A tour through Holland

The Dutch theatre is large and handsome, and has a noble front. On the night I was there, Madam Wattier performed: she occupies the same place in the public estimation in Holland as the immortal Siddons does in that of England: she is advanced in years, but still continues to display great tragic qualities: at the same time her manner is rather too vehement for an English auditor. The principal dancer in the ballet was Mademoiselle Polly, who dances with great agility. The scenery is good. During the interval between the acts, the people quit the house, to take refreshments and walk in the open air: upon these occasions the national spirit is again displayed: as there is no half-price, little boys hover round the doors, and bid upon each other for the purchase of the re-admission tickets of those who come out, for the purpose of re-selling them at a profit. The French theatre is small but neat, and tolerably well supplied with performers. After the play it is usual to go out to the Rondell, where the higher classes of the women of the town assemble to waltz. This assembly-room, like the spill-house of Rotterdam, is frequented by tradesmen, their wives and their children. After hearing so much of this place, I was greatly disappointed on viewing it. The assembly-room is small and shabby, the music wretched, and adjoining is a small square court, with three or four trees in it, scantily decorated with about a dozen lamps. Such is the celebrated Rondell of Amsterdam, which the Dutch who have never visited England contend is superior to our Vauxhall.

With a large and very agreeable party, I made an excursion into North Holland, where we visited Brock, one of the most curious, and one of the prettiest villages in Holland. The streets are divided by little rivulets; the houses and summer-houses, formed of wood painted green and white, are very handsome, though whimsical in their shape, and are all remarkably neat. They are like so many mausoleums, for the silence of death reigns throughout the place. The inhabitants, who have formed a peculiar association amongst themselves, scarcely ever admit a stranger within their doors, and hold but little intercourse with each other. During our stay, we saw only the faces of two of them, and those by a stealthy peep. They are very rich, so much so, that many of their culinary utensils are of solid gold. The shutters of the windows in front of the houses are always kept shut, and the principal entrance is never opened but on the marriage or the death of one of the family. The pavement of the street is tesselated with all sorts of little pebbles and cockle-shells, and is kept in such exquisite order, that a dog or a cat is never seen to trespass upon it; and it is said, that formerly there was a law which obliged all passengers to take off their shoes in the summer when they walked upon it; that a man was once reprimanded for sneezing in the streets; and latterly, a clergyman, upon being appointed to fill the church on the demise of a very old predecessor, was treated with great shyness by his flock because he did not (unwittingly) take off his shoes when he ascended the pulpit. The gardens of this village produce deer, dogs, peacocks, chairs, tables, and ladders, cut out in box. Such a museum of vegetable statuary I never witnessed before. Brock represents a sprightly ball-room well lighted up, without a soul in the orchestra or upon the floor. From Brock we proceeded to Saardam, which at a small distance seems to be a city of windmills. The houses are principally built of wood, every one of which has a little fantastic baby-sort of garden. Government has discontinued building ships of war here, which used to be a source of great prosperity to the town; however, its numerous paper and sawing mills employ a vast number of hands, and produce great opulence to the place. We paid our homage to the wooden cottage where Peter the Great resided when he came to this place to learn the art of ship-building; it is very small, and stands in a garden, and is in tolerable preservation. The women in North Holland are said to be handsomer than in any other part of the country. As I was very desirous of commencing my tour on the Rhine, I was glad to return to Amsterdam.

The climate of Holland is moist, but far from being unpleasant or unwholesome, although some travellers have thought proper to say it consists of six months of rain and six months of bad weather. The principal divisions of the country are at present the same as they were during the republic, namely, Holland, Overyssel, Zealand, Friesland, Utrecht, Groningen, Guelderland, and Zutphen, besides the Texel and other islands; but the king has it in contemplation, it is said, of speedily dividing the kingdom into ten departments. Holland contains 113 cities or large towns, 1400 villages, and nearly 2,800,000 inhabitants. The military force of Holland amounts to about 40,000 cavalry and infantry. A population and a force which cannot but astonish the reader, when he reflects upon the size, soil, and position of the country.

