ANTWERP. Ill 



Miscellaneous Observations. 



To judge from external appearances, superstition is more 

 prevalent here than at Ghent. The corner of almost every 

 street presents a Madonna and Child, the former generally 

 with a dress of glaring colours, and with a gilded glory 

 round the head. These figures are not erected at the pub- 

 lic expence ; but result from the piety or the repentance 

 of individuals, who appropriate sums of money for these 

 purposes. It is somewhat strange, that they were all swept 

 from the streets by Buonaparte, and have been restored 

 since the accession of the present Protestant King of the 

 Netherlands. Within an inclosure not far from the church of 

 St Calvary, there is a very extraordinary group of figures 

 as large as life : the subject is the crucifixion, and the cross 

 rises more than twenty feet high. The design and the 

 workmanship appear to be good; but the effect on our 

 minds was too painful to permit us to examine the thing 

 as a work of art. 



One of us entering the cathedral this afternoon, witnessed 

 the vesper service, and the celebration of mass at one of the 

 side altars. Here for the first time were to be seen a few well 

 dressed females ; for so much do the remains of Spanish cus- 

 toms still regulate the practice of the Antwerpians, that it is 

 unusual for ladies to appear on the streets, or even on the 

 Penipierre or principal promenade. One remark with re- 

 gard to the assemblage of people in the cathedral it was 

 impossible not to make ; — the rich and the poor were com- 

 pletely intermingled. In Scotland we have in a great mea- 

 sure stripped our churches of ornament ; but our pews, al- 

 though formed of plain fir boards, are (at least in some places) 

 kept under lock and key, and many a bustling beadle is em- 

 ployed to prevent the genteel part of the audience from be- 



