Things Seen in Holland
known as the “Athens of the North.” The memory of the Elzevirs, those famous printers, haunts it still. There are people who are disappointed at not finding the “mill in which Rembrandt was born,” and some writers have expressed a regret that it no longer exists. As a matter of fact, Rembrandt was not born in a mill, as shown by the tablet now affixed to what is a stable or coach-house. Dordrecht is a pleasant town, with its vestal zone of four rivers—the Maas, the Waal, the Linge, and the Merwede—all embodied in its device:
Me Mosa, me Vahalis, me Linga Mervaque cingunt,
Æternam Batavæ virginis ecce fidem.”
It was the first town to cast off the yoke of the hated Spaniard. Cuyp, Bols, and Maes, a glorious group, are her sons.
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