94

THE STEIGER, ROTTERDAM 110

THE STATUE OF TOLLENS 126

NEAR THE ARSENAL, DELFT 134

MONUMENT OF ADMIRAL VAN TROMP 140

STAIRWAY WHERE WILLIAM THE SILENT WAS ASSASSINATED
IN THE PRINSENHOF, DELFT 150

REFECTORY OF THE CONVENT OF ST. AGATHA, DELFT 156

OLD DELFT 166

ON THE CANAL NEAR DELFT 174

THE BINNENHOF, THE HAGUE 184

PAUL POTTER'S BULL 198

ON THE ROAD TO SCHEVENINGEN 214

FISHERMAN'S CHILDREN, SCHEVENINGEN 228

THE MAIN DRIVE IN THE BOSCH, THE HAGUE 246

THE VYVER, THE HAGUE 262

HOLLAND.

One who looks for the first time at a large map of Holland must be
amazed to think that a country so made can exist. At first sight, it
is impossible to say whether land or water predominates, and whether
Holland belongs to the continent or to the sea. Its jagged and narrow
coast-line, its deep bays and wide rivers, which seem to have lost the
outer semblance of rivers and to be carrying fresh seas to the sea;
and that sea itself, as if transformed to a river, penetrating far
into the land, and breaking it up into archipelagoes; the lakes and
vast marshes, the canals crossing each other everywhere,--all leave an
impression that a country so broken up must disintegrate and
disappear. It would be pronounced a fit home for only beavers and
seals, and surely its inhabitants, although of a race so bold as to
dwell there, ought never to lie down in peace.

When I first looked at a large map of Holland these thoughts crowded
into my mind, and I felt a great desire to know something about the
formation of this singular country; and as what I learned impelled me
to make a book, I write it now in the hope that I may lead others to
read it.

Those who do not know a country usually ask travellers, "What sort of
place is it?"

Many have told briefly what kind of country Holland is.

Napoleon said: "It is an alluvium of French rivers, the Rhine, the
Scheldt, and the Meuse," and under this pretext he annexed it to the
Empire. One writer defined it as a sort of transition between the
earth and the