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EXTRACT from the TOUR of HOLLAND, DUTCH BRABANT, and the AUSTRIAN NETHERLANDS.

THIS work is written in a familiar epiftolary manner, and contains fome obfervations and information worthy the Reader's notice.

The following is our Author's defcription of Leyden and the curiofities of that place.

LEYDEN is esteemed, in point of fize, the fecond city in Holland, but its trade is now inconfiderable, which in the woollen manufactory was formerly very extenfive.

This city is furrounded with a rampart and a very wide canal. The Efplanade, and the Foffe, are adorned with rows of trees, which environ the town, with a pleasant walk at the water's edge, from whence you look over fome rich meadows. In the centre of the town is a Tumulus, of confiderable height, furrounded by a brick wall, from whence you have a tolerable view of the city it is called the Berg, or Hengift's castic ; was built by Hengift, the Saxon, as a trophy for his conqueft of England.

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The most elegant street, is the Broadfreet, which runs from the Hague gate to the Utrecht gate: it is a little on the curve, which adds, I think, much to its beauty the pavement is extremely fine, and the street rifes in the center, like the new-paved streets in London; is very fpacious, as indeed are most of the ftreets in Leyden. Among the caals, the Rapinbury is the moit beautiful: the houfes are magnificent: the bridges ftone, with iron rails, and there are trees on each fide of the canal. It is faid that there are an hundred and forty-five bridges, and an hundred and eighty streets within the city of Leyden. The Old Rhine runs through this town, and lofes itself in the little village of Catwick, which lies in the neighbourhood.

The Univerfity is the most renowned of the five, which are in the United

The five Univerfities are, A. D. 1 Leyden in Holland 2 Utrecht

3 Francker in Friesland 4 Groninghen

1575-
1636.

1584.

1614.

Harderwick in Guelderland 1648.
VOL. VIII.

Provinces, and is the most ancient, be ing founded in 1575, by the States, as a reward to the inhabitants, for defending themselves against the Spaniards during a fix months fiege; in which they fuffered all the horrors of war, and extre

mities of famine.

The Academy abounds with many curiofities: it is there the Profeffors read lectures to the Students who lodge in the town, and who are not diftinguished by any academical habit. It is there, that the learned Scaliger, Leipfius Salmafius and Boerhaave gained so much reputation by their lectures, and brought Students from all parts of Europe to attend them.

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On one fide of the Phyfic Gardens is a very curious collection of antique marbles, given by Gerard Papenbrochius a Burgomaster of Amfterdam. I cannot omit mentioning the ftatues of Hercules and of Bacchus leaning on a fawn, and attended by a tyger, of Abundantia, as big as the life, and of a naked Apollo ; all which have efpecial merit.

Adjoining to the statues is the Natural Philofophy School, in which the lectures are read: you will find in it a good collection of natural curiofities; fome very fine petrefactions in particular a piece of oak, one fide of which has been polifhed, and vies both in hardness and colour, with an agate. Some curious pieces of cryftal, formed by nature to an apex, with fix angles, as exact, and as finely polifhed, as if the production of

art.

A fish, called the medufa's head, from a thousand little fibres darting out from its body, in a circle, like twifted rays: this, in itself, is fufficiently curious; but the exact reprefentation of it, in a natural agate, is much more fo.

One of the greatest curiofities was the afbeftos, from Tranfylvania: it is a ftone, with a foft down on it like velvèt, of a dove colour; of this is made both paper and linnen; we faw famples of both the very peculiar property of it is, that the fire has no effect on it, for it till continues its form, unchanged, and unconfumed.

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Among the beafts was an ermin, about the fize and shape of a weafel Y

this

170 Extract from the this little animal is fo fearful of dirting its fkin, that it will fooner lofe its liberty than its cleanliness.

There was a kind of toad, which brings forth its young from its back: on abferving it, we perceived infinite numbers of young toads adhering to the back, which appeared like the broken fcales of a fish.

The toad fish from America is an extraordinary creature; it is for the firft fix months a toad, then changes by degrecs into a fifh this had half completed its transformation, having the tail of a fifh, with the head and foreparts of a toad.

The Penna Marina belongs to the animal fpecies it is the production of the ocean; looks like a plant, and is nothing more than a ftem of about two inches long, with a kind of feather at the end of it, not unlike a quill, with part of the feather cut off.

The moft curious of the feathered race, was the Hydrocorax Indicus; the only one in Europe; larger than a turkey--- black, Roftro unicorni, cornu recurvo--- if I may exprefs myfelf in the technical terms of Ornithology.

The Cafuari is likewife black, and in fize equal to an ostrich.

There was an immenfe beaft, called the Hyppotamus, as large as an elephant, its colour black; with a row of grinders in the interior part of its mouth, besides a good number in front.

From the Academy you crofs the Rapinbury to the public library; there are fome valuable portraits of their literati; in particular, an original of Erafmus, by Hans Holbein. They have done us the honour to give place in their library to the Scavans Anglois, in buits of ivory.

I was a little furprized to fee, among my learned countrymen, Marvel and Ludlow; none but Dutchmen could have introduced them into the company of Lock and Milton. There are vast piles of civil law, and a confiderable number of mar ufcripts, but thefe excepted, it can be called but an indiffe rent collection. Near to the library is the Anatomy School, in which are many curiofities: fome Roman antiques fuch as, an Urna feralis, in red potter's clay, the fame as our earthen utenfils: a

Tour of Holland, &c.

