A tour through Holland

Soon after the promulgation of the constitution, the King and Queen set off from Paris to take possession of their new kingdom, and on the 23d of June following made their solemn entry into the Hague: they left the palace in the Wood in the following order; a herald at arms, his majesty’s horse guards, the guard of honour, the council of state in three coaches, the admirals in one coach, the ministers in two coaches, the great officers of the crown in one coach, their majesties in one coach, the generals in two coaches: the ladies and officers of the royal household in one coach, followed by aids-de-camp and other officers, and the whole procession closed by detachments of hussars and dragoons.

When the procession reached the palace of their high mightinesses, their majesties were received at the door by four deputies from the assembly. They ascended the great staircase, passed through the chamber of the national library, and were received at the door of the anti-chamber by the president of their high mightinesses, and two other deputies. Having entered the hall of the assembly, her majesty was conducted to her tribune by two deputies. The king seated himself on his throne, and put on his hat. On the right side, and behind his majesty, sat the grand chamberlain, and the aid-de-camp general; on the left, the master of the horse, and the grand master of the civil list. All the other officers of state were ranged in proper situations. The members of the assembly stood up in their places uncovered on the entrance of the king; but when his majesty covered himself, they followed his example. The president placed himself in his chair, directly opposite to the king. After the king was seated on his throne, he directed the grand master of the ceremonies to administer the oaths of allegiance to their high mightinesses. The oaths were accordingly first taken by the president, and afterwards by the other members, in the order of their seniority. Each member approached to the foot of the throne, and was sworn on the Holy Evangelists. When all the members were sworn, his majesty delivered the following speech to the assembly:

“Gentlemen,

“When the national deputies came to offer me the throne which I ascend this day, I accepted it, under the conviction that it was the wish of the whole nation; that the confidence and the necessities of all called me to it.

“Relying on the intelligence, zeal, and patriotism of the principal public functionaries, and particularly on yours, gentlemen the deputies, I have fearlessly weighed in my mind the misfortunes of the nation in their fullest extent. Animated by the strongest desire to promote the welfare of this good people, and entertaining a hope that I should one day attain that end, I stifled those sentiments which, till then, had been ever the object and happiness of my life. I have consented to change my country, to cease to be solely and entirely a Frenchman, after having passed my whole life in performing, to the best of my ability, those duties which that name prescribes to all who have the honor of bearing it.

“I have consented to separate myself, for the first time, from him who, from my infancy, has possessed my love and admiration: to lose the repose and independence which those whom Heaven calls to govern cannot have: to quit him, the separation from whom would fill me with apprehension, even in the most tranquil times, and whose presence precludes danger.

“I have consented to all this, and, gentlemen, had I not done so, I would nevertheless yet act the same part, now that by the ardour, joy, and confidence of the people through whose country I have passed, they have proved to me, that you were the true interpreters of the nation, now especially, when I am convinced, that I may rely on your zeal, your attachment to the interests of your native land, and on your confidence in, and fidelity, towards me.

“Gentlemen, this is the first day of the real independence of the United Provinces. A transient glance at past ages is sufficient to convince us, that they never had a stable government, a fixed destiny, a real independence. Under that famous people, whom they fought and served by turns, as under the Franks and the Empire of the West, they were neither free nor tranquil.

“Neither were they so afterwards, when subjected to Spain.

“Their wars, and their repeated quarrels until the union, added to the glory of the nation, confirmed its qualities in point of frankness, intrepidity, and honor, for which, indeed, it had been always celebrated; but its efforts procured it neither tranquillity nor independence, even under the Princes of Orange, who, though they were useful to their country, as soldiers and statesmen, were always disturbing it, by pretending, or endeavouring to obtain a power which the nation denied them.

“Nor could Holland be considered in that state in later times, when the elevation of ideas, and the general agitation of Europe, so long suspended the repose of nations.

“After so many vicissitudes, so much agitation, so many calamities; and at a time when the great states were enlarging themselves, ameliorating and concentrating their governments and their forces, this country could enjoy no real safety nor independence, but in a moderate monarchical state; a form which had been acknowledged during a long period, and by each nation, in its turn, as the most perfect, and if not absolutely so, yet as much so as the nature of man will admit. But, doubtless, if perfection were the lot of humanity, we might then dispense with a government of this kind. Laws would then be founded in wisdom, and obeyed without reluctance or obstacle; virtue would reign triumphant, and insure its own reward; vice would be banished, and wickedness rendered impotent; but illusions which favour such romantic ideas of human nature, are transient; and experience soon brings us back to positive facts.

