des, where we saw some beautiful goods
exposed for sale, and again examined some lacework. You will smile at
the idea of pocket handkerchiefs which cost from one hundred to one
thousand dollars each. The embroidery of letters upon lacework is
costly; and we saw single letters which had required a week's work.

We like this city, and, if time allowed us, should certainly pass a week
here. I should not forget to say that we saw the king in the Park, near
to his palace. He looks like a man of fifty-five, and, I thought, had a
melancholy air.

Yours,

JAMES.

Letter 34.

ANTWERP.

DEAR CHARLEY:--

In company still with our friends from Bristol on a wedding tour, we
took the rail for Antwerp. The arrangements of the railroad in Belgium
seem to me as perfect as they can be made. All is order, civility, and
comfort. On starting for this place, we had the curiosity to inquire as
to the number of passengers, and found thirteen first class, seventy-one
second class, and one hundred and three third class. The road we took
lay through a level country, but cultivated to a great degree; and the
produce was chiefly clover, beans, potatoes, grain, and turnips. On
leaving Brussels, we noticed the fine botanical gardens on our right,
and the Allee Verte, a noble avenue of trees which reaches to Laeken, a
pretty village, dating as far back as the seventh century, and
containing a fine palace, where Leopold frequently resides. Napoleon
once occupied this palace, and here it is said that he planned his
Russian campaign. The park is spacious, and the village has a celebrated
cemetery; and here Madame Malibran reposes. The first stopping-place is
at about six miles from Brussels, at Vilvorde--a very ancient town,
having a population of not quite three thousand. It is known in history
as Filfurdum, and was a place of some consequence in 760. It was here
that Tindal, who was the first translator of the New Testament into
English, suffered martyrdom, in 1536, being burnt as a heretic. The
Testament was a 12mo. edition. It was published in 1526, and probably
was printed at Antwerp, where he then resided. Fifteen hundred copies
were printed, and they were mostly bought up by Bishop Tonstall, and
destroyed. The only copy known to exist is in the library of the Baptist
College at Bristol. This copy belonged to Lord Oxford, and he valued the
acquisition so highly that he settled twenty pounds a year upon the
person who obtained it