OUL NEIGHBOE— OLD COMMUNIPAW. 103 



likeness of the Prince of Orange, where they smoke a silent pipe, by 

 way of promoting a social conviviality, and invariably drink a mug 

 of cider to the success of Admiral Van Tromp, who, they imagine, is 

 still sweeping the British channel, with a broom at his mast-head. 



Communipaw, in short, is one of the numerous little villages in 

 the vicinity of the most beautiful of cities, which are so many strong- 

 holds and fastnesses, whither the primitive manners of our Dutch 

 forefathers have retreated, and where they are cherished with devout 

 and scrupulous strictness. The dress of the original settlers is handed 

 down inviolate, from father to son — the identical broad-brimmed hat, 

 broad-skirted coat, and broad-bottomed breeches, continue from gen- 

 eration to generation ; and several gigantic knee-buckles of massy 

 silver, are still in wear, that made gallant display in the days of the 

 patriarchs of Communipaw. The language likewise continues una- 

 dulterated by barbarous innovations ; and so critically correct is the 

 village schoolmaster in his dialect, that his reading of a Low Dutch 

 psalm has much the same effect on the nerves as the filing of a hand- 

 saw. 



