the extent of their farms, their ideas on agriculture, the amount of rents, length of leases, nor the value of land, &c. Coarsely fed and coarsely clad, still they are an industrious, hard-working, and contented race; not very intelligent, I allow, but perhaps they are the happier for it;--they are kind to their inferiors, affable and communicative with their equals, and respectful, almost to servility, to their superiors, or those they fancy such.[7] Although many of the farming establishments in our neighbourhood resembled in plan and construction those already described about Dendermonde, yet were they not universally of this description. That adjoining the chateau was really a very fine one--substantial brick house, barns, out-houses of every kind, all on a great scale, and, as usual, surrounded by a spacious court. But others were very different from this; many were very humble abodes, constructed of wood or clay, with thatched roofs and small casement windows, standing along the edges of the fields, with their barn adjoining but not united, nor any courtyard for manure, &c., the outbuildings all on a small scale, as also, I suppose, were their farms. Others, standing likewise open in the fields, were again of a different character. These had high thatched roofs injecting several feet beyond the walls, and supported by rough posts, forming a sort of verandah; this is filled up to the eaves with firewood--some in logs, some in fagots--which gives to the exterior a very rude appearance, and must make the interior very dark, from the great depth of embrasure thus formed both to door and window; but to balance this, it keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter. Although the actual village of Strytem consisted of no more than the chateau, the farm, and the few mean houses clustered round the church, yet the commune was extensive, comprising not only many fine farms, but also other and more important villages. The real _maire_ was M. le Baron Von Volden, son of the proprietress of our chateau. He, however, seldom came nearer the place than Brussels, leaving to his worthy _adjoint_, Jan Evenpoel, the care of administering the government, and at the time of our arrival either was in Paris, or had but just returned from it. Where the _maire_ is thus vested in the person of the _châtelain_, the post seems to be one of much importance--not confined to the police of the village alone, but extending to a general superintendence over the welfare of the commune, the state of the roads, &c. &c. Whether owing to the baron being so much an absentee I know not, but the roads all about Strytem were hardly passable after heavy rain (of which we had a pretty good share), not only from their badness, having no foundations, and receiving little or no repair, but also from the unctuous and slippery soil, which makes riding absolutely dangerous immediately after rain. Some of the worst sloughs, which otherwise