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Art. X. Journal of a Horticultural Tour through some Parts of 1. Flanders, Holland, and the North of France, in the Autumn of 1817 By a Deputation of the Caledonian Horticultural So ciety. 8vo. pp. xvi., 536. Price 16s. Edinburgh, 1823.

A GARDENER'S tour in search of not the picturesque,

but other objects of taste; the esculent and the aromatic, flowers and fruit! Surely, here we have completely real ised, the omni tulit punctum. We have had botanical travels, agricultural travels, geological travels, classical travels, and why not a horticultural tour? The foreigner who should come to visit England, and return without seeing Kew Gardens and Covent Garden market, would have missed two of the fairest sights the neighbourhood of the metropolis affords. Her gar dens are the pride of England, as her gardeners are the boast of Scotland; and when the two meet together, a good English garden and an intelligent Scotch gardener, neither the land of tulips, nor the vine-covered hills of France, can match with Britain in these productions of Art.

We have been not a little entertained in accompanying our worthy Horticulturist on his continental tour. He takes us out of the dusty high road, spreads flowers in our path, and' makes us feel at home with Nature, the universal mother, where every thing else is foreign. Instead of dry catalogues of Guido's, and Correggio's, and Canova's, he leads us through gallery after gallery of beauties that mock the rivalry of Titian's colouring, and not seldom makes our mouth water at the description.

-To those readers who have a garden of their own, in which they can pursue what Cowley styles the pleasantest work of human industry,' and who have

& diw bon In books and gardens placed aright odt 3 batorTheir noble, innocent delight,'

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this volume will be highly acceptable. For the benefit of others, we shall endeavour to glean from the Author's pages a few matters of more general, if not higher interest.,

The Deputation landed at Ostend, and proceeded to Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp. The latter city was once distinguished for its gardens, but all its botanists and florists have passed away. All the large trees round the city were felled by order of Carnot, in 1814, but great numbers of young ones have since been planted; and Mr. Neill remarks, that the inhabitants of this part of the Continent undoubtedly excel us in attention to arboraceous decoration.' In the Low Countries, we are told, different kinds of forest trees, particularly elm and

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ash, are trained in a particular way in the nurseries, with the view of being planted on the sides of streets or by the highways. We cannot forbear expressing the wish that this formed part of our improved system of road-making. But Mr. M'Adam is no friend to trees by the road-side, his principles leading him to decline the shade. The same kind of taste' that leads the worthy Antwerpers to rear trees on the margin of their quays, induces them also to train vines and ornamental shrubs along the front of their houses in the streets. One ancient vine, described by Mr. Neill, extended its two main horizontal branches about thirty feet in each direction, while some of the vertical branches reached to the eaves of the roof, a height of from 30 to 40 feet. The only newspaper which Antwerp affords, is the Journal constitutionel, commerciel, et litteraire de la Province d'Anvers.'

It comes forth daily, but consists only of a small folio sheet, which does not contain as much matter as one page of our common English newspapers. Each publication seldom displays more than a dozen of advertisements. The articles of news are always written in French; the advertisements frequently in Flemish. This Antwerp Journal, in what may be called its leading article, constantly evinces the greatest antipathy to Britain. In this way, it contrives to give vent to the regret felt for the overthrow of Bonaparte; an event which, notwithstanding his arbitrary measures, seems to be very generally deplored by the Brabantines.' p. 113.

The theatre was open, and the play-bills announced a new piece under the title of La Femme à vendre, ou le Marche Ecossais,' the author supposing Smithfield to be in Scotland! Judging from external appearances, Mr. Neill says, superstition is more prevalent here than even at Ghent,

The corner of almost every street presents a Madonna and Child, the former generally with a dress of glaring colours, and with a gilded glory round the head. These figures are not erected at the public expense, but result from the piety or the repentance of individuals, who appropriate sums of money for these purposes. It is somewhat strange, that they were all swept from the streets by Bonaparte, and have been restored since the accession of the present Protestant King of the Netherlands. Within an inclosure not far from the church of St. Calvary, there is a very extraordinary groupe of figures as large as life: the subject is the crucifixion, and the cross rises more than twenty feet high. The design and the workmanship appear to be good; but the effect on our mind was too painful to permit us to examine the thing as a work of art. One of us entering the cathedral this afternoon, witnessed the vesper service, and the celebration of mass at one of the side altars. Here, for the first time, were to be seen a few well-dressed females; for so much do the reVOL. XXII. N.S.

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mains of Spanish customs still regulate the practice of the Antwer pians, that it is unusual for ladies to appear in the streets, or even on the Penipierre, or principal promenade.' p. 111.

In proceeding through this land of meadows an dwaters!" the Travellers made inquiry after the storks, who visit Holland' in the breeding season. They found that the great flock had taken its departure about ten days before; that is, about the middle of August.

"We observed several of their nests, set like wicker baskets on the roofs of the dwelling-houses; and we had the good fortune to see one solitary dam still covering her brood, on account probably of the young one not having been sufficiently fledged to enable it to accompany the main body. We persuaded the conductor to allow us to get out of the carriage, and examine this rarity. The bird shewed no sort of alarm, the ooyevaar (as our Dutch friends called it ) being privileged in Holland. In many places, where a new house is built, a nest-box is erected on the gable, or on the ridge of the roof, partly to invite the bird to make a settlement, and partly, perhaps, to save the thatch of the roof, in case it should come without invitation. Previously to the great migration, the storks assemble in large groupes, and make an unusual noise It is known that they winter chiefly in Egypt Pope has finely alluded to this remarkable instinct:

