The railroad from Bruges to Ghent, runs for the entire way within view, and frequently along the bank of the canal which connects the two cities, and which occasionally presents greater beauty than one is prepared to expect; its waters folded over with the broad leaves of the water lilly, and variegated with its flowers, and those of the yellow bog bean; and its steep banks covered with the tassels of the flowering rush. The road passed through numerous copses, cultivated for firewood and planted with the oak, the chesnut and the weeping birch, with here and there broad patches of firs and hornbeam. But the beauty of the long lines of ornamental trees which enclose the road and sometimes border the canals in Flanders, is much impaired by the fashion of pollarding their tops for the purpose of fuel. One misses, also, the numerous seats and mansions of the landed gentry to which we are familiarized in travelling in our own country, “the happy homes of England,” that constitute the rich luxuriance of a British landscape. But here, their erection is discountenanced by the law against primogeniture, by which the property of the individual is compulsorily divided amongst his heirs; and, at former periods, their absence may, perhaps, be ascribed to the insecurity of the country, perpetually visited with war and all its accessories, so that men found their only safety within the walls of their fortified towns. In the neighbourhood of Ghent, however, they are more frequent than in any other district of Belgium which I have seen, an evidence, perhaps, of the more abundant wealth of its successful manufactures and merchants. In the vicinity of all the villages and suburbs, each house is provided with a garden, richly stocked with flowers, (amongst which the multitude of dahlias was quite remarkable), and surrounded, not by a fence, but more frequently, in gardens of any extent, by a broad dyke of deep water, covered with lillies and aquatic plants. Every inch of ground seemed to have been subjected to the spade, and with a more than Chinese economy of the soil, made to contribute either to the decoration or the support of the owner’s dwelling. After passing the hamlets of Bloemendael (the valley of flowers), and Aeltre, we came in sight of Ghent, situated on a considerable elevation above the water of the Scheldt (pronounced _Skeld_), the Lys, the Lieve, and the Moer, which meet around its base, and with their communicating branches and canals, divide the city into six-and-twenty islets, connected by upwards of eighty bridges of wood or stone. Its towers and steeples are discernible for some miles before it is reached, mingled with the tall chimnies of its numerous manufactories, which mark it as the Manchester of Belgium.