al figure of a Dutchman, who came also
to see the wonders. Nothing could exceed his attitudes as he looked with
an eye of incredulity whilst they explained a planetarium, examined with
an air of conscious safety a snake corked up in a bottle, and ogled with
terror a skeleton which grinned at him out of his case. I walked round
and tried his perspective in all directions, and rather blushed when,
with treacherous condescension, I requested him to use my Glass that I
might see how he looked peeping thro' a Telescope. This is such a Museum
as will furnish me with samples of oddities for the rest of my life.

LETTER XIV.

_August_ 6, 1814.

Luckily we have a commodious cabin in the _Trechschuyt_, and no smoke or
other intruders, so where I finished my last I will begin another.

[Illustration: TABLE D'HOTE, AMSTERDAM.

_To face page 226._]

As to the country, a peep once an hour will be sufficient; I will look
out of the window and give you the result--five plover, a few fat cows,
a good many rushes, and a canal bridge. At Amsterdam we dined at a
regular Dutch table d'hote; about 20 people, all of them eaters, few
talkers; the quantity of vegetables consumed was quite surprising. With
the last dish a boy came round with pipes and hot coals, which were soon
followed by a tremendous explosion of Tobacco from a double line of
smokers, and as if the simple operation of puffing in and puffing out
was too much for these drowsy operators, many of them leaned back in
their chairs, put their hands in their breeches pockets, shut their
eyes, and carried on the war with one end of the pipe in their mouths
and the other leaning on their plates. On Wednesday, Aug. 3rd, we
crossed the Gulf by sun rise on a little tour into North Holland, to see
the Village of Brock and Saardam, where the house in which the Czar
Peter worked still exists. We landed at Buiksloot, from whence carriages
are hired to different parts of the country. From Breda to Amsterdam
they varied the Diligences according to the number of travellers;
sometimes we had a coach and four, and then a machine and three, and as
our number diminished we were forwarded the last stage or two in a
vehicle perfectly nondescript with two horses; it was a sort of cart
painted white, hung upon springs, with an awning, but it was reserved
for this morning to see us in a carriage far beyond anything before seen
or heard of. I am inclined to think it must have been the identical
eq