ROTTERDAM. 125 



o'clock, the GrootcKerk (in Catholic times St Laurent's) 

 was well filled. Excepting in the use of the organ, the 

 mode of worship very nearly resembles the Scottish. The 

 instrumental music, it should be remarked, however, is 

 here kept subservient to the vocal, in which the congrega- 

 tion unanimously joins. The sand-glass, which used for- 

 merly to make a part of the furniture of our Scottish pul- 

 pits, but has now been generally laid aside, is here still 

 retained. The clerk, too, here continues to discharge that 

 part of his duty which consists in reading aloud to the peo- 

 ple the Sacred Scriptures, till the minister enters the pul- 

 pit ; a good old practice which has fallen into disuse in the 

 church at home, where he now merely acts as precentor. 

 The offering is collected from each individual, during the 

 time of service, by means of a velvet-purse attached to a 

 long rod. The tinkling of a small bell connected with the 

 purse is continually heard, but does not seem to disturb 

 Dutch devotion. Two offerings are collected, in distinct 

 and differently coloured purses ; one for the " poor," an- 

 other for the " kirk," this last having been rendered ne- 

 cessary in consequence of some of the arbitrary regulations 

 of Buonaparte, by which the usual funds for the repairs 

 and other necessary expences of the churches were swept 

 away. 



After the morning-service, there was a parade, in the 

 market-place, of a regiment of the Burgher Guards, wear- 

 ing a uniform not unlike that which characterised the ear- 

 liest corps of Royal Edinburgh Volunteers. 



Mr Schuurmmii Villa. 

 Mr Macdonald and I paid a visit to Mr Schuurmans, 

 an eminent wholesale seedsman of this place, to whom we 

 had a letter of introduction from Messrs Dickson & Co. of 



