morial ensigns of distinguished families, which used to dignify the front of their dwellings, have been cut away, dand many a shield remains despoiled of its quarterings. Some of them, since the new order of things has occurred, have been restored. In a square planted on all sides with trees the parade is held. 10 As Lady Wortley Montagu, in her accustomed sprightliness of style, has mentioned, with some appearance of disgust, the white fishy faces of the Dutch women, I beg to observe, that at the Hague I saw several very pretty females: in general they possessed a transparent delicacy of countenance, but as generally wanted expression. An English gentleman who had just returned from Italy, where he had been accustomed for several years to the warm voluptuous brunettes of that beautiful country, was uncommonly delighted with the fair faces of the Dutch ladies; but female beauty does not begin to expand itself till after the imprisonment and regimen of the nursery are past. Pretty and healthy children are rarely to be seen in Holland: In general they look pale and squalid, owing to an abominable system followed in rearing them; they are accustomed for the frst two or three months to respire the atmosphere of a room, the windows of which are never opened to receive the freshness of the morning air; to wash them with refreshing cold water would be considered as certain infanticide; the miserable infant is swathed round with flannel rollers, until it becomes as motionless as a mummy; and over these ligatures there is always a vast flannel wrapper folded three or four times round the body, and fastened at the bottom of its feet; afterwards for many months it is loaded with woollen garments, and when at length it is permitted to try for what purpose legs were originally constructed, it is cased in an additional wrapping of flannel, to prevent the dreaded consequences of freely inhaling the salubrious air. As it was sunimer, I can only speak from informa tion of an equally vile and destructive custom, which obtains in the winter, of suffering the children to sit over the chauffepies or stoves, which frequently sup plants the ruddy tints of health by a white parboiled appearance. I saw several of these chauffepies, from which the little pots that in cold weather contain the burning turf, had been withdrawn, used by the ladies as footstools. Whilst the men warm themselves with the smoke of tobacco from above, the ladies, to recompence themselves for not using that indulgence, take care to fumigate themselves below, by placing, in the proper season, these ignited stoves under their petti coats. In my way to the palace in the wood, near this square, I passed by a vast triumphal arch made of wood, painted to imitate stone, and adorned with a number of complimentary inscriptions in Latin, in honour of the king and queen, who passed through it on the 23d of June last, when they made their public entry; and in a vast field adjoining to the wood was a lofty temporary obelisk of the same materials, which formed one of the principal objects of a magnificent fête recently given by the French commander in chief in honour of their majesties, which was conducted in the highest style of Parisian taste. The day when I visited the wood was remarkably fine-this spot, so dear to the Dutch, is nearly two English miles long, about three quarters of a mile broad, and contains a fine display of magnificent oaks, growing in native luxuriance. Antony Waterloo made the greatest part of his studies from this spot and its environs. The ground upon which it grows, and the country about it, undulate a little, a circumstance of agreeable novelty, and the whole is a truly delightful walk, more romantic and umbrageous than our mall of St. James's, and surpassed only by the garden of the Thuilleries. This wood has been held sacred with more than pagan piety. War and national want, that seldom spare in their progress, committed no viola : tions here. Although the favorite place of royal recreation, yet, in the fury of the Revolution, not a leaf trembled but in the wind. Philip II. in the great war with Spain, issued his mandate for preserving it hostile armies have marched through it without offering it a wound, and the axe of the woodman has never resounded in it. Even children are taught or whipt into veneration for it, so that their mischievous hands never strip it of a bough. Once, however, it is recorded, that at a period of great necessity, in 1576, their high mightinesses sat in judgment upon its noble growth, and doomed it to fall: the moment their decree was known, the citizens flew to the meeting, remonstrated with a degree of feeling which did honour to their taste; and upon learning that the object of its doom was to raise a certain sum to assist in replenishing the nearly exhausted coffers of the republic, they immediately entered into a contribution, and presented the amount to the "high and mighty masters" of