CHARLES WATERT0N, ESQ. xli 



be a feast for their eyes, as they know little or 

 nothing of the ceremonies which are performed, 

 or of the instruction which is imparted through 

 the medium of pictorial representations. " How 

 have you got over your time, to-day ? " said I, 

 one afternoon to an acquaintance, who, like 

 Mr. Noddy's eldest son in Sterne, was travelling 

 through Europe at a prodigious speed, and had 

 very little spare time on his hands. He said 

 that he had knocked off thirteen churches that 

 very morning ! 



Whilst myself and sisters-in-law were at 

 Amsterdam admiring some of the pictures 

 which form part of the immense treasures pro- 

 duced by the Dutch artists, my eye was rivetted 

 to the spot by one which will be gazed upon in 

 after times with extreme interest. The spec- 

 tator will see represented, with great fidelity, 

 an act of self-devotedness noways inferior to 

 that which has rendered famous the name of a 

 Roman light-horseman, who mounted his steed 

 and rode it headlong into a yawning abyss in 

 the Forum, by way of appeasing the wrath of 

 the immortal gods. The name of this modern 

 Curtius was Van Spek, commander of a brig of 

 war in the Batavian service. During the late 



