14 MAY 1836, Page 17

ST. GEORGE'S SAUNTER IN BELGIUM.

APPARENTLY well-versed in the early history and topography of the Low Countries, Mr. GEORGE ST. GEORGE devoted a consider- able part of last summer to a pedestrian saunter through Belgium. Starting from Calais one fine morning in June, equipped in a shooting-jacket, a woven horse-hair cap, the national blue shirt, and a knapsack on his back containing a few indispensable neces- saries for a traveller, he pretty well threaded Flanders on foot. His plan of exploration was to make the chief city of a district his head-quarters, thoroughly exhaust it, and then ramble to the circumjacent towns and villages. His lodgings on his tour were befitting his assumed character, and were taken up in the hum- blest auberges ; where he seems to have fared well, and at a start- ling cheapness. The casual companions he met were of course the humbler classes; of whose good temper, politeness, and social virtues, he leaves a gratifying impression. His accounts of the curiosities to be seen are minute and even learned, especially of those relating to history and commerce rather than to the arts; his descriptions of the country are clear, and his sketches of per- sons characteristic. The appearances of the present, or the visible monuments ot' the past, do not, however, satisfy Mr. ST. GEORGE. He gives his reader an historical account of every place he visits; commencing with its reputed foundation, and noting the various fortunes it underwent during the middle and later ages, as well as enumerating the eminent men it produced. For the traveller who really wishes to profit by a trip to Belgium, this is a very useful feature in the volume ; as it collects into one focus a good many curious particulars, which few know where to look fur, if they could even spare the time. The person who merely wishes to run through the country, or to read a volume of adventures by the way, may think the quaint quotations from FROISSART, and some other historical chroniclers, rather too long.

Of the few English with whom our author came in contact, he gives no very flattering account. One, a permanent settler— one of the scum of the Army of Waterloo—he describes as the greatest scoundrel he ever met ; and the anecdote he tells of him bears out the character. A few others of the lower class seem rather to be distinguished for that folly and awkwardness which John Bull generally exhibits in new circumstances, than any thing beyond it. Here are two samples of a higher kind.

ENGLISH ABROAD.

As I stood no the small mound which skirts the road-side, reading the in- scription on the monument of Sir Alexander Gordon, an English party ap- proached the spot, with apparently the same object. I am loth to confess it, but I fear it cannot be concealed, that the boorishness of Holland even is po- liteness compared with the degree of courtesy extended by well-dressed and seemingly well-circumstanced English travellers to the people of the Continent, mean the poorer classes, with whom they accidentally come into contact. I have said in the outset of this book, that I had assumed the costume of the peasantry of the country : I did not relinquish it until my return to London. As the party to which I have referred came up to the pillar, I took off my cap and bowed to them. It is a common courtesy among the Contioental people; and I had adopted it along with their habit of apparel. To my surprise and mortifi- cation, tbere were only two out of the five individuals composing the patty who acknowledged it, and these were those whom the ordinary forums of society lay under more restraints than their associates. With that natural politeness which seems so peculiar to women in all ranks, and to ladies above all others, in what- ever condition they may be placed, the females of this party, like thorough- bred ladies as they certainly were, condescended to acknowledge, by a kindly look and a graceful courtesy, the salutation of the peasant ; while the males, an old man and two great gaping-eyed young boobies, stared at me as much as to express their infinite surprise at the presumption 1 had manifested in at- tempting such an interchange of civility, and their sovereign contempt for the class to which I appeared to belong.

scums OF THE ARISTOCRACY.

I believe it is the custom of all travellers to take some refreshment at the

farm-houses of La have Sainte and La Belle Alliance ; and 1 know that it is customary with some Englishmen to get drunk on the ground. As I entered the former, fur the purpose of getting a glass of beer and a piece of bread, I en- countered two of my countrymen far advanced in a state of intoxication, rolling about the yard, quarrelling with the pigs, cursing. the people, and sparring at one another. 1 set them down as men of the ring, or of the turf, or of the swell mob—the terms are nearly synonymous. I was not wide of the mark, enough a little out of aim : they were the younger sons of twa of the oldest annlies in England, who had devoted their time and attention to fishl-sports, and who were then on a tour through Belgimu to see how steeple-chases were conducted in that country. I took especial care not to publish aloud to the people of the house that I was a native of the same country as these human brutes, who could get drunk before dinner, and call themselves gentlemen.

The following account of the cheapness of Ghent will doubtless make many stare, who do not bear in mind that our author was travelling as a foreigner and a poor man, and that he went to the humbler houses. At Antwerp, however, somewhat similar fare cost hitn two and a halt' francs per then,. At an English public- house be bud paid four and a half francs for much worse treat- ment. One of his memorandums, indeed, is always to avoid an English inn. Another is, to breakfast on bread and butter and cafe an laic, with brandy if you are going to walk. Ile has tried every other kind of breakfast, and there is nothing like it. In giving the recipe, however, he has omitted the proportions; whence we infer that the brandy is ad'libitain.

