CHAPTER II.

Quays of Antwerp--Peculiar mode of training young trees--The Scheldt--The flying bridge of Napoleon--Story of Van Speyk--Polder at the Tête de Flandres--Its catastrophe in 1837--Zwyndrecht--_Different professions of the Belgian saints_--Story of the curate of St. Joachim--Beveren--_St. Nicholas_--Dense population--A market--Flemish ballad-singers--Ancient drama of Flanders--Tamise--RUINOUS CONDITION OF THE COTTON TRADE _in Belgium since the revolution_--Its causes--Inability of the government to afford relief--Diminution of exports since 1833--Remarkable petition of the trade to the legislature--Remedies suggested by them--Impracticability of any commercial union with France--Or the Zoll-Verein--_Dendermonde_--Siege by the Duke of Marlborough--Description of its present state--Its manufactures--MECHLIN--Curious old city--The Archbishop Sterckx--A political prelate--Mechlin lace--Flax--The Cathedral of St. Romoald--The tower--Carillon--Immense bells--The corporation of Mechlin--_The tomb of the Bertholdi_--Van Eyck’s paintings--_Vandyke’s Crucifixion_--Superiority of Rubens in composition--_Church of Notre-Dame_--“The miraculous draught of fishes”--Favourite paintings of Rubens in the Church of St. John--Hôtel de St. Jaques. 80