The largest and most varied exhibition was made by Messrs. Daniells and Son, of London; and they had collected their work from many potters, some of them among the most distinguished of England at the present time. CHAPTER XVI. THE PORCELAINS OF NORTHERN EUROPE. Holland and Belgium.--Oriental Trade.--Weesp.--Marks.--Loosdrecht.--Amstel, Old and New.--Marks.--The Hague.--Marks.--Lille.--Mark.--Tournay. --Marks.--Sweden.--Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII.--Marieberg.--Rörstrand.--Marks.--Denmark.--Copenhagen. --Marks.--Russia.--Peter the Great.--Catherine II.--Marks.--Tver.--Gardner.--Moscow.--Popoff.--Gulena. --Mark.--Poland.--Korzec. Holland AND BELGIUM.--It may be said that long before Holland attempted the production of porcelain she had been making faience or earthen-ware, which is now well known under the name of delft, of which I have given a condensed account elsewhere. When one remembers that Holland has long winters and cool summers; that her people have not only had to fight their fellow-men, but have had to snatch from the cruel sea a considerable portion of what is now dry land; that she has had to build two hundred miles of broad and strong dikes, and to see that they are always strong and safe; and, added to this, has had to draw forth from the soil and the sea the food to feed her millions--when one remembers these things, one well may wonder that there has grown up there such a love for art as has produced the most interesting school of painters in all the world; that all over this hollow land are well-built cities and most comfortable houses, and that in these houses are probably more fine porcelains and curious clocks, pictures, and tapestries, than in any other land, one wonders still more. The two secrets which help to explain this singular success are these: This necessary warfare with Nature has made a hardy, a patient, and a frugal people. Not only has this people conquered and subdued the _land_--it has also conquered and subdued the _sea_, and has drawn stores of wealth from both. So it has come to pass that one hundred thousand men were engaged, in the last century, in the fisheries, and a common saw was that "the foundations of Amsterdam were laid on herring-bones." But these fisheries created a class of men who were ready to rove the ocean in search of good or gold. Her daring navigators soon followed Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope, and in due time succeeded to the trade of the East, which she held for over two centuries, and out of which she gained untold wealth; with which she built cities and castles and churches; with which she paid artists; with which she stocked her houses with the finest porcelains of the East.