THE EXPLOSION AT LEYDEN. 39 



increase of which is no doubt favoured by the natural 

 moisture of the soil and climate." 



LEYDEX AND THE GEEAT EXPLOSION. 



" July 25. — In this church lie the remains of Gerard de 

 Meerman, a well-known bibliographer. This man died of 

 fright, in consequence of the explosion which took place 

 here on the 12th of January 1807* A French vessel from 

 Amsterdam for Delft, lying in the canal Van Eappenberg, 

 in the centre of the city, laden with ten thousand pounds 

 weight of gunpowder, blew up about five o'clock in the 

 afternoon, killed some hundreds of the inhabitants, de- 

 stroyed great part of the town, and produced the utmost 

 havoc and consternation. My servant told me he heard 

 the noise at Amsterdam, two-and-twenty miles off. Many 

 of the inhabitants were sitting at dinner, and perished 

 among the ruins of their dwellings, with their wives 

 and children. A Jewish school suffered considerably ; 

 sixteen of the children were blown up. A charity school 

 near it was also destroyed, with all its inmates. Fifty 

 children at a boarding-school narrowly escaped by the col- 

 lision of two walls which supported the roof, only two of 

 these were crushed to death, and a third perished with 

 fright in its father's arms. Those who were saved rushed 



* There is here seme mistake. Gerard Meerman died in 1771, and 

 John Meerman lived many years after the fatal explosion of 1S07. — Ed. 



