the contrary, have an opposite character; they consist, in a great degree, of a rugged district of hills covered with dense forests, which still harbour the wolf and the boar, intersected by rapid streams, and abounding in really picturesque scenery, the effect of which is increased by the frequent occurrence of old feudal castles. It is but a thinly peopled district; and its inhabitants, called Walloons, are a rough and hardy race. The northern provinces are further distinguished from the southern by their language. A line, drawn nearly due E. from the river Lys, at Menin, passing a little to the S. of Brussels and Louvain to the Meuse, between Maestricht and Liége, in fact along the S. frontier of Limburg, marks the boundary of the Flemish and Walloon languages. The people living on the N. of this line speak Flemish; those on the S., Walloon, a dialect allied to the old French of the 13th century. The Walloon and French part of Belgium is full of interest to the genealogist and herald. Among works containing interesting information may be named, Histoire de la Ville et Château de Huy, &c., 1641; Chapeauville, Gesta Pontificum Leodiensium; Hennicourt, Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaie, 1673-1791; Delvaux, Dict. Géogr. et Statist. de la Province de Liége; Délices des Pays Bas; Lustre, &c. du Brabant: in Flemish. Chronyckle van Holland enz. Nederlandsche Oudtheden; Rymchronyk: Hollandse Jaarboeken. Franks and According to the census presented to the King in 1849, by the minister of the interior, the population in Belgium was 4,337,196; of which about speak French and Walloon, the other Flemish and Dutch. In the provinces, separately, there is generally a vast excess of either race and language: but the most important of all, Brabant, is an exception to this rule. Like the country in the aggregate, this province consists of Teutons, speaking their native languages. The Franks are, in general, more civilised than their neighbours. Having the immense advantage of the use of a great literary language spoken by all travellers and foreigners, they keep nearly all the shops and hotels, and consequently have a larger intercourse with the world. In Belgium every acre maintains 3 men; wealth, as in France, is pretty equally distributed. The class of employers, with their families, counts nearly a third of the whole inhabitants. The late kingdom of the Netherlands was built up of the fragments of other states, and "kept together rather by the pressure of surrounding Europe, than by any internal principles of cohesion." The Belgians differ from the Dutch in two essential points, which are quite sufficient to make them incapable of any permanent union: they are French in inclination, and Roman Catholics in religion. Their history exhibits none of those striking traits of heroic patriotism which have distinguished the Dutch annals; there is nothing marked in their characters; and though free from that dull plodding patience and cold calculation of gain which belong to their phlegmatic neighbours, they are equally devoid of the high-minded courage and ceaseless perseverance which have distinguished them. Though lovers of liberty, the Belgians have been dependent on a succession of foreign masters, Burgundian, Spanish, Austrian, or French. The mania of the Crusades having possessed with especial fervour the nobles of Flanders, they were incited to make every species of sacrifice in furtherance of their favourite purpose. Lands, political powers, and privileges were parted with, on the spur of the moment, to furnish means for their expedition. Their wealthy vassals, the burghers of Bruges, Ghent, and other great towns, were thus enabled, by their riches, to purchase their independence. They forthwith formed themselves into communes or corporations, and began to exercise the right of deliberating on their own affairs; elected bailiffs (échevins); obtained a jurisdiction of their own, and with it a great seal; and evinced their sense of these advantages by building a huge belfry, or a vast town-hall, as a trophy or temple of their liberties. But though the Flemish burghers gained their freedom from their feudal lords much sooner than most other nations, they threw away the boon by their 66 petty jealousies and quarrels among one another. To use the words of the most distinguished living British historian, Liberty never wore a more unamiable countenance than among these burghers, who abused the strength she gave them by cruelty and insolence.". - Hallam. They have suffered from their faults; their government has been subject to perpetual changes, and their country has been the scene of war for centuries: a mere arena for combat - the Cockpit of Europe. The natural consequence of so many revolutions has been a certain debasement of the national character, evinced in the lower orders by ignorance, and a coarseness of manners which will be particularly apparent to every traveller. He that would travel with the full pleasure of historical associations, should be well read in Froissart ere he visits Belgium: and when he repairs to Ghent, let him not fail to carry Henry Taylor's " Philip van Artevelde" in his hand. 25. BELGIAN CITIES, AND THEIR ARCHITECTURE. "Belgium contains a multitude of interesting examples of architectural skill in the middle ages, eminently worthy of careful study, and sufficient, from the diversity of the epochs they mark and the character they bear, to illustrate fully a history of the rise and progress of Gothic architecture, and the re-birth of Italian art."