again
the suddenness with which the Dutch city ends and the Dutch country
begins. Our English towns have straggling outposts: new houses,
scaffold poles, cottages, allotments, all break the transition from
city to country; the urban gives place to suburban, and suburban to
rural, gradually, every inch being contested. But the Dutch towns--even
the great cities--end suddenly; the country begins suddenly.

In England for the most part the cow comes to the milker; but in
Holland the milker goes to the cow. His first duty is to bind the
animal's hind legs together, and then he sets his stool at his side
and begins. Anton Mauve has often painted the scene--so often that at
milking time one looks from the carriage windows at a very gallery
of Mauves. I noticed this particularly on an afternoon journey from
Amsterdam to Hilversum, between the city and Weesp, where the meadows
(cricket grounds _manques_) are flat as billiard tables.

The train later runs between great meres, some day perhaps to be
reclaimed, and then dashes into country that resembles very closely
our Government land about Woking and Bisley--the first sand and firs
that we have seen in Holland. It has an odd and unexpected appearance;
but as a matter of fact hundreds of square miles of Holland in the
south and east have this character; while there are stretches of
Dutch heather in which one can feel in Scotland.

All about Naarden and Hilversum are sanatoria, country-seats and
pleasure grounds, the softening effect of the pines upon the strong
air of the Zuyder Zee being very beneficial. Many of the heights
have towers or pavilions, some of which move the author of _Through
Noord-Holland_ to ecstasies. As thus, of the Larenberg: "The most
charming is the tower, where one can enjoy a perspective that only
rarely presents itself. We can see here the towers of Nijkerk,
Harderwijk, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Bunschoten, Amsterdam and many
others." And again, of a wood at Heideheuvel: "The perspective beauty
here formed cannot be said in words".

Hilversum is the Chislehurst of Holland--a discreet and wealthy suburb,
where business men have their villas amid the trees. It is a pleasant
spot, excellent from which to explore.

The author of _Through Noord-Holland_ thus describes Laren, which
lies a few miles from Hilversum and is reached by tram: "Surrounded by
arable land and hilly heathery it is richly provided with picturesque
spots; country-seats, villas, ordinar