It is true that but a short period, about a century and a half, elapsed from the death of Mary of Burgundy to that of Albert and Isabella, but it is equally true, that for generations before, the princes of the Low Countries had sought their matrimonial alliances at the court of Spain; and under Philip the Handsome and Charles V, when the Netherlands were in the pride of their prosperity, they afforded an alluring point for the resort of the adventurers of that country, and of the numbers who availed themselves of the royal encouragement to settle there; it is curious that not a mansion, not a monument, or almost a remnant should now be discernible. In Bruges, as in most other catholic cities, the chief depositaries of objects of popular admiration are the churches; and of these, the most attractive and remarkable are the matchless sculptures in wood which decorate the confessionals and pulpits, and in the richness and masterly workmanship of which, the specimens in the Netherlands are quite unrivalled. Bruges is rich in these. In the church of Notre Dame, the pulpit is a superb work of art of this description; chiselled in oak, supported by groups of figures the size of life, and decorated throughout with arabesques and carvings of flowers and fruit of the most charming execution. It is of vast dimensions for such a work, reaching from the floor almost to the gothic roof of the building. In the same church there are two confessionals of equal elegance, each separated, as usual, into three apartments by partitions, in front of each of which are caryatides, which support the roof. In the church of the Holy Saviour,[4] the grand organ presents another example of this gorgeous carving; and in the little chapel of St. Sang, which is possessed of a few drops of _the genuine blood of our Saviour_, periodically exhibited in its jewelled shrine to the faithful, there is a pulpit, perhaps, of better workmanship than taste, the shell of which represents the terrestrial globe, (orbis veteribus cognita), with a delineation of those geographical outlines which were known at the period of its erection.