-G. Godwin, jun., F.R. S. "It is in the streets of Antwerp and Brussels that the eye still rests upon the forms of architecture which appear in the pictures of the Flemish school,-those fronts, richly decorated with various ornaments, and terminating in roofs, the slope of which is concealed from the eye by windows and gables still more highly ornamented; the whole comprising a general effect, which, from its grandeur and intricacy, at once amuses and delights the spectator. In fact, this rich intermixture of towers and battlements, and projecting windows highly sculptured, joined to the height of the houses, and the variety of ornament upon their fronts, produces an effect as superior to those of the tame uniformity of a modern street, as the casque of the warrior exhibits over the slouched broad-brimmed beaver of a Quaker." Sir Walter Scott. In England, Gothic architecture is almost confined to churches; in the Netherlands it is shown to be equally suited to civil edifices, and even for dwellinghouses. The Town Halls (Hôtels de Ville, Halles, &c.) at Ypres, Bruges, Ghent, Oudenarde, Brussels, and Louvain, are especially worthy of attention: they are most perfect examples of the Gothic style; and it may truly be asserted that nowhere else in the whole of Europe are any civic edifices found to approach in grandeur and elegance those of Belgium. Amongst the privileges granted to the towns when they first acquired communal rights, none seemed to have been deemed greater, or were more speedily acted upon, than the right of building a belfry to call together the citizens, and a hall as a general meeting-place. "The domestic architecture of Belgium offers an infinite variety, and offers numerous hints for present application. Within a very small circle, in some cases even in a single city, examples may be found of the different styles of building which have prevailed at intervals, say for 50 years, from the 11th or 12th century up to the present time. At Tournay, a most interesting old town, there are several exceedingly ancient houses; one of an interesting character is situated near the Ch. of St. Brice. The whole is of stone, and terminates in a gable. The windows, about 5 ft. high and 4 ft. wide, are each divided into 2 openings, by a small column with plain leafed capital. The adjoining front is precisely similar. In the Rue des Jesuits there are some houses of the same character, but of a somewhat more advanced period. The columns and caps are nearly the same as those before mentioned, and the upper part, perhaps, 50 or 60 ft. in extent, consists wholly of windows and small piers alternately. Ghent and Malines display similarly ancient houses. An early advance upon this arrangement would probably be the introduction of a transom to divide the windows F 3 into 4, and so to form a croisée. In the gable of an old house at Ghent, near the Hôtel de Ville, appears a large pointed window, quite ecclesiastical in aspect, with mullions, traceried head, and label. A house near the Grand Place at Tournay affords a very perfect example of the application of pointed architecture to a street front, at the beginning of the 16th century; and the Hôtel d'Egmont at Ghent shows another application of the same style when it was beginning to exhibit symptoms of decline; as also, on a much more elaborate scale, does the well-known Maison des Francs Bateliers in the same city. "Near the Eglise de Château at Tournay is a large building, now the Horse Infirmary for the artillery, which would seem to be an example at a later stage of the decline. It is constructed of red brick and stone, and presents gables, pointed-headed windows, other square windows divided by mullions, and large dormers in the roof. The mouldings, however, are Italianised; the discharging arches, partly stone and partly brick, which occur even over the pointed-headed openings, are made into adornments, and all the ornaments which appear are of a mixed design. Later still, the line of the gable became altered into a scroll, the mullions of the windows disappeared, and the Gothic panelling on the face of the building gave place to pilasters and entablatures, elaborately adorned with figures, fruit, and foliage, as may be seen in numberless examples remaining in most of the towns." G. Godwin, jun., F. R. S. The opulent burghers of these cities, once the most flourishing in Europe from their commerce and manufactures, were little inferior to princes in power and riches; and the municipal structures which they founded may