The revenue attached to the stadtholderate was nominally 18,000_l._ per annum; but by the great patronage and influence belonging to it, no doubt it must have been considerably augmented, as also by the revenues arising from other hereditary territories of the stadtholders; but after all, the income of the stadtholderate was scarcely sufficient to support the dignity of the situation, powerful and important as it at last became. The king, in addition to his revenue, has an enormous private fortune: the savings which he has effected in the state reconcile the Dutch to this liberal, but perhaps not excessive allowance made for the support of his dignity. How the Hague could be called a village, in all its meridian splendor, is a matter of surprise: it derived its name from s’Cravenhage, or the Count’s Wood, on account of a wood which formerly grew here, and which formed, some centuries since, a part of the domains of the Counts of Holland. The following anecdote will show the simplicity which reigned in this great and beautiful city in former times. When Louisa de Coligni was coming to be married to Prince William at the Hague, the Dutch sent an open post-waggon to meet her, and she entered the city seated on a plank: towards the latter end of Prince Maurice’s days, and during Frederic-Henry’s lifetime, the Hague became a very agreeable place, and the resort of people of the first distinction. In my rambles round this city, I was much impressed with the elegance and spaciousness of the buildings; every object seemed to have partaken of the spirit and magnificence of a court. But there was a solemnity in the splendor. It reminded one of looking into a magnificent ball-room after the greater part of the company had departed, and the lustres were dying away. If the Orange family had been entitled to sympathy, the scene would have led me to feel and think for them. Its noble buildings, its spacious streets, gracefully built, shaded with trees, and divided by canals, the variety of surrounding scenery, its proximity to the sea, its elevated situation, and the purity of its air, render the Hague the most charming town in Holland. The first place I visited was the palace of the last of the stadtholders. It is a vast pile of houses, many of them somewhat ancient, surrounded by a canal, without which and a pipe, paradise itself would have no charms for a Dutchman: over the canal are several draw-bridges; and the whole has a very pleasing effect seen from the spot where I took the view of it. On one side of a quadrangle is part of a new palace, built by the late stadtholder, and which, had it been finished, would have been handsome and princely; but the troubles in Holland have prevented its completion.