HOMEWARD BOUND 37 



greatly the Southern Netherlands have prospered since 

 they became independent Belgium. 



The Protestant Swede, fresh from Holland and 

 England, felt with Carlyle, 'The devotion of the 

 kneeling worshippers in the cathedral struck me dumb. 

 I cared nothing for Rubens and Vandyke canvasses 

 while this living painted canvas hung here before me on 

 the bosom of eternity/ l Carlyle says of this landscape, 

 1 Sand-downs and stagnating marshes, producing nothing 

 but heath, but sedges, docks, marsh-mallows, and mias- 

 mata so it lay by nature ; but the industry of man, 

 the assiduous unwearied motion of how many spades, 

 pickaxes, hammers, wheelbarrows, masons' trowels, and 

 the thousandfold industrial tools have made it this ! 

 a thing that will grow grass, pot-herbs, warehouses, 

 Rubens' pictures, churches, and cathedrals.' 



Being still feeble, Linnaeus considered he might 

 fairly escape the picture-galleries these were not in 

 his line ; but he had an unrivalled eye for country, for 

 unpainted landscape. 



' At Brussels he saw fine fountains in the streets, 

 and a valuable arsenal. The emperor's sister lived 

 here, and the Romish religion was in the most prosperous 

 state. He often went to a wall on the western side 

 where he had a view of the whole of this fine city. On 

 the eastern side it had suffered most ' [by bombardments] 

 ' from the French.' 2 



( At Mons there was a strict examination ' [of the 

 Tour in Netherlands. 2 Diary. 



