1 and carpeted only with rushes and coarse grass4 ,about tastes there is no disputing2 and there are people1 no doubt1 who1 for some odd reason1 find this kind of aggressive modernity in some way more attractive in ,belgium than in ,kent4 ,for myself1 ,i confess1 it hardly seems worth while to incur the penalty of sea-sickness merely to play golf on the ruined shore of ,flanders4 ,,iii4 ,of ,brussels ,i do not propose to say very much1 because ,brussels1 although the brightest and gayest town in ,belgium1 and although retaining in its ,grande ,place1 and in the buildings that immediately surround this last1 as well as in its great church of ,st4 ,gudule 7which1 in spite of popular usage1 is not1 and never was1 in the proper sense a cathedral71 relics of antiquity of the very highest value and interest1 yet ,brussels1 as a whole1 is so distinctively a modern1 and even cosmopolitan city1 and has so much general resemblance to ,paris 7though its site is far more picturesque1 and though the place1 to my mind at least1 just because it is smaller and more easily comprehensible1 is a much more agreeable spot to stay in71 that it seems better in a sketch that is principally devoted to what is old and nationally characteristic in ,belgium to give what limited space one has to a consideration rather of towns like ,louvain or ,malines1 in which the special ,belgian flavour is not wholly overwhelmed by false and extraneous influences4 ,st4 ,gudule1 of course1 should certainly be visited1 not only for the sake of the general fabric1 which1 notwithstanding its possession of ,,two west towers1 is typically ,belgian in its general character1 but also for the sake of its magnificent sixteenth and seventeenth century glass1 and especially for the sake of the five great windows in the ,chapelle du ,saint ,sacrement1 which illustrate in a blaze of gorgeous colour the story of how ,jonathan the ,jew bribed ,jeanne de ,louvain to steal the three ,consecrated ,wafers1 from which oozed1 when sacrilegiously stabbed by the sceptical ,jew1 the ,sacred ,blood of a world's redemption4 ,this story is told again--or rather1 perhaps1 a similar story--in the splendid painted glass from the church of ,st4 ,eloi that is now preserved at ,rouen in the ,archaeological ,museum4 ,as for the ,grande ,place1 or original market-place of the city1 which is bounded on one side by the magnificent ,hotel de ,ville1 on the opposite side by the rather heavy1 rebuilt ,maison du ,roi1 and on the remaining two sides chiefly by the splendid old seventeenth-century ,corporation ,houses of the various ancient city guilds--,le ,renard1 the house of the silk-mercers and haberdashers2 ,maison ,cornet1 the house of the boatmen1 or batelliers2 ,la ,louvre1 the house of the archers2 ,la ,brouette1 the house of the carpenters2 ,le ,sac1 the house of the printers and booksellers2 the ,cygne1 the house of the butchers2 and other houses that need not be specified at any greater length1 of the tailors1 painters1 and brewers--this is probably the completest and most splendid example of an ancient city market-square that now remains in ,europe1 and absolutely without rival even in ,belgium itself1 though similar old guild-houses1 in the same delightful ,flemish fashion1 may still be found 7though in this case with admixture of many modern buildings7 in the ,grande ,place at ,antwerp4 ,it was in this splendid square at ,brussels that the unhappy ,counts of ,egmont and ,horn were brutally done to death1 to glut the sinister tyranny of ,spanish ,philip1 on ,june #e1 #aefh4 ,also1 in addition to these two superlative antiquities1 two modern buildings in ,brussels1 though for widely different reasons1 can hardly be passed over under plea of lack of space4 ,crowning the highest point of the city1 and towering itself towards heaven in a stupendous pile of masonry1 is the enormous new ,palais de ,justice1 probably the most imposing law courts in the world4 ,english ,law undoubtedly is housed with much greater modesty1 though not without due magnificence1 in the altogether humbler levels of the ,strand4 ,also in the ,high ,town--which is the modern quarter of ,brussels1 in contrast with the mediaeval ,low ,town1 which lies in the flat below--is the ,royal ,museum of ,ancient ,paintings1 which probably divides honours with the ,picture ,gallery at ,antwerp as the finest and most representative collection of pictures of the ,netherlandish school in the world4 ,here you may revel by the hour in a candlelight effect by ,gerard ,dow2 in the poultry of ,melchior d',hondecoeter2 in a pigsty