TOWNS. 



427 



brouglit out his " Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy," the first book printed in. 

 the English language. Statues have been erected to several famous natives of 

 the town. One of them was Simon Stevin, the mathematician (born 1548). 

 Milne-Edwards and De Potter are likewise natives of Bruges. 



Damme, the old port of Bruges, has dwindled down into a village, with a 

 belfry and town-hall to remind us of the past. Sluis, or L' Écluse, a Dutch town 

 near the mouth of the Zvvyn, where that river is joined by a brook flowing past 



Fig. 238.— OsTENix 

 Scale 1 : 60,000. 



1 Mile. 



the agricultural town oî 31aldeg1iem, (8,500 inhabitants), has fared no better. The 

 actual port of Flanders is Ostend (16,823 inhabitants), on the open sea, a town 

 rendered famous by a three-years' siege sustained against the Spaniards in the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. Ostend is the second port of Belgium, most of 

 its trade being carried on with England and in English bottoms. The recent competi- 

 tion of Flushing has injuriously affected the passenger traffic of the Flemish city.* 



* Imports (1876), £095.406 ; exports to England, £648,860. Passengers (1875), 35,741 ; (1876), 24,275, 