“However, even monarchy itself is not sufficient for a country, which, though powerful and important, is not sufficiently so for its position, which requires forces of the first rank both by land and sea. It will, therefore, be necessary for it to form a connexion with one of the great powers of Europe, with which its amity may be eternally assured, without any alteration of its independence.

“This, gentlemen, is what your nation has done; this is the object of its constitutional laws, and also that of my taking upon me an employment so glorious; this is my object in my placing myself in the midst of a people, who are, and ever shall be mine, by my affection and solicitude. With pride I perceive two of the principal means of government and confidence offering themselves to me; the honour and the virtue of the inhabitants.

“Yes, gentleman, these shall be real supporters of the throne; I wish for no other guides. For my part, I know no distinctions of religion or party; distinctions can only arise from merit and services. My design is only to remedy the evils which the country has suffered. The duration of these evils, and the difficulty of remedying them, will only increase and realize my glory.

“To effect these objects, I have occasion for the entire confidence of the nation, their complete devotion, and all the talents of the distinguished men whom it contains, but particularly of you, gentlemen, whose zeal, talents, and patriotism, are well known.

“I am at this moment appealing to the good and faithful Hollanders, before the deputies of the provinces and principal cities of the kingdom. I see them around me with pleasure. Let them bear to their fellow-citizens the assurance of my solicitude and affection: let them carry the same testimony of these sentiments to Amsterdam; that city, which is the honour of commerce, and of the country: that city, which I wish to call my good and faithful capital, though the Hague will always remain the residence of the sovereign. Let them also carry the same assurances to their fellow-citizens, and the deputies of that neighbouring city, the prosperity of which I hope very soon to renew, and whose inhabitants I distinguish.

“It is by these sentiments, gentlemen; it is by the union of all orders of people in the state, and by that of my subjects among themselves; it is by the devotion of each individual to his duties, the only basis of real honour assigned to men; but principally by the unanimity which has hitherto preserved these provinces from all dangers and calamities, and which has ever been their shield, that I expect the tranquillity, safety, and glory of the nation, and the happiness of my life.”

The king has given general satisfaction by the choice he has made of the persons he has nominated to fill the public offices; and if the wishes of one who trespassed a little irregularly upon their shores can avail, the brave, frugal, and indefatigable Hollanders will derive happiness, and, when peace is restored to Europe, prosperity under their new government.

The revenue attached to the stadtholderate was nominally 18,000l. per annum; but by the great patronage and influence belonging to it, no doubt it must have been considerably augmented, as also by the revenues arising from other hereditary territories of the stadtholders; but after all, the income of the stadtholderate was scarcely sufficient to support the dignity of the situation, powerful and important as it at last became. The king, in addition to his revenue, has an enormous private fortune: the savings which he has effected in the state reconcile the Dutch to this liberal, but perhaps not excessive allowance made for the support of his dignity.

How the Hague could be called a village, in all its meridian splendor, is a matter of surprise: it derived its name from s’Cravenhage, or the Count’s Wood, on account of a wood which formerly grew here, and which formed, some centuries since, a part of the domains of the Counts of Holland. The following anecdote will show the simplicity which reigned in this great and beautiful city in former times. When Louisa de Coligni was coming to be married to Prince William at the Hague, the Dutch sent an open post-waggon to meet her, and she entered the city seated on a plank: towards the latter end of Prince Maurice’s days, and during Frederic-Henry’s lifetime, the Hague became a very agreeable place, and the resort of people of the first distinction.