of ,paul ,potter's2 in landscapes by ,meindert ,hobbema2 in a moonlight landscape of ,van der ,neer's2 in a village scene by ,jan ,steen2 in the gallant world of ,teniers2 and in the weird imaginings of ,pieter ,brueghel the younger4 ,the greatest pictures in the whole collection1 ,i suppose1 are those by ,rubens1 though he has nothing here that is comparable for a moment with those in the ,picture ,gallery and ,cathedral at ,antwerp4 ,very magnificent1 however1 is the ,woman taken in ,adultery1 the ,adoration of the ,magi1 the ,interceder ,interceded 7the ,virgin1 at the prayer of ,st4 ,francis d',assisi1 restrains the angry ,saviour from destroying a wicked world71 and the ,martyrdom of ,st4 ,livinius4 ,this last1 however--like the ,crucifixion in the ,antwerp ,gallery2 like ,van ,dyck's picture in this collection of the drunken ,silenus supported by a fawn2 and like ,rubens' own disgusting ,silenus in our ,national ,gallery at home--illustrates unpleasantly the painful ,flemish facility to condescend to details1 or even whole conceptions1 the realism of which is unnecessarily deliberate and coarse4 ,here1 in this death of ,st4 ,livinius1 the executioner is shown in the act of presenting to a dog with pincers the bleeding tongue that he has just cut out of the mouth of the dying priest4 ,brussels itself1 as already intimated1 is an exceedingly pleasant city for a more or less prolonged stay2 and1 owing at once to the admirable system of ,rundreise tickets that are issued by the ,state railways at an uncommonly low price1 to the rather dubious quality of the hotels in some of the smaller towns1 and to the cardinal fact that ,brussels is a centre from which most of the other great cities of ,belgium--,malines1 ,ghent1 ,antwerp1 and ,liege1 not to mention smaller towns of absorbing interest1 such as ,mons1 ,namur1 ,hal1 ,tirlemont1 ,leau1 and ,soignies--may be easily visited1 more or less completely1 in the course of a single day--owing to all these facts many people will be glad to make this pleasant city their centre1 or headquarters1 for the leisurely exploration of most of ,belgium1 with the exception of the more distant and out-of-the-way districts of ,west ,flanders and the ,ardennes4 ,all the places enumerated are thoroughly worth visiting1 but obviously only the more important can be dealt with more than just casually here4 ,mons1 on a hill overlooking the great coalfield of the ,borinage1 with its strange pyramidal spoil-heaps1 is itself curiously free from the dirt and squalor of an ,english colliery town2 and equally worth visiting for the sake of its splendid cathedral of ,st4 ,wandru1 the richly polychromatic effect of whose interior1 due to the conjunction of deep red-brick vaulting with the dark blue of its limestone capitals and piers1 illustrates another pleasant phase of ,belgian ecclesiastical architecture1 as well as for the sake of a contest1 almost of yesterday1 that has added new and immortal laurels to the genius of ,british battle4 ,tournai1 on the upper ,scheldt1 or ,escaut1 is remarkable for the heavy ,romanesque nave of its cathedral1 which is built of the famous local black marble1 as well as for its remarkable central cluster of five great towers4 ,soignies 7in ,flemish ,zirick71 roughly half-way between ,mons and ,brussels1 and probably little visited1 has a sombre old abbey church1 of ,st4 ,vincent ,maldegaire1 that was built in the twelfth century1 and that is enriched inside with such a collection of splendidly carved classical woodwork--stalls1 misericordes1 and pulpit--as you will scarcely find elsewhere even in ,belgium4 ,the pulpit in particular is wonderful1 with its life-sized girl supporters1 with their graceful and lightly poised figures1 and pure and lovely faces4 ,namur1 strangely enough1 has really nothing of antiquity outside the doors of its ,archaeological ,museum1 but is worth a visit if only for the pleasure of promenading streets which1 if almost wholly modern1 are unusually clean and bright4 ,tirlemont1 again1 has two old churches that will not delay you long1 though ,notre ,dame de ,lac has remarkably fine confessionals of the dawn of the seventeenth century1 and though the splendid brass-work of the font and baptistery lectern at ,st4 ,germains would alone be worth a visit2 but ,leau1 for which ,tirlemont is the junction1 is so quaint and curious a little town1 and comes so much in the guise of a pleasant discovery--since ,baedeker barely mentions it--that1 even apart from its perfect wealth of wood and brass work in the fine thirteenth-century church of ,st4 ,leonhard1 it might anyhow be thought to justify a visit to this little visited corner of ,south ,brabant4 ,i do not know that the brass-work could be easily matched elsewhere3 the huge standard candelabrum to the north of the altar1 with its crowning ,crucifixion2 the lectern1 with its triumphant eagle and prostrate dragon2 the font1 with its cover1 and the holy-water stoup almost as big as a small font 7in ,brittany ,i have seen them as big as a bath72 and the beautiful brass railings that surround the splendid ,tabernacle that was executed in #aeeb by ,cornelius de ,vriendt1 the brother of the painter ,frans ,floris1 and that towers high into the vaulting to a height of fifty-two feet4 ,one realizes more completely in a quiet village church like this the breadth and intensity of the wave of artistic impulse that swept through the ,lowlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than is possible in half a dozen hurried visits to a picture gallery at ,antwerp or ,brussels4 ,finally ,hal1 to conclude our list of minor places1 has a grand fourteenth-century church1 with a miracle-working ,virgin1 and a little red-brick town hall of characteristically picturesque aspect4 ,the railway journey from ,brussels to ,antwerp traverses a typical bit of ,belgian landscape that is as flat as a pancake2 and the monotony is only relieved1 first by the little town of ,vilvoorde1 where ,william ,tyndale was burnt at the stake on ,october #f1 #aecf1 though not alive1 having first been mercifully strangled1 and afterwards by the single1 huge1 square tower of ,malines 7or ,mechlin7 ,cathedral1 which dominates the plain from enormous distances1 like the towers of ,ely or ,lincoln1 though not1 like these last1 by virtue of position on a hill1 but solely by its own vast height and overwhelming massiveness4 ,malines1 though certainly containing fewer objects of particular interest than ,bruges1 and though certainly on the whole a less beautiful city1 strikes one as hardly less dead-and-alive1 and altogether may fairly claim second place among the larger ,belgian cities 7it houses more than fifty thousand souls7 in point of mediaeval character4 ,the great thirteenth and fourteenth century cathedral of ,st4 ,rombaut has been the seat of an archbishopric since the sixteenth century1 and is still the metropolitan church of ,belgium4 ,externally the body1 like the market-hall at ,bruges1 is almost entirely crushed into insignificance by the utterly disproportionate height and bulk of the huge west tower1 the top of which1 even in its present unfinished state 7one almost hopes that it may never be finished71 is actually three hundred and twenty-four feet high4 ,boston ,stump is only two hundred and eighty feet to the top of the weather vane1 but infinitely slimmer in proportion2 whilst even ,salisbury spire is only about four hundred odd feet4 ,immediately below the parapet is the enormous skeleton clock-face1 the proportions of which are reproduced on the pavement of the market-place below4 ,the carillons in this tower are an extravagant example of the ,belgian passion for chiming bells4 ,once safely inside the church1 and the monster tower forgotten1 and we are able to admire its delicate internal proportions1 and the remarkable ornament of the spandrels in the great main arcades of the choir4 ,unfortunately1 much of this interior1 like that of ,st4 ,pierre at ,louvain1 is smothered under half an inch of plaster2 but where this has been removed in tentative patches1 revealing the dark blue drums of the single1 circular columns of the arcades1 the general effect is immensely improved4 ,one would also like to send to the scrap-heap the enormous seventeenth-century figures of the ,apostles on their consoles on the piers1 which form so bad a disfigurement in the nave4 ,the treasure of the church is the great ,crucifixion by ,van ,dyck1 which is hung in the south transept1 but generally kept covered4 ,to see other stately pictures you must go to the church of ,st4 ,jean1 where is a splendid altar triptych by ,rubens1 the centre panel of which is the ,adoration of the ,magi2 or to the fifteenth-century structure of ,notre ,dame au dela de la ,dyle 7the clumsy title is used1 ,i suppose1 for the sake of distinction from the classical ,notre ,dame d',hanswyck71 where ,rubens' ,miraculous ,draught of ,fishes is sometimes considered the painter's masterpiece4 ,it is not yet clear whether this noble picture has been destroyed in the recent bombardment4 ,even to those who care little for art1 a stroll to these two old churches through the