FIRST MARRIAGE. BUSINESS 29 
I was at Delft to see the wrack that was made by the 
blowing up of the powder this day seuenight, it is a sad 
sight, whole streets quite razed; not one stone vpon 
another, ib is not yett knowen how manie persons are 
lost, there is scarse anie house in the toune but the tyles 
are off. 
A happier event which occurred in the same year, however, 
was the conclusion of peace—for a time—between Holland and 
England. 
At about this date Leeuwenhoek bought a house and shop 
in Delft, and set up in business as a draper. For these 
premises he paid altogether—including interest on the money, 
which he had to borrow—5000 florins’. His house was 
situated’ in a street still called the Hippolytusbuurt, running 
parallel to the Oude Delft (the main canal and thoroughfare of 
the town), and within sight of the Old Church and the New 
Church’, and near to the Fish and Meat Markets and the 
Town Hall—all which places are mentioned by Leeuwenhoek 
and can still be seen by the inquiring traveller. But 
Leeuwenhoek’s house itself is no longer there. According to 
Bouricius, to whom the identification of the site is due, it 
was the second one from the Nieuwstraat (which connects 
Hippolytusbuurt with Oude Delft) and was called ‘‘ The Golden 
Head” (Het Gouden Hoofd). A few further details regarding 
it can be gathered from certain passages in the Letters. 
Leeuwenhoek lived in this house for the rest of his life, and 
there can be little doubt that it was here he made most of his 
discoveries’. 
By great good fortune, two of the bills which Leeuwenhoek 
made out for his customers have recently been recovered. 
They prove conclusively that he carried on business as a 
" Cf. Schierbeek (1929a). The facts were ascertained by the late Mr 
Bouricius. 
* This was forgotten until quite recently, when it was rediscovered by 
Morre (1919) and Bouricius (1924). Of. p. 338 infra. 
* These Churches are still called “Old” and “ New,” as they were in 
L.’s day. The “New” one, however, is not very new, as it was built 
between 1391 and 1496; while the “ Old”’ Church was probably built about 
1240. Cf. Boitet (1729) and Wildeman (1903). 
* Cf. p. 338 infra. 
