420 



BELGIUM. 



Eivers and canals divide Ghent into twenty-four insular quarters, joined to each 

 other by a hundred bridges. Its physiognomy is almost Dutch, but its historical 

 associations are its own. Its tall belfry, town-hall, Friday market, statue of 

 Jacob van Artevelde, and the massive old gate known as Porte Eabot, revive in 

 us the memories of times long past. Buildings of historical repute and the open 

 squares upon which the guilds held their popular meetings are likely to interest 

 the student of history, whilst the artist will hasten to the Gothic cathedral 

 of St. Bavon, to examine the paintings by Rubens, and the " Adoration of the 

 Lamb " by the brothers Van Eyck. 



The capital of Flanders is still entitled to be called a seat of the arts, for its 



Fie:. 23é. — Ghent: Porte Rabot. 



academy is frequented by hundreds of pupils, and its museum contains valuable 

 treasures, mostly obtained from the monasteries suppressed during the French 

 Revolution. The oldest newspaper of Belgium, the Gazette ran Gent, established 

 in 1667, continues to be published. A Government university, affiliated Avith 

 which are engineering and technical schools, is attended by 550 students. The 

 public library, placed in a nave of the old conventual church of Bandeloo, is one 

 of the richest in Europe. Ghent contains the two largest béguinages of Bel- 

 gium, inhabited by unmarried women who have taken temporary vows. The 

 béguines, on first entering the community, live in common, but after they have 

 reached the age of twenty-eight or thirty they are permitted the use of a separate 