sleepy back-streets of ,malines1 with their white and sunny houses1 can hardly fail to gratify4 ,if ,malines is a backwater of the ,middle ,time1 as somnolent or as dull 7so some1 ,i suppose1 would call it7 as the strange dead towns of the ,zuyder ,zee1 or as ,coggeshall or ,thaxted in our own green ,essex1 ,antwerp1 at any rate1 which lies only some fifteen miles or so to the north of it1 is very much awake1 and of aspect mostly modern1 though not without some very curious and charming relics of antiquity embedded in the heart of much recent stone and mortar4 ,perhaps it will be well to visit one of these at once1 taking the tram direct from the magnificent ,gare de l',est 7no lesser epithet is just7 to the ,place ,verte1 which may be considered the real centre of the city2 and making our way thence by a network of quieter back-streets to the ,musee ,plantin-,moretus1 which is the goal of our immediate ambition4 ,i bring you here at once1 not merely because the place itself is quite unique and of quite exceptional interest1 but because it strikes precisely that note of real antiquity that underlies the modern din and bustle of ,antwerp1 though apt to be obscured unless we listen needfully4 ,happy1 indeed1 was the inspiration that moved the city to buy this house from its last private possessor1 ,edward ,moretus1 in #ahgf4 ,to step across this threshold is to step directly into the merchant atmosphere of the sixteenth century4 ,the once great printing house of ,plantin-,moretus was founded by the ,frenchman1 ,christopher ,plantin1 who was born at ,st4 ,aventin1 near ,tours1 in #aead1 and began his business life as a book-binder at ,rouen4 ,in #aedi he removed to ,antwerp1 and was there innocently involved one night in a riot in the streets1 which resulted in an injury that incapacitated him for his former trade1 and necessitated his turning to some new employment4 ,he now set up as printer1 with remarkable success1 and was a sufficiently important citizen at the date of his death1 in #aehi1 to be buried in his own vault under a chapel in the ,cathedral4 ,the business passed1 on his decease1 to his son-in-law1 ,jean ,moertorf1 who had married his daughter1 ,martine1 in #aegj1 and had ,latinized his surname to ,moretus in accordance with the curious custom that prevailed among scholars of the sixteenth century4 ,thus ,servetus was really ,miguel ,servete1 and ,thomas ,erastus was ,thomas ,lieber4 ,the foundation of the fortunes of the house was undoubtedly its monopoly--analogous to that enjoyed by the ,english house of ,spottiswoode1 and by the two elder ,universities--of printing the liturgical works--,missals1 ,antiphons1 ,psalters1 ,breviaries1 etc4--that were used throughout the ,spanish dominions4 ,no attempt1 however1 seems to have been made in the later stages of the history of the house to adopt improved machinery1 or to reconstruct the original1 antiquated buildings4 ,the establishment1 accordingly1 when it was taken over by the city in #ahgf1 retained virtually the same aspect as it had worn in the seventeenth century1 and remains to the present day perhaps the best example in the world of an old-fashioned city business house of the honest time when merchant-princes were content to live above their office1 instead of seeking solace in smug suburban villas4 ,the place has been preserved exactly as it stood1 and even the present attendants are correctly clad in the sober brown garb of the servants of three hundred years since4 ,it is interesting1 not only in itself1 but as an excellent example of how business and high culture were successfully combined under the happier economic conditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries4 ,the ,plantin-,moretus family held a high position in the civic life of ,antwerp1 and mixed in the intellectual and artistic society for which ,antwerp was famed in the seventeenth century--the ,antwerp of ,rubens 7though not a native7 and ,van ,dyck1 of ,jordaens1 of the two ,teniers1 of ,grayer1 ,zegers1 and ,snyders4 ,printing1 indeed1 in those days was itself a fine art1 and the glories of the house of ,plantin-,moretus rivalled those of the later ,chiswick ,press1 and of the goodly ,chaucers edited in our own time by ,professor ,skeat1 and printed by ,william ,morris4 ,proof-reading was then an erudite profession1 and ,francois ,ravelingen1 who entered ,plantin's office as proof-reader in #aefd1 and assisted ,arias ,montanus in revising the sheets of the ,polyglot ,bible1 is said to have been a great ,greek and ,oriental scholar1 and crowned a career of honourable