CHAPTER I.

OSTEND, the Harbour--Canal Docks--Police--Economy of a private carriage for a party on the continent--General aspect of Ostend--Effluvia--Siege in 1604--Fortifications--Promenade--Sands and sea-bathing--Commerce--BRUGES, the railroad--Belgium naturally suited to railroads--Old canal travelling to Bruges superseded--Appearance of the city--Its style of ancient houses--The streets--Canals and gardens--Squares--Style of public edifices--Resembles Pisa--_Ancient history of Bruges_--Its old palaces--Marriages of Charles the Rash and Mary of Burgundy--Singular marriage custom of the middle ages--House in which the Emperor Maximilian was confined--Residences of Edward IV. of England, and of Charles II.--_Commercial greatness of Bruges_--The Hanseatic League--Her tapestries--The order of the Golden Fleece instituted in her honour--Saying of the Queen of Philip the Fair--Story of the Burghers at the court of John of France--_Her present decay_--Air of reduced nobility--Costume of the middle classes--Grave demeanour of the citizens--No traces of the Spaniards to be found in the Low Countries--_Flemish sculptures in wood_--Pictures--No modern paintings in Bruges--_Collection in the Church of St. Sauveur_--Characteristics of the early Flemish school--The paintings in _the Museum_--Statue of Van Eyck--His claim to be the inventor of oil painting--_Collection in the Chapel of the Hospital of St. John_--Story of Hans Memling--The cabinet of St. Ursula--The folding-doors of the Flemish paintings--The Hospital of St. John--Statue by Michael Angelo--TOMBS OF MARY OF BURGUNDY AND CHARLES THE RASH--The tower of Les Halles--Carillon--Splendid view--The _Palais de Justice_--Superb carved mantel-piece--_Hotel de Ville_--Its statues destroyed by the French revolutionists--Diamond setters--Comparison of Bruges and Tyre--Mr. Murray’s hand-books--The manufacture of lace in Belgium. 1