The Hague,

In Dutch ’S Gravenhage or ’S Hage, in French La Haye, is the capital of Holland as well as one of its finest towns.  “It was originally a hunting seat of the Counts of Holland (whence its name, ’S Graven Hage, ’the Count’s enclosure’).”—­Hurd and Houghton’s Satchel Guide to Europe.

The supreme attraction, is the museum rich im the best paintings of the Dutch school.  “Here is Paul Potter’s world renowned ‘Bull,’ alone worth, a trip to Holland to see.”  This famous picture represents a rural scene.  A ram, a ewe, a lamb, a bull and a cow are gathered together under an old tree, and the old farmer, standing somehow behind the tree, taking a look at them.  It is so perfectly true to nature that one can hardly persuade himself that the living animals are not before him.  The pictures known as Rembrandt’s “School of Anatomy” are also as deservedly famous.  What ever the criticism of one who is no artist may be worth, it is my opinion that Rubens’s paintings and some of those in this museum, are the truest to nature of all that I have seen in Europe.  Raphael’s paintings in Rome are shady in comparison to those of the Dutch school.

Tuesday, August 10th, 4:21 p.m.  Leave The Hague for Amsterdam, where I arrived at 7:30 p.m., having passed Haarlem at 6:45 p.m.  At 8 o’clock, as I sat on the platform of the Oosterspoorweg Station, the bells of three different towers commenced simultaneously to chime their peals and that too with mathematical precision.  The exactness with which the clocks in the clock-towers of Europe keep time is remarkable; and the music of the pealing bells is beautiful, when numbers of them chime at the same time.

At Amsterdam I was asked for my passport, I told the “blue coats” that I had it in my satchel, “You should have it with you,” said the German-speaking official.  I replied that I had not been aware of that; and as I had not been asked for it either in England, France or Belgium, I had placed it into my satchel, so as not to wear it out in my pockets.  I sent the porter to fetch my satchel, took the passport from it, and, after having shown it to the officials, placed it into my pocket again, so that I might have it ready in any emergency.  These officers were very accommodating to me afterwards, however, during the time that I waited for the next train for Utrecht.  After having had quite a social chat with them, I asked them what they would have done with me if I could not have produced them a passport from the government of my country.  “Well,” said one of them, “we would have been obliged to subject you to an examination, and if your answers would have satisfied the committee, you would have been allowed to pass on.”

Cloak-Rooms.