_31st._ This morning I arose with thoughts of Heidelberg, it being dear F***'s birthday, which I knew would therefore be one of pleasure in the happy home I had left. After breakfast we set off for Dunkirk. The country through which we passed is exceedingly flat and uninteresting. On arriving at Gravelines, a strongly fortified little town, we found that the carriage had sunk, the leathers being new, so that we were obliged to send for a smith and a saddler, who detained us nearly two hours. We then proceeded through the same uninteresting flat to Dunkirk. After dinner we walked out to see the town, which is very clean, and has good broad streets. Near the market place is the episcopal church of Cambrai, the diocese of the celebrated Fenelon. The portico is chaste and beautiful, consisting of ten lofty corinthian pillars supporting a frieze. The interior of the church is simple and elegant. The harbour of Dunkirk is large, but nearly choked up with mud; on one side of it is a large basin newly made, which is kept full at low water by means of flood gates. _April 1st._ We started after breakfast for Ghent, and passed first through Bergues, a little town with very strong fortifications. At Rousbrugge, three postes and a half from Dunkirk, we entered the territory of the King of the Netherlands. We passed the custom house without having any part of our baggage examined, Sir Humphry's passport being signed by the Dutch Ambassador at London, who had added to his signature a request to the officers on the boundary to treat _ce celebre sçavant_ with all possible attention and respect. The country beyond Rousbrugge becomes rather more diversified; the hedges, which are formed of small trees, are often very prettily interwoven, forming a fence at once useful and elegant; and we passed the first hill, a very low one, which we had seen since we left Calais. We drove on through Ypres and Menin, and spent the night at Courtrai. All these towns are strongly fortified, chiefly I believe under the direction of the celebrated Vauban, and are called the iron boundary of Holland. They are kept very clean and neat. Ypres has a fine large gothic town-house, with an immense number of windows in it. I read in the evening to Sir Humphry part of the "Bravo of Venice," and he dictated a few pages on the existence of a greater quantity of carbon in the primary world, and on some of the phenomena of the Lago di Solfatara, near Rome. His clear reasoning, and the proofs and facts which he adduces in support of his theories, still show the quick and powerful mind of his former days, when his bodily faculties were in the fulness of their vigour, and not, as now, a weight and oppression upon his mental powers.