“N’entends Français,” is the reply, accompanied by a disclamatory shake of the head. It is a reminder that the Flemish tongue is master here, in actual fact, if not by legal right. Even the government is obliged to come to a compromise, and affix the names of the streets to their corners both in Flemish and in French. The railway porter, who handed us our luggage, was deaf and dumb as far as we were concerned, and signed us over to a brother medium. The coachman who drove us to our inn just comprehended the words “Hôtel de Flandre”--and a capital and recommendable hotel it is--but he comprehended no more of the further clever remarks addressed to him. Many of the Gantois who do speak French manage it so badly, and are so decidedly not at home in it, that you feel quite delighted at your own superiority to them, born Belgians though they be. But Flemish has so close a relationship to our own vernacular, that the names of trades over the shops, the bills, and the public notices, are as amusing to read as it is to hear a foreigner speak broken English. Drap Straet is Cloth, or Draper’s Street. One man sells alle soorte of wares; another offers you cart-grease under the name of wagen smeer; kelder te huren is cellar to hire; kamer te huren is chamber to hire. A koperslager is a coppersmith. Professions which require no interpreter are the bakker, the matte-maeker, the timmerman, the apotheker en drogiste, and the boekhandlaer. The three grand literary elements are announced for sale as pennen, inkt, en papier. If your family is small, you may be content with securing Een Huis to let; but should you be expecting a large and sudden increase, you had better engage Twee Huyzen, if adjacent. In the Apelmerkt, you could hardly mistake the fruit that is sold there. When thirsty, you may go and drink a glass of dobbel-bier at the hospitable sign of De Roose; or you may prefer to patronise the Oliphant (without a castle), or the Bruyn Visch,--that is to say, the Red Herring. Good little boys and girls punctually attend a zondagschool. Booksellers’ windows invite you to the perusal of Flemish novels; such as Een Zwanenzang (a swan’s song), by Jan Van Beers, and De Zending der Vrow (Woman’s Mission), by Hendrik Conscience.