t might be in Kensington; and here is
the Antiquarian Museum, notable among its very miscellaneous riches,
which resemble the bankrupt stock of a curiosity dealer, for the most
elaborate dolls' house in Holland--perhaps in the world. Its date is
1680, and it represents accurately the home of a wealthy aristocratic
doll of that day. Nothing was forgotten by the designer of this
miniature palace; special paintings, very nude, were made for its
salon, and the humblest kitchen utensils are not missing. I thought
the most interesting rooms the office where the Major Domo sits at
his intricate labours, and the store closet. The museum has many
very valuable treasures, but so many poor pictures and articles--all
presents or legacies--that one feels that it must be the rule to
accept whatever is offered, without any scrutiny of the horse's teeth.

Chapter IV

Delft

To Delft by canal--House-cleaning by immersion--The New
Church--William the Silent's tomb--His assassin--The story
of the crime--The tomb of Grotius--Dutch justice--The
Old Church--Admiral Tromp--The mission of the broom--The
sexton's pipe--Vermeer of Delft--Lost masterpieces--The wooden
petticoat--Modern Delft pottery and old breweries.

I travelled to Delft from Rotterdam in a little steam passenger barge,
very long and narrow to fit it for navigating the locks; which,
as it is, it scrapes. We should have started exactly at the hour
were it not that a very small boy on the bank interrupted one of the
crew who was unmooring the boat by asking for a light for his cigar,
and the transaction delayed us a minute.

It rained dismally, and I sat in the stuffy cabin, either peering at
the country through the window or talking with a young Dutchman,
the only other traveller. At one village a boy was engaged in
house-cleaning by immersing the furniture, piece by piece, bodily
in the canal. Now and then we met a barge in full sail on its way to
Rotterdam, or overtook one being towed towards Delft, the man at the
rope bent double under what looked like an impossible task.

Little guides to the tombs in both the Old and the New Church of Delft
have been prepared for the convenience of visitors by Dr. G. Morre, and
translations in English have been made by D. Goslings, both gentlemen,
I presume, being local savants. The New Church contains the more
honoured dust, for there repose not only William the Silent, who was
perhaps the greatest of mo