In my rambles round this city, I was much impressed with the elegance and spaciousness of the buildings; every object seemed to have partaken of the spirit and magnificence of a court. But there was a solemnity in the splendor. It reminded one of looking into a magnificent ball-room after the greater part of the company had departed, and the lustres were dying away. If the Orange family had been entitled to sympathy, the scene would have led me to feel and think for them. Its noble buildings, its spacious streets, gracefully built, shaded with trees, and divided by canals, the variety of surrounding scenery, its proximity to the sea, its elevated situation, and the purity of its air, render the Hague the most charming town in Holland. The first place I visited was the palace of the last of the stadtholders. It is a vast pile of houses, many of them somewhat ancient, surrounded by a canal, without which and a pipe, paradise itself would have no charms for a Dutchman: over the canal are several draw-bridges; and the whole has a very pleasing effect seen from the spot where I took the view of it. On one side of a quadrangle is part of a new palace, built by the late stadtholder, and which, had it been finished, would have been handsome and princely; but the troubles in Holland have prevented its completion.

In part of this building there is a noble gothic hall, much resembling Westminster-Hall, and very large; on each side little shops were arranged, similar to those in Exeter ‘Change: it is converting into a chapel for the king. There were here formerly the prince’s cabinet of natural history and museum of rarities, consisting of a tolerable collection of shells, petrifactions, precious stones, fossils, minerals, and birds. This collection has been removed to Paris, although, from all I could learn, scarcely worthy of so much trouble: it, however, furnished the first elements of knowledge to Camper, one of the most profound geniuses which the United Provinces ever produced, and also Professor Pallas, who has been called the Pliny of Russia. The French offered to re-sell this cabinet to the Dutch government, who declined becoming the purchasers; a tolerable proof of its inferiority. The prince’s cabinet of pictures was very select and valuable, and was enriched by the productions of Titian, Holbein, Rembrandt, Vandyke, Gerard Dow, Metzio, Polemburgh, and other illustrious artists. On the confiscation of the property of the exiled Stadtholder, the Dutch government, for the purpose of promoting the polite arts, formed this collection of pictures, esteemed one of the most valuable in Europe, into a national gallery, set apart an annual sum for the augmentation of it, and deposited it in a fine suite of apartments in the House in the Wood, where a director of ability, and assistants, were appointed to superintend it: but the French soon afterwards transferred the best of them to that magnificent depot of the fruits of conquest, the Louvre at Paris. The first person sent by Napoleon to select for his gallery was unequal to his office, and left some excellent works behind him, which, upon “a second shaking of the tree” by another and more able inspector, were collected, and sent off to that colossal collector of works of art. Amongst several landscapes by Vernet was the finest he ever painted, the subject, the waterfall of Tivoli. It is a curious circumstance that there is not one fine private collection at the Hague.

I was much delighted with the Voorhout, considered the principal street, in which are many elegant and classical buildings, forming complete contrasts to the leaning, mercantile structures of Rotterdam. In this street the most elegant houses are those which formerly belonged to the Prince Wielburgh, who married the last Prince of Orange’s sister, and to the French ambassador, formerly occupied by the British minister: but the most beautiful part of the Hague is the Vyverburg; it is a vast oblong square, adorned with a noble walk or mall, strowed with broken shells, and shaded by avenues of trees on one side, and on the other by the palace, and a large basin of water called the Vyver, almost a quarter of a mile in length, variegated by an island of poplars in its centre. This mall is the place of fashionable resort, and, on the evening of the day I saw it, was adorned with several groups of lovely women attired in the French fashion, which generally prevails amongst the genteel families in Holland. Besides these there are many other very noble ones, and all remarkably clean, but the canals are almost all of them green and stagnant, and at this season emitted an unpleasant effluvia. Here, as in many cities in France, the armorial ensigns of distinguished families, which used to dignify the front of their dwellings, have been cut away, and many a shield remains despoiled of its quarterings. Some of them, since the new order of things has occurred, have been restored. In a square planted on all sides with trees the parade is held.

