s impossible to
travel in the wrong train. It is very difficult not to get out at the
right station. The fares are very reasonable. The stationmasters are
the only visible and tangible members of the Dutch aristocracy. The
disposition of one's luggage is very simple when once it has been
mastered. The time tables are models of clarity.

The only blot on the system is the detestable double fastening to the
carriage doors, and the curious fancy, prevalent on the Continent, that
a platform is a vanity. It is a perpetual wonder to me that some of the
wider Dutch ever succeed in climbing into their trains at all; and yet
after accomplishing one's own ascent one discovers them seated there
comfortably and numerously enough, showing no signs of the struggle.

Travellers who find the Dutch tendency to closed windows a trial beyond
endurance may be interested to know that it is law in Holland that if
any passenger wish it the window on the lee side may be open. With the
knowledge of this enactment all difficulty should be over--provided
that one has sufficient strength of purpose (and acquaintance with
the Dutch language) to enforce it.

All this preamble concerning railways is by way of introduction to
the statement (hinted at in the first chapter) that if the traveller
in Holland likes, he can see a great part of the country by staying at
Amsterdam--making the city his headquarters, and every day journeying
here and there and back again by train or canal.

A few little neighbouring towns it is practically necessary to visit
from Amsterdam; and for the most part, I take it, Leyden and Haarlem
are made the object of excursions either from Amsterdam or The Hague,
rather than places of sojourn, although both have excellent quiet
inns much more to my taste than anything in the largest city. Indeed I
found Amsterdam's hotels exceedingly unsatisfactory; so much so that
the next time I go, when the electric railway to Haarlem is open,
I am proposing to invert completely the usual process, and, staying
at Haarlem, study Amsterdam from there.

For the time being, however, we must consider ourselves at Amsterdam,
branching out north or south, east or west, every morning.

A very interesting excursion may be made to Hilversum, returning by
the steam-tram through Laren, Naarden and Muiden. The rail runs at
first through flat and very verdant meadows, where thousands of cows
that supply Amsterdam with milk are grazing; and one notices