38 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNsEUS 



luggage], ' and no person was permitted to pass who had 

 more than twenty livres with him ; however, Linnaeus 

 passed, though he had two hundred ducats.' He makes 

 no comment on the fine Gothic cathedral, but he says, 

 ' This town, though not very large, has eleven apothe- 

 caries.' I dare say there are more now, as Mons has 

 27,800 inhabitants. ' In its neighbourhood were pits 

 and quarries of stone, coal, and slate for roofs.' The 

 coal industry here has enormously developed : the yield 

 of the mines of Hainault averages nine to ten million 

 tons. The whole kingdom of Belgium produces not 

 more than twelve to thirteen million tons in all. 1 



From here Linnaeus was himself again and able to 

 make observations, though he evidently writes nothing 

 till he reaches Mons. 



'At Valenciennes' [famous for its bleaching-grounds] 

 * Linnaeus's trunk was sealed up, as he had a great 

 number of new books, having carried with him a copy 

 of every one he had published in Holland.' He might 

 well have been interested in that fine vegetable (flax) 

 production the Valenciennes lace, as delicate as flowers ; 

 and the Brussels lace, copying with even greater fine- 

 ness the flower forms of his Hwius siccus. 



1 Thence he passed the plains of Flanders, resembling, 

 he remarks, those of SkSne. The houses were for the 

 most part built with a kind of Mcvrmor sectile, or stone 

 between sandstone and chalk.' Is this the ordinary 

 white building-stone of France ? 

 1 Baedeker. 



