Jump to content

Page:Things Seen In Holland (1912).djvu/214

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.

Things Seen in Holland

Americans will find much to interest them, if they will take note of the names of places, many of which are to be met with in their country, some of them having become family names. Nordyke, to give an example, is in Dutch Noordijk, the North Dike. Roosevelt, Cortlandt, Van-dam, and many other names, are clearly of Dutch origin, while Stuyvesant will recall New Amsterdam's grim old Governor, with his silver-encased stump, Piet Stuyvesant. Should the New Yorker have a taste for the beauties of etymology, he will deplore the fact that somebody changed “Helle Gat” (“beautiful pass or outlet”) into “Hell Gate;” but he and the Londoner must not be deceived into believing that Lange-Straat is a “long” street, for it is named after the Huguenot family of De Lange. This does not apply to Lange Pooten, the principal street in The Hague. In olden

208