286 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



the principal hold it has upon the attention of the way- 

 farer, arises from the contemplation of the vast mass of 

 human suffering which has been concentrated in so 

 small a space. Great afflictions, whether individual or 

 national, awaken the sympathies of humanity, and fill 

 the soul with tender trains of thought and feeling. 

 Malines was founded in the seventh century; and in the 

 ninth had to struggle hard for its very existence. It was 

 nearly destroyed by fire in 884; again in 1342; and 

 again in 1547. It was all but entirely overwhelmed by 

 the inundations of the river in the years 1261 and 1295, 

 and again in 1470. During the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries it was desolated by the plague; sacked and 

 pillaged in 1566 and 1578; and taken and retaken 

 several times, both by the English and the French. 



In the churches at Malines, there are a few pictures 

 which deserve the attention of the artist. The town has 

 been long celebrated all over the world, for its almost 

 unrivalled manufacture of a very beautiful kind of lace. 



We now begin to rise from the flat and marshy 

 districts of Belgium, to a more elevated and undulating 

 country; and we naturally expect to find the rivers 

 assuming that clear, sparkling, rippling character, so 

 delightful to the eye of an experienced angler. 



The capital of Belgium is situated on the river Senne ; 

 but the water is not fishable near the city. The Senne 

 takes its rise about fifteen miles above Brussels ; and just 

 before it reaches Halle on its downward course, its 

 head-waters one of which flows from the direction of 

 Soignies, and the other from a place called SenefFe, 

 which may be termed the source of the river effect a 



