appearance of the towns--in fact, that
the novelty was gone, and that my eyes were too much familiarised with
such objects to notice them. Happily Malines undeceived me, and
convinced me I was still fully alive to whatever had any real
peculiarity of character to entitle it to notice. With the exception of
the villages on the Rhine, all the towns and houses I had seen lately
had little to recommend them, and were like half the people in the
world, possessed of no character of their own, their doors and windows
like all other doors and windows, but Malines had doors and windows of
its own, and seemed to take a pride in exhibiting its own little queer
originalities; in every house was a different idea. The people were of a
piece with their dwellings; I could almost fancy I was permitted to
inspect the toys of some Brobdignag baby who washed, cleaned, and combed
the beings before me every morning and locked them up in their separate
boxes every evening. When the nice green doors of the nice painted
houses opened, I bethought me of the Dutch ark you bought for Owen, and
was prepared to make my best bow to Noah and his wife, who I expected to
step forth with Ham and Japhet, and all the birds and beasts behind
them.

We approached Antwerp as the sun was setting behind its beautiful
Cathedral and shining upon the pennants of the fleet which Bonaparte has
kindly built for the accommodation of the allied powers. The Antwerpers
had a well-arranged promenade and tea garden, &c., about a mile from the
house, well wooded. These, with all the houses in the suburbs, the
French entirely destroyed, leaving not a wreck behind. I must acquit
them of wanton cruelty here, however, as in sieges these devastations
are necessary. We passed thro' a complete course of fortifications, and
then entered what, from all I can perceive, is the best town I have seen
on the continent.

It is a mass of fine streets, fine houses, and fine churches; the Tower
of the Cathedral is quite a Bijou 620 steps in height! but the ascent
was well rewarded; from thence a very respectable tour of about 30 miles
in every direction may be accomplished. Walcheren and Lillo (the
celebrated fort which prevented our ascending the Scheld) were visible
without any difficulty, with Cadsand and all the well-known names of
that silly expedition,[90] rendered apparently more silly by seeing how
impossible it would have been to have taken Antwerp unless by a regular
siege, whic