DELFT 27 
insipid, and indeed is but weak, compar’d to the English, 
having little or no relish of the Mault.’ 
Mountague forgot, however, to mention the trees and the 
waterways which are still so typical of the town; so I 
would complete his picture by adding a few touches from a 
modern historian” who wrote of a time still earlier than 
Leeuwenhoek’s : 
It was a quiet, cheerful, yet somewhat drowsy little 
city, that ancient burgh of Delft. The placid canals by 
which it was intersected in every direction were all 
planted with whispering umbrageous rows of limes and 
poplars, and along these watery highways the traffic of 
the place glided so noiselessly that the town seemed the 
abode of silence and tranquillity. These streets were 
clean and airy, the houses well built, the whole aspect 
of the place thriving 
And writing of the same period, the Earl of Leicester— 
Queen EHlizabeth’s favourite, who was once, by a strange 
freak of fortune, Governor-General of the Netherlands—even 
describes Delft as “another London almost for beauty and 
fairness.” * 
But to return to our subject proper. On 29 July 1654* 
’ Delft was always famous for her beer: but the author of Batavia 
(1588) agreed with Mountague that it was inferior to the English— 
“ Cerealis potus prima post Britannicum zythum laude,’ etc. (p. 260). 
Dr Hadrianus Junius (alzas Adriaen de Jongh) doubtless knew what he was 
talking about, for he was at one time resident family physician to the Earl 
of Norfolk (ef. Bense, 1925, p. 198). 
* Motley, Dutch Republic: last chapter ad init. 
* Quoted by Motley, United Netherlands (1869), Vol. I, p. 352. The 
words are from a letter written by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532 ?- 
1588), to Lord Walsingham on 26 Dec. 1585. He adds (fide Motley) “ the 
other towns I have passed by are very goodly towns, but this is the fairest 
of them all.” 
“ Haaxman (1875, p.16) gives the date as 26 July 1654. Bouricius 
(1924) says 29 June 1654: but in a letter he informs me that this is a 
misprint, and that the date given above is correct. According to Mr 
Bouricius the archives of Delft show that the marriage was formally 
announced on 11 July 1654, and registered on the 29th of the same month. 
Schierbeek (1930) correctly gives the date as “ 11/29 Juli 1654’"’"—July 11 
being the date of the ondertroww (corresponding roughly with “calling the 