Who calls the council, states the certain day? "Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?”. In the beginning of May, they return, like swallows, to their former haunts, the old birds carefully seeking out their accustomed nests. Sometimes, though rarely, a stray stork crosses the Channel, and is seen on the English coast. It is there incessantly persecuted. It commonly perches on the roof of some thatched farm-house, where. it's experience leads it to hope for protection; but it is not the dwelling of a quiet Dutch boor: some pseudo sportsman of a farmer shoots the poor bird while at roost. pp. 117, 18

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Among the Dutch, the stork appears to be held almost as sacred as by the Mahommedans. At the Hague, four tame storks were seen stalking up and down in the fish market. where a small house resembling a dog's kennel is appropriated to their use. They were in full plumage, and did not appear to have been pinioned, so as to disable them from flying. A solistork was seen stalking in a marshy meadow near Haarlem, and the Travellers were told, that a few ooyevaars generally Spend the winter in that neighbourhood. How comes it that the Batavian poets do not appear to have noticed this social and picturesque bird?

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At Rotterdam, to which the Deputation proceeded from Antwerp, there are now no nurseries of any note; the fruitshops are few and ill-supplied; and in the book-shops, they

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were unsuccessful in procuring any work whatever on the gardening of Holland. They were told, that no publication on any branch of horticulture had of late years issued from the Dutch press. The Tulipomania, too, has completely passed away, although this gorgeous flower is still the favourite of the Hollanders; and at Haarlem, no little attention is given to their cultivation. But there is no longer any occasion for a sump-> tuary law limiting the price of tulip-roots. The general price of choice bulbs now varies, we are told, from about 5s. to 17s. a few kinds are valued at from 16s. to 33s.; and the most select new, and consequently rare varieties, seldom fetch more than from 30s. to 80s. The principal florists have their favourite breeders, and private lists are yearly published, in which it not unfrequently happens that the same variety of tulip or hyacinth receives different appellations.

The heterogeneous nomenclature thus produced,' adds Mr. Neill," "is amusing for its pomposity, and for the ingenuity with which it is contrived to catch the notice of the great, or to flatter the prejudices of foreigners. The Soverein van de Nederlanden is now brought forward as a finer flower than the Koning van Holland; and La Reine Hortense is this year superseded by la Duchesse de Berri. A loyal Englishman is supplied with Georgius Tertius of several different colours, or with Guillaume Pitt or Mynheer Fox, as he may incline; while General Washington and Mynheer Franklin are at the service of those who come from the other side of the Atlantic.?

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P. 198.

The bronze statue of Erasmus at Rotterdam is described as still producing an imposing effect, but, in its present state, it does no credit to either the taste, the feeling, or even the cleanliness of Mynheers the Rotterdammers. The work has been disfigured by some ignorant painter, who has passed his un hallowed brush over the bronze;' and while the inhabitants are scrupulously nice in keeping the streets opposite to their own doors perfectly clean, they suffer the space around the 'pedestal of this fine statue to be contaminated in the most offensive manner." We suppose that it is nobody's business to see to it. The trees of Rotterdam are of venerable aspect: the quays are adorned with elms and limes of more than a century's standing. They are generally about fifty feet high, with boles extending nearly to half of their height. With the exception of Yarmouth,' remarks Mr. Neill, scarcely any of our British ports possess trees on their quays; and whoever has seen the trees on the quays at Yarmouth, will admit that highly ornamental.'-Nothing is more characteristic of a na tion than its amusements. While the Author was at Rotter lar, he went one evening to visit the Schouwburg.

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The inscription on this place of amusement struck us as peculiarly characteristic of a plodding commercial people: Door yoer vrugt vaar, Through diligence riches. Certainly no where but in Rotter dam would such a motto be considered as appropriate to a theatre,'

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At Ley den, our Travellers found little to interest them, except the old Botanic garden of Clusius and Boerhaave, which does not greatly exceed two English acres. The greatest curiosity in it, is the palm of Clusius,' which is more than 220 years old, as Clusius undertook the direction of the Leyden garden in 1592, and died in 1609. Under his bust is the following elegant compliment:

Non potuit plures hîc quærere Clusius herbas,
Ergo novas campis quærit in Elysiis?

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A very remarkable flowering ash, grafted on a common ash stock, it is said, by Boerhaave himself, was another object of peculiar interest to our Horticulturists. At Leyden, the once majestic Rhine, greatly diminished in size, is literally lost among the numerous canals, no branch of it entering the sea under that name. The high street, the fine effect of which is intereased by the curvature of its line, reminded the Travellers of Foregate-street at Worcester.

To the praise of the English town,' they say, it may be added, that, in neatness and cleanliness, it is not surpassed by its Dutch rival; and it must be admitted, that the Severn at Worcester is a much finer river than the Rhine at Leyden.'

At Amsterdam, the chief object of interest, next to the Botanic Garden and the Green Market, is the Stadt-house. No Ivisitant, Mr. Neill says, will ever find his expectations balked, Lor complain of exaggerated descriptions of this noble buildIng.

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13 The difficulty of forming a sufficiently sure foundation' (in the [ midst of a salt-marsh) for so massive a structare, must have been inconceivably great; and the distance from which all the materials had to be brought, must have vastly swelled the expense. This Igrand building was well calculated to convey to the mind of a stranger dan exalted idea of the wealth and public spirit of the merchants of Amsterdam. But the glory has departed: this splendid edifice is no longer the Stadt-house of the Batavian Republic, but a palace of the King of the Netherlands. It was usurped by King Louis; and possession is retained by the present Royal Family. At the restoration in 1814, it was, in due form, offered back to the city; but little faith, we are given to understand, was placed in the sincerity of the tender; and the burghers and merchants of this emporium of commerce, after rearing a public edifice which has been classed among the wonders of the world, are now content to hold their municipal

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