ing of the
zeal and bravery of British armies and commanders. But however justly
these sieges are celebrated in _modern times_, the _antiquarian_ who
contends for the _supremacy of past ages_ over the present, will not
fail to instance the siege of _Troy_ and the exploits of Achilles and
Agamemnon, as a more distinguished instance of perseverance than any to
be met with in these _degenerate_ _days_, and if he should meet with
some _sceptic_ who insists that the heroes of Homer owe their existence
only to the imagination of the poet, although he can assent to no such
hypothesis, yet he will also instance the siege of _Azotus_, on the
frontiers of Egypt, which Psammeticus, meditating extensive conquests,
and thinking it beneath him to leave so strong a fortress unsubdued, is
related to have spent 29 years of his reign in reducing.

As I was desirous of visiting Antwerp and Ghent, and as the period
allotted for my tour was drawing to a close (a circumstance which the
advanced season of the year gave me but little reason to regret) I left
Brussels, enveloped in a fog, which might remind the English
fashionables of those so prevalent in London during the gloomy season of
November, and proceeded to Malines, 14 miles distant, formerly one of
the greatest cities of Belgium, but now like too many other once
celebrated places in that country, affording a melancholy contrast to
its former splendour, and proving that in the vicissitude of all
sublunary affairs, cities, as well as their inhabitants, are subject to
decay.

Non indignemur mortalia corpora solvi Cernimus exemplis oppida
posse mori.

Here are several manufactories of excellent lace and many breweries, but
the beer is considered as greatly inferior to that of Louvain. The
houses are spacious, and exhibit singular specimens of ancient taste;
the roofs rise to a great height and terminate in a sharp point. Their
walls are generally of an excessive whiteness. The tower of the
cathedral is highly finished, and rises to a vast height. There being
little to detain me here, Malines being more remarkable for what it once
was, than for what it now is, I continued my way to Antwerp along an
excellent paved road, lined by avenues of trees, which are often so cut
(the Dutch differing from the Minorquins, who never prune a tree,
saying, that nature knows best how it should grow) as not to be at all
ornamental, and in some places cannot be said to afford either "from
s