A Saunter in Belgium, in the summer of 1835, etc

Front matter

.-/ StUUr Ulb TOWN) ~&a AIL IL ©IF ©BSPIRSAKPIS. ftdfosh'A byEC. WfsOey.-RcandUlt/ A SAUNTER IN BELGIUM, IN THE SUMMER OF 1835; WITH TRAITS, HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE. 13 Y GEORGE ST. GEORGE. LONDON: F. C. WESTLEY, 1G2, PICCADILLY. Mncccxxxvi. PRINTED BY HOWLETT AND SON, 10, FRITH STREET, SOHO. T 0 L E © f» © L ® THE FIBIT, KING OF BELGIUM, IHE BELOVED PRINCE OF A BRAVE PEOPLE, Œhte Uohimc IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANT, GEORGE ST. GEORGE. INDEX. Page Antwerp Alost . . 295 °05 Ardembourgh t, .... 82 Belle -a ■ .... 301 Beveren Boom ..•••*••••' 131 Bruges -*" Brussells 336 Calais Comines Courtray Damme 297 Dendermond r. .... 284 Deynse ..•••■* Dixmuden ...-•• o .... 3 Dunkirque .... 209 Ecloo Furnes Ghent n .... 186 Ghistel 2 Gravelines INDEX Page Liege 381 Lokeren 300 Louvain 386 Mechlin . 334 Menin 95 Meuse, The 376 Middleburgh 207 Namur 371 Orrey 385 Oudemburgii 196 Oudenarde . . 291 Peteghem 289 Poperinghe 75 Rail-Road to Brussells 329 Rousselaere ]27 St. Tron 385 Tirlemont 385 Tournay HO Vilvorde 333 Waterloo .' 3g2 Werwyck g2 Ypres ■

Preface

. If the preface be the history of a book, as Lessing defines it to be, then may the author of these sheets say in the words of the " Weary Knife- Grinder," " Story — Lord bless you, Sirs, I have none to tell." He cannot plead in extenuation that too kind friends have urged him before the public, or that in appearing at the bar of taste, and throwing the gauntlet to criti cism, he has been actuated by the very ordinary and very natural motives of gain or ambition of fame. He is entirely un conscious of all these. If he had a motive in producing the following work, it was to rescue, as far as was in his power, a country and a people from the unde served odium and industrious vilification

PREFACE.

. which has been heaped on them so unspa ringly of late by most modern travellers among them. To " speak of the ford as he finds it" has been, and he trusts ever will be a governing axiom of his life. In these pages he has done no more. Lincoln's inn, April 23rd, A SAUNTER IN BELGIUM.

Chapter I. Calais

— GRAVELINES.— DUNKIRQUE.— FURNES.— DIXMUDEN.— YPRES. Like Oliver Goldsmith's "philosophic vaga bond, pursuing novelty but losing content;" "alone, unfriended," and afoot, I found myself without the eastern gate of Calais one fine morning in the be ginning of last June, on the high road to Flanders- It was a beautiful day, and I was in good spirits ; so I trudged on merrily to Gravelines. A des cription of my costume and the cause of my journey may not be amiss in this place, and per haps it will be deemed the less so by my readers, as it shall be very brief, and may be useful to the class of travellers to which I belonged — pedestrians. First then of the costume. I had on the universal blue shirt (vulg. Fr. blouze) worn by the common men of the country, over a short shooting jacket, and a French cap formed of B GRAVELINES. woven horse-hair ; (by-the-bye there is no better head gear than this sort of covering).

