August 10, igio 
LAND & WATER 
51 
The Rebuilding of Belgium 
Some Artistic Ideals and Notes : Written and Illustrated by Glive Holland 
Dinant, the Gibraltar Rock of Belgium, and ancient Church of Notre Dame 
As they were As they are 
Mr. Clive Holland, the writer of this article, knows 
Belgium thoroughly. He is the author of " The 
Belgians at Home," " The Road to Ghent," etc.] 
IT may seem early days as yet to consider seriously 
tne question of the rebuilding of Belgium, and the 
reconstruction and re-taking up of Belgian national 
life after the war. The Huns, who have ravaged and 
destroyed the historic and sacred buildings, pleasant 
towns, and quaint and picturesque villages of the de- 
lightful little land with a savagery and ruthlessness 
unparalleled even m the history of medieval warfare, 
still possess nine-tenths of its soil, and there is yet much 
to be done, and many a battle to be fought ere they will 
be driven- across the fields of Flanders and the plains of 
■Central Belgium back to the Rhine. 
But there are indications, to quote the words of a great 
soldier, that " the end is in sight." Anyway, those of 
us who knew Belgium intimately and loved her in times 
of peace, who wandered along pleasant roads, through 
historic towns and picturesque villages, and also who 
know something of the 
stricken, stark, terrible Bel- 
gium of to-day — with here 
and there a fair^ city like 
Bruges, and a great in 
dustrial and historic town 
like Ghent, set like oases 
amid the ruins of a nation's 
treasures — are aware that 
schemes for rebuilding and 
reconstruction have already 
been mooted in which sani- 
tation and mathematical 
accuracy are apparently 
largely to take the place 
of beauty, picturesqueness 
and historical interest. 
Lovers of Belgium as it 
used to be, of Liege 
Louvain, Termonde, Din 
ant, Malines, Courtrai, 
Mons, Ypres and Di.xmude, 
to mention only a few of 
the ruined shrines and 
stricken places, cannot fail 
to apply the old phrase, 
Timco Danaos et dona 
ferentes, to most of the busy 
officials who are so anxious 
to have the rebuilding of 
1 lotel de Ville, Grande Place, Brussels, showing Guild 
houses rebuilt from original plans after destruction by 
Marshal Villeroi 
Bslgium, as one ot them phrased it the other day, " on 
modern and up-to-date lines." The phrase to the artistic 
mind, which is liUed with memories of the beauty of 
b5/gone things, of quaint architecture of many periods, 
conjures up visions of " abominably trim and mathematic- 
ally exact " garden cities, and bastard attempts at the 
cheaply effective picturesque. 
Let it be granted that much has disappeared never 
again to delight the eye. But it should be the aim and 
ideal of any scheme of rebuilding and reconstruction 
to preserve for coming generations at least some 
of the most beautiful and historic buildings, ecclesiastic 
and domestic, in the various towns and villages 
which have suffered such unspeakable desecration at 
the hands of the Huns. 
It is to be feared that the latter will not spare 
places and buildings which have hitherto escaped in- 
jury, or at least total destruction, when the time 
comes for the Allies to drive them through Belgium 
to the Rhine. But let it be clearly understood in 
Berlin that for every town needlessly burned or historic 
building destroyed, com- 
pensation to the utmost 
possible farthing will be 
exacted. The art treasures, 
whether they be those 
carried off into Germany 
from French churches and 
chateaux at the command 
of the brigand Crown 
Prince, or those filched by 
lesser Hghts of Prussianism 
from the Art Galleries of 
Antwerp, Brussels, and 
elsewhere, and the altars 
and treasuries of churches 
must, of course, be restored. 
Much has been utterly 
destroyed, the principal 
treasures of Louvain Uni- 
versity Library for example, 
but much doubtless can be 
recovered after the war 
from the treasure vaults 
of Potsdam, and other 
depots, and from the pri- 
vate mansions of Germany 
to which the loot has 
been sent. 
It has been quite rightly 
urged that the new Belgium 
