Towards the end of the same century (1481) the inhabitants of Ghent determined on the erection of a town-hall, which, had it ever been finished, would have surpassed all the others in size and richness, though whether it would have equalled them in beauty is more than doubtful. After a century of interrupted labour the design was abandoned before it was more than two-thirds completed, and now that age has softened down its extravagances, it is a pleasing and perhaps beautiful building. Nothing, however, can exceed the extent of tormented and unmeaning ornament that is spread over every part of it, showing great richness certainly, but frequently degenerating into very bad taste. The architecture of the hall at Ypres, though only half or one-third as costly in proportion to its extent, is far nobler and more satisfactory than this ever could have been. But when erected the day of true art was past, and its place was sought to be supplied by extent of ornament. The same remarks apply to the town-hall at Oudenarde, a building evidently meant as a copy of that at Louvain, but having combined with it a belfry, in imitation of that at Brussels. The result is certainly rich and pleasing in general effect; but the details incidental to its age (1525) have marred the execution, and given to the whole a clumsiness and a flimsiness that greatly detract from its beauty. Even the effect of the belfry is spoiled by the temptation to exhibit a masonic trick, and make it appear as if standing on the two slight pillars of the porch. It is clever, but apparent stability is as necessary to true architectural beauty as real stability is to the dignity of the art. Among the smaller halls that of Mons is perhaps the most elegant, and is very similar to that of St. Quentin, which, though now in France, was a Flemish city at the time of its erection. In the days of her magnificence Mechlin attempted the erection of a splendid hall, which was intended to rival those of any of the neighbouring towns. Civic troubles, however, put a stop to the work before it was carried so far as to enable us now even to determine what the original design may have been. Among minor edifices of the same class may be mentioned the cloth-halls of Louvain and Ghent, both of the best age, though small; and the Boucheries or meat-markets of Diest, Ypres, Antwerp, and other towns—the boatman’s lodge at Ghent and the burgesses’ lodge at Bruges, besides numerous other scattered memorials of civic magnificence that meet one everywhere in this great emporium of Mediæval industry.