almost touches the town with its boughs, is wonderfully forest-like.
Not a branch being ever permitted to be lopped, the oaks and beeches
retain their natural luxuriance, and form some of the most
picturesque groups conceivable. In some places their straight boles
rise sixty feet without a bough; in others, they are bent
fantastically over the alleys, which turn and wind about just as a
painter would desire. I followed them with eagerness and curiosity,
sometimes deviating from my path amongst tufts of fern and herbage.

In these cool retreats I could not believe myself near canals and
windmills; the Dutch formalities were all forgotten whilst
contemplating the broad masses of foliage above, and the wild flowers
and grasses below. Several hares and rabbits scudded by me while I
sat; and the birds were chirping their evening song. Their
preservation does credit to the police of the country, which is so
exact and well regulated as to suffer no outrage within the precincts
of this extensive wood, the depth and thickness of which seem
calculated to favour half the sins of a capital.

Relying upon this comfortable security, I lingered unmolested amongst
the beeches till the ruddy gold of the setting sun ceased to glow on
their foliage; then taking the nearest path, I suffered myself,
though not without regret, to be conducted out of this fresh sylvan
scene to the dusty, pompous parterres of the Greffier Fagel. Every
flower that wealth can purchase diffuses its perfume on one side;
whilst every stench a canal can exhale, poisons the air on the other.
These sluggish puddles defy all the power of the United Provinces,
and retain the freedom of stinking in spite of their endeavours: but
perhaps I am too bold in my assertion; for I have no authority to
mention any attempts to purify these noxious pools. Who knows but