I intended to have taken the treckschuyt to Utrecht, as the river Amstel is all the way lined with the most beautiful country-houses and grounds in Holland; but as some friends of mine in Amsterdam obligingly proposed accompanying me, and were strongly desirous that I should see Naarden, Soestdyke, and some other places in our way, the boat was relinquished for the carriage. I however recommend the traveller not to omit going to Utrecht by water. Excellent carriages and horses are always to be procured at a large livery stable keeper’s who resides near the Utrecktsche Poort, or Utrecht Gate, in Amsterdam, close to the house from which the Utrecht treckschuyts proceed: for these he must make the best bargain he can, as he will be wholly at the mercy of the proprietor. The inconvenience and imposition arising from travelling in Holland are frequently severely felt, on account of there being no regular posting. In Amsterdam the price of a carriage for the day is fourteen florins, and for this the coachman provides for himself and horses. The back of our carriage towards the horses, folded into two divisions, resting upon the fixed seat, so that when the cushion was placed upon it, the seat was only a little raised; thus the coach became either close or open: the roof was fixed. In this vehicle, with a pair of good horses, we set off for Naarden, a clean, pretty little town, and more skilfully and strongly fortified than any other town in Holland: here the same tranquillity reigns as in most of the other Dutch country towns. From the ramparts, which present a very agreeable walk, there is a fine view of the Zuyder Zee on the northern side, the water of which being in many places very shallow, at a distance resembled moving mounds of sand. Here, and throughout the journey, our coachman gave the preference to coffee, of which the Dutch are remarkably fond, instead of wine or spirits, with his dinner. From economy, as I observed at this place and elsewhere, the middling people keep a bit of sugar-candy in their mouth when they drink tea or coffee, instead of using sugar in the way we do. Our host regaled us after dinner with a volunteer dessert of some very delicious pears, which grew in very great profusion in his garden.

From this place to Soestdyke, one of the two country palaces of the king allowed by the constitution, the roads are very sandy, and we were obliged to take four horses. In the neighbourhood of Naarden the country is covered with buckwheat; which, after we had advanced about four English miles, began to undulated, and present a very beautiful appearance. The many spires and chimnies of villages peeping above the trees in all directions, the small divisions of land, the neat and numerous little farm houses which abounded on all sides of us, presented a picture of industry and prosperity seldom seen in any other country. The sound wisdom displayed by the Dutch in preventing the overgrowth and consolidation of farms, cannot fail to strike the observation of the traveller, and particularly an English one. By this admirable policy, Holland is enabled to maintain its comparatively immense population, under the great disadvantage of a soil far from being genial; hence it is but little burthened with paupers, and hence the abundance of its provision. In England, on the contrary, the farmers, grown opulent by availing themselves of the calamities of unproductive seasons, and consequent scarcity, have for many years past omitted no opportunity, by grasping at every purchase, to enlarge their estates, and hence a portion of land which, if separated into small allotments, would give food and a moderate profit, to many families, is now monopolized by one; and those who ought to be farmers on a small scale, are now obliged to toil as labourers in the fields of their employer, at wages that are not sufficient, if their families are numerous, to prevent the necessity of their applying for parochial aid. If some legislative provision could be effected to restrain this monstrous and growing evil, by that ardent and cordial lover of his country, and particularly of the lower classes of society, Mr. Whitbread, who has laudably in parliament applied his enlightened mind to ameliorate the condition of the poor, it would be one of the most beneficial measures that ever received the fiat of the British senate. I do not repine to see the farmers, or any other respectable class of men, receive and enjoy the honest fruits of their own enterprize and industry: I could see with less regret all those decent and frugal habits of the farm which once characterized the yeomanry of England superseded by the folly and fashion of the gay and dissipated; the farmer drinking his bottle of port instead of some cheap salubrious ale; his daughter, no longer brought up in the dairy, returning from a boarding-school, to mingle the sounds of her harp with the lowing of cows, or reluctantly going to the market of the adjoining town, tricked out in awkward, misplaced finery, with a goose in one hand and a parasol in the other, did not the poor classes of society become poorer, and the humble more humiliated, by the cause of this marvellous metamorphosis in rural economy. In Holland, I was well informed, there is not a farm that exceeds fifty acres, and very few of that extent. There the economy observed in and about the “peasant’s nest,” is truly gratifying: the farmer, his wife, and a numerous progeny, exhibit faces of health and happiness; their dwelling is remarkable for its neatness and order throughout; in the orchard behind, abounding with all sorts of delicious fruits, the pigs and sheep fatten; three or four sleeky cows feed in a luxuriant adjoining meadow; the corn land is covered with turkies and fowls, and the ponds with ducks and geese. Such is the picture of a Dutch farm.

