Bruges and West Flanders

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Bruges and West Flanders

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bruges and West Flanders, by George W. T. Omond, Illustrated by Amédée Forestier
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Title: Bruges and West Flanders
Author: George W. T. Omond

Release Date: June 23, 2006 [eBook #18670]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS
Painted by
AMéDéE FORESTIER
Described by
G. W. T. OMOND

[Illustration: A FLEMISH COUNTRY GIRL]

Preface
There is no part of Europe more wanting in what is known as 'scenery' than Flanders; and those who journey there must spend most of their time in the old towns which are still so strangely medi?val in their aspect, or in country places which are worth seeing only because of their connection with some event in history--Nature has done so little for them. Thus the interest and the attraction of Flanders and the Flemish towns are chiefly historical. But it would be impossible to compress the history of such places as Bruges, Ypres, Furnes, or Nieuport within the limits of a few pages, except at the cost of loading them with a mass of dry facts. Accordingly the plan adopted in preparing the letterpress which accompanies Mr. Forestier's drawings has been to select a few leading incidents, and give these at some length.
The Flemish School of Painting and Architecture has been so well and frequently described that it would have been mere affectation to make more than a few passing allusions to that topic.
Some space has, however, been devoted to an account of the recent development of the Flemish littoral, which has been so remarkable during the last quarter of a century.

Contents
CHAPTER I
THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES
CHAPTER II
BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FER--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER OF CHARLES THE GOOD
CHAPTER III
THE BéGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY BLOOD
CHAPTER IV
THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS
CHAPTER V
DAMME--THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUIS--SPLENDOUR OF BRUGES IN THE MIDDLE AGES--THE FALL AND LOSS OF TRADE
CHAPTER VI
'BRUGES LA MORTE'
CHAPTER VII
THE PLAIN OF WEST FLANDERS--YPRES
CHAPTER VIII
FURNES--THE PROCESSION OF PENITENTS
CHAPTER IX
NIEUPORT--THE BATTLE OF THE DUNES
CHAPTER X
THE COAST OF FLANDERS
CHAPTER XI
COXYDE--THE SCENERY OF THE DUNES
INDEX

List of Illustrations
1. A Flemish Country Girl 2. Bruges: A Corner of the Market on the Grand' Place 3. Bell-ringer Playing a Chime 4. Bruges: Porte d'Ostende 5. Bruges: Rue de l'?ne Aveugle (showing end of Town Hall and Bridge connecting it with Palais de Justice) 6. Bruges: Quai du Rosaire 7. Bruges: The Béguinage 8. Bruges: Quai des Marbriers 9. A Flemish Young Woman 10. A Flemish Burgher 11. Bruges: Quai du Miroir 12. Bruges: View of the Palais du Franc. 13. Bruges: Maison du Pélican (Almshouse) 14. Bruges: Vegetable Market 15. The Flemish Plain 16. Duinhoek: Interior of a Farmhouse 17. Adinkerque: At the Kermesse 18. A Farmsteading 19. Ypres: Place du Musée (showing Top Part of the Belfry) 20. Ypres: Arcade under the Nieuwerk 21. Furnes: Grand' Place and Belfry 22. Furnes: Peristyle of Town Hall and Palais de Justice 23. Nieuport: Interior of Church 24. Furnes: Tower of St. Nicholas 25. Furnes: In Ste. Walburge's Church 26. Nieuport: A Fair Parishioner 27. Nieuport: Hall and Vicarage 28. Nieuport: The Quay, with Eel-boats and Landing-stages 29. Nieuport: The Town Hall 30. Nieuport: Church Porch (Evensong) 31. The Dunes: A Stormy Evening 32. An Old Farmer 33. La Panne: Interior of a Flemish Inn 34. La Panne: A Flemish Inn--Playing Skittles 35. Coxyde: A Shrimper on Horseback 36. Coxyde: A Shrimper 37. Adinkerque: Village and Canal

THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES

BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS
CHAPTER I
THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES
Every visitor to 'the quaint old Flemish city' goes first to the Market-Place. On Saturday mornings the wide space beneath the mighty Belfry is full of stalls, with white canvas awnings, and heaped up with a curious assortment of goods. Clothing of every description, sabots and leathern shoes and boots, huge earthenware jars, pots and pans, kettles, cups and saucers, baskets, tawdry-coloured prints--chiefly of a religious character--lamps and candlesticks, the cheaper kinds of Flemish pottery, knives and forks, carpenters' tools, and such small articles as reels of thread, hatpins, tape, and even bottles of coarse scent, are piled on the stalls or spread out on the rough stones wherever there is a vacant space. Round the stalls, in the narrow spaces between them, the people move about, talking, laughing, and bargaining. Their native Flemish is the tongue they use amongst themselves; but many of them speak what passes for French at Bruges, or even a