1 26 In Dutch Water Meadows. 



the old and the new are to be found in such 

 grotesque conjunction as in the head-dress of the 

 well-to-do Dutch farmer's wife of to-day. But 

 when family jewels and old lace come into collision 

 with fashion, Greek meets Greek, and neither gives 

 way in a hurry. 



The picturesque polished silver head-plates under 

 the pretty cap of fine lace or blue silk gauze, and 

 gold face ornaments which may have formed part 

 of the " Ladies' Subscription Fund " towards the 

 cost of flooding the country for the relief of besieged 

 Leyden, or have been buried for safe keeping in 

 the days of "the Spanish Fury," are still to be 

 commonly seen in Sunday wear, but scarcely ever 

 now without a vulgar parody of a Paris bonnet of 

 a year ago like a mocking imp straddling on the 

 top. 



The blue gauze cap is worn only by Roman 

 Catholics. The same distinction of creeds is marked 

 also by the colour of the awnings of the family 

 carriages, which, with their high carved tail-boards, 

 look like Old World ships placed, stern foremost, 

 on wheels. It is a fairly safe assumption, though 

 less universally true than was once the case, 

 that the farmer's wife and daughters who look 

 out at one as they drive by from beneath a white 

 hood, are Catholics from beneath a black hood, 

 Protestants. 



But time is short. Almost before we can realise 

 what it is that we have been looking at, another 

 slide is in the lantern. The bright greens and pinks 

 and blues and yellows of the Dutch polders, and 

 the softer tints of the sand dunes behind, fade on 

 the sheet, to re-arrange themselves in more sombre 

 tones. The windmills and heavy pyramids of straw 



