e mud and paused. "Shall I go? or
shall I not go?" Luckily it preferred the latter, and returned to its
position on 4 wheels instead of 2.

E. STANLEY.

_Mrs. E. Stanley to Lady Maria Stanley._

And now to return to what pleased me first: Bruges--where I first felt
myself completely out of England. The buildings were so entirely unlike
any I have seen before that I could have fancied myself rather walking
amongst pictures than houses. The winding streets are so interesting
when you do not know what new sight a new turn will present; especially
when, as in this case, the new sight was so satisfactory every time.
Ghent is a much finer town but not near so picturesque; but we were
fortunate in falling in here with a fine Catholic procession. We went to
the top of the Cathedral, and as we were coming down the great bell
tolled and announced the procession had begun. We almost broke our necks
in our hurry to get a peep, and we did arrive at a loop-hole in time to
see the whole mass of priests and procession in slow motion down the
great aisle and to hear their chant. It was very fine indeed, tho' to
our heretical feelings the interest lies as much in the romantic
associations connected with all the Roman Catholic ceremonies as in
anything better. It is not in human nature not to feel more devotion in
the imposing solemnity of such a church. The "Descents from the Cross"
were just put up, and with the organ playing and mass going on, and the
number of female figures with their black scarfs over their heads
kneeling on chairs in different parts of the Cathedral, we saw them to
greater advantage than surrounded by French bonnets and other pictures
in the Louvre. They are quite different to any Rubens I ever saw before;
the colouring so much deeper and the figures so superior.

But no one should be allowed to enter that Cathedral without the black
scarf, which makes a young face look pretty and an old one picturesque;
and there were several common people gazing at the picture with as much
admiration and adoration painted on their faces as there probably was
on ours.

[Illustration: _Church of St. Nicholas, Ghent June 16, 1816._

_To face p. 274._]

At Brussels there were more pictures from the Louvre, but the Brutes had
packed up the Rubens without any covering or precaution whatever, and
there they are with a hole thro' one, and the other covered with mildew
and stains from rain and dirt. From Ghent we travelled in tw