A Tour Through the Batavian Republic/Letter X
LETTER X.
Haerlem, November, 1800.
WE passed from Leyden to this city in the usual conveyance of the country, the treckschuyt, and having places in the roof, sociable company, and the advantage of fine weather, the voyage was uncommonly pleasant. The distance from Leyden to Haerlem is about fifteen miles. On one side of the canal lies the lake of Haerlem, a piece of navigable water, about fourteen miles in length and twelve in breadth, and on the other a diversified and agreeable country.
Haerlem is a neat well-built city, but inferior to Leyden in the spaciousness of its streets, the elegance of its buildings, and the general air of propriety which reigns throughout the latter. Like the other towns of Holland, it abounds in canals, bridges, and trees; and its inhabitants are to be praised for their strict and unwearied attention to cleanliness. Some writers have attributed this virtue in the Dutch nation to the excessive humidity of their climate, which would mould their wood and rust their metals, were they not to prevent or cure the evil by the most scrupulous cleanliness; and I believe the observation is true. Were they not almost daily washed, and the pernicious influence of the atmosphere thereby counteracted, the damp air of Holland would in a few years rot and consume the perishable materials of which buildings are composed. For this reason the paint-work of their houses is kept in excellent condition, and parts of them are painted and varnished which might be thought not to need such a protection. The same rigid attention to cleanliness equally pervades the interior of the houses in Holland, and is often carried to an excess that is inconvenient and disgusting to strangers. I allude to the odious custom which the Dutch have, who smoke after dinner, of introducing a spitting-pot upon the table, with the wine and glasses, which is handed round as regularly as the bottle, to the great annoyance of those who do not smoke, yet are obliged to pass the execrable utensil to their neighbours, in order that all who have occasion may discharge their saliva into it.
The custom of smoking, I am assured, does not prevail near so much in Holland at present as it did twenty years ago, and this is used as an argument to prove that the national character of the Dutch is wearing off. But I am somewhat at a loss to conceive how the custom could be more general than it at present is. It is impossible to go into a coffee-house in the morning, even at an early hour, if a few guests are assembled, without being offended with the fumes of tobacco; and near exchange hours, or after dinner, the suffocating vapours which arise from twenty or thirty smokers are intolerable to persons whose lungs are not habituated to such a fumigation. All Dutchmen of the lower classes of society, and not a few in the higher walks of life, carry in their pockets the whole apparatus which is necessary for smoking: — a box of enormous size, which frequently contains half a pound of tobacco; a pipe of clay or ivory, according to the fancy or wealth of the possessor; if the latter, instruments to clean it: a pricker to remove obstructions from the tube of the pipe; a cover of brass wire for the bowl, to prevent the ashes or sparks of the tobacco from flying out; and sometimes a tinder-box, or bottle of phosphorus, to procure fire, in case none is at hand.
The excuse of the Dutch for their slavish attachment to tobacco, in the most offensive form in which it can be exhibited, is, that the smoke of this transatlantic weed preserves them from many disorders to which they are liable from the moisture of the atmosphere of their country, and enables them to bear cold and wet without inconvenience. This notion has perhaps contributed to the use of tobacco in Holland, by furnishing its votaries with something like an apology for their practice; but the majority of smokers doubtless use tobacco for the narcotic, stupifying effects, which its fumes produce. The consumption of tobacco as a masticatory is not near so great in Holland among the boors and sailors, as it is among the common people of England; and snuff, the most elegant and harmless form in which the herb can be used, is not often to be met with among the higher orders of society. In a carriage, or on horseback, a Dutchman smokes his pipe with equal content and satisfaction, and boys of eight or ten years of age, in every other respect to be praised for their diffidence and modesty, are permitted and encouraged to imitate, in the use os tobacco, the baneful example of their elders. At the houses of the middling classes of society, where national manners are predominate, the first civility which a stranger usually receives is the offer of a pipe, or at least it accompanies the mention of any kind of refreshment, and no hour of the day is thought unseasonable for the luxury of smoking. I have often disappointed the exercise of this branch of Dutch hospitality; and it sometimes happened, that the persons whom I so refused, particularly if they were in mean situations of life, seemed to judge ill of my understanding for wanting the sense to relish the weed of which the nation approved.
At Overschie, the miserable village which I formerly mentioned, where we were compelled by a storm to lodge all night, the landlord, with an earnestness which was the best assurance of his entire belief in its efficacy, entreated me to smoke a pipe, to prevent any bad consequences happening to me from the drenching rain, which had wetted me to the skin; and my refusal to try his specific excited in him a mixture of surprise and contempt. Elsewhere the officious waiters have brought me after dinner tobacco and a pipe, and always appeared ridiculously astonished when with strong tokens of disjust I ordered them to be removed.
In the great church of Haarlem stands the famous organ, which is the largest, and thought to be the finest, instrument of that kind in the world. By paying a ducat to the organist, and half-a-crown to the bellows blower, we heard it about an hour. It is an instrument of astonishing compass of powers. Some of its notes are so delicate as scarcely to exceed the warblings of a small singing bird, others so loud as to shake the many pile in which it stands. We expected to receive much pleasure from the vox humana, or pipe which imitates the sound of the human voice, for we had heard it greatly extolled; but high expectations are too often disappointed, and we found the vox humana disagreeable. It is the voice of a psalm-singing clerk. On the whole, however, this instrument is exquisitely delightful, I ought, perhaps, rather to say sublime; for when the whole strength of the organ is exerted, never did I hear, or could conceive, sounds more godlike. The swelling majesty of each gigantic note seems of more than mortal birth, and the slightest sounds enchant the ear. Solemnity, grandeur, delicacy, and harmony, are the characteristics of this noble instrument. The length of the longest pipe is thirty-two feet, and its diameter sixteen inches. In all, the organ has sixty stops or voices, four separations, two shakes, two couplings, and twelve bellows. — I borrow this information from a printed paper which we received from the organist. During the time the organ was playing, a number of well-dressed people collected in the church, and listened with rapturous attention to the divine sounds of the instrument. Men as well as women in Holland keep on their hats in church, and many paid us the civility of a bow for the pleasure which they received from the organ at our expence.
The custom of bowing in Holland is extremely troublesome. It is not sufficient, as in England, that a person slightly moves his hat, but he must take it off his head, and continue uncovered till the man is past him to whom he pays the compliment. The ceremony of bowing is more strictly observed at Leyden and Haerlem, than at Rotterdam or the Hague. In either of the former cities, a stranger of decent appearance can scarcely walk in the streets without being obliged every minute to pull off his hat, to answer some civility of the same kind which he receives; and these compliments are paid him not only by opulent people, but by mechanics and labourers, who bow with all the gravity and politeness of their superiors.
The revolution has not altered in the least the national dress of the Dutch. Instead of cropped heads, pantaloons, and round hats, which I expected to find, most people have their hair full dressed and powdered, wear cocked hats, and the rest of their clothes in the old fashion. The term citizen is used to all persons of authority, when they are addressed in their official capacities; but in conversation, or private transactions, every one uses the appellation of mynheer, without fear or restraint. The old calendar is adhered to in all public ordinances, proclamations, &c. with the invariable addition of ——— year of Batavian liberty: and no alteration has taken place in the devices or legends of the coins of the United Provinces. A guilder or florin of 1700 is precisely the same as a guilder of 1800. There have been yearly coinages of silver to a considerable amount, since the overthrow of the ancient government.
At a short distance from Haerlem is the house of Mr. Hope, the head of a family long distinguished for its immense riches. On the revolution, this gentleman fled to England, and his property is now in a state of sequestration. We could not obtain a sight of the inside of this magnificent villa. Its architecture is beautiful, and were the building of stone, would be grand; but unfortunately it is of brick, covered with stucco, and the dampness of the atmosphere, with want of proper care, has caused much of the plaster to fall off; so that in many places the red bricks peep through the white surface, to the great disadvantage of the whole. It is situated at the entrance of an agreeable wood, and is considered as the most elegant modern building in the United Provinces.
Haerlem disputes with Mentz and Strasburg the honour of having invented the noble art of printing, and assigns the merit of that important discovery to Laurence Costar, a citizen of the place, who flourished towards the middle of the fifteenth century. The claim of Strasburg to this honour, has, I believe, been abandoned; and I will not presume to decide between Haerlem and Mentz[1]. Costar is said to have made the discovery by cutting the initial letters of his name on a piece of bark, and using it as a seal. An inscription in Dutch points out the spot where the house of this eminently usesul man stood, and his portrait is laudably displayed in most of the booksellers' windows in Haerlem.
The heroic defence made by this city against the Spaniards, under Frederic of Toledo, a son worthy of the execrable Duke of Alva, terminated less fortunately than that of Leyden. The garrison, which consisted of four thousand men, indignantly refused the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, and by vigorous sorties greatly distressed the besieging army. The women of the place, in this conflict for their liberties, forgot the delicacy and softness of their sex, and combated with unwearied resolution and desperate courage, by the side of the men. These patriotic females organised themselves into regular battalions, and performed all the duties of the garrison, with alacrity and precision. Unfortunately the hopes of successful resistance, inspired the citizens of Haerlem with sentiments of unjustifiable animosity and revenge. With a cruelty not to be palliated, they hanged on the ramparts of the town the Spaniards whom they took prisoners in their sorties and, what was more offensive to a Spanish army in a bigotted age, they treated with profane derision and contempt the images and holy objects of the Catholic worship. Worn out by fatigue, pressed by famine, and hopeless of relief, the citizens of Haerlem at length agreed to surrender, on condition that the lives of the garrison and inhabitants of the town should be spared. This was agreed to by the son of the Duke of Alva; but, with horrid perfidy, he violated the articles of capitulation, and two thousand soldiers and inhabitants of the town were wantonly massacred in cold blood by the savage butchers of the Spanish army.
It is highly honourable to the Dutch that they preserve with religious care the memory of the gallant actions of their ancestors, and speak with becoming pride of their noble achievements and unshaken constancy. More than two centuries have elapsed since the arms of Spain spread terror and desolation through the United Provinces, yet the murderous sieges which they carried on, the bloody conflicts in which they were engaged, and the atrocious cruelties which they committed whenever victory declared on their side, are related and dwelt on with all the minuteness and circumstantiality of recent events. The Spaniards are mentioned as men of yesterday, and the slightest memorial is preserved which relates to their treacheries, cruelties, or defeats. Indeed no period of the history of the republic has been so glorious as when the Provinces threw off the yoke of the Spanish monarchy, then the most powerful and wealthy in Europe, and maintained their independence against the numerous armies, under skilful and consummate generals, which Philip II. and his successors poured into Holland. Commerce had not then debauched the simplicity of their manners, and the love of liberty was their ruling passion. The noble influence of this generous passion converted a nation of fishermen and slaves into a race of heroes, worthy of the venerable times of Greece and Rome. Never was the love of country — the noblest sentiment which can inhabit the human breast — carried to a greater extent, or more sacredly adhered to, than by the brave Gueses[2] who severed the Provinces from the dominion of Spain, maintained their liberties against the gigantic forces of that monarchy, and by their courage, resolution, and wisdom, finally established in triumph the republic.
At Haerlem is an elegant museum of natural history, formed by Doctor Van Marum, to which strangers find an easy access. This cabinet is superior to any in Holland. It is arranged with much science and taste, and all its articles are in an excellent state of preservation. To every case is affixed a description, according to the Linnean system; of the object which it contains; and the different genera of the same species are instructively classed in progressive order, instead of being confusedly mixed together as I have remarked in other collections. The assemblage of insects of the papilio tribe is extremely numerous, and many of them of the first degree of rarity. On the whole; however; this museum is very inferior to the Leverian collection which is exhibited in London.
The institution of Peter Teyler Vander Hulst in this city; though I have no prediliction for the' subject which it principally patronises[3], deserves to be noticed. Peter Teyler was a rich merchant of Haerlem, who, without having displayed in his lifetime any attachment to science, bequeathed dt his death the whole of his fortune for the propagation of knowledge and the relief of the poor. A more magnificent donation has seldom been offered on the altars of learning and charity. The revenues of the Teylerian institution amounted before the revolution to the yearly sum of one hundred thousand florins; but what were the mighty advantages to science which resulted from this ample income? The electrical experiments of Van Marum, under the auspices of this institution, are entitled to the most respectful mention[4]; but they are the only fruits which have been raised, by which science has been benefited, from the hot-bed of this rich bequest. The desire of accumulating, which is so prevalent in Holland, is said to have reached the curators of this institution; and instead of employing the vast funds which are at their disposal to the advancement of knowledge, they have been over-solicitous to increase the capital stock of the institution. What amount the accumulations of the Teylerian revenues have reached I could not learn with any degree of certainty; and it is now generally thought they have been appropriated by some silent act of government to the relief of the urgent necessities of the state.
At Haerlem there are considerable manufactures for the fabrication of fine linen cloths, dimity, satins; &c. which; though not in so flourishing a state as formerly they were, give employment to a number of workmen, and still carry on a profitable trade with Brabant and Germany. The bleacheries of Haerlem are famous for the delicate whiteness which they give to linen cloths, large quantities of which are brought hither yearly from all parts of the United Provinces and Germany to undergo this operation, and before the war with Great Britain much was sent from Ireland and Scotland. The superior whiteness of the bleacheries of this town is attributed to a peculiar quality in the water of the lake of Haerlem, which cannot be imitated by any chemical-process Which has yet been discovered.
- ↑ The advocates who bestow the honour of the invention of printing on Haerlem, say that Faustus was the servant of Costar, and stole his types, with which he fled to Mentz, on Christmas eve, while his master was attending his devotions at church.
- ↑ This appellation, which signifies beggars, is reported to have originated thus. At an early period of the troubles in the Low-countries, five hundred patriots assembled in the court-yard of the palace at Brussels, to present a petition to the Duchess of Parma, natural daughter of Charles V. and at that time governante of the Netherlands, against the establishment of the inquisition. The princess, alarmed at the sight of so many men, demanded who they were, and one of the courtiers contemptuously replied, they were gueses, or beggars. The appellation was henceforward bestowed on the patriotic party by their enemies as a term of bitter reproach, and adopted by the friends of liberty as a title of glorious distinction.
- ↑ The discussion of theological metaphysics
- ↑ The experiments of Van Marum prove that the death of animals coincides instantaneously with the cessation of irritability.