TOWNS. 411 



of starch, paper, cloth, and lace : it has large breweries and distilleries, and its 

 commerce in oil and agricultural produce is flourishing. A walk through its 

 deserted streets and squares, a glance at the gardens and fields enclosed within its 

 boulevards, but formerly covered with houses, bring home to us the decay of the 

 town. The town-hall is one of the finest edifices in Belgium, and has been 

 likened to a jewel casket (see Fig. 224). From the summit of Caesar's Hill, 

 crowned by the ruins of a castle of the Dukes of Brabant, Louvain, with its 

 numerous steeples and commanding edifices, still presents the appearance of a 

 large and flourishing city. 



Malines, or Mcchclen (Mechlin, 39,029 inhabitants), on the Dyle, below its 

 confluence with the Demer, is the counterpart of Louvain in its history and 

 present aspect. It, too, is a decayed town. During the period of its splendour 

 12,000 weavers worked at its looms ; its metal- ware, its caldrons and bells, its gilt 

 leather, tapestry, and lace, were appreciated throughout Europe. Lace and tapestry 

 still continue to be manufactured on a reduced scale, but Malines is no longer a 

 great centre of industry. Its streets, except in the immediate vicinity of the 

 railway station, are deserted, and the number of paupers is very great. But the 

 poverty of many of the inhabitants does not detract from the picturesqueness of 

 its gabled houses, which entitle it even now to its ancient epithet of " Mechelen the 

 Neat." The " Gaudet Mechlinia stultis " of the students of Louvain at no time 

 fairly applied to it. Malines is the religious metropolis of Belgium, and its 

 cathedral is one of the finest edifices of that kind in Northern Europe, with a 

 massive unfinished tower, rising to a height of 320 feet. The interior is strikingly 

 beautiful, but the most precious work of art of the town, Rubens's " Miraculous 

 Draught of Fishes," has found a place in another church, that of Our Lady. 



The Great and Little Nethe, which after their junction with the Dyle and Senne 

 give birth to the Hupel, traverse the most barren tract of the Campine. A few 

 towns of importance are nevertheless met with in that region. One of them is 

 Turnhout (15,743 inhabitants), which manufactures cloth and carries on a brisk 

 trade with the Netherlands; another is Lierre, ov Lier (16,013 inhabitants), a 

 fortress at the confluence of the two Nethes, with breweries, sugar refineries, silk 

 and lace factories, and a remarkable church. Llerenthals (5,000 inhabitants), the 

 capital of the Campine, lies half-way between those towns, whilst Moll (5,650 

 inhabitants) is only a large village. Near it is the parish of Gheel (10,250 

 inhabitants), a remarkable colony of lunatics, who live in the houses of the 

 peasants. The first lunatic as^dum was founded at Gheel in 1286, but long before 

 that time lunatics were conducted to that place in order that they might touch the 

 relics of St. Dymphna, their patroness, and be cured. The number of insane 

 actually residing at Gheel is 900, and four physicians are intrusted with their 

 supervision. 



The valley of the Senne, though traversed by a river much smaller than either 

 the Dyle or the Nethe, is nevertheless much more densely populated. Brussels, 

 the capital of the entire kingdom, rises within it, besides numerous other towns of 

 importance. Seiie/fe (5,600 inhabitants), near the head of the Sonnette, recalls 



