ous
treatment. A Frenchman would have danced with rage; an Englishman
would have wanted to know whose fault it was and have threatened
reprisals. But the Dutchman merely looked a little pained, a little
surprised, and in a minute or two was preparing a friendly group of
the officials of the tram which had caused the accident. I do not put
the incident forward as typical; but certainly one may travel far in
Holland without seeing exhibitions of temper. I mentioned the nation's
equability to the young Dutchman in the canal boat between Rotterdam
and Delft. "Ah!" he said, "you should go to Brabant. They fight enough
there!" I did go to Brabant, but I saw no anger or quarrelsomeness;
yet I suppose he had his reasons.

The steam-tram to Monnickendam runs on to Edam, whence one may command
both Volegdam and Purmerend. Edam is famous for its cheese, but the
traveller in Holland as a rule reserves for Alkmaar cheese market his
interest in this industry; and we will do the same. Broadly speaking
Edam sends forth the red cheeses, Alkmaar the yellow; but no hard
and fast line can be drawn. Were it not for its cheese market Edam
would be as "dead" as Monnickendam, but cheese saves it. It was once
a power and the water-gate of Amsterdam, at a time when the only way
to the Dutch capital was by the Zuyder Zee and the Y. Edam is at the
mouth of the Y, its name really being Ydam. The size of its Groote
Kerk indicates something of this past importance, for it is immense:
a Gothic building of the fourteenth century, cold and drear enough,
but a little humanised by some coloured glass from Gouda, often in
very bad condition. In the days when this church was built Edam had
twenty-five thousand inhabitants: now there are only five thousand.

It is difficult to lose the feeling of disproportion between the size
of the Dutch churches and that of the villages and congregations. The
villages are so small, the churches so vast. It is as though the
churches were built to compensate for the absence of hills. From any
one spire in Holland one must be able to see almost all the others.

The stained glass in Edam's great church has reference rather to
Holland's temporal prosperity than to religion. More interesting is
the room over the southern door, which was used first for a prison,
and later for a school, the library of which still may be seen. Edam
possesses in addition to the immense church of St. Nicholas a little
church of the Virgin, with a