compete with the ecclesiastical in point of taste, elegance, and magnificence; they are, in fact, civic palaces, destined either for the residence of the chief magistrate, for the meeting of guilds and corporations of merchants and trades, or for assemblies of the municipal government; and sometimes of courts of justice. Belgium also possesses noble Gothic cathedrals at Mechlin, Brussels, Louvain, Liége, Tournay, and, above all, at Antwerp. The churches are usually open till noon; but as the side chapels, the choir, and the finest pictures are locked up, it is necessary, even at the open hour, to resort to the Suisse, or sexton, to see them. Notwithstanding the display of splendour in individual buildings, it is difficult to traverse, in the present day, the deserted and inanimate streets of the great Belgian cities without a feeling of melancholy at the aspect of decay which they exhibit. They have lost their pre-eminence in commerce and manufactures ; their population has shrunk, in many instances, to one half of its original amount; the active arm of industry is paralysed; and the looms, which once supplied not only Europe, but Asia, with the most costly stuffs, are now supplanted by the colonies which Flanders itself sent forth into England and Italy. Within the last few years, large sums have been laid out in repairing and restoring the principal buildings in Belgium. Amongst those restored may be mentioned St. Gudule and the town hall at Brussels, the cathedral at Antwerp, and St. Bavon at Ghent, and the cathedral at Tournay. The characteristics of the cities of Belgium are given in the following verses in monkish Latin: "Nobilibus* Bruxella viris, Antverpia † nummis, * Brussels was ine seat of the Court, and, therefore, the residence of the nobility. Antwerp was, perhaps, at one time the wealthiest city in Europe. The magistrates of Ghent were compelled to wear a halter round their necks by Charles V. Bruges still retains its reputation for pretty girls. The University of Louvain, in former days, rendered it the resort of the learned. The joke about the wise men of Mechlin is explained in the description of that town. 26. CHIMES (CARILLONS) AND CLOCKS. Chimes, or carillons, were invented in the Low Countries; they have certainly been brought to the greatest perfection here, and are still heard in every town. They are of two kinds; the one attached to a cylinder like the barrel of an organ, which always repeats the same tunes, and is moved by machinery; the other of a superior kind, played by a musician, with a set of keys. In all the great towns there are amateurs or a salaried professor, usually the organist of a church, who perform with great skill upon this gigantic instrument, placed high up in the church steeple. So fond are the Dutch and Belgians of this kind of music, that in some places the chimes appear scarcely to be at rest for ten minutes, either by day or night. The tunes are usually changed every year. Chimes were in existence at Bruges in 1300 — thus the claim of the town of Alost to the invention, A. D. 1487, is disposed of. The public clocks in Belgium strike the hour half-an-hour beforehand: thus, at half-past 11 the clock strikes twelve. 27. WORKS OF ART IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. RUBENS. THE SCHOOLS OF VAN EYCK AND It is not in architecture alone that the artists of Belgium have attained an eminent degree of perfection: this country has had the rare distinction, at two distinct periods, of producing two different Schools of Painting; the founders of which, in both instances, equalled and even surpassed their contemporaries throughout the whole of Europe in the excellence of their works. The founders of the two schools of painting were Van Eyck and Rubens. The numerous works produced by them and their scholars, still existing in Belgium, and nowhere else to be found in equal perfection, form another great attraction of a journey through this country, and will be highly appreciated by every traveller of taste. The brothers HUBERT and JOHN VAN EYCK, the founders of the early school, are believed to have flourished betwen 1370 and 1445. The painters were enrolled at Bruges as early as 1358 into a guild, which enjoyed the same privileges as any other corporation, and attained the highest reputation under Philip the Good, whose court at Bruges was resorted to by men of learning and science, as well as artists of the first eminence in Europe, in whose society he took great delight. It was in consequence of his patronage that the brothers Hubert and John Van Eyck (the latter sometimes called John of Bruges) settled there, and have left hehind them so many proofs of their skill as painters, some of which still remain at Bruges. In the days of the Van Eycks the corporation consisted of more than 300 painters, who were enrolled on the books, and formed the most celebrated school of art of the time. Van Eyck, though not, as is sometimes stated, the original inventor of oil painting, may, at any rate, be justly termed the father of the