toil1 like ,hogarth's ,industrious ,apprentice1 by marrying his master's eldest daughter1 ,marguerite1 in #aefe4 ,the room in which these scholars worked remains much in its old condition1 with the table at which they sat1 and some of their portraits on the wall4 ,everything here1 in short1 is interesting3 the press-room1 which was used almost continuously and practically without change--two of the antiquated presses of ,plantin's own time remain--for nearly three centuries2 the ,great and ,little ,libraries1 with their splendid collection of books2 the archive room1 with its long series of business accounts and ledgers2 the private livingrooms of the ,moretus family2 and last1 but not least1 the modest little shop1 where books still repose upon the shelves1 which looks as though the salesman might return at any moment to his place behind the counter4 ,england has certainly nothing like it1 though ,london had till recently in ,crosby ,hall a great merchant's house of the fifteenth century1 though stripped of all internal fittings and propriety4 ,luckily this last has been re-erected at ,chelsea1 though robbed by the change of site of half its authenticity and value4 ,i have chosen to dwell on this strange museum at length that seems disproportionate1 not merely because of its unique character1 but because it seems to me full of lessons and reproach for an age that has subordinated honest workmanship to cheap and shoddy productiveness1 and has sacrificed the workman to machinery4 ,certainly no one who visits ,antwerp can afford to overlook it2 but probably most people will first bend their steps towards the more popular shrine of the great cathedral4 ,here ,i confess myself utter heretic3 to call this church1 as ,i have seen it called1 one of the grandest in ,europe1 seems to me pure ,philistinism--the cult of the merely big and obvious1 to the disregard of delicacy and beauty4 ,big it is assuredly1 and superficially astonishing2 but anything more barn-like architecturally1 or spiritually unexalting1 ,i can hardly call to memory4 ,outside it lacks entirely all shadow of homogeneity2 the absence of a central tower1 felt perhaps even in the great cathedrals of ,picardy and the ,ile de ,france1 just as it is felt in ,westminster and in ,beverley ,minster1 is here actually accentuated by the hideous little cupola--,i hardly know how properly to call it--that squats1 as though in derision1 above the crossing2 whilst even the natural meeting and intersection at this point of high roofs1 which in itself would rise to dignity1 is wantonly neglected to make way for this monstrosity4 ,the church1 in fact1 looks1 when viewed externally1 more like four separate churches than one2 and when we step inside1 with all the best will in the world to make the best of it1 it is hard to find1 much to admire1 and anything at all to love1 in these acres of dismally whitewashed walls1 and long1 feeble lines of arcades without capitals4 ,the inherent vice of ,belgian architecture--its lack of really beautiful detail1 and its fussy superfluity of pinnacle and panelling--seems to me here to culminate4 ,belgium has really beautiful churches--not merely of the thirteenth century1 when building was lovely everywhere1 but later buildings1 like ,mons1 and ,st4 ,pierre at ,louvain2 but ,antwerp is not of this category4 ,architecturally1 perhaps1 the best feature of the whole church is the lofty spire 7over four hundred feet71 which curiously resembles in general outline that of the ,hotel de ,ville at ,brussels 7three hundred and seventy feet71 and dates from about the same period 7roughly the middle of the fifteenth century74 ,as usual in ,belgium1 it is quite out of scale2 it is lucky1 indeed1 that the corresponding south-west tower has never been completed1 for the combination of the two would be almost overwhelming4 ,it is curious and interesting as an example of a tower tapering upwards to a point in a succession of diminishing stages1 in contrast with tower and spire4 ,france has something like it1 though far more beautiful1 in the thirteenth-century tower at ,senlis2 but ,england affords no parallel4 ,i am not sure who invented the quite happy phrase1 ,confectioner's ,gothic1 but this tower at ,antwerp is not badly described by it4 ,it is altogether too elaborate and florid1 like the sugar pinnacle of a wedding-cake4 ,this cathedral of ,antwerp1 however1 though at the time that it was built a mere collegiate church of secular canons1 and only first exalted to cathedral rank in #aeei1 is one of the largest churches in superficial area in