Embark on the Rhine--Political Rhapsodies of two
Frenchmen--Beautiful Scenery--Gulph of Bingerlock--Blighted state of
the Vines--Most distressing to the Inhabitants--Boppart--'God Save
the King'--Bonfires--Size of Paris and London--St.
Goar--Coblentz--Royal Saxon Guards--Ruins of
Ehrenbreitstein--Andernach--The Devil's
House--Lowdersdorf--Linz--Bonn--Illuminations, Balls, &c.--End of
the Picturesque Scenery--Boat driven on Shore--Walk to Cologne--A
vast and gloomy City--Simile of Dr. Johnson's--Few Country Houses on
the Rhine--Rubens--His excellence as a Painter and his great
Modesty--Juliers--Aix la Chapelle--Its Antiquity--Waters--Pleasant
Situation--Population not equal to its
Estent--Burscheid--Manufactures of Cloth, &c.--Cathedral--Sunday ill
observed--Liege--A large and extremely dirty
City--Booksellers--Cutlery--Distress of the
Manufacturers--Thieves--Bad Money--Expeditions Public
Carriage--Axiom of Rousseau--St. Tron--Chimes--Tirlemont, its much
reduced Manufactures
278


CHAP. XVII.

Population of the Netherlands--Louvain--Its Public
Buildings--University--Character of the Belgians--By some
represented as the worst in Europe--That Statement probably
overcharged--Extortion--John Bull at Paris--French Kitchens,
&c.--Breweries--Roads--Taste in Gardening--Canals not an agreeable
mode of Travelling--Heavy Taxes--Unsettled Political State--Vast
Numbers of English at Brussels--Its Extent, Population and