Things Seen in Holland
At my side place my favourite pipe and a box of matches, … for one never knows what may happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their pipes, as they pass it on their departure from the grounds.” His last wishes were carried out; but, strange to say, Rotterdam—nay, Holland—has not erected any monument to him. Still, many a Dutch rooker (smoker) must have blessed his memory.
There is much eating in Holland, but the quantity of the food absorbed, rather than the quality of its cooking, calls for remark. Is there a national dish? 'Tis hard to say, unless it be a dish composed of meat and vegetables boiled together—the French pot-au-feu, in fact, minus the cabbage—and more partaken of by the humbler folk than by the well-to-do.
84
