HAARLEM. 207 



strangers generally find means to persuade the organist to 

 perform some piece of music, calculated to draw forth the full 

 powers of the instrument. In the centre of the church, 

 great numbers of the people, particularly ladies, are seated 

 on reed-chairs, and the handing of these over heads, for 

 dames of distinction who enter late, is a continued exercise 

 for the politeness of the gentlemen. The female attend- 

 ants, who furnish chaiiff'c-pkds full of red-hot peats to the 

 ladies, are likewise continually passing and repassing with 

 these odd-looking appendages of a church ; but hone of 

 these things for a moment retard the progress of the devo- 

 tions. During prayer, the men assume the standing pos- 

 ture; the women meanwhile sit devoutly still: the poorest 

 female being furnished with a large fan, which she continues 

 to hold before her face during this solemn part of the wor- 

 ship. When the prayer is ended, the men are seated, 

 and most of them now put on their hats. This practice of 

 being covered in church, we may observe, has sometimes, 

 without reason, given umbrage to well meaning English 

 travellers, who seem to have forgotten that they belong to 

 a communion in which the consecration of churches is con- 

 sidered as a duty, while in Holland, as in Scotland, it is 

 condemned as a piece of superstition. The tourists alluded 

 to, had not probably observed also, that the hat is not 

 worn in the time of prayer or praise, but only during the 

 sermon ; nor had they considered, that a Dutch sermon 

 commonly endures for an hour and a half, and that a huge 

 Gothic edifice must necessarily be somewhat cold and damp 

 in such a country as Holland. In point of fact, in the Dutch 

 churches there is less coughing, or less indication of ca- 

 tarrhal affection, than in the Scottish ; but this is not whol- 

 ly to be ascribed to the comfort of foot-stoves, and the 

 wearing of hats ; for although the air of Holland is moist, 



