Bruges and West Flanders | Page 3

which rises above the Guildhouse of the Archers
of St. Sebastian. The walls which guarded Bruges in troublous times
have disappeared, though five of the old gateways remain; but the town
is still contained within the limits which it had reached at the close of
the thirteenth century.
Behind the large square of the Halles, from which the Belfry rises, is
the Rue du Vieux Bourg, the street of the Ouden Burg, or old fort; and

to this street the student of history must first go if he wishes to
understand what tradition, more or less authentic, has to say about the
earliest phases in the strange, eventful past of Bruges. The wide plain
of Flanders, the northern portion of the country which we now call
Belgium, was in ancient times a dreary fenland, the haunt of wild
beasts and savage men; thick, impenetrable forests, tracts of barren
sand, sodden marshes, covered it; and sluggish streams, some whose
waters never found their way to the sea, ran through it. One of these
rivulets, called the Roya, was crossed by a bridge, to defend which,
according to early tradition, a fort, or 'burg,' was erected in the fourth
century. This fort stood on an islet formed by the meeting of the Roya
with another stream, called the Boterbeke, and a moat which joined the
two. We may suppose that near the fort, which was probably a small
building of rough stones, or perhaps merely a wooden stockade, a few
huts were put up by people who came there for protection, and as time
went on the settlement increased. 'John of Ypres, Abbot of St. Bertin,'
says Mr. Robinson, 'who wrote in the fourteenth century, describes how
Bruges was born and christened: "Very soon pedlars began to settle
down under the walls of the fort to supply the wants of its inmates.
Next came merchants, with their valuable wares. Innkeepers followed,
who began to build houses, where those who could not find lodging in
the fort found food and shelter. Those who thus turned away from the
fort would say, 'Let us go to the bridge.' And when the houses near the
bridge became so numerous as to form a town, it kept as its proper
name the Flemish word Brugge."
[Illustration: BELL-RINGER PLAYING A CHIME.]
The small island on which this primitive township stood was bounded
on the south and east by the Roya, on the north by the Boterbeke, and
on the west by the moat joining these two streams. The Roya still flows
along between the site of the old burg and an avenue of lime-trees
called the Dyver till it reaches the end of the Quai du Rosaire, when it
turns to the north. A short distance beyond this point it is vaulted over,
and runs on beneath the streets and houses of the town. The Rue du
Vieux Bourg is built over the course of the Boterbeke, which now runs
under it and under the Belfry (erected on foundations sunk deep into

the bed of the stream), until it joins the subterranean channel of the
Roya at the south-east corner of the Market-Place. The moat which
joined these two streams and guarded the west side of the island was
filled up long ago, and its bed is now covered by the Rue Neuve, which
connects the Rue du Vieux Bourg with the Dyver.
Thus the boundaries of early Bruges can easily be traced; but nothing
remains of the ancient buildings, though we read of a warehouse,
booths, and a prison, besides the dwelling-houses of the townsfolk. The
elements, at least, of civic life were there; and tradition says that in or
near the village, for it was nothing more, some altars of the Christian
faith were set up during the seventh and eighth centuries. Trade, too,
soon began to flourish, and grew rapidly as the population of the place
increased. The Roya, flowing eastwards, fell into the Zwijn, an arm of
the sea, which then ran up close to the town, and on which stood
Damme, now a small inland village, but once a busy port crowded with
shipping. The commercial life of Bruges depended on the Zwijn; and
that much business was done before the close of the ninth century is
shown by the fact that Bruges had then a coinage of its own.[*] It was
from such small beginnings that this famous, 'Venice of the North'
arose.
[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, Bruges Ancienne et Moderne, pp. 7,
8, 9.]
[Illustration: BRUGES. Porte d'Ostende.]

BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FRE--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER
OF CHARLES THE GOOD
CHAPTER II
BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FER--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER
OF CHARLES THE GOOD
Towards the end of the ninth and at the beginning of the tenth century

great changes took place on the banks of the