the sacred grove. It has been asserted by some travellers, that the Dutch treasure this spot more from national pride than feeling, and that they are more disposed to preserve than to enjoy it. To this remark I have only to offer, that I saw a considerable number of equestrian and pedestrian groupes, who appeared to relish its shaded roads and sequestered walks with great delight. The royal residence is to the right at the end of the wood. Upon my asking a Dutchman which path led to the house in the wood," the only appellation by which, in the time of the Stadtholder, it was known, he sharply replied, "I presume you mean the palace in the wood." This building is merely fit for the residence of a country gentleman, and has nothing princely about it, except the centry boxes at the foot of the flight of stairs ascending to the grand entrance: two tall and not very perpendicular poles, from the tops of which is stretched a cord, suspending in the entre a large lamp, stand on each side of the house in front of the palace; on the left are the coach-houses and stablings, which are perfectly plain, and are just separated from the court road by a sinall stunted plantation: there was a very handsome carriage of the king's in the coach-house, without arms or cyphers, of a pale blue colour, which, with silver lace, is the colour of the new royal livery. The carriage had every appearance of having been built in England. Excepting this, I never before saw a carriage, unless appropriated for state occasions, belonging to any crowned head on the continent, that an Englishman of taste and opulence would be satisfied with. Even the carriages of Napoleon, built in the city so celebrated for its taste in design, and beauty of workmanship, as Paris, are clumsy and unpleasant to the eye. Although it was Sunday, the sound of workmen, actively engaged in modernizing the palace after the Parisian taste, issued from almost every window. Dutchmen who were contemplating the front of the house, shook their heads at this incroachment of the sabbath. In consequence of the internal arrange ment not being finished, strangers were not admitted: the walks on the outside of the gardens are formal and insipid. The gardens themselves are handsomely disposed, and kept in great order, and the whole of the premises is insulated by stagnant canals crossed with draw-bridges. Some In this palace the Stadtholder and his family used to indulge his subjects in that ridiculous custom of eating before them on certain days: a custom which was a fit appendage to another, that of keeping dwarfs and fools about the royal person. Upon my return to my hotel at one o'clock, the dinner hour, I found a very agreeable party, composed of foreigners from different countries, and an excellent table d'hote: over the chimney-piece was a good equestrian portrait of the Duke of Cumberland, who lodged at this house occasionally during the campaigns of 1747 After dinner, in company with a very amiable gentleman-like Englishman, whom I met at the table d'hote, I set off in one of the carriages, many of which are always ready to conyey passengers, for about the value of sixpence English, for Scheveling, a village which every traveller should visit, on account of the beauty of the avenue leading to it, which is nearly two miles, perfectly straight, and thickly planted with beech, limes, and oaks; at the end of which superb vista the church of Scheveling appears. On the sandy ground on each side of this avenue are several birch thickets, and it abounds with the aeria canescens, hippopha rhamnoides, a singular dwarf variety of ligustrum vulgare (Privet), the true arundo epigejos of Linnæus (that is, calamagrostis), and a number of heath plants, mixed with others usually found in marshes. Scarcely is there so small a spot, where Flora presents such opposite variety, and which the fluctuating moisture of the soil can alone account for. Among the rarer species are convallaria multiflora, and polygonatum, with gentiana cruciata, which is not a native of England. The Dutch value this beautiful avenue as much as they do their wood, and great care is taken to preserve it from violation. At the entrance, in a most romantic spot, is the turnpike-gate, where all passengers, except the fishermen of Scheveling, pay a fraction of a farthing for permission to enter; and here are stuck up orders, threatening with punishment those who may attempt to injure in the smallest degree this consecrated forest. At short intervals, cautionary inscriptions are placed in conspicuous situations, to warn mischievous " apple munching ur chins" from cutting the smallest twig. Constantine Huygens, brother to the celebrated mathematician and mechanist of that name, had the honour of designing this avenue, in which there are many stately trees, upwards of a century and a half old: at errible storm which took place a few years since, a id about fifty of these noble objects low, to |