Ghent is, I should suppose, one of the cheapest and moat plentiful places to live in on the Continent of Europe. One fact is better than many assertions. I shall give the history of a day in regard to the necessaries of eating, thinking, and accommodation for the night; and I state the cost that my readers may judge for themselves. In the morning from eight to ten, was breakfast. It consisted of caft an bait and bread and butter. The coffee was set out on the table in a large brass jug—one of those vessels to be seen in every out Flemish picture, and the boiled milk in another of the saute description. There might be about a gallon of the clarified fluid in the former, the other contained per- haps half that quantity. Three or four large cakes of a sweet brownish bread, each weighing about five or six pounds', were placed at irregular inter- vals down the long tattle, and about double the number of plates of exquisite Dutch butter intervened between them. The only rule observed at this meal was '° cut and come again." It was the individual's own fault, had he the ap- petite of a famished wolf, if 1w did not satisfy it. The dinner, a much more Imposing and important meal, succeeded at two o'clock. We sat down to table, a motley group, twenty-four in number, in a spacious and really hand- some saloon. The dinner consisted of the following viands ; first, but soup and bread, which was tolerable. The fault of these people is that they only half make their soup, that they may rat the boui/k as a separate dish subse- quently. Secondly, the bouille with a delicious small greens, known, I believe, by the name of Brussels sprouts. The bourne was eatable, inasmuch as the quality of the meat which composed it was excellent. Thirdly, slices of cold corned beef, of an exquisite flavour, with asparagus and butter sauces. Fourthly, large balls of of forced meat, made principally, I believe, of veal, with a sweet sauce the composition of which I know not : excellent potatoes accompanied this course, which was altogether one that even an epicure might enjoy. Fifthly, roast veal, fillet and loin, with a fresh supply of Bruasells sprouts, asparagus, and potatoes, and a fresh sauce. Sixthly, game ! this was really delicious. Seventhly, a large tart and sweet cakes. Eighthly, pears and apples. Ninthly, bread and cheese. A pint of capital beer was the allowance with this dinner.

We dined off a very handsome service of china; had the luxury of silver forks and spoons; and were well attended. The host headed the table, and helped every one abundantly. Supper at eight o'clock closed the day. It consisted of salad—an excellent salad it was; cold boiled beef sliced, with hot potatoes; veal ragout, and beef cutlets, with excellent gravy saute; apples and pears; bread, butter, and cheese. A pint of beer was the allowance at this meal also. I never saw a greater abuudauce of eatables than was served up on these occasions: twice the quantity consumed was removed from table at each meal ; yet all the guests were young men, and most of them pedestrian travel- lers, both of which circumstances tend very much to sharpen the appetite and strengthen the digestive powers. I had a small room about ten feet square, with a large folding window, and a very good bed to myself. It is true the chamber was nut an elegant one, but it was perfectly comfortable. For all these I paid the sum of one franc and a half, somewhere about one shilling and twopence three farthings. I did not soon leave Ghent, and when I did I left it with regret. Fourteen days was the period of my stay in that pleasant city.

We will finish our extracts from this agreeable miscellany of past and present, with a part of the account of the once wealthy and potent Bruges.

Bruges is about four miles and a half in compass, and has six principal gates or entrances. The streets, of which there are two hundred and sixty, are nar- row and winding, and nine out of ten of them are as solitary as if they belonged to the petrified city in the Arabian tale. Innumerable bridges—over a hundred, I believe—cross the canals by which it is intersected in every direction. The only obvious remains of the:once enormous wealth of Bruges at present, are its public edifices and a few private dwellinghouses, which have withstood the

destructive operation of three centuries. dwellinghouses, • • •

This city is reckoned to contain forty thousand inhabitants ; of which it is computed that upwards of sixteen thousand receive aid from the public cha- rities. Yet, notwithstanding the enormous proportion of pauperism this exhi- bits, beggary, in the streets especially, is not often seen. In point of fact, the only beggars in Thaws are the few who frequent the church-doors; and these, though ragged and wretched-looking, are neither deformed nor squalid iu their appearance. That there is still some remnant of the immense wealth once possessed by Bruges remaining, I need only present a sketch of the room in which I slept during my stay there, to prove. I have said that my lodging was at an auberge; 1 may add, that it was at a very poor and little-frequented one. Yet, in the large chamber in which 1 lay, the floor was of inlaid oak, the vast chimney-piece was of richly-sculptured black marble, the old tall polished walnut4ree presses were deeply and superbly carved in grotesque, and on their summits were ranges of the largest and most magnificent Dutch china jars I ever beheld,—treasures which would snake the heart of many a noble dowager in May Fair to leap to be possessed of. A huge crucifix hung over the fireplace; and four beds, in the oldest Flemish fashion, occupied the four corners of this spacious and I may almost say splendid apartment. It looked as if nothing bad been altered in it since the sixteenth century.