shrunken local business of the place; the post, the municipal offices,
each filling up two or three of the arches, in ludicrous contrast to
the unemployed vastness of the rest. It has been fancifully supposed
that the name Diaper, as applied to linens, was supplied by this town,
which was the seat of the trade, and _Toile d'Ypres_ might be
supposed, speciously enough, to have some connection with the place.




X.

_BERGUES._


But _en route_ again, for the sands are fast running out. Old
fortified towns, particularly such as have been protected by 'the
great Vauban,' are found to be a serious nuisance to the inhabitants,
however picturesque they may seem to the tourist; for the place,
constricted and wrapped in bandages, as it were, cannot expand its
lungs. Many of the old fortressed towns, such as Ostend, Courtrai,
Calais, have recently demolished their fortifications at great cost
and with much benefit to themselves. There is something picturesque
and original in the first sight of a place like Arras, or St. Omer,
with the rich and lavish greenery, luxuriant trees, banks of grass by
which the 'fosse' and grim walls are masked. Others are of a grim and
hostile character, and show their teeth, as it were.

Dunkirk, a fortress of the 'first class,' fortified on the modern
system, and therefore to the careless spectator scarcely appearing to