Things Seen in Holland
the word brill signifies spectacles, and that the Dutch sang words to the effect that
"On April Fool's Day
Duke Alva's spectacles were stolen away.”
The foregoing is in reference to the capture of “Brill” on the first day of April, 1572, the first overt act in Holland's fight against Spanish supremacy. The pun is a poor one. In the first place, bril, not brill, is the Dutch word for a pair of spectacles. Again, Briel, or Brielle, is not so pronounced as to resemble bril, nor was Brielle ever called “Brill.” Heer Joh. H. Been, the archivist of the town, writes that adjoining “Maarland, Mareland, or Moerasland, which as early as 732 possessed a Christian church, was built the village of Den Briel. The two villages became together, ‘Den Briel’ (The Brielles). In old documents one finds ‘de Stede van den Briele.’ Hence the word Brielle. Den
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