It is certain, that if the Dutch poets are to be considered as favoured by Apollo, a condescension which those who are best acquainted with their productions much doubt, they have made more successful advances in the most difficult of poetical composition. I have heard of three epic writers; Antonides, before mentioned, who wrote an epic poem on the river Y, on which the city of Amsterdam is erected; Rotzans, and the author of Abraham de Aartsvader, or the history of Abraham the Patriarch. The Dutch mention with great exultation the name of De Cotts, who, like our Prior, united the characters of poet and statesman; his sensibility is said to have been very acute, his fancy very luxuriant, and his powers of versification very mellifluous. So attractive were the Muses, that when he held the splendid office of lord keeper of the seals in Holland and West Friesland, and stadtholder of the fiefs, he retired to his native shades to tune his oaten reed, which entitled him amongst his countrymen to the appellation of the Dutch Ovid: at the earnest solicitation of their high mightinesses, he quitted his lyre and beloved retreat, and appeared at the court of Cromwell in the character of ambassador of the States to England, where he was received with that politeness and attention which our country never fails to observe towards strangers of merit and distinction. Having accomplished the object of his mission, he retired from the bustle of life to his native country, in the bosom of which he expired, beloved, honoured, and lamented. I was not much surprised to find that the splendor of the Hague was principally confined to its buildings, although it has been so often, in other times, celebrated for its magnificence and the expense of its inhabitants: the revolution expelled its hereditary princes, dispersed its nobles, and visited every description of society with more or less distress. However, I was informed by those who were enabled to compare, that it is again rearing its head. Before the revolution, sumptuous equipages and various other characteristics of polished luxury were displayed in almost every street; and the foreign ministers vied with each other in costly splendor: during the operation of that political hurricane scarce any other carriage was to be seen save a few crazy fiacres, and every servant was stripped of his livery. At present, society seems to be returning to many of its original habits, and some handsome equipages appeared in different parts of the town; yet, upon the whole, the first impression of its gloom was never effaced.