Notwithstanding the enormous tax upon land, and a tax upon cattle per head, an imposition unknown to any other country, the expense of contributing to the support of the dykes, the duty on salt, and a variety of other charges, amounting to more than fifty per cent. on the value of their land, the beneficial effects arising from small farms and the simplicity, diligence, and economy of the Dutch farmer, enable him to discharge those expenses, and his rent, with punctuality, and with the surplus of his profit to support his family in great comfort. To these causes alone can be attributed the astonishing supplies which are sent to the different markets. North Holland, so celebrated for its cheese, supplies Enkuysen, upon an average, with two hundred and fifty thousand pounds weight of that valuable article of life, and Alkmaar with three hundred thousand, per week. In a very small space in the isle of Amak, within about two English miles of Copenhagen, no less than four thousand people, descendants of a colony from East Friesland, invited over by one of the kings of Denmark to supply the city with milk, cheese, butter, and vegetables, are enabled to live and flourish, and continue to supply that city with these articles. I remember being highly delighted with seeing their dwellings and little luxuriant gardens; nor did I ever see so many persons living within so small a space, except in an encampment. An experienced English agriculturist who had visited Holland, informed me that he thought the Dutch farmers did not sufficiently dress their land. The vegetable soil is in general so thin, that trees in exposed situations are usually topped, to prevent their being thrown down by the wind. In that part of Holland which I am describing, on account of its being well sheltered, there is a large growth of wood. Upon leaving the romantic and exquisitely picturesque village of Baren, we entered the royal chace, which occupies a vast track of ground in this forest. The trees are generally poor and thin, but I saw some fine beeches among them. On the borders of this chace are two country villas, in the shape of pagodas, belonging to a private gentleman, the novelty and gaudy colouring of which served to animate the sombre appearance of the forest behind.

In the evening we reached the principal inn at Soestdyke, lying at the end of a very long avenue in the forest, chiefly filled with young oaks, a little fatigued with the tedium produced by the heavy roads through which we had waded; however, after some refreshing tea taken under the trees, near the house, we proceeded to view the palace, formerly a favourite sporting chateau of the Orange family. A tolerable plain brick house on the left of the entrance, composed the lodge, and after passing through a large court, we ascended by a flight of steps to the principal entrance of this palace, if palace it may be called, for a residence more unworthy of a prince I have never seen. The only part of the house in any degree deserving of notice was the hall, the sides of which were decorated with the emblems of rural recreation, the implements of husbandry, and all the apparatus of hunting, fishing, and shooting, tolerably well executed. The rooms were principally white-washed, and destitute of furniture: the windows were large, and the panes of glass very small, fastened with lead, such as are used in cottages: in short, the whole palace presented the appearance of a country mansion in England of the date of Charles the First, deserted by the family to whom it belonged, and left to the care of the tenants who rent the estate to which it belongs. Nothing could be more dreary and desolate. The king and queen partook of a cold collation here a short time before I visited it, provided by the family who rented the place of the state, and occupied it when we visited it. I was not surprised to hear that the royal family staid only one hour, during which they scarcely ventured out of a large naked room at the back part of the house, called the grand saloon: one of the young princes gave a son of the gentleman who occupied the premises, an elegant watch set round with brilliants. I could not help reflecting a little upon the disgust this visit must have given to the queen, who had just arrived from Paris, and from all the voluptuous and tasteful magnificence of the new imperial court. The palace is surrounded by a ditch half filled with green stagnant water, the dulness of which was only relieved by the croaking of a legion of undisturbed frogs. The gardens and grounds, which abounded with hares, are very formally disposed into dull, unshaded, geometrical walks. After supper, a brilliant moon and cloudless night, attracted us into one of the most beautiful and majestic avenues of beeches I ever saw, immediately opposite the palace: as we sat upon a bench, looking through an opening upon the bright bespangled heavens, the description of our divine bard stole upon my mind:

In this wood are several genteel country-houses, many of which were formerly occupied by those who belonged to the Orange court. The inn here is much frequented, the accommodations of which are good, by the people of Amsterdam, who frequently make parties to it; and it is the great resort of those married couples fresh from the altar, until the honey-moon is in her wane.

In the morning about five o’clock we set off for Zeyst, or Ziest, and passed through a large tract of champagne country, interspersed with short brushwood, the dull monotony of which was at last relieved by a vast pyramid, erected by the French troops who were encamped in the immense open space in which it stands, amounting to 30,000 men, under the command of Gen. Marmont. On the four sides are the following inscriptions:

INSCRIPTION ON THE GRAND FRONT.

“This pyramid was raised to the august Emperor of the French, Napoleon the First, by the troops encamped in the plain of Zeyst, being a part of the French and Batavian array, commanded by the Commander in Chief, Marmont.”

INSCRIPTION ON THE SECOND FRONT.

Battles gained by the Emperor.

“The battles of Montenotte, de Dego, and Millesimo, of Mondovi, the passage of the Po, the battle of Lodi, the engagement of Berguetto, the passage of the Mincio, the battles of Lonato, of Castiglione, of the Brenta, of St Georges, of Arcola, of la Favourite, of Chebreis, of Sediman, of Montabor, of Aboukir, of Marengo.

INSCRIPTION ON THE THIRD FRONT.

