hitherto travelled
sometimes on Dyke tops, sometimes in Dyke bottoms which only required
the efforts of a few able-bodied rats to let the water in upon us. It is
quite surprising to see on what a precarious tenure Holland is held.
Take but a Dyke away, overturn one dam, and see what discord
follows--and this does sometimes happen. In 1809 the Ice broke through
near Gorum and carried away countless houses, men, cattle, &c. I have
said the country improved, _i.e._, we got into a land of villas and
Trees, some of them beautifully laid out, and all, stable included,
bright and clean as possible. Each, too, has its Summer house perched by
the Canal side and (the Evening being fine) well filled with parties of
ladies and gentlemen. The road for many miles was ornamented with wooden
triumphal arches and hung with festoons of flowers, &c., as a compliment
to the Emperor Alexander, who passed about a month ago....

...We arrived at Amsterdam on Monday night; here, again, all was new.
Hitherto we had rode in Carriages of various descriptions _with_ wheels,
but in Amsterdam you have them without wheels, drawn by a fine horse and
driven by a man who walks by the side with his long reins....

[Illustration: GOAT CARRIAGE FOR THE LITTLE KING OF ROME.]

But what delighted me more than anything else was the prospect of
suiting Owen and Mary exactly. What think you of a Goat Curricle? Goats
are regularly trained for draught, and are the prettiest things in the
world, trotting in neat harness with two or three children. I shall,
if I have time at Rotterdam, see if I can get a pair. Buonaparte was so
delighted with them that he ordered 4 for the King of Rome. Amsterdam is
a very large, gloomy town, intersected in all directions by water,
monotonous in the extreme. Had I not been convinced by the evidence of
my senses in looking down from a house top on several objects I had
visited in different parts of the town, I should have suspected that our
Laquais de place had amused himself by walking up and down the same
street where Canals with trees on each side do not keep the houses
asunder; high buildings and narrow streets of dark, small brown brick
constitute the character of the town, and, having seen one, you have
seen the whole. In the course of my walk I heard that two or three
Englishmen were settled in the town. I called on one, the Revd. Mr.
Lowe, with little of the Englishman left but the language. He had been
there 30 years and h