A light knapsack, containing a change of linen, or rather of cotton, for I wore only striped shirts of that material, a shaving pouch, a pair of spare boots, a telescope, a map, and a short coat of Mac intosh's india rubber cloth, was strapped on my back. I never used stick nor staff from the beginning to the end of my journey. So much for my equipment. The motives of this excur sion were pleasure and instruction. I wished to see human life in an aspect under which summer tourists in these countries rarely deign to contemplate it ; and I thought no mode of accomplishing that object could be more effect ive than a complete assimilation in appearance as well as in manners to the class among whom I designed to live and move and make my observa tions. When I add to this, that a necessity for recruiting my health seconded my natural inclination to travel in that manner, I shall have said enough in explanation of the causes which led to the pedestrian saunter, or rather summer pil grimage in Belgium.

The road from Calais to Dunkirque offers little to the view, and leaves still less to description. Every body knows every inch of the ground at that part of the Cote du Nord, and I shall there- DUNKIRQUE. 3 fore hasten over it in silence now, as I did in solitude then. I arrived at Dunkirque exactly nine hours after leaving Calais, and took up my abode for the night at an auberge. I confess I felt rather tired ; but that was not to be much wondered at, seeing that long walks were somewhat novel to me for a considerable period. It is of little moment to my readers to know whether I slept soundly or not,'but it was of great moment to me at the time to enjoy a consciousness of delicious rest. There is nothing like sleep when you are thoroughly tired ; and nothing like a thorough tiring to secure the sweetest slumber: it is just such a regimen as I should like to sub ject that saucy Sybarite to, who could not rest for a crumpled rose-leaf, or sleep because each particular bud was not exactly parallel with its fellow.

Whosoever is accustomed to lie awake a-nights, need only buckle a knapsack on his back, and walk six or seven-and-twenty miles a day. I awoke betimes in the morning, greatly refreshed, without the least feeling of fatigue, or daunted at the prospect of several similar days' journeys. Before I resumed my route, I breakfasted; and I would recommend every traveller on foot to do the same, whenever he has the opportunity. My breakfast was the usual cafe au lait — of a des- DUNKIRQUE. cription only to be found in France — with a por tion of excellent brandy in it. Perhaps I may as well observe, that there is no breakfast known which can compete with a due mixture of these liquids, for a pedestrian, with the usual accompa ment of bread and butter — they should never try any other, unless, indeed, particular habits neces sitate them to a particular diet; though, I much question, whether any ill habit of stomach may not be overcome by the healthful exercise of con tinuous walking.

One thing is certain, in my own case, that I left England with a deranged digestion, and that I carried ill-health of that des cription, for a short while along with me; but a perseverance in my plan, and a temperate indul gence of nature's cravings soon compelled me (I might almost say) to soundness of stomach and indifference to the quality of my food, so it was cleanly and of a nutritive nature; and I was enabled to extend my walks to a length unknown to me before, and which I conceived impossible for me to have accomplished. There is no breakfast on which a man can walk twenty or thirty miles without fatigue of body or exhaustion of mind, but this. I have tried meat and eggs with it ; but I felt heavy : I have tried coffee alone, but I felt weary in spirit before half DUNKIRQUE. 5 my day's journey was done.

I have tried every form of breakfast, bread and beer, bread and wine, bread and grapes, bread and pears, bread and brandy solus, even, but I never found any thing equal to the combination of good brandy and good coffee. If I were a poet I would write an ode on it : as I am not, I can only recommend it in plain prose ; and I do so honestly to all who like me are pedestrians from choice or compulsion, and who, moreover, have little chance as I had, of associating with fair ladies in the forenoon. After I had finished my breakfast, I shouldered my knapsack and marched out of Dunkirque on my way to Fumes, the frontier town of Belgium. The road lay along the banks of the great canal, which connects the former of these two towns with Bruges. It is a noble work, that canal with its deep still waters running a distance of forty miles and upwards into the country, almost without the intervention of a single lock or sluice.

