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the greatest facility and economy, from the centre to the extremities of the kingdom; and as they communicate with the Rhine and other large rivers, all the productions of the earth are conveyed at little expence to many parts of the continent, in a period of tranquillity.

The number of beautiful streets adorned, as is the case throughout Holland, with noble rows of trees, is a spectacle at once novel and beautiful. The trees act as a fan to the houses in hot weather, and their leaves are said to inhale whatever mephitic air may arise from such of the canals as are stagnant, and to breathe it out again with refreshing purity.

In a sick chamber, fresh flowers are now thought alubrious, although, in no very distant time, they were regarded by the faculty as extremely noxious.

The city derives its name from the adjoining river Rotte, which unites with the Merwe, and from the neighbourhood of both to the sea, renders the situation of this town very eligible for trade, commerce, and navigation. The pleasure-boats of some of the merchants, which we saw moored opposite to their houses, appeared to be very clumsy, and constructed only for smoking or napping in : they were broad, high at the head and stern, admitted only

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of one rower, and had a heavy cabin with moveable glass windows towards the stern.

One of the first appearances which impress a foreigner on his arrival in Holland is that of the houses, which, built of very small bricks, very lofty, and filled with large windows, project forward as they ascend-to such a rage has this unaccountable passion for avoiding an upright been carried, that I am sure many of them inust be two or three yards out of the perpendicular: nothing can be more whimsical than the corner houses of most of the streets. If these houses had not the appearance of being perfectly stable, from the freshness of their outsides, and from their presenting no fissures, a stranger would be induced from apprehension of personal safety, to prefer paddling his way in the very centre of their canals, to walking in the streets. No scene can at first be more novel and interesting than that which Rotterdam presents; masts of ships, enlivened by gay streamers; beautiful stately trees and lofty leaning houses appear mingled together, and at one view he sees before him the characteristic features of the country, the city, and the sea.

CHAPTER II.

THE BOOMPIES-BAYLE-PREROGATIVES OF GENIUS-SPANISH INSCRIPTIONS-A DUTCH DINNER-DUTCH BEGGARS-A GOOD BARGAIN ANECDOTES OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE BATAVIAN EXECUTIVE BODY---ANECDOTES OF THE PASSION OF THE DUTCH FOR TRAFFIC ANECDOTE OF LORD NELSON AND THE DEY OF TUNIS---HEREDITARY DRESSES---THE Exchange of rotterDAM---ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH THERE---SEVERAL ANECDOTES OF THE KING AND QUEEN OF HOLLAND---PUBLIC OPINION OF THEM---DUTY OF A TOURIST

ONE of the first places we visited was the Boomquay, or Boompies, which extends along the river, about half a mile from the new to the old head, the two places where the water enters the city, and fills the canals, which are seven in number: this street is very broad and truly magnificent; and the prospect from it, over the river, and the opposite country, highly delightful. Cheyney-walk at Chelsea is a very humble resemblance to it.

Many of the houses are very noble, and some of them are built of free-stone, which not being the produce of the country, must have been brought to the spot at a great

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