the world1 a result largely due to its possession1 uniquely1 of not less than six aisles1 giving it a total breadth of one hundred and seventy feet4 ,hung in the two transepts respectively are the two great pictures by ,rubens--the ,elevation of the ,cross and the ,descent from the ,cross--that are described at such length1 and with so much critical enthusiasm1 by ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds in his ,journey to ,flanders and ,holland4 ,the ,descent from the ,cross1 painted by ,rubens in #afab1 when he was only thirty-five years old1 is perhaps the more splendid1 and is specially remarkable for the daring with which the artist has successfully ventured 7what none but great colourists can venture7 to paint pure white linen near flesh4 ,his ,christ1 continues ,sir ,joshua1 ,i consider as one of the finest figures that ever was invented3 it is most correctly drawn1 and ,i apprehend in an attitude of the utmost difficulty to execute4 ,the hanging of the head on ,his shoulder1 and the falling of the body on one side1 gives such an appearance of the heaviness of death1 that nothing can exceed it4 ,antwerp1 of course1 is full of magnificent paintings by ,rubens1 though unfortunately the house in which he lived in the ,place de ,meir 7which is traversed by the tram on its way from the ,est ,station to the ,place ,verte71 which was built by him in #afaa1 and in which he died in #afdj1 was almost entirely rebuilt in #agjc4 ,there is another great ,crucifixion by the master in the ,picture ,gallery1 or ,palais des ,beaux ,arts1 which illustrates his exceptional power as well as his occasional brutality4 ,the centurion1 with his hands on the nape of his horse's neck1 is gazing with horror at the writhings of the impenitent thief1 whose legs are being broken with an iron bar1 which has so tortured the unhappy man that in his agony he has torn his left foot from the nail4 ,it is questionable whether any splendour of success can ever justify a man in thus condescending to draw inspiration from the torture-room or shambles4 ,one would gladly spend more time in this ,antwerp gallery1 which exceeds1 ,i think1 in general magnificence the collections at ,brussels and ,amsterdam2 and gladly would one visit the great fifteenth and sixteenth century churches of ,st4 ,jacques1 ,st4 ,andre1 and ,st4 ,paul1 which not merely form together architecturally an important group of a strongly localized character1 but are also1 like the cathedral1 veritable museums or picture galleries4 ,it is necessary1 however1 to conclude this section1 to say a few words about ,louvain1 which1 lying as it does on the main route from ,brussels to ,liege1 may naturally be considered on our way to the northern ,ardennes4 ,louvain1 on the whole1 has been much more modernized than other ,belgian cities of corresponding bulk1 such as ,bruges or ,malines4 ,the road from the railway-station to the centre of the town is commonplace indeed in its lack of picturesque ,flemish house-fronts or stepped1 corbie1 ,flemish gables4 ,louvain1 in fact1 unlike the two dead cities of ,west ,flanders and ,brabant1 wears a briskly business-like aspect1 and pulses with modern life4 ,i suppose that ,i ought properly to have written all this in the past tense1 for ,louvain is now a heap of smoking cinders4 ,the famous ,town ,hall has1 indeed1 so far been spared by ruffians who would better have spared the magnificent ,cloth ,hall at ,ypres2 between these two great buildings1 the products respectively of the ,belgian genius of the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries1 culture could hardly hesitate4 ,the ,hotel-de-,ville at ,louvain is1 indeed1 an astonishing structure1 just as the cathedral at ,antwerp is astonishing2 but one has to be very indulgent1 or very forgetful of better models1 not to deprecate this absolutely wanton riot of overladened panelling and bulging1 top-heavy pinnacles4 ,the expiring throes of ,belgian ,gothic were a thousand degrees less chaste than the classicism of the early ,renaissance3 few1 perhaps1 will prefer the lacelike over-richness of this midfifteenth century town hall at ,louvain to the restraint of the charming sixteenth-century facade of the ,hotel de ,ville at ,leiden4 ,opposite the town hall is the huge fifteenth-century church of ,st4 ,pierre1 the interior of which1 still smothered in whitewash in #aiaj1 was remarkable for its florid ,gothic rood-screen and soaring ,tabernacle1 or ,ciborium4 ,the stumpy fragment of tower at the west end is said once to have been five hundred and thirty feet high6 ,it is