154 "MY GREAT GRANDFATHER." 



sometimes painted beautifully, representing a variety of sub- 

 jects, and in no way inferior to the painted porcelain for the 

 table. 



The Dutch are famous smokers and are constantly " pull- 

 ing at the pipe." They use those with long, straight stems, 

 and both their clay and porcelain pipes are of the finest form 

 and finish. Irving, in " The History of New York from the 

 Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty," 

 has given a good description of the smoking powers of the 

 Dutch. Speaking of his grandfather's love for the weed, he 

 Bays : 



"My great-grandfather, by the mother's side, Hermanns 

 Van Clattercop, when employed to build the large stone 

 church at Rotterdam, which stands about three hundred 

 yards to your left, after your turn from the Boomkeys; and 

 which is so conveniently constructed that all the zealous 

 Christians of Rotterdam prefer sleeping through a sermon 

 there to any other church in the city. My great-grandfather, 

 I say, when employed to build that famous church, did, in 

 the first place, send to Delft for a box of long pipes ; then, 

 having purchased a new spitting-box and a hundred weight 

 of the best Virginia, he sat himself down and did nothing 

 for the space of three months but smoke most laboriously. 



" Then did he spend full three months more in trudging on 

 foot, and voyaging in the Trekschuit, from Rotterdam to 

 Amsterdam to Delft to Hserlern to Leyden to the 

 Hague knocking his head and breaking his pipe against 

 every church in his road. Then did he advance gradually 

 nearer and nearer to Rotterdam, until he came in full sight 

 of the identical spot whereon the church was to be built. 

 Then did he spend three months longer in walking round it 

 and round it, contemplating it, first from one point of view, 

 and then from another, now would he be paddled by it on 

 the canal now would he peep at it through a telescope from 

 the other side of the Meuse, and now would he take a bird's- 

 eye glance at it from the top of one of those gigantic wind- 

 mills which protect the gates of the city. 



" The good folks of the place were on the tip-toe of expec- 

 tation and impatience. Notwithstanding all the turmoil of 

 my great-grandfather, not a symptom of the church was yet 

 to be seen ; they even began to fear it would never be 

 brought into the world, but that its great projector would lie 



