40 A CONTINENTAL TOUE. 



into the court-yard, and the meeting there of parents and 

 children is described to have been terrible. The windows 

 of my bed-room command a view of this very spot, and 

 of what I at first thought a fine park, with a canal, and 

 trees, and pleasant walks. I did not then know that this 

 was where the explosion had taken place, and that at one 

 period it was the most populous quarter of the city." 



THE LIBRARY AT LEYDEN. 



" In the course of my peregrinations I formed an ac- 

 quaintance with a bookseller of some intelligence, whose 

 name I forget. He is librarian to the University, and 

 curator of its valuable Greek and Latin and Oriental 

 manuscripts, and obligingly offered me an inspection of 



every object of curiosity under his charge I went 



to the library, where I found my newly acquired friend 

 true to his appointment. He shewed me many old books 

 worthy of attention, and sundry manuscripts of exceeding 

 beauty, great age, and exquisite perfection. A manuscript 

 copy of the Iliad, written on vellum, and richly illuminated, 

 deserves inspection ; also an illuminated copy of Virgil, on 

 the same material. Divers MSS. of Dutchmen, with lono- 

 names of great celebrity, of whom I had never before 

 heard a syllable, were shewn me ; and many books with 

 the annotations of Scaliger, and a MS. holograph of that 

 author, besides many others, each worthy of a volume. 



