Wilkins, in his Treatise of Mechanical Motions, mentions several great men who described and admired it. Grotius mentions an elegant figure of it in copper, done by Geyneus; and Herodius, in one of his large maps of Asia, gives another sketch of the like chariots used in China.” Incredible as this story appears, one would be disposed to think, that a man of Grotius’s celebrity for learning and truth, would scarcely have eulogized the invention, had he doubted its existence. Upon a level, hard, straight road, uninterrupted by trees and buildings, such a piece of ingenuity might perhaps prove successful as a mechanical experiment, but utterly impossible ever to be made serviceable. CHAPTER X. HISTORICAL ANECDOTE OF SCHEVELING ... ANECDOTE OF LORD NELSON ... A MARINE SCENE ... PASSION OF DUTCH FOR FLOWERS NOT SUBSIDED ... VENERATION OF DUTCH FOR STORKS ... CAUSES OF IT ... QUAILS AND SWANS ... HUMOROUS BLUNDER OF A DUTCH WAITER ... UNIVERSAL INDUSTRY ... DOGS AND GOATS ... THE THEATRE ... THEATRICAL ECONOMY ... PRODIGAL PROCREATION ... PRESENT STATE OF THE HAGUE ... STATE OF LITERATURE THERE ... BRIEF ANECDOTE OF DANIEL MYTENS ... OF JOHN HANNEMAN ... OF JOHN LE DUC, OR THE BRAVE. The coast of Scheveling is considered very dangerous in rough weather: the spires of the church here, and those of Gravesande and Monster, three leagues to the south, serve for landmarks; yet, owing to the coast of the province of Holland lying very low and flat, they are scarcely discernible three or four leagues at sea: for want of sand-banks to break the force of the sea, the coast is much exposed, and the fishermen are obliged, after their return, to haul their vessels on rollers up the beach beyond the water’s reach: this labour must be very great, for many of them are from twenty to thirty-five tons burthen.