After passing Dendermonde, we entered the province of Brabant, at the little village of Hombech, and the train, after traversing Lehendael (the Valley of Lillies), stopped at Mechlin, whose towers had been visible long before reaching the station. One of the most conspicuous objects here, is an immense brick building, erected in 1837 or 38, for the purpose of spinning linen yarn, but never having been applied by its proprietors to that purpose, has lately been purchased by an English gentleman, Mr. Fairburne, to be converted into a manufactory of machinery, a department of manufacture which, in the present state of of Belgium, I much fear is not likely to prove more encouraging. From Malines to Brussels, the distance is fifteen miles, and was performed in something less than half an hour, the road lying through broad meadows and more extensive pastures than any I have yet seen in Belgium. On the left, these plains swell into a gentle hill of some miles in length, on which the towers and steeples of Brussels are discernible long before we approach them. Within a few miles of Malines, we passed Vilvorde, an ancient place, but now only remarkable for its vast prisons, which are seen at a considerable distance. It was at Vilvorde that Tindal, the first translator of the Bible into English, was burned for heresy in 1536. Before arriving at the termination of the journey, the road sweeps along between two gentle elevations, that on the left being covered with the villas and pleasure-grounds of Schaerbeek, the Hampstead of Brussels, and to the right, with the woods and palace of Schoenberg, near the village of Laeken, a favourite residence of King Leopold. It was built in 1782, by the Archduke Albert, for the sister of the unhappy Marie Antoinette, and to serve for the future residence of the Austrian governor of the Netherlands. It suffered during the saturnalia of the French revolution, when a lofty tower, which rose above the woods that surround it, was torn down and sold for the price of the materials. Napoleon was partial to the palace as a summer retreat, and it was whilst lingering here with Marie Louise, that he completed the final and fatal arrangements for the invasion of Russia. It is handsomely, rather than magnificently furnished, but the grounds and gardens, which have all been re-modelled in the English style, are amongst the most beautiful in Europe, and command extensive views of the broad wooded campagne of Brabant, and the cheerful heights and gothic towers of Brussels.