Part 19

The ancient walls of Aix enclose a vast extent of ground, and afford a pleasant walk; but there is much of the space enclosed in fields and gardens, and the population is not proportioned to the remaining buildings, being no more than 30,000. The surrounding country is highly picturesque and varied, cultivation and woods being interspersed. The woods in this country have been, however, much diminished of late years. But there are, it may be observed, coal mines to supply sufficient fuel for the inhabitants.

The town or great village of Burscheid adjoins the gates of Aix; it is very flourishing. Near it is a fine abbey. I was also pleased with the ruins of the Castle of Frankenberg. Here is a manufactory of needles, and about Aix are several of cloth.

From the Tower of Sittard is a view of vast extent over the Netherlands. The cathedral of Aix is a large Gothic structure, but many of its decorations are trifling, and inconsistent with the solidity of its massy columns of marble and granite. Its doors are of bronze highly wrought, but full of fissures.

The streets here are crowded with beggars; and I think I never was in a place where so little respect is paid to the observance of Sunday. In most towns on the continent the theatres, &c. are open, but most of the shops are closed during some part of the day; here they were open during the whole day, and seemed equally busy as during the rest of the week.

The country between Aix and Liege produces great quantities of hops (the vine of the north of Europe), and the beer here is very good. Clermont is a neat village, with several good houses.

We passed over some mountains, which seem to be the limit of the German language; the inhabitants of them speak a dialect intelligible neither at Liege nor Aix.

The country near Liege is rich, and the city is situated in a beautiful valley on the Meuse; it is extremely large, but is ill built, and the streets are more intricate and dirty even than those of Cologne. There is a good deal of trade carried on here, and the population is estimated at not less than 50,000. There are a great number of churches, but I was not much struck with any of them; that of the Dominicans is said to be copied from St. Peter's at Rome. There are a great number of booksellers here, and I was told it was a famous place to procure cheap books. The coal here seems of good quality, and the place is surrounded with collieries. The lower orders in this city speak a jargon called Walloon, which is completely unintelligible to the higher classes.

The French customs are generally prevalent here; and it is said, the inhabitants regret their separation from France. There were vast manufactories of cutlery here, but the French, before their departure, destroyed most of the machinery; this, together with the failure of other trades, is said to produce the distress which fills the streets with beggars.

The general appearance of the inhabitants of Liege is not more prepossessing to a stranger than that of their city. There are said to be a great number of thieves, and I saw some surprised whilst cutting the trunks from behind a carriage at the inn-door. The money here is extremely adulterated, and is not taken one stage from the city, a circumstance which frequently is attended with great loss to the traveller, if he has occasion to receive much change.

In this neighbourhood are several vineyards, but the climate is too cold to admit of the wine having a good flavour. They here cultivate a species of cabbage, the seed of which produces a thick oil, which is used in dying stuffs, and forms part of the composition of the black soap of this country.

I found that the season had long ended at Spa; that the roads were bad, and that it was above thirty miles out of my way, and therefore determined on proceeding to Brussels in the diligence, to make trial of one of the public carriages of this country, having found the posting good from Cologne to Liege. I found it extremely spacious, when compared to those in England, and it was lined with faded yellow damask. I had but two companions, who, according to Rousseau's Axiom, would not be entitled to the name of men, which, he says, belongs to none under five feet six inches.

They proved, however, sufficiently agreeable companions, and I found they resided at Louvain. We proceeded at the rate of rather more than four English miles an hour, which was quicker than I had before travelled in a public carriage on the continent. Our first stage presented nothing remarkable; but the next, St. Tron, was a remarkably neat little town. There is a spacious square, surrounded with good houses, and at one end is the town-house; the church is a large building, and its steeple contains a set of musical chimes, to which the people of this country are very partial.

We next reached Tirlemont, formerly one of the most considerable cities of Brabant, which is at present by no means of equal importance. The surrounding country is fruitful; many of its villages contain cottages of clay, which I did not expect to see in so opulent a province; they are indeed spacious, and the interior is kept very neat. The general appearance of the people here is much more in their favour than at Liege.

Tirlemont contains manufactures of flannels, stockings, and cloth. The cotton trade, formerly the great staple of the Netherlands, has of late years been greatly on the decline.

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CHAP. XVII.

Although the present population of the Netherlands bears no proportion to that which it formerly maintained, yet it is still very considerable, and exceeds that of any country in Europe, Holland only excepted; being 202 persons to each square mile (see ch. xi. for the population of Switzerland, &c.) The decrease in the number of inhabitants in these provinces is chiefly to be attributed to the religious persecutions which compelled thousands of industrious families to emigrate.