As Lady Wortley Montagu, in her accustomed sprightliness of style, has mentioned with some appearance of disgust, the white fishy faces of the Dutch women, I beg to observe, that at the Hague I saw several very pretty females: in general they possessed transparent delicacy of countenance, but as generally wanted expression. An English gentleman who had just returned from Italy, where he had been accustomed for several years to the warm voluptuous brunettes of that beautiful country, was uncommonly delighted with the fair faces of the Dutch ladies; but female beauty does not begin to expand itself till after the imprisonment and regimen of the nursery are past. Pretty and healthy children are rarely to be seen in Holland: in general they look pale and squalid, owing to an abominable system followed in rearing them; they are accustomed for the first two or three months to respire the atmosphere of a room, the windows of which are never opened to receive the freshness of the morning air; to wash them with refreshing cold water would be considered as certain infanticide; the miserable infant is swathed round with flannel rollers, until it becomes as motionless as a mummy; and over these ligatures there is always a vast flannel wrapper folded three or four times round the body, and fastened at the bottom of its feet: afterwards, for many months it is loaded with woollen garments, and when at length it is permitted to try for what purpose legs were originally constructed, it is cased in an additional wrapping of flannel, to prevent the dreaded consequences of freely inhaling the salubrious air.

As it was summer, I can only speak from information of an equally vile and destructive custom, which obtains in the winter, of suffering the children to sit over the chauffepies or stoves, which frequently supplants the ruddy tints of health by a white parboiled appearance. I saw several of these chauffepies, from which the little pots that in cold weather contain the burning turf, had been withdrawn, used by the ladies as footstools. Whilst the men warm themselves with the smoke of tobacco from above, the ladies, to recompense themselves for not using that indulgence, take care to fumigate themselves below, by placing, in the proper season, these ignited stoves under their petticoats, and resemble the glow-worm, which carries his fire in his tail: the cats and kittens, from the genial warmth of the climate, are glad to take shelter in this warm mysterious sanctuary. The ladies and the lower classes of females are always remarkably neat about the feet; the petticoats of the latter are in general very short, display a well-proportioned leg, clean blue stockings, and a slipper without any heel-piece, or sabot.

In my way to the palace in the Wood, near this square, I passed by a vast triumphal arch made of wood, painted to imitate stone, and adorned with a number of complimentary inscriptions in Latin, in honour of the king and queen, who passed through it on the 23d of June last, when they made their public entry; and in a vast field adjoining to the wood was a lofty temporary obelisk of the same materials, which formed one of the principal objects of a magnificent fête recently given by the French commander in chief in honour of their majesties, which was conducted in the highest style of Parisian taste. The day when I visited the wood was remarkably fine; this spot, so dear to the Dutch, is nearly two English miles long, about three-quarters of a mile broad, and contains a fine display of magnificent oaks growing in native luxuriance. Antony Waterloo made the greatest part of his studies from this spot and its environs. The ground upon which it grows, and the country about it, undulate a little, a circumstance of agreeable novelty, and the whole is a truly delightful walk, more romantic and umbrageous than our mall of St. James’s, and surpassed only by the garden of the Thuilleries. This wood has been held sacred with more than pagan piety. War and national want, that seldom spare in their progress, committed no violations here. Although the favourite place of royal recreation, yet, in the fury of the revolution, not a leaf trembled but in the wind. Philip II. in the great war with Spain, issued his mandate for preserving it: hostile armies have marched through it without offering it a wound, and the axe of the woodman has never resounded in it. Even children are taught or whipt into veneration for it, so that their mischievous hands never strip it of a bough. Once, however, it is recorded, that at a period of great state necessity, in 1576, their high mightinesses sat in judgment upon its noble growth, and doomed it to fall: the moment their decree was known, the citizens flew to the meeting, remonstrated with a degree of feeling which did honour to their taste; and upon learning that the object of its doom was to raise a certain sum to assist in replenishing the nearly exhausted coffers of the republic, they immediately entered into a contribution, and presented the amount to the “high and mighty masters” of the sacred grove.

