good.

Bruges' sights are similar to those of Ghent, except that its belfry
is more splendid and more famous and the Memlings of the Hopital St.
Jean draw crowds of art lovers to Bruges who never even stop at
Ghent.

Our little run around Belgium, a sort of willy-nilly blowing about by
the North Sea winds, drew us next to Ostende. If there is one place
more splendidly _chic_ than Ostende it is Monte Carlo. The palm is
still with Monte Carlo, but, for August at any rate, Ostende, with
its Digue, its hotels and terrace cafes and restaurants, is the very
glass of fashion and fashionables.

It was only on entering Ostende, over the last few kilometres of the
road from Bruges, just where it borders the Slykens Canal, that we
met anything deserving to be called a good road since leaving the
neighbourhood of Namur. The roads of Belgium served a former
generation very well, but _tempus fugit_, and the world advances, and
really Belgium's highways are a disgrace to the country.

The chief attraction of Ostende--after the great hotels--is its
Digue, or Dyke, a great longdrawn-out breakwater against whose
cemented walls pound the furies of the North Sea with such a
virulence and force as to make one seasick even on land. "See our
Digue and die," say the fisherfolk of Ostende,--those that have not
been crowded out by the palace hotels,--"See our Digue and eat our
oysters."

Ostende is attractive, save on the August bank holiday, when the
trippers come from London; then it looks like Margate or Southend so
far as its crowds are concerned, and accordingly is frightful.

One should not leave Belgium without visiting Ypres, that is if he
wants to know what a highly respectable and thriving small city of
Belgium is like.

Ypres is typical of the best, though unfortunately, by whichever road
you approach, you still make your way over granite blocks, none too
well laid or cared for. The best and almost only way to avoid them is
to take to the by-roads and trust to finding your way about. This is
not difficult with the excellent map of the Automobile Club de
Belgique, but it requires some ingenuity to understand the native who
answers your inquiry in bad French and worse Walloon or Flemish.

At Ypres the Hotel de la Chatellenie will care for you and your
automobile very well, though its garage is nothing to boast of. Both
meals and beds are good, and the rates are cheap, something less than
nine francs a day for birds of passag