rth side. It seems
to lead to a private house, but instead you find yourself in a very
beautiful little enclosure of old and quaint buildings, exquisitely
kept, each with a screen of pollarded chestnuts before it; in the midst
of which is a toy white church with a gay little spire that might have
wandered out of a fairy tale. The enclosure is called The Begijnenhof,
or Court of the Begijnen, a little sisterhood named after St. Begga,
daughter of Pipinus, Duke of Brabant,--a saint who lived at the end
of the seventh century and whose day in the Roman Catholic Calendar
is December 17.

The church was originally the church of these nuns, but when the old
religion was overthrown in Amsterdam, in 1578, it was taken from them,
although they were allowed--as happily they still are--to retain
possession of the court around it.

In 1607 the church passed into the possession of a settlement of
Scotch weavers who had been invited to Amsterdam by the merchants,
and who had made it a condition of acceptance that they should have a
conventicle of their own. It is now a resort of English church-going
visitors on Sunday.

Most of Holland's churches--as of England's--once belonged to Rome, and
it is impossible to forget their ancient ownership; but I remember no
other case where the new religion is practised, as in the Begijnenhof,
in the heart of the enemy's camp. In the very midst of the homes
of the quiet sweet Begijnen sisters are the voices of the usurping
Reformers heard in prayer and praise.

One little concession, however, was made by the appropriators of
the chapel. Until as recently as 1865 a special part of the building
the original Roman consecration of which had not been nullified was
retained by the sisterhood in which to bury their dead. The ceremony
was very impressive. Twelve of the nuns carried their dead companion
three times round the court before entering the church. But all that is
over, and now they must seek burial elsewhere, without their borders.

One may leave the Begijnenhof by the other passage into Kalverstraat,
and walking up that busy street towards the Dam, turn down the
St. Lucien Steeg, on the left, to another of Amsterdam's homes of
ancient peace--the municipal orphanage, which was once the Convent
of St. Lucien. The Dutch are exceedingly kind to their poor, and the
orphanages and almshouses (Oudemannen and Oudevrouwen houses as they
are called) are very numerous. The Municipal Orphanage of Amst