A passenger can seldom pass a street without seeing one or more public functionaries, I believe peculiar to this country; they are called aanspreeker, and their office is to inform the friends and acquaintances of any one who dies, of the melancholy event. The dress of these death-messengers is a black gown, a band, a low cocked hat with a long crape depending behind. To pass from the shade of death to the light of love: a singular custom obtains upon the celebration of marriage amongst genteel persons, for the bride and bridegroom to send each a bottle of wine, generally fine hock, spiced and sugared, and decorated with all sorts of ribbands, to the house of every acquaintance; a custom which is frequently very expensive. The Dutch have also a singular mode of airing linen and beds, by means of a trokenkorb, or fire-basket, which is about the size and shape of a magpie’s cage, within which is a pan filled with burning turf, and the linen is spread over its wicker frame, or to air the bed, the whole machine is placed between the sheets. With an exception of the streets I have mentioned, and some others in that quarter of the city, they are not remarkable either for beauty or cleanliness. They are all paved with brick, and none of them have any divided flagstone footpath for foot-passengers: however, the pavement is more handsome and comfortable than that of Paris; although in both cities the pedestrian has no walk that he can call his own, yet in Amsterdam is he more secure than in the French capital, on account of the few carriages, and the skill and caution of the drivers. In no capital in the world, not even excepting Petersburg, is the foot-passenger so nobly accommodated as in London. Most of the streets in Amsterdam are narrow; and many in which very opulent merchants reside, and great traffic is carried on, are not more than sixteen or seventeen feet wide.