On the following morning we breakfasted at seven o’clock, and, after taking a short walk into the town, set off for the barge to Bruges, which lay at a considerable distance from the hotel, and starts at nine o’clock in the morning. The day was unfavourable; it blew hard, and we had frequent showers of rain; however, we were better situated for these gales than had we been in the packet midway between Ostend and Margate. Between twelve and one o’clock, a better dinner was placed before us, than I had met with at any table d’hôte in France, Germany, or the Low Countries, and the wine was universally praised. I certainly had as good a pint of Burgundy as I had met with on the continent, for which, with my dinner, and the fare for thirty miles’ journey, including the conveyance of baggage, I was only charged seven francs and a half. Our dinner concluded with a magnificent dessert; we had more baskets of peaches than we could make use of, grapes (the first I had met with this season), and abundance of the more common fruits. We arrived at Bruges at half-past three, and, without tarrying, immediately traversed the city to the barge for Ostend, on a canal at the opposite side of it. All I know of this place is, that we walked through the town for nearly two miles before we reached the boat. Our barge from Bruges, as well as our party, was much smaller than the one we had travelled with from Ghent; soon after seven o’clock we arrived at Sas van Ghent, a small village, about a mile from Ostend, where we rested a few minutes, after which we proceeded into the town, when about eight o’clock I reached the Wellington hotel, an inn conveniently situated for the custom-house, and the packets sailing to and from England, and which has been established by an Englishman, lately the head waiter from Nicholson’s hotel. On our arrival at Ostend we found two packets intending to sail for England, a private one for Margate and London, on the following day, and a government one for Dover on the succeeding day to that; those to whom time is of importance, however, unless a vessel is on the point of sailing from hence, and the wind favourable, will do well to take the barge to Dunkirk, and travel from that place to Calais by the diligence.