NETHERFIELD 



with both hands, carrying the ball, 

 and the body foul, i.e. obstructing 

 an opponent by interposing the 

 body, are penalised in two ways, 

 the first two by a free pass, and the 

 last two by a free throw at goal to 

 the side offended against. When 

 the ball passes over either of the 

 side lines, a throw-in is given against 

 the side that caused the ball to 

 leave the field. 



In five and seven a side games 

 defending players are adjudged to 



5684 



be offside if they enter the attack- 

 ing court, and attacking players if 

 they enter the defending court. In 

 nine a side games players leaving 

 their own courts are offside. 



Netherfield. Village of Notting- 

 hamshire, England. It is 2 m. 

 from Nottingham, and is served by 

 the G.N. and Mid. Rlys., many of 

 the inhabitants being employed on 

 the railways. There are also fac- 

 tories connected with the lace and 

 hosiery trades. Pop. 6,400. 



NETHERLANDS: HOLLAND OF TO-DAY 



D. S. Meldrum, Author of Holland and the Hollanders 



This account is supplemented by articles on A msteniam . The 

 Hague ; Rotterdam ; and other towns and cities of the Netherlands. 

 See the biographies of Barneveldt ; William the Silent ; Witt ; and 

 other makers of the country, and those of its rulers and men of letters. 

 See also Belgium; Dutch Art ; Frisians; Holland; Zealand 



Netherlands 

 arms 



The Netherlands is the modern 

 kingdom known to the British as 

 Holland, to the French as Les Pays 

 Bos, and to the 

 Dutch them- 

 selves as Neder- 

 land. The name 

 was common to 

 the territory, the 

 historical Low 

 Countries, c o m- 

 prising present- 

 day Holland and 

 Belgium, until the declaration of 

 independence by the northern pro- 

 vinces in 1581. The history of the 

 Netherlands and Belgium, there- 

 after, may be accounted separate. 

 Holland for centuries designated 

 that portion of the Netherlands 

 now represented generally by the 

 provinces of N. and S. Holland 

 and sometimes Zealand. This re- 

 stricted application still prevails 

 locally. 



Sovereign Rights in the Schelde 

 The modern Netherlands, com- 

 posed of eleven provinces Fries- 

 land, N. Holland, S. Holland, 

 Zealand, Utrecht, Groningen, 

 Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland, 

 N. Brabant, and Limburg is a 

 country of approximately 12,580 

 sq. m., or 15,760 inclusive of its 

 waters. It is bounded W. and N. 

 by the North Sea, on the E. by 

 Germany, and on the S. by Bel- 

 gium. In the S.E. corner, Limburg 

 runs down between Germany and 

 Belgium, assuming special strategic 

 and political importance in con- 

 sequence. A strip of Zealand terri- 

 tory (Zeeuwsch or Staats-Vlaan- 

 deren) lying S. of the Schelde gives 

 the Netherlands sovereign rights to 

 that river ; and her claim to extend 

 these also to the Wielingen channel, 

 W. of Flushing, was, in 1921, con- 

 tested by Belgium. 



In the S. of Limburg is the 

 highest point (1,050 ft.) in the 

 Netherlands. Other outcrops of 

 older formations occur in the E. 



provinces, where also are sandy 

 tracts from 160 ft. to 325 ft. high. 

 The remainder of thecountry, about 

 99 p.c. of the whole, is a compara- 

 tively recent alluvial or diluvial 

 deposit, little of it exceeding 

 16 ft. above sea level, while much 

 is below it, and even so far as 6 ft. 

 below. This fact dominates the 

 Netherlands in all its aspects. 



Physically, it must be pictured 

 as a great trough, the floor of which 

 slopes down from E. and S.E. to- 

 wards the North Sea in W. and N. 

