Belgium, Volume I by James Emerson Tennent

OSTEND, the Harbour -- Canal Docks -- Police -- Economy of a private / carriage for a party on the continent -- General aspect of / Ostend -- Effluvia -- Siege in 1604 -- Fortifications -- Promenade -- Sands / and sea-bathing -- Commerce -- BRUGES, the railroad -- Belgium / naturally suited to railroads -- Old canal travelling to Bruges / superseded -- Appearance of the city -- Its style of ancient / houses -- The streets -- Canals and gardens -- Squares -- Style of public / edifices -- Resembles Pisa -- _Ancient history of Bruges_ -- Its / old palaces -- Marriages of Charles the Rash and Mary of / Burgundy -- Singular marriage custom of the middle ages -- House / in which the Emperor Maximilian was confined -- Residences of / Edward IV. of England, and of Charles II. -- _Commercial greatness / of Bruges_ -- The Hanseatic League -- Her tapestries -- The order / of the Golden Fleece instituted in her honour -- Saying of / the Queen of Philip the Fair -- Story of the Burghers at the / court of John of France -- _Her present decay_ -- Air of reduced / nobility -- Costume of the middle classes -- Grave demeanour of / the citizens -- No traces of the Spaniards to be found in the / Low Countries -- _Flemish sculptures in wood_ -- Pictures -- No / modern paintings in Bruges -- _Collection in the Church of St. / Sauveur_ -- Characteristics of the early Flemish school -- The / paintings in _the Museum_ -- Statue of Van Eyck -- His claim to / be the inventor of oil painting -- _Collection in the Chapel of / the Hospital of St. John_ -- Story of Hans Memling -- The cabinet / of St. Ursula -- The folding-doors of the Flemish paintings -- The / Hospital of St. John -- Statue by Michael Angelo -- TOMBS OF / MARY OF BURGUNDY AND CHARLES THE RASH -- The tower of Les / Halles -- Carillon -- Splendid view -- The _Palais de Justice_ -- Superb / carved mantel-piece -- _Hotel de Ville_ -- Its statues destroyed by / the French revolutionists -- Diamond setters -- Comparison of Bruges / and Tyre -- Mr. Murray's hand-books -- The manufacture of lace in / Belgium.

September, 1840. AT sunset when about ten to fifteen miles from land, we had the first sight of the coast of the "Low Countries," not as on other shores discernible by hills or cliffs, but by the steeples of Nieuport, Ostend, and Blankenburg rising out of the water; presently a row of wind-mills, and the tops of a few trees and houses, and finally a long line of level sand stretching away towards Walcheren and the delta of the Scheldt. Within fourteen hours from heaving up our anchor at the Tower, we cast it in the harbour of Ostend, a narrow estuary formed where the waters of a little river have forced their way through the sand-banks to the sea. An excellent quay has been constructed by flanking the sides of this passage with extensive piers of timber, whilst the stream being confined by dams and sluices above, is allowed to rush down at low water, carrying before it to the sea, any silt which may have been deposited by the previous tide.