happiness. Imagination had procured herself a tent on the mountains
of Sanaa, covered with coffee-trees in bloom. She was presenting me
the essence of their flowers, and was just telling me that you
possessed a pavilion on a neighbouring hill, when the sunshine
dispelled the vision; and opening my eyes, I found myself pent in by
Flemish spires and buildings: no hills, no verdure, no aromatic
breezes, no hope of being in your vicinity: all were vanished with
the shadows of fancy, and I was left alone to deplore your absence.
But I think it rather selfish to wish you here, for what pleasure
could pacing from one dull church to another, afford a person of your
turn? I don't believe you would catch a taste for blubbering
Magdalens and coarse Madonnas, by lolling in Rubens' chair; nor do I
believe a view of the Ostades and Snyders, so liberally scattered in
every collection, would greatly improve your pencil.

After breakfast this morning I began my pilgrimage to all those
illustrious cabinets. First, I went to Monsieur Van Lencren's, who
possesses a suite of apartments, lined, from the base to the cornice,
with the rarest productions of the Flemish school. Heavens forbid I
should enter into a detail of their niceties! I might as well count
the dew-drops upon any of Van Huysem's flower-pieces, or the pimples
on their possessor's countenance; a very good sort of man, indeed;
but from whom I was not at all sorry to be delivered.

My joy was, however, of short duration, as a few minutes brought me
into the courtyard of the Chanoin Knyfe's habitation; a snug abode,
well furnished with easy chairs and orthodox couches. After viewing
the rooms on the first floor, we mounted a gentle staircase, and
entered an ante-chamber, which those who delight in the imitations of
art rather than of nature, in the likenesses of joint stools and the