or stout, must be lost in the midst of all these queer gimcracks; in
order to be consistent, they ought to dress him up, too, in some odd
fantastical suit. I can fancy the Cure of Meudon preaching out of such a
place, or the Rev. Sydney Smith, or that famous clergyman of the time of
the League, who brought all Paris to laugh and listen to him.


But let us not be too supercilious and ready to sneer. It is only bad
taste. It may have been very true devotion which erected these strange
edifices.




II.--GHENT--BRUGES.


GHENT. (1840.)


The Beguine College or Village is one of the most extraordinary sights
that all Europe can show. On the confines of the town of Ghent you come
upon an old-fashioned brick gate, that seems as if it were one of the
city barriers; but, on passing it, one of the prettiest sights possible
meets the eye: At the porter's lodge you see an old lady, in black and
a white hood, occupied over her book; before you is a red church with a
tall roof and fantastical Dutch pinnacles, and all around it rows upon
rows of small houses, the queerest, neatest, nicest that ever were seen
(a doll's house is hardly smaller or prettier). Right and left, on each
side of little alleys, these little mansions rise; they have a courtlet