It has been asserted by some travellers, that the Dutch treasure this spot more from national pride than feeling, and that they are more disposed to preserve than to enjoy it. To this remark I have only to offer, that I saw a considerable number of equestrian and pedestrian groups, who appeared to relish its shaded roads, and sequestered walks with great delight. The royal residence is to the right at the end of the wood. Upon my asking a Dutchman which path led to the “house in the wood,” the only appellation by which, in the time of the Stadtholder, it was known, he sharply replied, “I presume you mean the palace in the wood.” This building is merely fit for the residence of a country gentleman, and has nothing princely about it, except the centry boxes at the foot of the flight of stairs ascending to the grand entrance: two tall and not very perpendicular poles, from the tops of which is stretched a cord, suspending in the centre a large lamp, stand on each side of the house in front of the palace; on the left are the coach-houses and stablings, which are perfectly plain, and are just separated from the court road by a small stunted plantation: there was a very handsome carriage of the king’s in the coach-house, without arms or cyphers, of a pale blue colour, which, with silver lace, is the colour of the new royal livery. The carriage had every appearance of having been built in England. Excepting this, I never before saw a carriage, unless appropriated for state occasions, belonging to any crowned head on the continent, that an Englishman of taste and opulence would be satisfied with. Even the carriages of Napoleon, built in a city so celebrated for its taste in design, and beauty of workmanship, as Paris, are clumsy and unpleasant to the eye. Although it was Sunday, the sound of workmen, actively engaged in modernizing the palace after the Parisian taste, issued from almost every window. Some Dutchmen who were contemplating the front of the house, shook their heads at this encroachment of the sabbath. In consequence of the internal arrangement not being finished, strangers were not admitted. The walks on the outside of the gardens are formal and insipid; the gardens themselves are handsomely disposed, and kept in great order, and the whole of the premises is insulated by stagnant canals crossed with draw-bridges.

In this palace, amongst many other precious works of art, was the celebrated picture of King William the Third, who appointed the famous Godfrey Scalken, when he was in London, to paint his portrait by candlelight: the painter placed a taper in the hands of his majesty, to hold it in a situation most favourable to the designs of the artist, during which the tallow melted and dropped on the fingers of the monarch, who endured it with great composure, for fear of embarrassing the painter, who very tranquilly continued his work, without offering to pause for a minute: it is not much to the credit of the prince of the country to record, that this blunt enthusiasm for his art lost poor Scalken the favour of the court, and of persons of fashion, and he retired to the Hague, where he had a prodigious demand for his small paintings.

The furniture of this, which, as well as of the other palaces, was superb, but old fashioned, was sold by the French, upon the pretence that their arms were directed against the Prince of Orange personally. In this palace the Stadtholder and his family used to indulge his subjects in that ridiculous custom of eating before them on certain days; a custom which was a fit appendage to another, that of keeping dwarfs and fools about the royal person. How this stupid usage came to be adopted at first I know not, for one would naturally think that the situation least calculated to inspire awe and veneration, those great supports of royalty, amongst subjects towards their rulers, would be that in which a mere animal appetite is gratified. In England such splendid folly has been long discontinued.

The plain manner in which the Prince of Orange and his family resided at this palace, is thus described by the late ingenious Mr. Ireland. “The reception we met with as strangers, was highly flattering. It was the character of Englishmen that was our passport. Expressing our wish to see the prince, the court being then full, we were addressed by a gentleman (whom we afterwards found to be Lord Athlone) through whose politeness we gained admission, and were with great affability noticed by the prince. He is short in stature, with much elegance and familiarity in his manner, not unlike our royal family. The princess and her daughter, who is about eighteen, appeared in the room: their dresses were very plain, and they had no other mark of superiority than a train-bearer. So little ceremony is observed in the exterior of the house, that just without the door of the apartment, where the prince was giving audience (which was open), a woman was on her knees scrubbing the staircase.”

Upon my return to my hotel at one o’clock, the dinner hour, I found a very agreeable party, composed of foreigners from different countries, and an excellent table d’hote: over the chimney-piece was a good equestrian portrait of the famous Duke of Cumberland, who lodged at this house occasionally during the campaigns of 1747. After dinner, in company with a very amiable gentleman-like Englishman, whom I met at the table d’hote, I set off in one of the carriages, many of which are always ready to convey passengers, for about the value of six-pence English, for Scheveling, a village which every traveller should visit, on account of the beauty of the avenue leading to it, which is nearly two miles, perfectly straight, and thickly planted with beech, limes, and oaks; at the end of which superb vista the church of Scheveling appears. On the sandy ground on each side of this avenue are several birch thickets, and it abounds with the aiera canescens, hippophae rhamnoides, a singular dwarf variety of ligustrum vulgare (Privet), the true arundo epigejos of Linnæus (that is, calamagrostis), and a number of heath plants, mixed with others usually found in marshes. Scarcely is there so small a spot, where Flora presents such opposite variety, and which the fluctuating moisture of the soil can alone account for. Among the rarer species are convallaria multiflora, and polygonatum, with gentiana cruciata, which is not a native of England.