not surprising to read that this last1 and crowning1 manifestation of a familiar ,belgian weakness was largely wrecked by a hurricane in #afjd4 ,,iv4 ,one has left oneself all too little space to say what ought to be said of the ,belgian ,ardennes4 ,personally ,i find them a trifle disappointing2 they come1 no doubt1 as a welcome relief after the rest of ,belgian landscape1 which ,i have heard described1 not altogether unjustly1 as the ugliest in the world2 but the true glory and value of ,belgium will always be discovered in its marvellously picturesque old towns1 and in its unrivalled wealth of painting1 brass-work1 and wood-carving4 ,compared with these last splendours the low1 wooded wolds of the ,ardennes1 with their narrow limestone valleys1 seem a little thing indeed4 ,dinant1 no doubt1 and ,rochefort would be pleasant places enough if one were not always harking back in memory to ,malines and ,ypres1 or longing to be once more in ,ghent or ,bruges4 ,the traveller by railway between ,brussels and ,liege passes1 soon after leaving the station of ,ans1 a point of great significance in the study of ,belgian landscape4 ,hitherto from ,brussels1 or for that matter from ,bruges and ,ostend1 the country1 though studded at frequent intervals with cities and big towns1 has been curiously and intensely rural in the tracts that lie between2 but now1 as we descend the steep incline into the valley of the ,meuse1 we enter on a scene of industrial activity which1 if never quite as bad as our own ,black ,country at home1 is sufficiently spoilt and irritating to all who love rustic grace4 ,the redeeming point1 as always1 is that infinitely superior good taste which presents us1 in the midst of coal-mines and desolation1 not with our own unspeakably squalid ,sheffields or ,rotherhams1 but with a queenly city1 with broad and handsome streets1 with a wealth of public gardens1 and with many stately remnants of the ,renaissance and ,middle ,time4 ,it is possible in ,liege to forget--or rather impossible to recall--the soiled and grimy country that stretches from its gates in the direction of ,seraing4 ,even under the sway of the ,spanish tyranny this was an independent state under the rule of a ,bishop ,prince1 who was also an ,elector of the ,holy ,roman ,empire4 ,its original cathedral1 indeed1 has vanished1 like those at ,cambrai and ,bruges1 in the insensate throes of the ,french ,revolution2 and the existing church of ,st4 ,paul1 though dating in part from the thirteenth century1 and a fine enough building in its way1 is hardly the kind of structure that one would wish to associate with the seat of a bishopric that is still so historic1 and was formerly so important and even quasi-regal4 ,here1 however1 you should notice1 just as in the great neighbour church of ,st4 ,jacques1 the remarkable arabesque-pattern painting of the severies of the vault1 and the splendour of the sixteenth-century glass4 ,st4 ,jacques1 ,i think1 on the whole is the finer church of the two1 and remarkable for the florid ornament of its spandrels1 and for the elaborate1 pendent cusping of the soffits of its arches--features that lend it an almost barbaric magnificence that reminds one of ,rosslyn ,chapel4 ,liege1 built as it is exactly on the edge of the ,ardennes1 is far the most finely situated of any great city in ,belgium4 ,to appreciate this properly you should not fail to climb the long flight of steps--in effect they seem interminable1 but they are really about six hundred--that mounts endlessly from near the ,cellular ,prison to a point by the side of the ,citadelle ,pierreuse4 ,looking down hence on the city1 especially under certain atmospheric conditions--,i am thinking of a showery day at ,easter--one is reminded of the lines by poor ,john ,davidson3 ,the adventurous sun took ,heaven by storm2 ,clouds scattered largesses of rain2 ,the sounding cities1 rich and warm1 ,smouldered and glittered in the plain4 ,it is not often that one is privileged to look down so directly1 and from so commanding a natural height1 on to so vast and busy a city--those who like this kind of comparison have styled it the ,belgian ,birmingham--lying unrolled so immediately1 like a map1 beneath our feet4 ,from ,liege1 if you like1 you may penetrate the ,ardennes--,i do not know whether ,shakespeare was thinking in ,as ,you ,like ,it of this woodland or of his own ,warwickshire forest of ,arden2 perhaps he thought of both--immediately by way of ,spa and the valley of the ,vesdre1 or by the valleys of the ,ourthe and of its tributary the ,ambleve2 or you may still