The first feature of Antwerp is the soaring and majestic tower of its Cathedral, springing from three to four hundred feet above the level plain. Beyond any comparison, this is the most chaste and beautiful steeple I have ever seen, its extraordinary height between three and four hundred feet, being less surprising than its airy and graceful lightness. It tapers up arch above arch, not in solid masonry, but pierced with innumerable openings, through which the clear blue sky is seen through the gothic net-work of its minarets and spandrils. It was of this handsome spire, that Charles V. said, it should be preserved under glass, and Napoleon with more vraisemblance, observed, that it reminded him of _Mechlin lace_. The entrance to the city, by the Porte de Borgerhout, gives a striking impression of its great strength, its fortifications rising in huge mounds of brickwork, above broad and river-like fosses, and the road after passing draw-bridge after draw-bridge entering a ponderous arch, apparently hollowed out of the ramparts, on emerging from which the wheels rattle and re-echo over the rough pavement of the narrow gloomy streets, that lead into the heart of the city. Its appearance is like that of all the other ancient fortified towns of the Low Countries, where the circuit of the city, being girt in and determined by the line of the walls, the necessity of economizing space led to the construction of gloomy passages, and lofty houses that overshadow the street, and keep the sun from ever shining upon the pavement. Towards the centre of the town, however, there are some ample streets, and a lively square, the _Place Vert_, planted with trees and surrounded on all sides by hotels, cafés, and modern houses of great elegance. In the _Place de Mer_, there is a spacious mansion, surmounted by the royal arms, which is dignified with the name of a palace, but was merely the mansion of a merchant of Antwerp, and was purchased by Napoleon, as a residence for himself and his marshals, on their temporary visits to the city. It is still retained for the same purpose by King Leopold. In an adjoining street, which bears his name, is the house and garden of Rubens, the site of which he purchased from the corporation of the Arquebusiers, whose hall was next door, in exchange for his great picture in the Cathedral, of the “Descent from the Cross.” The generality of the houses are built of dark sand-stone, without any architectural decoration, except their castellated gables, which, as usual, are turned upon the street; the windows are generally furnished with espions, and at many of the corners, niches in which are seated tawdry Madonnas, covered with a profusion of brocade and copper lace. The weather became rainy before we left, and this together with the want of footways to the streets, the filth of the centre, and the odours which the unusual stream of water awoke from every sewer, left our impression of the domestic comforts of Antwerp, less agreeable,