There was never a truer observation than that of our immutable Shakspeare, that we may find, if we are so disposed — " good in every thing." This splendid canal was constructed under the auspices of the tyrant, the bigot, and the sanguinary Philip the Second, while he held the DUNKIRQUE. regency of the Netherlands, during the lifetime of his father, Charles the Fifth. His own engineer surveyed and planned it; and his countenance and encouragement were afforded in every stage of the undertaking. I do not believe and cannot learn that he afforded any thing else ; I think I have read that the municipalities of West Flanders, especially that of Bruges, bore the entire expense, which was defrayed by a loan on a mortgage of the tolls ; but still the drift of the statement is the same as Shakspeare's observation, the old proverb, and my argument, id est, " The devil is not so black as he is painted."

I have said the canal is a noble and a splendid work, and in saying so I have stated only the strict fact : I wish I could say as much for the high road from France into Flanders which runs along its southern bank. The comforts of that numerous class of human beings called the poor, among whom a proportion of at least ninety-nine hundredths of those who walk afoot are to be found, I have rarely known much attended to in any country ; but, as far as pedestrianism is concerned, I never knew less attention paid to them than by the local authorities in charge of this line. Such a road can only be matched in Caffraria, New Zealand, or some such savage DUNKIRQUE. 7 unreclaimed country. Let me do it justice, however, bad though it be : about two miles outside of Dunkirque, and about an equal space midway between Fumes and the French frontier, are well laid down and neatly gravelled.

It is true that there is very little land-carriage over il; the canal supersedes that: but there is a con siderable intercourse of pedestrians between the two kingdoms, and are their comforts and accom modation to count as nought in the improvements of a country ? When I inform my readers that it is a quagmire of several feet deep in some places, of a foot and upwards in all, during rainy weather, and that it is a miniature Zahara, a complete desert of loose, impassable sand in dry seasons, I shall have conveyed to them the most accurate idea which I can derive from com parison. It is a disgrace to both countries : and the plea of its passing over frontier land neither mitigates nor effaces the enormity to either. I arrived at Fumes in due time ; and in pursuance of my plan fixed my head quarters there for a few days.

During that time I saw every thing accessible to me in the town and the surrounding country, and prepared myself by observation and attention for the interior of Flanders and its sin gular and celebrated population. FURNES. Fumes, Veurnes,or Veurne as it is variously written, was one of the five ancient Flemish free vice counties; and is as I have already stated, seated on the canal which connects Bruges with Dun kirque, not quite midway between both. It is neither large nor handsome ; nor is it now a fortress, as most frontier towns are, and as almost every other town in Flanders is : yet the possession of it has been matter of bloody debate for centuries. In the year 1297, Philip of France defeated the Flemings here with great slaughter. It was thrice taken by the French prior to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1688.

By the second article of that treaty it was solemnly ceded to them, and immediately annexed to the department of the Lys. In 1692, exactly four years after this event, they abandoned it, from what cause does not exactly appear ; and it was subsequently occupied by the allies, and strongly fortified by them. The French, however, soon changed their minds respecting it; and in the December of 1692 laid seige to it again. The Marquis de Bouffleurs, Marechal de France, commanded the besieging army, and the Comte de Homes, general of the Dutch artillery governed the town. The troops under the former are said to have been very numerous, they are variously stated at 20,000 and 30,000 men, completely appointed — FURNES. 9 while the garrison consisted only of 4000 of the allied forces. When we consider, however, the nature of the ground and the security which the strong fortifications afforded the latter, we must on a fair review of the circumstances, conclude that the disproportion between them and the besiegers, if any existed, was not so great as the casual enumeration of each would lead us to infer.

I believe that some unaccountable negligence in furnishing the place with munitions and provisions was the cause of its surrender, almost without a blow. On the 5th of January, 1693, the commandant capitulated, before the first battery had been opened against it : and the whole garrison was sent into France prisoners of war. It was retained some time by the French, and subsequently again relinquished by them and occupied by the allies. In 1748 it sustained another siege, and once more capitulated. Its history from that period until 1792 is involved in local and general obscurity. At the outbreak of the revolutionary war in that year it was, as a frontier town, naturally one of the first attacked by the French armies. It offered no resistance to their victorious progress. Again it was abandoned by them, and again taken by storm under the command of Pichegru, in 1794.

