miles wide, including a great variety of ground, and in different directions were several others nearly of the same extent. At first, one is surprised at finding such vast tracts of woodland in a country so populous and so assiduously cultivated; but the thing is easily explained. In addition to the ordinary demands for small wood in husbandry, there are large and numerous hop-grounds requiring a continual supply of poles; but, above all, the enormous quantity of fuel required, not only by the peasantry, but also by the inhabitants of the towns,--wood being almost exclusively used for that purpose. The kind of country I have been describing extended northward from us as far as Assche--perhaps much further, but of that I know not--and eastward to Brussels. Towards the south the round hills gradually gave place to longer slopes and plateaux, and the woods became less frequent, but the villages were numerous, with the same careful cultivation everywhere. Toward the west, and only a few miles distant, we were bounded by the Dender, holding its course through extensive flat meadows covered with luxuriant crops of hay, or affording pasturage to herds of fine cattle. Beyond the river-valley the country assumed a different aspect: long and less abrupt slopes; woods fewer and thinner; a total absence of hedges; altogether presenting an aspect in many places bare and cheerless, strongly contrasting with the lovely scenery about Strytem--if I may call scenery lovely where we find neither rock, nor mountain, nor precipice, nor torrent; but it is home scenery, and its character simplicity, luxuriance, abundance, tranquillity, and repose. There one saw the rustic dwellings of the peasantry situated in secluded nooks, and embosomed in orchards and hop-grounds; the rural village with its modest church low down in the rich bottom, surrounded by smiling fields of grain or clover; a gentle rivulet slowly winding its devious way amidst the rank luxuriance of vegetation clothing its overhanging banks; the whole encased, as it were, by wavy heights, crowned with thick and verdant woods. One thing, however, was wanting to complete this picture of rural wealth and happiness--it wanted the animating presence of domestic animals, of herds and flocks dotting the fair surface of its fields. The farms in this country are not large as with us; the farmer does not live in a splendid mansion, still more splendidly furnished, nor does he idle away his time in shooting or fox-hunting. The Flemish farmer is a plain honest rustic, clad in homespun grey, a cotton night-cap on his head, wooden shoes on his feet, and the everlasting short pipe in his mouth; he himself holds the plough, guides his team, or assists in thrashing out his grain. Ignorance of their language prevented my acquiring more information concerning them and their affairs than what could be done by observation of outward appearance; therefore I could neither learn