 The sea there would rush in and 

 overwhelm this lower-lying area, 

 but for a natural protecting rim 

 of sand-dunes, artificially strength- 

 ened in places. Across this 

 area the rivers 'flow to the North 

 Sea Rhi ne 

 (Lek), Meuse, 

 Waal, Schelde 

 being the chief 

 f r o m the 

 higher contin- 

 ent beyond. 

 These rivers at 

 their mouths 

 are frequently 

 below the level of the sea, into which 

 they have to be lifted by canals and 

 locks across the dune- or dyke-rim. 

 In the past the sea has often rushed 

 in with devastating effects, of which 

 visible signs are the Zuyder Zee, 

 washed out in floods of A.D. 1170, 

 the Dollart, in 1277, and the 

 broken coast-line of the Frisian, S. 

 Holland, and Zealand islands. At 

 all times, too, the precarious river 

 levels threaten internal floods. 

 Problem of the Dykes 



These physical conditions indi- 

 cate a country faced with unique 

 problems of defence works against 

 the waters ; and throughout his- 

 torical times the Netherlands has, 

 in fact, possessed a unique public 

 department to cope with these 

 problems. It is known as Water- 

 stoat, or the state of the waters. The 

 works of defence, reclamation, and 



Netherlands flag ; 

 red, white and blue 



NETHERLANDS 



drainage, directly or indirectly 

 comprehended by the Waterstaat, 

 are extensive, complicated, and 

 for a great part concealed. 



Every indyked area, of whatever 

 size or level, the waters within 

 which are constantly organized 

 and controlled as a unit is called 

 a polder. Much the greater part of 

 the Netherlands is polderland. 

 There are sea-puiders and land- 

 polders ; and there are also droog- 

 malcerijen, lakes or meres drained 

 of the water which had gathered 

 after excavations of short peat. 

 The "Fen Colonies" 



Dutch peat (turf) is of two kinds, 

 hard (short) and loose, according 

 as it originates in low or high 

 fen. Some 20 p.c. of Netherlands 

 is fen, the greater proportion of it 

 low, and therefore in the maritime 

 provinces. Both kinds of peat are 

 everywhere being removed ; short 

 peat dredged and dried from the 

 low fens, for example, and loose 

 peat dug off large areas, as in the 

 famous "fen colonies" of Gronin- 

 gen and Drenthe. The place of 

 both is taken by green harvests. 



PEOPLE, LANGUAGE, AND LITERA- 

 TURE. This strange and relatively 

 new country holds a population of 

 6,841,155 (1920). It is most sparse 

 in Drenthe, the heath province 

 and densest in N. and S. Holland, 

 where are the largest cities. 



Netherlanders are, in the main, 

 Frisians, Saxons, and Franks, 

 much intermingled, but still clearly 

 showing the several types. Frisians, 

 solid in Friesland, have mixed with 

 Franks in the W. maritime pro- 

 vinces, and in a less degree with 

 Saxons in Groningen ; otherwise, 

 broadly, the S. is Frankish, the E. 

 Saxon. All three have a language 

 in common, within which dialects 

 vary. It is more akin to English 

 than to German, and, like both, is a 

 distinct Teutonic tongue. Frisian, 

 also Teutonic, but unintelligible to 

 the Dutch, has a considerable liter- 

 ature of its own, and Friesland is, 

 to some slight extent, at least, 

 bilingual. 



Race and religion more or less 

 coincide : the S., mainly Frankish, 

 is almost solidly Roman Catholic ; 

 the N.W. and N. (Frisian and 

 Saxon) are Protestant, but lesa 

 solidly. The remaining provinces 

 are Roman Catholic, speaking 

 generally, in proportion to their 

 Frankish admixture. 



Like the Dutch tongue, but with 

 a distinct evolution of its own, 

 Dutch literature emerged in the 

 16th century from a battle of S. 

 and N. elements. Two names, 

 Roemer Visscher and Hendrick 

 Spieghel, survive by their efforts to 

 fashion and foster a literary vehicle. 

 As in painting, so in letters,, the 