That year the fortifications were entirely demolished; and b5 FURNES. it was reduced to the open, undefended state in which it has continued up to the present time. In the " settlement" of 1817, it was separated from the French empire and annexed to the newly created kingdom of the Netherlands, and in the late revolution of 1830 it was one of the places which declared for independence. It is now part and parcel of the kingdom of Belgium. So much for the fortune at war of Fumes. There is not much to gratify or detain the curiosity of the traveller in Furnes. It has four churches, but they contain nothing of note in those departments of art which have so much contributed to enrich the sacred edifices of Flanders — I mean painting and sculpture in wood. One of them, St. Walburga, is large for the size of the town, and is a good specimen of the miniature gothic style ; the others, with the exception of that of St. Nicholas, which has a very high and very graceless spire, are of as ordinary a character as a methodist meeting house.

The Hotel de Ville, (Stad-Huys in Flemish), is rather a handsome structure : it consists of a tall, elegant tower, with a considerable extent of build ing on each side ; and il is absolutely overladen with sculptural effigies : but compared with the other magnificent Stad-houses of the cities of this ancient and populous country it shrinks into the FURNES. 11 insignificance of a lilliputian edifice. The tower contains a tolerable chime of carillons, which play popular modern airs very sweetly but not very cor rectly, every quarter of an hour. Besides these there are no other public structures in the town ; and there are no private collections or exhibitions of any kind which I could learn any thing of within its precincts. The inhabitants, who are said to exceed three thousand in number, are actively engaged in a small trade of corn, hops, cheese and butter.

They all seem to be comfortable in circumstances ; appear fully occupied with their business; and look perfectly contented with them selves and their position in society. And they have some reason to be so, for I know of few places where a greater abundance of all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life is to be found. I have purchased myself somewhat more than two pounds of sweet, healthy bread for five cents — not quite five farthings — and fresh meat of a good quality scarcely ever exceeds an average of three pence per pound, of eighteen to twenty ounces. Fowl of every kind is proportionably cheap, and butter of a quality far superior to any made out of the south of Ireland is to be had at a rate which to an Englishman would seem next to nothing. Those of the people with whom I came into contact were polite and obliging.

I have no FURNES. reason whatever to complain in the slightest degree either of the courtesy, or kindness, or integrity of the many specimens which I have had of the Flemings and the Flemish character. A singular instance of simple egoism, which came under my observation may be mentioned as illustrative of the bonhommie of the people. In one of my rambles about the environs of the town I fell in with an aged farmer, or bauer as it is termed in the Flemish language. He understood no French, and I could speak but little Flemish, yet we managed, notwithstanding, to make out one another's meaning very sufficiently. In the course of this half pantomimic, half conversa tional intercourse, he contrived to ascertain by inquiry that I was an Englishman, and on making the discovery he immediately intimated to me that he could speak the English language.

I was pleased and surprised at this piece of intelligence, and I congratulated myself on my good fortune in fallingin with one who had the means and apparently the inclination of giving me much knowledge of many circumstances in connection with the domestic life of the peasantry of the country. But when I put his information to the test by asking him several questions to that effect in English, the only answer I could obtain from him was " Yes." A specimen of the con- FURNES. 13 versation may not be unamusing- " Are the labourers here well paid I" " Yes." " And, therefore, they are comfortable, of course?" " Yes." " But I have seen many hale, hearty, strong and active beggars of both sexes !" " Yes." " A person would suppose that, if they could obtain more comforts by working than by begging they would prefer labour I" " Yes."

