“Many of the things were so curious that we could assign neither use nor ornament to them, and much of the interest of the collection was lost to us for want of some one to explain the uses of what we saw. Probably the following paragraph, which I have just seen in a weekly newspaper, may give the true explanation of the small size of some of the objects: The rich Dutch burghers of old believed very much in teaching children by means of their playthings, and used to give them elaborate dolls’ houses furnished with utensils in solid silver that worked perfectly, and were exact models of those in daily use in the family. There were silver lamps and coffee pots, dishes, spice boxes and everything in miniature. Thus the little Dutch girls were housewives from their babyhood. “Along the top of this rare old piece of furniture was suspended a row of porcelain plates. About the room were curiously carved and designed chairs and tables, some of the latter finely inlaid; and on the wall I particularly noticed mirrors with tortoiseshell frames. The waning light left us too little time to examine the contents of the room in detail, but we all thought it the choicest thing of the kind we had ever seen in public or private.” In a study of Dutch furniture the canal boat should not be overlooked. More than two centuries ago an English traveller asked if there were not more people living on the water in Holland than on the land. In that country canals lead from town to town and village to village, and boats perform transport service. Vegetables, fruits, flowers and dairy produce, flour and all kinds of merchandise are transported in boats; furniture is moved from house to house by means of the canal boats, and passengers are also carried. Many families know no other home than the _trekschuyt_: cradled on the drowsy waters the inmates grow to manhood and womanhood, and die in these floating homes. The traveller in Holland never fails to be interested in the canal boats that are constantly arriving and departing in the _grachten_ of the large cities; but he rarely sees their interiors. The following description by Alphonse Esquiros shows how these canal homes are furnished, and gives us an idea of the life spent there: