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
