The Chateau Du
Bois Is Principally Remarkable For A Large Room With A Dome, The Interior
Of Which Is Covered With Large Paintings By Rubens, Jordaens, And Other
Artists.
Our friend took leave of us, and we drove out to Scheveling, where Charles
II.
Embarked for England, when he returned to take possession of his
throne. Here dwell a people who supply the fish-market of the Hague, speak
among themselves a dialect which is not understood elsewhere in Holland,
and wear the same costume which they wore centuries ago. We passed several
of the women going to market or returning, with large baskets on their
heads, placed on the crown of a broad-brimmed straw bonnet, tied at the
sides under the chin, and strapping creatures they were, striding along in
their striped black and white petticoats. In the streets of Scheveling, I
saw the tallest woman I think I ever met with, a very giantess,
considerably more than six feet high, straddling about the street of the
little village, and scouring and scrubbing the pavement with great
energy. Close at hand was the shore; a strong west wind was driving the
surges of the North Sea against it. A hundred fishing vessels rocking in
the surf, moored and lashed together with ropes, formed a line along the
beach; the men of Scheveling, in knit woollen caps, short blue jackets,
and short trowsers of prodigious width, were walking about on the shore,
but the wind was too high and the sea too wild for them to venture out.
Along this coast, the North Sea has heaped a high range of sand-hills,
which protect the low lands within from its own inundations; but to the
north and south the shore is guarded by embankments, raised by the hand of
man with great cost, and watched and kept in constant repair.
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