150 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



From tJic Hague to Leyden. 



A i midday we procured a hackney-coach (huurJcoets,) 

 and removed our baggage to the quay from which the Ley- 

 den boats take their departure. We may here take notice 

 of a lesson which we had already learned by experience; — 

 that travellers by the treckschuyts should, if possible, take 

 up their abode near to the quays. The best inns there, 

 are no doubt to be considered as only of the second rate; 

 but, in Holland, these are clean and neat, the people of the 

 house attentive, and the frequenters orderly and quiet. 

 Much time and trouble, otherwise employed in removing 

 baggage, are thus saved. At the Hague, for example, we 

 ought to have lodged at De zeven Kerlte van Rome, an ex- 

 cellent inn on the quay. 



The country through which we passed was flat and mo- 

 notonous, but upon the whole rich and pleasing. Many 

 smiling villas presented themselves, and the meadows exhi- 

 bited the most luxuriant vegetation. Dutch butter has 

 long been famed for richness and flavour; and here are 

 situated the rich old pastures, from which the best speci- 

 mens of that commodity are produced. At a little village 

 called Leydensham, about half way between the Hague 

 and the place of our destination, we had to leave our barge, 

 and enter another, which almost immediately set off; for 

 the Dutch, though slow, are extremely punctual. The 

 banks of the canal continued to be studded with villas, as 

 before: .ill these are in the satne taste: both house and gar- 

 den are hid by rows and little groves of trees, or by tall 



reen hedges, excepting towards the canal, to which 

 tin v an always more or less exposed. A raised walk laid 

 urith helta often conducts to a kind of summer-house,' which 

 projects over the edge of the canal, and frequently has a 