This depopulation is very perceptible in many of the cities I passed through, which are capable of containing double their present number of inhabitants, and is nowhere more striking than at Louvain, where the present population does not exceed 25,000, and where formerly there were 4000 manufactories of cloth, which supported 15,000 labourers. This city is surrounded with an ancient wall of brick, which, as well as its numerous towers, presents a half mined appearance. Many of the public buildings of Louvain indicate its former opulence. The town-house is considered as a model of Gothic architecture, and the cathedral of St. Peter is a stately building. The portal of the Collegium Falconis presents a specimen of Grecian architecture, which is much admired for the simplicity. The University of Louvain was formerly of great celebrity, and no person could exercise any public authority in the Austrian Netherlands, without having graduated here. This regulation, however beneficially intended, only produced the effect of raising extremely the expence of the different diplomas, without being attended with any advantage, except to the funds of the university. In the present unsettled state of the Netherlands, it cannot be expected that the seats of learning should be as much frequented, as they probably will be when their new sovereign shall have had leisure to turn his attention to the important subject of public education; and the wisdom of the regulations he has promulgated, on other matters of general interest (particularly that which enforces the more solemn observation of Sunday) leaves little room to doubt that this point will, in its turn, be duly and successfully attended to. Those who have resided at Louvain have observed, that its inhabitants are in general more polite than in most of the towns in these provinces; but my stay was not sufficiently long to enable me to form any opinion on the subject. The manners of the people do not seem to me very dissimilar from those of the French, but others think they most resemble the Dutch. In fact, the Netherlanders have no very peculiar characteristics, but partake, in many respects, of those which distinguish the various nations from whom they are descended. They have been much and often abused by various writers, who have attributed to them the faults of almost all the nations of Europe, without allowing that they possess any of the good qualities by which those faults are palliated in the other nations. Those, however, who are of a candid disposition will not feel inclined to assent to the truth of statements so evidently dictated by enmity or spleen. But whilst I would not have the Flemish considered as a compound of all that is exceptionable in the human character, I do not consider them as meriting any particular praise; nor can I vindicate them from the charge of dishonesty, which has been so often alleged against them. In general on the Continent, where the English are the subjects of extortion, the fraud is considered as trivial, and the French often boast in conversation how John Bull is pillaged at Paris. But whatever may be the Flemish character, it is allowed by all that they follow the French customs in their domestic arrangement, but are in general more cleanly. Their kitchens are kept very neat, and the cooking apparatus is ranged in order round the stove, which, in many of the kitchens that I saw in the small inns, projects considerably into the room.

Many of the inhabitants of these provinces (like my two companions in the Louvain Diligence) are below the middle size; they are extremely intelligent and active, and in general civil to strangers. Before I quit Louvain, I must not omit to notice that it is famous for its beer, which is certainly the best I have tasted on the Continent. The number of breweries is said to exceed twenty, and the consumption is astonishingly great in the neighbourhood, besides a considerable export trade.

I continued my journey to Brussels along an excellent road, the centre of which was paved, as from the nature of the soil, it would be otherwise impassable in winter. The roads in this country run for many miles together, in a straight line between rows of trees; and I must confess I thought it very uninteresting to travel through. The flatness of its surface, is but rarely interrupted by any eminence, which affords a prospect calculated to make any impression on the mind. There are many neat villages, and occasionally one sees country seats decorated in that formal style of gardening, which was originally introduced from this country into England, but which has there long since yielded to a more natural taste. The farming seems very neatly managed; the numerous canals, although they add nothing to the beauty of the country, are of great utility to the farmer; and travelling is very cheap in the boats, which pass between the chief towns.

It would require scenery like that of the Rhine, to induce me to adopt this conveyance; but many of these canals pass between banks which exclude all view of the surrounding country. I found the Netherlander generally impatient to be relieved from the great military expences, incident to their present situation. There is, I think, little reason to doubt, that when some of the existing taxes can be removed, the Orange family will become popular. The stamp duties are very heavy; there are land and house taxes, and a personal tax. It is to be expected, that the people should wish for a diminution of their burdens, but Liege is the only place I have visited in the countries lately relinquished by France, where the separation seems to be generally regretted. I found that the Prussian government, was by no means popular, on the left bank of the Rhine, and that an union with either Austria or Bavaria, was much wished for in those provinces, whose future destiny remains to be decided at the Congress of Vienna.

Having met with but few English travellers since I had quitted Switzerland, I was much struck on entering Brussels with the vast numbers of my fellow subjects, moving in all directions. The garrison was almost entirely composed of English troops, so that I felt here quite at home. I found that there was an English theatre, as well as a French one, and that balls, and entertainments of all descriptions, à l'Anglaise, were in abundance. Indeed the upper part of the city differed little in appearance from an English watering place.

Brussels is a city of great extent, built partly on the river Senne (naturally a very inconsiderable stream, but which, being formed here into a canal, becomes of much advantage), and partly on a hill, commanding an extensive view of the rich and fertile plain by which it is surrounded; much of which resembles a vast kitchen garden. It is, like Louvain, surrounded by a ruined wall of brick, as formerly all the towns of Flanders were fortified. This was the capital of the Austrian Netherlands, and lately the chief place of the French department of the Dyle: it will, probably, now become, for a part of the year, the residence of its new sovereign, whose sons are at present amongst its inhabitants. The inhabitants of Brussels are calculated at 70,000, and its environs give the traveller an idea of its importance, as they have an appearance of much traffic and are decorated with many villas which announce the opulence, but not always the good taste of their owners. The city is, in general, irregularly built, and the lower part does not deserve commendation; but the place royale is fine: the park is surrounded by many handsome public buildings, and by a number of private houses, which would ornament any capital in Europe. The park is of considerable extent, and forms an agreeable promenade. Its avenues are kept in excellent order; they abound with statues and other formal decorations, which are, however, more admissible in a city promenade than in the retirement of the country. A fountain here was celebrated by Peter the Great's having fallen into it, as that monarch, like Cato, was said,

"Sæpe mero caluisse virtus."

"His virtue oft with wine to warm."

The circumstance was recorded by the following inscription:

"Petrus Alexowitz, Czar Moscoviæ, magnus dux, margini hujus fontis insidiens, illius aquam nobilitavit libato vino hora post meridiam tertia, die 16 Aprilis, 1717."

"That renowned General P.A., Czar of Moscovy, having poured forth ample libations of wine, whilst sitting on the brink of this fountain fell into, and ennobled its waters about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 16th of April, 1717."