pen. The Rennes judiciaries should
have sat there, to lend further ironical point to their decision.

The stadhuis has other possessions interesting to anti-quaries:
valuable documents, gold and silver work, the metal and leather squirts
through which boiling oil was projected at the enemies of the town;
while an iron cage for criminals, similar, I imagine, to that in
which Jan of Leyden was exhibited, hangs outside.

Travellers visit Kampen pre-eminently to see the stadhuis chimney-piece
and oak, but the whole town is a museum. I wish now that I had arranged
to be longer there; but unaware of Kampen's charms I allowed but a
short time both for Zwolle and itself. On my next visit to Holland
Kampen shall be my headquarters for some days. Amid the restfulness
of mediaevalism, the friendliness of the fishing folk and the breezes
of the Zuyder Zee, one should do well. A boat from Amsterdam to Kampen
sails every morning.

Despite its Judgment Hall and its other merits Kampen is the Dutch
Gotham. Any foolishly naive speech or action is attributed to
Kampen's wise men. In one story the fathers of the town place the
municipal sundial under cover to protect it from the rays of the
sun. In another they meet together to deliberate on the failure of
the water pipes and fire engines during a fire, and pass a rule that
"on the evening preceding a fire" all hydrants and engines must be
overhauled. M. Havard gives also the following instance of Kampen
sagacity. A public functionary was explaining the financial state of
the town. He asserted that one of the principal profits arose from
the tolls exacted on the entrance of goods into the town. "Each
gate," said the ingenious advocate, "has brought in ten million
florins this year; that is to say, with seven gates we have gained
seventy million florins. This is a most important fact. I therefore
propose that the council double the number of gates, and in this way
we shall in future considerably augment our funds." The Irishman who,
when asked to buy a stove that would save half his fuel, replied that
he would have two and save it all, was of the same school of logic.

From Kampen the island of Urk may be visited: but I have not been
there. In 1787, I have read somewhere, the inhabitants of Urk decided
to form a club in which to practise military exercises and the use of
arms. When the club was formed it had but one member. Hence a Dutch
saying--"It is the Urk club".

Nor did I stay