Olla Podrida | Page 7

me, although I will not
vouch for its being the true one. The reader may remember that this

was the site of cheap peaches, but none met our sight, the trees not
being yet in blossom. I ought to observe, for the satisfaction of the
Foreign Bible Society, that at the hotel at Bruges I saw a book of their
exportation lying on the chimney-piece in excellent preservation.
April 21.
As to what passed on our canal voyage to Ghent, I can only say that
every thing passed us--for the roads were very heavy, the horses very
lazy, and the boys still lazier--they rode their horses listlessly, sitting on
them sideways, as I have seen lads in the country swinging on a
gate--whereby the gait of the track-schuyt could not be styled a
swinging pace. We did arrive at last, and thus ended our water carriage.
At Ghent we went to the Hotel Royal, from out of the windows of
which I had a fine view of the belfry, surmounted by the Brazen
Dragon brought from Constantinople; and as I conjured up times past,
and I thought how the belfry was built and how the dragon got there, I
found myself at last wandering in the Apocrypha of "Bel and the
Dragon."
We went to see the picture by Van Eck, in the cathedral of Saint Bovin.
The reader will probably wish to know who was Saint Bovin--so did
I--and I asked the question of the sacristan: the reader shall have the
benefit of the answer, "Saint Bovin, monsieur, il etait un saint."
That picture of Van Eck's is worth a van full of most of the pictures we
see: it was Van Eck who invented, and was indeed the father of
painting in oil. It is a wonderful production.
Mrs Trollope says that people run through Belgium as if it were a mere
railroad to other countries. That is very true--we did the same--for who
would stop at Ostend to be swindled, or at Bruges to look at empty
houses, or at Ghent, which is nothing but a Flanders Birmingham, when
Brussels and King Leopold, and the anticipation of something more
agreeable, were only thirty miles off. Not one day was our departure
postponed; with post-horses and postilions we posted post haste to
Brussels.

CHAPTER FIVE.
April 22.
The Queen of Belgium "a fait un enfant." On the Continent it is always
the wife who is considered as the faiseuse; the husband is supposed,
and very often with justice to have had nothing to do in the matter--it
certainly does appear to be optional on the part of the ladies, for they
limit their family to their exact wishes or means of support. How
different is it in England, where children will be born whether it is
convenient or not! O Miss Martineau! you may talk about the
"preventive check," but where is it? In England it would be as valuable
as the philosopher's stone.
I think that the good people of Paris would do well, as they appear just
now to have left religion in abeyance, to take up the manners and
customs of the empire of the Nahirs, a Mahratta nation, which I once
read about. In that country, as in heaven, there is no marrying, nor
giving in marriage. All are free, and all inheritance is through the
children of the sister; for although it is impossible to know who may be
the father of any of the children, they are very certain that the sister's
children must have the blood on the maternal side. What a good
arrangement this would be for the Parisians--how many peches a
mortels would they get rid of--such as adultery, fornication,
etcetera,--by passing one simple law of the land. By-the-by, what an
admirable idea for reforming a nation--they say that laws, now-a-days,
are made to prevent crime: but if laws were enacted by which crime
should no longer be considered as crime, what a deal of trouble might
be saved.
The theatre is closed owing to the want of funds; the want of funds is
owing to the want of honesty on the part of the manager having run
away with the strong box, which was decidedly the very best box in the
theatre.
April 26.
I went to see a species of Franconi, or Astley's: there is little variety in

these performances, as there are only a certain quantity of feats, which
can be performed either by the horses or the riders, nevertheless we had
some novelty. We had the very best feminine rider I ever saw; she was
a perfect female Centaur, looking part and parcel of the animal upon
which she stood; and then we had a regularly Dutch-built lady, who
amused us with a tumble off her horse, coming