" Why then do they beg?" " Yes." " I dare say they are badly treated, though perhaps well paid ?" " Yes." " How then can you term them comfortable ?" " Yes." " What do you mean by yes ? " Yes." I burst out laughing in the old man's face. It was unmannered and unkind, I admit, but the im pulse was irresistible, the conversation had assumed such a ludicrous character. " Oh, I see you mistook the extent of your knowledge of English?" " Yes." FURNES. " And in point of fact you are entirely ignorant of it, with the exception of one word?" " Yes." I smiled, and congratulated the poor old fellow on his profound erudition ; and he proudly told me in Flemish, that he had learned it all without assistance or instruction. I then set myself to acquire through another medium than English, the information which I wanted from him.

Notwithstanding the proximity of this part of Flanders to France, and notwithstanding that it was for a considerable period a portion of the French territory, there is little in common in the social character of the people of both countries. The light-hearted insouciance of the French is not to be found among the Flemings, nor the grave gaiety of the Flemings among the French. We are pleased or displeased with a people according as they appear to or recede from our own standard of habits and feelings, and therefore I shall attempt no relative comparison between these two nations, or even our own in that respect. I shall only say, that to a mind disposed to be grateful — to find " good in every thing," — which, must be ever the case with a healthy form of intellect, — the gravity of the one offers as much cause of delight as the gaiety of the other ; and the absence of ease of manner will always be FURNES. 15 amply compensated for by honesty of heart and kindliness of disposition, both of which qualities the Flemish people possess in a very eminent degree.

The personal appearance of the natives of this part of Flanders is symbolical of their souls. It is nowise remarkable on the first aspect ; but it improves much on acquaintance. Indeed I think all beauty of a relative nature. The women are comely, fair skinned, full formed, well rounded, and of tolerable proportions, but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred there is an air of ineffable good nature and sweetness of temper beaming from their soft countenances, and visible in every movement of their ample frame, fully equiva lent for the absence of those more active and striking traits which characterise their gay, sprightly, and graceful Gallic neighbours. I think they are more like English women than the natives of any other country I have as yet visited. The men are of a heavier cast of countenance and more rugged in their external aspect, as it is natural they should be ; but, in their way, they too exhibit characteristics of some of the best qualities of our nature, and their conduct does not belie their countenances.

They are invariably polite, and I never met with one who was not disposed to take some trouble to oblige me, without hope or expectation of favour or reward. Indeed as I FURNES. appeared in nowise beyond one of the lowest class in their own social scale, they could reasonably hope for neither at my hands. I have every cause to think that I was rather an object of unfeigned benevolence than of interested specu lation to the majority of those of them with whom I came in contact. I suspected it early, and I was convinced of it soon ; but, as I incurred no pecuniary obligations, and would be only indebted to them for good offices, I felt no degra dation at the position. It was a perfectly novel, and by no means an unpleasant one ; it possessed its advantages, and I availed myself of them. I did not choose to disturb the stream of their sym pathy for the poor, way-faring wanderer ; and I thus reaped the benefit of having hearts as well as hands active in my service.

Besides the commodities already enumerated, Fumes is famous for its linen cloth. It is the largest linen market in the Low Countries ; and I have seen some specimens of that indispensable article 'of dress exposed for sale in its shops, which would not have disgraced the manufactures of Coleraine, Belfast, or any others of the cele brated linen towns in the north of Ireland. The situation of the town upon a wide extent of drained marsh, must necessarily be unfavourable to health ; and notwithstanding its proximity to the ocean, FURNES. 17 it appears that such is the case. In the compa ratively small population of the place, I have calculated that the traveller sees at least a hundred times a greater number of cadaverous aspects in one day, than he sees on the ordinary surface of human life in London during a week.

Yet they seem to think lightly of their tertian fevers; and when the fit is over, they set about their business or their pleasure as if nothing had occurred to them. I have heard of eels becoming reconciled to flaying alive ; but I had no conception that the joke could have almost a personal appli cation. I never saw any of these Flemings re sume their occupations, whether of business or of pleasure, immediately after the cessation of these fever-fits, that I did not remember the story and apply to him the joke. Strangers, however, have not the same facility at recovering from it as the natives : it leaves them weak, and weary, and wasted, and appears to act altogether in a different manner on their system. Perhaps "habit hath made it unto the natives a property of easiness," or perhaps their constitutions, like those of the inhabitants of all fenny countries, "half man, half horse, and half alligator" as the Americans describe it, have been modified by nature to the conditions of the locality?

