1837-38 
LETTER FROM LEYDEN 
127 
only twice in the week, and that to-night is one 
of the nights, I cannot let the opportunity pass. 
You will naturally have some difficulty in de- 
ciphering this epistle, for, having lived in the 
Dutchest houses and Dutch styles, arid been 
further exposed to a Dutch fog in a Dutch trek- 
sdmit on a Dutch canal, the webs that began to 
develop themselves between my toes on the 
second night at Rotterdam have, in spite of 
tobacco and schiedam, made their appearance, 
and are spreading fast in the digital interspaces, 
and I can hardly doubt but that in a sufficiently 
extended residence I should be converted into as 
amphibious a mammifer as any in His Nether- 
landisch Majesty’s dominions. They say the pal- 
mipedous character is lost as you proceed up the 
Rhine, so that I have hopes of returning in a recog- 
nisable state even to my dear little darling Willie, 
whose good health and progress it did my heart 
good to read of. I spent a glorious morning in the 
museum at the Hague. There they have Savery’s 
real “ Orpheus and the Beasts,” but, believe me, 
nothing to compare with ours. I saw four pic- 
tures by the same master as your father’s. His 
style is Inimitable, and is more recognisable, be- 
cause more depending on touch, or the mechani- 
cal working of the picture, than any other quality, 
except truth and nature in the individual object. 
It is by Breughel de Velours, so called on account 
of his smooth finish, and to distinguish him from 
