809. ] 
other resource; it is carried to a very 
high perfection, and. gives considerable 
profits. Gardening is.in great esteem in 
Holland, for the Dutch are fond of both 
fruit and flowers. Their gardeners excel 
in the art of producing a vreat deal from 
a little ground. Without the help of arti- 
ficial heat, they would be deprived of 
many things which give the soil of France 
So great a superiority over thar of other 
countries. By this help, Holland sup- 
plies what she otherwise could not; and 
in the midst of winter attords every dine 
which can contribute to the sensuality of 
the rich. In the month of January, 
grapes are sold as high as forty florins the 
pound. In a country so little favoured 
by nature, it is easy to judge how neces- 
sary industry must be to the support of 
the inhabitants. Notwithstanding its 
sterility, Holland is, perhaps, with respect 
to its extent, (only nineteen hundred and 
twenty- eight square leagues, of which 
three hundred and three are overflown, 
or covered with water,) the country most 
thickly peopled. Its population is esti- 
mated at two millions; the province of 
Holland alone contains nearly one half 
of that number. Mons. Walcknaer, 
from. whom we take our calculation, 
makes thirteen hundred and eighty in- 
habitants to every square acre. A third 
ot this population subsists by commerce 
and navigation. The two other thirds 
are composed of people employed in 
cultivation, and in rearing cattle, and 
In trades and manufactures. 
When you enter the habitation of a 
Dutch peasant, you are as much surprised 
at the cleanliness, as at the comfort 
which reigns in it; it is chiefly in Hol- 
land, »roperly 16) called, 1 that part of 
the north of Holland) known Ly the 
name of the Beemster, and in West- 
Friesland, that you are the more struck 
with this spectacle, which forms such a 
contrast with the state of poverty and 
humiliation, to which this interesting 
class of society is even now reduced in 
most countries of Ale Tn erder that 
the reader may judge of the truth of this 
observation, it will not be extraneous to 
give an idea of a a. In easy cir 
cumstances, of Rhynland, > Deltland, 
in his holiday dress. 
Lhe men in general, with scarce any 
_ exception, wear a small cocked hat; they 
usually have a silk handkerchief, or wus- 
lin eravat, round their neck, which they 
put on jn-such a manner as to give a view 
of two gold buttons which fasten their 
shirt collar; they mostly wear two waist- 
vot trade in Holland ; 
Sketches of Holland in 1806. 251 
coats, with several rows of very small 
silver buttons, thickly put on; a blue 
cloth coat, and the waistband of their 
breeches is ornamented with four very 
Jarge silver buttons. 
The manulacture of linens in the 
provinces of Groninguen, Over-Issel, 
and Friesland, occupies the first rank in 
this principal branch ofindustry. Those 
linens, which receive the name of Hol- 
land, are distinguished by their fineness, 
whitene: ss, and evenness, It is not how- 
ever the case, that alithe linens which 
the Dutch: export, are made among-t 
themselves. A very principal part is 
manufactured in the Duchy of Berg, 
Westphalia, Osnabruck, and that neigh. 
bourhood, particularly Munster; but. as 
all tacse Jinens go to the blesoh: elds 
at Harlem, where they receive their 
finishing dre essings, the Dutch profit by 
this circumstance, to sell them. as their 
own. ‘Vhese bleach-fields extend from 
Harlem to Alkmaar, and the extreme 
whiteness which they 2 give their linens, 
is attributed to the quality of the waters 
of the downs, and of ibe earth on which 
they are exposcd. 
?aper was a very considerable article 
the Dutch were in 
the liabit of supplying France, Spain, 
and Portugal, with considerable quan- 
tities ; but at present, owing to several 
causes, they scarcely use any other than 
Freuc h paper, for books of a small size, 
and frequently for those of a larger. 
The services rendered to printing by the 
Dotch are well kivown. The editions of 
Virgil and ‘Verence, from the press of 
the Elzevier’s s, are a chet Weeuvre in this 
art; but since that, printine has been on 
the Glecine. jinsicielainy | nowever, and 
some few other towns, still have some 
distinguished presses. "Bookselling was, 
for more than a century, a very. chief 
branch of trade in Holland. lt was en- 
riched by the productions of France, in 
granting an asylum to men of letters, 
persecuted by intolerance ; ; but this ad- 
vantave wh ich she derived ‘from circum-~ 
stances, has disappeared with the liberty 
of the press, which has oceasioned the 
French booksellers to cugross this branch 
of commerce. 
Holland derived considerable revenues 
from several branches of commerce, 
which now, owing to the state of Europe, 
are alvoRe. if not “wholly, on the decline. 
Her fisheries were oes On to a great 
extent. That of the whale affords but 
the poor remains of what it formerly was: 
in 1771, from the different ports in Hol- 
jand, 
