Belgium, Volume I by James Emerson Tennent

The market-day at Ghent -- The peasants -- The linen-market -- The / Book-stalls -- _Courtrai_ -- The Lys -- _Denys_ -- Distillation in / Belgium -- AGRICULTURE IN FLANDERS -- A Flemish farm -- Anecdote of / Chaptal and Napoleon -- Trade in manure -- _The Smoor-Hoop_ -- Rotation / of crops -- CULTIVATION OF FLAX -- Real importance of the crop in / Belgium -- Disadvantageous position of Great Britain as regards / the growth of flax -- State of her importations from abroad and / her dependency upon Belgium -- In the power of Great Britain / to relieve herself effectually -- System in Flanders -- _The / seed_ -- Singular fact as to the Dutch seed -- Rotation of / crops -- Spade labour -- Extraordinary care and precaution in / _weeding_ -- _Pulling_ -- THE ROUISSAGE -- In Hainault -- In the Pays / de Waes -- At Courtrai -- The process in Holland -- The process in / the Lys -- _A Bleach-green_ -- The damask manufacture in Belgium -- A / manufactory in a windmill -- Introduction of the use of _sabots_ / into Ireland -- _Courtrai_, the town -- Antiquities -- The Church / of Notre Dame -- Relic of Thomas à Becket -- THE MAISON DE FORCE / AT GHENT -- The System of prison discipline -- Labour of the / inmates -- Their earnings -- Remarkable story of Pierre Joseph / Soëte -- Melancholy case of an English prisoner -- _A sugar / refinery_ -- State of the trade in Belgium -- Curious frauds / committed under the recent law -- _Beet-root sugar_ -- Failure of the / manufacture -- A tumult at Ghent -- _The New Theatre_ -- Cultivation / of music at Ghent -- Print works of M. Desmet de Naeyer -- Effects / of the Revolution of 1830 upon the manufactures of / Belgium -- Opposition of Ghent and Antwerp to a separation from / Holland -- M. Briavionne's exposé of the ruin of the trade in / calico printing -- Smuggling across the frontiers -- Present / discontents at Ghent -- Number of insolvents in 1839 -- General / decline of her manufactures.

This being the market day for linen, we went early to the Marché de Vendredi where it is held. The winter, however, is the season in which the market is seen to the greatest advantage, as the farmers are not then prevented by their agricultural employments from attending to the weaving, and bringing of it to town for sale in December and January; so many as 2000 pieces have been sold in the course of a morning. The appearance of the peasantry was particularly prepossessing, their features handsome, their dress and person neat in the extreme; the women generally wearing long cloaks, made of printed calico, and the men the blouse of blue linen, which has become almost the national costume of Belgium.