CHAPTER IV.

The market-day at Ghent--The peasants--The linen-market--The Book-stalls--_Courtrai_--The Lys--_Denys_--Distillation in Belgium--AGRICULTURE IN FLANDERS--A Flemish farm--Anecdote of Chaptal and Napoleon--Trade in manure--_The Smoor-Hoop_--Rotation of crops--CULTIVATION OF FLAX--Real importance of the crop in Belgium--Disadvantageous position of Great Britain as regards the growth of flax--State of her importations from abroad and her dependency upon Belgium--In the power of Great Britain to relieve herself effectually--System in Flanders--_The seed_--Singular fact as to the Dutch seed--Rotation of crops--Spade labour--Extraordinary care and precaution in _weeding_--_Pulling_--THE ROUISSAGE--In Hainault--In the Pays de Waes--At Courtrai--The process in Holland--The process in the Lys--_A Bleach-green_--The damask manufacture in Belgium--A manufactory in a windmill--Introduction of the use of _sabots_ into Ireland--_Courtrai_, the town--Antiquities--The Church of Notre Dame--Relic of Thomas à Becket--THE MAISON DE FORCE AT GHENT--The System of prison discipline--Labour of the inmates--Their earnings--Remarkable story of Pierre Joseph Soëte--Melancholy case of an English prisoner--_A sugar refinery_--State of the trade in Belgium--Curious frauds committed under the recent law--_Beet-root sugar_--Failure of the manufacture--A tumult at Ghent--_The New Theatre_--Cultivation of music at Ghent--Print works of M. Desmet de Naeyer--Effects of the Revolution of 1830 upon the manufactures of Belgium--Opposition of Ghent and Antwerp to a separation from Holland--M. Briavionne’s exposé of the ruin of the trade in calico printing--Smuggling across the frontiers--Present discontents at Ghent--Number of insolvents in 1839--General decline of her manufactures. 128