2/4 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804. 



We saw fisliing in the canal two rival priests of the 

 town, the Catholic and Protestant. Every one, espe- 

 cially the French, civil to a degree. Near Allan aar, 

 a delightful country, and more wood ; surrounded by 

 30 to 40 windmills, which, however, also go by water. 

 The churches have a fine lofty appearance from a 

 distance, and are really superb buildings ; the town 

 neat, and even pretty ; canals and trees running- 

 through it ; a large fosse and walls, with a handsome 

 new and a fine old gateway. No trouble entering ; no 

 one ever stopped or spoke to us. A meadow of half 

 a mile square on the north side, filled with little 

 gardens and hedges, and crammed with lust-houses, 

 surrounded with a ditch almost stagnant. They 

 appear to the number of two in twenty yards, all 

 along the outside, and have a singularly Hollandish 

 appearance. 



I am just waiting for my dinner, which I have 

 made shift to order in my bad Dutch. A very com- 

 fortable dinner, with exquisite hautboys in abundance, 

 and good claret, prepared me for the rest of my jour- 

 ney. I first saw the cathedral fine, 100 paces long; 

 two organs ; the nave lofty. Proceeded at four through 

 narrow, soft, winding roads, in one continued grove of 

 young trees ; every now and then a break showing a 

 meadow of great extent in various crops sometimes 

 nothing but green grass as far as the eye could reach. 

 Now the smell of beans from large patches, and then 

 cows and canals. The first Dutch mile brings a view 

 of Burwyk, and larger woods ; villas thick set ; large 