“He terminated the civil war; he destroyed all cabals, and caused a wise liberty to succeed to anarchy; he re-established religious worship, he restored the public credit, he enriched the public treasury, he repaired the roads and constructed new ones, he made harbours and canals, he caused the arts and sciences to prosper, he ameliorated the condition of the soldiers, the general peace was his work.”

ON THE FOURTH FRONT.

“The troops encamped in the plains of Zeyst, making part of the French and Batavian army, commanded by the General in Chief Marmont, and under his orders, by the Generals of division, Grouchy, Boudet, Vignolle, the Batavian Lieutenant, General Dumonceau, the Generals of Brigade, Soyez, &c. [here follows a long list of the names of the other officers, too tedious to enumerate; also a very long list of the different divisions of the regiments to which the above officers belonged,] have erected this monument to the glory of the emperor of the French, Napoleon the First, at the epoch of his ascending the throne, and as a token of admiration and love, generals, officers, and soldiers, have all co-operated with equal ardour: it was commenced the 24th Fructidor, 12 ann, and finished in thirty-two days.”

The whole was designed by the chief of the battalion of engineers. The total height of this stupendous monument is about 36 metres, or 110 French feet; that of the obelisk, exclusive of the socle, is about 13 metres, or 42 French feet. One end of the base of the pyramid is 48 metres, or 148 feet. From the summit of the obelisk the eye ranges over a vast extent of country, Utrecht, Amersfort, Amsterdam, Haarlem, the Hague, Dordrecht, Leyden, Gorcum, Breda, Arnheim, Nimeguen, Bois le Duc, Cleves, Zutphen, Dewenter, Swol, and a great part of the Zuyder Zee, may be distinctly seen on a fine clear day.

Upon this spot it is in contemplation immediately to erect a new city, the building of which, and the cutting of a canal to be connected with the adjoining navigation, have already commenced. Zeyst is a very handsome town, or rather an assemblage of country-houses, it abounds with agreeable plantations and pleasant woods, and is much frequented in the summer by the middling classes of wealthy merchants from Amsterdam, who sit under the trees and smoke with profound gravity, occasionally looking at those who pass, without feeling any inclination to move themselves: what an enviable state of indifference to all the bustle and broil of this world! upon which they seem to gaze as if they were sent into it to be spectators and not actors. Who, upon reflection and sober comparison, would not prefer this “even tenour” to the peril of the chace and the fever of dog-day balls!

The principal hotel here is upon a noble scale, the politest attentions are paid to strangers, and the charges are far from being extravagant. The only striking object of curiosity in the town is a very spacious building, formerly belonging to Count Zinzendorf, and now to a fraternity of ingenious and industrious Germans, amounting to eighty persons, who have formed themselves into a rational and liberal society, called the Herrenhuthers, or Moravians. This immense house, in its object, though not in its appearance, resembles our Exeter ’Change, but infinitely more the splendid depot of goods of every description, kept by a very wealthy and highly respectable Englishman of the name of Hoy at Petersburgh. Upon ringing at the principal entrance, we were received with politeness by one of the brotherhood, in the dress of a layman, who unlocked it and conducted us into ten good sized rooms, each containing every article of those trades most useful, such as watchmakers, silversmiths, saddlers, milliners, grocers, &c. Many of these articles are manufactured by the brethren who have been tutored in England, or have been imported from our country. The artificers work upon the basement story, at the back of the house, and no sound of trade is heard; on the contrary, the tranquillity of a monastery pervades the whole.

After inspecting the different shop-rooms, it will repay the trouble of the traveller to make interest to see the other part of the premises, shown only upon particular application. The refectory is a large room, kept with great cleanliness; and the meals of the fraternity, if I may judge by so much of the dinner as was placed upon the table, are very far from partaking of the simple fare of conventual austerity. A bon vivant would have risen from their table without a murmur. In this room were several music-stands, used every other evening at a concert; the vocal and instrumental music of which is supplied by certain members of the brotherhood, who I was told excelled in that elegant accomplishment. In the chapel, which was remarkably neat, there was an organ, and on the wall was a very energetic address from one of the society upon his retiring from it, handsomely framed and glazed. The dormitory upon the top of the house partook of the same spirit of cleanliness and order. Never was any sectarian association formed upon more liberal and comfortable principles. In short, it is a society of amiable, industrious, and agreeable men, who form a coalition of ingenuity and diligence for their support, and benevolently remit the surplus of their income, after defraying their own expenses, to their brethren established in the East and West Indies, and other parts of the world. They marry whenever they please; but those who taste of this blissful state are not permitted to have chambers in the house, although they may contribute their labours, and receive their quota of subsistence from it.