art, as he introduced some improvement, either in the material or the mode of mixing and applying the colours, which produced a new effect, and was immediately brought into general use. Although oil painting had been previously practised in Italy, Giotto having mixed oil with his colours nearly 200 years before the time of Van Eyck, we find that an Italian artist, Antonello of Messina, made a journey to Flanders on purpose to learn this new method; and it is also recorded that Andrea del Castegna, to whom he imparted it, murdered a brother artist through whom the secret had been conveyed, in order to prevent the knowledge extending further. The depth and brightness of Van Eyck's colours, which, if they can be equalled, are certainly not to be surpassed in the present day, and their perfect * See Kugler's Handbook of Painting; German and Dutch Schools. preservation, are truly a source of wonder and admiration, and prove with what rapid strides these artists had arrived at entire perfection in one very important department of painting. The works of the brothers Van Eyck are rare, and scarcely, for this reason, perhaps, appreciated as they deserve in England. With them must be associated HANS HEMLING (or Memling), another artist of the same school, whose name even is hardly known except to a very few among us. His masterpieces exist at Bruges in the hospital of St. John, and in the Academy: no traveller should omit to see them. If he have any love for art, or any pretension to taste, he will not fail to admire the exquisite delicacy and feeling which they display, their brilliancy of colouring, and purity of tone. In contemplating the works of the early Flemish school, it must be borne in mind, that the artists who attained to such excellence at so early a period had none of the classic works of antiquity to guide them, no great masters to imitate and study from the path they struck out was entirely original; they had no models but nature, and such nature as was before them. Hence it happens that their works exhibit a stiffness and formality, and a meagreness of outline, which are unpleasing to the eye, combined with a want of refinement which is often repugnant to good taste. Still these defects are more than counterbalanced by truth and force of expression, and not unfrequently by an elevation of sentiment in the representation of sacred subjects. The progress of the Flemish School may be traced, in an uninterrupted course, through the works of Quentin Matsys, Frans Floris, de Vos, the Brueghels, and a number of artists little known in England, down to Otto Vennius and Rubens. School of Rubens. The ruling spirits of the second epoch of Flemish art were RUBENS and his distinguished pupil VANDYKE. And here we shall again avail ourselves of the excellent observations of Sir Joshua Reynolds, being fully convinced of how great value they will prove to the young traveller. They will induce him not to rest satisfied with the name of a painter and the subject of a picture; they will point out to him the beauties, the reason why such works are esteemed, and induce him to examine for himself, thus enabling him to form his taste, and to carry with him a perception of excellence by which he may exercise a critical judgment of painting in general. Character of Rubens. "The works of men of genius alone, where great faults are united with great beauties, afford proper matter for criticism. Genius is always eccentric, bold, and daring; which, at the same time that it commands attention, is sure to provoke criticism. It is the regular, cold, and timid composer who escapes unseen, and deserves no praise. "The elevated situation on which Rubens stands in the esteem of the world is alone a sufficient reason for some examination of his pretensions. His fame is extended over a great part of the Continent without a rival; and it may be justly said that he has enriched his country, not in a figurative sense alone, by the great examples of art which he left, but by what some would think a more solid advantage, the wealth arising from the concourse of strangers whom his works continually invite to Antwerp. To extend his glory still further, he gives to Paris one of its most striking features, the Luxemburg Gallery; and if to these we add the many towns, churches, and private cabinets where a single picture of Rubens confers eminence, we cannot hesitate to place him in the first rank of illustrious painters. Though I still entertain the same general opinion both with regard to his excellences and defects, yet having now seen his greatest compositions, where he has more means of displaying those parts of his art in which he particularly excelled, my estimation of his genius is, of course, raised. It is only in large compositions that his powers seem to have room to expand themselves. They really increase in proportion to the size of the canvass on which they are to be displayed. His superiority is not seen in easel pictures, nor even in detached parts of his greater works; which are seldom eminently |