DUTCH BULBS & GARDENS 



CHAPTER I 



ON GETTING THERE 



UNDOUBTEDLY the way to go to the Bulb Gardens 

 of Holland is to go the way by which the bulbs 

 come to England. Or at least follow that route 

 to a certain extent the bulbs usually make part 

 of the inland journey in their own country by canal 

 boat, neither a very possible nor a very comfortable 

 proceeding for the average traveller. But for the 

 rest, their route is the one for those who have 

 leisure and who want to get to the gardens in the 

 most suitable way. 



One boards a little Dutch steamer at the Tower 

 Stairs, a steamer that seems in the greatest hurry 

 to be off, but never is, though everyone and every- 

 thing, including the steam escape, are very busy 

 till it finally shrieks itself under the Tower Bridge 

 and so down the river. These steamers are some- 



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