The Dutch value this beautiful avenue as much as they do their Wood, and great care is taken to preserve it from violation. At the entrance, in a most romantic spot, is the turnpike-gate, where all passengers, except the fishermen of Scheveling, pay a fraction of a farthing for permission to enter; and here are stuck up orders, threatening with punishment those who may attempt to injure in the smallest degree this consecrated forest. At short intervals, cautionary inscriptions are placed in conspicuous situations, to warn mischievous “apple munching urchins” from cutting the smallest twig.

Constantine Huygens, brother of the celebrated mathematician and mechanist of that name, had the honor of designing this avenue, in which there are many stately trees, upwards of a century and a half old: a terrible storm which took place a few years since, laid about fifty of these noble objects low, to the great grief and consternation of the country. Here, and perhaps here only, throughout Holland, the traveller may be gratified by the sounds of a running brook. The foot paths on each side were crowded with pedestrians of both sexes, in their holiday clothes; and the slanting rays of a brilliant sun flashing through openings in the branches of the limes, beech trees, and oaks, upon a crowd of merry faces, jolting in the most whimsical carts and waggons, to their favourite spot of carousal, had a very pleasing and picturesque effect.

The village is very neat and pretty; at the end of the vista, large sand-hills rising near the base of the church, preclude the sight of the ocean, which, when they are surmounted, opens upon the view with uncommon majesty. The beach, which we saw in high perfection on account of its being low water, is very firm to the tread, and forms a beautiful walk of nearly six miles in extent. The ocean was like a mirror, and fishing vessels were reclining on the sand in the most picturesque forms, just surrounded with water; their owners, with their wives and children, were parading up and down in their sabbath suits, and the whole sand for a mile was a fine marine mall, covered with groupes who appeared as capable of appreciating the beauty of the scene, as the worshippers of the Steyne at Brighton, or of the Parade at Bath. The Dutch are said to have an antipathy to sea-air; but this I found not to be generally true: certain it is, that they are not fond of sea-bathing, otherwise this beach would be crowded with bathing, and the country above it with lodging-houses.

Water is no novelty to a Dutchman, and he prefers, and there seems some sense in his preference, his neat, commodious country-house, and his gardens, and all the comforts of life about him, to the pleasure of bathing and contemplating a waste of waters from the windows of a cheerless inn or lodging-house. An English frigate, which lay off at a considerable distance, excited a good deal of attention, and added to the beauty of the scene. Upon quitting the beach we entered an inn which overlooked the sand and was a place of great resort, every room of which was crowded and filled with tobacco smoke. The state of Mr. Fox’s health formed the leading feature of the political discourse. “Herr Fock,” as he was called, was frequently repeated at every table. Opposite to where we sat a young Dutch couple were making violent love; they kissed, devoured dry salted fish, and drank punch with an enthusiasm, which presented to our imagination the warmest association of Cupid and the jolly god. John Van Goyen, who died in 1656, and was so justly celebrated for the transparency of his colouring of water, made this spot the frequent subject of his charming pencil. Dutch tradition dwells with delight upon a cock and a bull story respecting the celebrated flying chariot which used to sail upon those lands, and on the surrounding country. It was said to have been made by Stevinus, for Prince Maurice: it is thus described and commented upon in a curious old description of Holland: “The form of it was simple and plain: it resembled a boat moved upon four wheels of an equal bigness, had two sails, was steered by a rudder placed between the two hindmost wheels, and was stopt either by letting down the sails, or turning it from the wind. This noble machine has been celebrated by many great authors, as one of the most ingenious inventions later ages have produced. Bishop Wilkins, in his Treatise of Mechanical Motions, mentions several great men who described and admired it. Grotius mentions an elegant figure of it in copper, done by Geyneus; and Herodius, in one of his large maps of Asia, gives another sketch of the like chariots used in China.” Incredible as this story appears, one would be disposed to think, that a man of Grotius’s celebrity for learning and truth, would scarcely have eulogized the invention, had he doubted its existence. Upon a level, hard, straight road, uninterrupted by trees and buildings, such a piece of ingenuity might perhaps prove successful as a mechanical experiment, but utterly impossible ever to be made serviceable.