I am no physiologist, and there fore offer no opinion on the subject; but this I can DIXMUDEN. state as a fact, that no period of residence how ever lengthened can enable the stranger to treat that disease as lightly as they do, and no precau tions have as yet been found entirely efficient to avert or oppose its dangerous and deadly visita tions. Therefore Furnes, or any part of the circumjacent country, is no place to live in, if health and pleasure be the object of the stranger's visit to this portion of Flanders. The sea is about three miles distant from the town, but for all purposes of use or enjoyment it may as well be ten times that distance. There is no passable road leading to it ; and thus the resident is deprived to a considerable extent of the advantages naturally resulting from such valuable proximity.

Beyond what I have already stated, there is nothing in the town to interest any one, and as little to detain him on his route. After seeing all that was to be seen, and learning all that I could, I left Furnes for an excursion to the South, into the parts least frequented by the generality of travellers. Dixmuden, on the little river Yper, about eight miles from Furnes, in a south-easterly di rection terminated my day's walk. This town is quite as large as Furnes, and is said to contain an equal number of inhabitants. Like Furnes still more it is seated in a flat marshy country; DIXMUDEN. 19 and to increase the resemblance it is naturally, from this circumstance, fully as unhealthy. It is true the river Yper or Yperle, for it is known by both names, flows by it ; but its course is sluggish even to a greater degree than that of any of the proverbially slow streams of this land : and though its presence is not disagreeable, and its utility in enriching the soil be obvious, yet in all these points which contribute to salubrity it is inessential if not injurious.

The road from Fur nes hither is as good as those generally found in France and Flanders : that is, it is as good as the circumstances of the country admit of. A pavement of large unequal-sized stones forms the centre, and the sides are composed of loose earth, occasionally bound by a slight intermixture of sea-sand. In very hot or in very dry weather it is unpleasant walking on these stones and sands, and in wet or even damp weather it is equally so. The inequality of the blocks in the central part of the road makes the draught very severe on horses with carriages ; but single horses fare very well, as they have the same accommodation afforded them as pedestrian travellers. In fact, the sides of the road are common to man and beast, and all animals unencumbered with vehicles, or car riages are permitted to traverse every portion of it.

There is not much intercourse between this town DIXMUDEN. and the one I left : I met few passengers on the road; and for the entire length I could perceive blades of grass growing thickly between the stones which form the carriage way. Yet it is a high way from the frontiers of the kingdom to one of the largest cities within its bounds : and every body knows the populousness of Flanders. The spirit of traffic seems to sleep here, if it may be allowed to judge from these and similar appearances on the face of the country; and each farm forms its occupant's territory, and extremest limit of loco motion. That does not look like a rising or a flourishing people, where there is no circulation amidst its constituent parts ; or a progressive state of society where there is so little interchange of sentiments and so limited a transmission of ideas.

It has been reproachfully said of an unimaginative individual that he might walk "from Dan to Beer sheba and meet nothing ;" but the utterer of this taunt had never been on the road from Furnes to Dixmuden, and he knew little or nothing of the flat, fat, low land of Flanders. I would defy that " ingenious Hidalgo,"* Don Quixotte de la Man cha, the most imaginative of all travellers, ancient or modern, to find any thing worth encountering on this road. I found nothing; and have therefore * " Ingenioso Hidalgo." Such is the title given him by Cervantes, DIXMUDEN. 21 nothing to tell of. Perhaps it may be accounted for by the circumstance of this route being no post road; and there being very few houses on the way side as we see in England and in other countries. I scarcely encountered six persons during my journey, though it occupied nearly four hours in my sauntering manner of walking.