cling for a little while to the fringe of the ,ardennes1 which is also the fringe of the industrial country1 and explore the valley of the ,meuse westward1 past ,huy and ,namur1 to ,dinant4 ,huy has a noble collegiate church of ,notre ,dame1 the chancel towers of which 7found again as far away as ,como7 are suggestive of ,rhenish influence1 but strikes one as rather dusty and untidy in itself4 ,namur1 on the contrary1 we have already noted with praise1 though it has nothing of real antiquity4 ,the valley of the ,meuse is graced everywhere at intervals with fantastic piles of limestone cliff1 and certainly1 in a proper light1 is pretty2 but there is far too much quarrying and industrialism between ,liege and ,namur1 and far too many residential villas along the banks between ,namur and ,dinant1 altogether to satisfy those who have high ideals of scenery4 ,wordsworth1 in a prefatory note to a sonnet that was written in #ahbj1 and at a date when these signs of industrialism were doubtless less obtrusive1 says3 ,the scenery on the ,meuse pleases one more1 upon the whole1 than that of the ,rhine1 though the river itself is much inferior in grandeur2 but even he complains that the scenery is in several places disfigured by quarries1 whence stones were taken for the new fortifications4 ,dinant1 in particular1 has an exceptionally grand cliff2 but the summit is crowned 7or was7 by an ugly citadel1 and the base is thickly clustered round with houses 7not all1 by any means1 mediaeval and beautiful7 in a way that calls to mind the ,high ,tor at ,matlock ,bath4 ,dinant1 in short1 is a kind of ,belgian ,matlock1 and appeals as little as ,matlock to the careful student of ,nature4 ,if at ,dinant1 however1 you desert the broad valley of the ,meuse for the narrow and secluded limestone glen of the ,lesse1 with its clear and sparkling stream1 you will sample at once a kind of scenery that reminds you of what is best in ,derbyshire1 and is also best and most characteristic in the ,belgian ,ardennes4 ,the walk up the stream from ,dinant to ,houyet1 where the valley of the ,lesse becomes more open and less striking1 is mostly made by footpath2 and the pellucid river is crossed1 and recrossed1 and crossed again1 by a constant succession of ferries4 ,sometimes the white cliff rises directly from the water1 sheer and majestic1 like that which is crowned by the romantic ,chateau ,walzin2 sometimes it is more broken1 and rises amidst trees from a broad plinth of emerald meadow that is interposed between its base and the windings of the river4 ,sometimes we thread the exact margin of the stream1 or traverse in the open a scrap of level pasture2 sometimes we clamber steeply by a stony path along the sides of an abrupt and densely wooded hillside1 where the thicket is yellow in spring with ,anemone ,ranunculoides1 or starred with green ,herb ,paris4 ,this is the kind of glen scenery that is found along the courses of the ,semois1 ,lesse1 and ,ourthe1 recalling1 with obvious differences1 that of ,monsal ,dale or ,dovedale1 but always1 perhaps1 without that subtle note of wildness that robes even the mild splendours of ,derbyshire with a suggestion of mountain dignity4 ,the ,ardennes1 in short--and this is their scenic weakness--never attain to the proper mountain spirit4 ,there is a further point1 however1 in which they also recall ,derbyshire1 but in which they are far preeminent4 ,this is the vast agglomeration of caves and vertical potholes--like those in ,craven1 but here called etonnoirs--that riddle the rolling wolds in all directions4 ,chief among these is the mammoth cave of ,han1 the mere perambulation of which is said to occupy more than two hours4 ,i have never penetrated myself into its sombre and dank recesses1 but something may be realized of its character and scale merely by visiting its gaping mouth at ,eprave4 ,this is the exit of the ,lesse1 which1 higher up the vale1 at the curious ,perte de ,lesse1 swerves suddenly from its obvious course1 down the bright and cheerful valley1 to plunge noisily through a narrow slit in the rock-- ,where ,alph1 the sacred river1 ran ,through caverns measureless to man ,down to a sunless sea4 ,rochefort1 which itself has a considerable cave1 is a pleasant centre for the exploration of these subterranean marvels4 ,altogether this limestone region of the ,ardennes1 though certainly not remarkable for mountain or forest splendour1 comes as a somewhat welcome relief after the interminable levels and chessboard fields of ,east and ,west ,flanders1 or of the provinces of ,limburgh and ,antwerp4