Expect the frequent recurrence of the following =symbols= on houses or pictures: (1) the Lion of Flanders, heraldic or otherwise, crowned, and bearing a collar with a pendant cross; (2) the Bear of Bruges; (3) the Golden Fleece (_Toison d’or_), the device of the Order founded by Philippe le Bon in 1430, and appropriate to a country which owed its wealth to wool; it consists of a sheep’s skin suspended from a collar. The Flemish emblem of the Swan is also common as a relief or decoration. St. Donatian, Archbishop of Rheims, is the patron saint. His mark is a wheel with five lighted candles. _B._ THE HEART OF THE CITY [The original =nucleus of Bruges= is formed by the =Bourg=, which stands near the centre of the modern city. In 865, Baldwin Bras-de-Fer, Count of Flanders, built a _château_ or _burg_ by the Reye, in a corner of land still marked by the modern canal of the Dyver, and near it a chapel, into which he transported the relics of St. Donatian. This _burg_ grew in time into the chief palace of the Counts of Flanders, now replaced by the Palais de Justice; while the chapel by its side developed into the first cathedral of Bruges, St. Donatian, now wholly demolished. A bridge hard by crossed the little river Reye; and from this bridge the town ultimately derives its name. The _burg_ was built as a _tête-du-pont_ to protect the passage. A town of traders gradually sprang up under the protection of the castle, and developed at last into the great trading port of Bruges. To this centre, then, we will first direct ourselves.] Go from your hotel, down the Rue St. Amand, or the Rue St. Jacques, to the =Grand’ Place= or market-place of Bruges, noticing on your way the numerous handsome old houses, with high-pitched roofs and gable-ends arranged like steps, mostly of the 16th and 17th centuries. (Bruges is a Flemish-speaking town: note the true names of the streets in Flemish.) The very tall square tower which faces you as you enter the Grand’ Place is the =*Belfry=, the centre and visible embodiment of the town of Bruges. The Grand' Place itself was the forum and meeting-place of the soldier-citizens, who were called to arms by the chimes in the Belfry. The centre of the Place is therefore appropriately occupied by a colossal =statue group= (modern) of Pieter de Coninck and Jan Breidel, the leaders of the citizens of Bruges at the Battle of the Spurs before the walls of Courtrai in 1302, a conflict which secured the freedom of Flanders from the interference of the Kings of France. The group is by Devigne. The _reliefs_ on the pedestal represent scenes from the battle and its antecedents.