3 6 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



CHAPTER XIV. 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 



' Fame, they tell you, is air; but without air there is no life for 

 any ; without fame there is none for the best/ W. S. LANDOK. 



NOTWITHSTANDING all Van Swieten's skill and Clifford's 

 unwearied kindness, Linnaeus never fully recovered his 

 health until he left Holland and reached the more elevated 

 country of Brabant, c when his whole frame was in one 

 day quite renovated, as it were, and freed from some- 

 thing that was a burden to it.' } His route to Paris lay 

 through ' Antwerp, Trefontaine, Mechlin, Brussels, 

 Mons, Valenciennes and Cambray, Peronne, Roye, and 

 Pont-a-Pont (?) : ' but he made no long stay at these 

 places, being impatient to reach Paris. 



' As soon as he reached Brabant he made the reflec- 

 tion that he was come out of a fine garden into a poor 

 pasture-ground ; both the people and their habitations 

 were poor. The city of Antwerp had antique and mag- 

 nificent buildings, but the inhabitants in general were 

 in a state of poverty.' 2 This shows the then superior 

 comfort and prosperity of Holland. We also see how 

 1 Diary. 2 Ibid. 