Lucerna fpulchralis, which was the perpetual lamp ufed by the Romans: is made with four spouts, and rifes up in the middle in a conical form.

There was the egg of r crocodile, which is of a brown colour and of a hard fubftance; the infide looked like cedar wood.

From the Anatomy School we went to the Stadt-houfe, which is fituated in the Broad-street, and has a long front, in the true ftyle of Dutch architecture. The famous picture of the Day of Judgment, by Luke of Leyden +, is preferved in one of the chambers of the Stadthoufe: it is painted on wood, in three compartments, which, by the help of hinges, fold together and protect the piece.

In the Grand Compartment, you fee our Saviour enthroned on the center of a rainbow, the extremities of which lofe themselves imperceptibly in the clouds; the twelve elders are feated on each fide, below, there is a group of mortals, who have not received judgment, which you may eafily difcern, by the fufpence and anxiety fo ftrongly impreffed on their countenances. On one fide of this group you fee thofe who have received the reward of their virtue, escorted by the good angels, who are flying into the heavens with the juft. On the other

fide

+ Lucas van Leyden died in 1533, aged 39; he painted.. not only in oil, but in diftemper, and on glass, and was full as eminent for engraving, as for painting. His genius exerted itfelf fo early, that before he was 15 he painted the history of St. Hubert, which procured him the greatest applaufe: his tone of colouring is good: his attitudes (allowing for the ftift German tafte) are well enough, his figures have a confiderable expreffion, and his pictures are highly finished. He endeavoured to proportion the ftrength of his colouring to the different degrees of diftance in which his objects were placed; for in that age the true principles of perfpective were but little known. As he had no inftructor in this branch; he was confequently incorrect with regard to the proportional height of figures to their distances, fo as to appear a mannerist

Obfervations on the Manners and Cuftoms of the French.

fide are fome of the oddeft looking devils that the most luxuriant imagination can conceive; efpecially one, with the head of a cow, and with two long meagre dugs hanging down to the middle--it is impoffible to behold this fiend without horror. These are employed in dragging away the condemned, by the hair of the head, and pushing them forward with pitchforks. I am concerned for the ladies, but I could not help obferving among thofe who were howling and gnathing their teeth, a vast majority of female figures, with golden treffes flowing down their backs; fome of whom had not fo far forgotten their humanity, but that they attempted to impofe even on the devils, by eluding their grafp, and running back towards the manfions of the bleffed.

In the next apartinent is a crucifixion, by the fame hand: here you see our Saviour on the crafs, the two thieves on

171.

each fide, and a thoufand diftinct figures in which the paffions are finely varied : proftrate at the foot of the crofs were vaft numbers of the fair fex, in all the pageantry of woe, with their hair difhevelled, and their eves ftreaming with tears; but I doubt that they were crccodile's tears; or I fhould not have feen fuch numbers guarded by devils in the other picture.

In this room is a fine piece, by Moor of the first Brutus feeing his judgment executed on his fons; one of which lies a lifeless trunk, the head rolling in the duft; the other fon is on his knees expecting the fatal ftroke. There is likewife, a tolerable picture of the wellknown ftory of Scipio and the Celtiberian captive; and a large picture which defcribes the people of Leyden, after being relieved from the Spaniards and the famine, devouring, with well-executed eagernefs, the long-wanted food.

For the OXFORD MAGAZINE.

OBSERVATIONS on the MANNERS and CUSTOMS of the FRENCH.

Believe the climate of France to behoufes of the opulent great,

I most purchale the elegant fuperfluities of

fruitful, and the face of the country the moft pleafing in the univerfe; and I hope, for the honour of human nature, that its inhabitants are the vainent and moît illiterate. Can you believe that this all-fufficient people, who look on the reft of Europe with contempt, are in moft of the mechanic arts at least a century behind the favage English, as they affect to term us In their tapeftry, looking-glatles, and coach-varnish, they are confeffedly our fuperiors; but their carriages are more clumfy than our dung-carts; their inns inferior to an English ale-houfe; their floors, both above and below, of brick or kind of plaifter, without carpets; their joifts unceiled, the windows without pullies, drawn up to a certain height, where they catch a hook, which prevents their falling; their tables confift of three or four planks nailed together, and the houfes are totally deftitute of every kind of elegance, I had almost faid convenience; I do not mean to include the

every country; but in this fituation you
will find the inns and the houses of the
gentry and tradefmen. Their gardens
are mot uniformly dull, but in these
they condefcend to follow thofe ftandards
of taste the Dutch. Sandy walks at
parallel lines between yew hedges, par-
terres tortured into form and furroun-
ded with the lively box, and trees plant-
ed at equal distances, will give you a
juft idea of a French garden; I ought
to have added, that they blend the utile
dulci; for I remember the parterres in
the gardens of the Bishop and Intendant
of Anjou were prettily diverfified with
garlick, onions, and other ufeful vege-
tables. They are fuch slaves to fashion,
that they have different feafons in the
year for drefs; which they carry to fuch
excefs of folly, that they defcend even
to the minutia of a ruffle; and a man's
character would be ruined, were not the
lace of his ruffles adapted to the season
of the year.

Their converfation confifts in compli-
Y 2

ments

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