Quays of Antwerp--Peculiar mode of training young trees--The Scheldt--The flying bridge of Napoleon--Story of Van Speyk--Polder at the Tête de Flandres--Its catastrophe in 1837--Zwyndrecht--_Different professions of the Belgian saints_--Story of the curate of St. Joachim--Beveren--_St. Nicholas_--Dense population--A market--Flemish ballad-singers--Ancient drama of Flanders--Tamise--RUINOUS CONDITION OF THE COTTON TRADE _in Belgium since the revolution_--Its causes--Inability of the government to afford relief--Diminution of exports since 1833--Remarkable petition of the trade to the legislature--Remedies suggested by them--Impracticability of any commercial union with France--Or the Zollverein--_Dendermonde_--Siege by the Duke of Marlborough--Description of its present state--Its manufactures--MECHLIN--Curious old city--The Archbishop Sterckz--A political prelate--Mechlin lace--Flax--The Cathedral of St. Romoald--The tower--Carillon--Immense bells--The corporation of Mechlin--_The tomb of the Bertholdi_--Van Eyck’s paintings--_Vandyke’s Crucifixion_--Superiority of Rubens in composition--_Church of Notre-Dame_--“The miraculous draught of fishes”--Favourite paintings of Rubens in the Church of St. John--Hôtel de St. Jaques. WE started early this morning for St. Nicholas, the central town of one of the most important linen districts in Belgium, being the great mart for the produce of the Pays de Waes. Before leaving Antwerp, we took another walk through its principal squares and along the quay. The latter which is of great length, stretching up the banks of the Scheldt, is planted with tall trees, and well finished in every respect. These trees are trained in the nurseries of the Low Countries, specially for the purpose of planting in streets and squares. They are regularly pruned, like standard fruit trees for eight or ten years, till the stems, have attained ten or fifteen feet in height before they are removed, and having in the mean time, been frequently transplanted to render the roots fibrous and hardy, they are placed in their intended position, with scarcely any risk of failure or delay in the renewal of their growth.