On each side for most of its height the architect designed a series of lofty Gothic windows. Of these the lowest are filled in with masonry, except for a tiny window in the centre. In the higher ones stone blinds fill in the openings, while the topmost pair are wide open to the sky. The well-known legend about the over-excitable citizen of Malines who cried "Fire!" one night after seeing the full moon through these windows gave the people of the town for many years the nickname of _Maanblusschers_, or moon extinguishers, and also gave rise to the slur in the last three words of the following Latin distich in which an old monkish poet compares the six chief cities of Belgium: _Nobilibus Bruxella viris, Antwerpia Nummis, Gandavum laqueis, formosis Bruga puellis, Lovanium doctis, gaudet Mechlinia stultis._ Brussels is renowned for its noble men, Antwerp for its money, Ghent for its halters, Bruges for its pretty girls, Louvain for its scholars, Malines (Mechelen) for its fools. This seems rather hard on Malines, and also on Ghent, the allusion to that city referring to numerous occasions when its sovereigns humbled the burghers by forcing them to plead for mercy with halters around their necks. On the outside of the tower, close to its present summit, is a clock the face of which is claimed to be the largest in the world. As the same claim is made for the great clock on an industrial establishment in Jersey City I will simply give the dimensions of the one at Malines and let those interested make the comparison for themselves: Diameter of face, 13.5 metres; circumference, 41 metres; length of hour hand, 3.62 metres; height of figures, 1.96 metres. The minute hands were originally 4.25 metres long, but are missing on all four sides. This renders the time-piece hardly one to be consulted if one is catching a train, as the exact minute can only be estimated from the position of the hour hand. Furthermore, the gilding on the hour hands and on most of the figures has become so dim that only the strongest eyes can distinguish the former, and some of the latter can only be made out from their position. As the city appeared to be exceedingly proud of the size of this clock it seemed strange that the authorities did not authorise the expenditure of the small sum necessary to re-gild it.