Hard-by, on the bank of this same river, a little higher up stream, stands the Beguinage (_see_ map), that most picturesque cloister where the quaint dwellings of the nuns--for each Beguin has her own home, her own purse and her own household--fringe a fair and spacious green planted with lofty elms, a very tranquil spot where the ghost of the thirteenth century still lingers. The convent church dates from the year 1245, but it has been so changed and spoiled by repeated restorations that little of the original building remains, and it can no longer, perhaps, be called beautiful. But, notwithstanding, it has a certain charm which is quite its own. It is so picturesque and so clean and so quiet and so comfortable, and with it all there is such a quaint, old-world atmosphere about the place that many a much more beautiful church is far less attractive. And the worshippers who frequent it!--the very precise and deliberate and ceremonious old ladies who totter across the green to church at intervals throughout the day--from _angelus_ to _angelus_, and there let down their long black trains and put on their white choir veils, and presently, with much curtseying to one another and many genuflections before the high altar, together chant their breviary in feeble, quavering tones, whilst the old caretaker, in a secluded corner, calmly tells her beads or knits stockings. The entrance to the Beguinage is by the _Place de la Vigne_, over a bridge which spans the Roya, whence there are beautiful views of that stream, of the Beguins' little gardens, of their church, of the old lockhouse at the head of the Minne Water, of the lake itself beyond, and, in the far background, of those lovely wooded ramparts, where all night long in summer-time the nightingale intones _his_ psalmody. The canals of Bruges are all of them exceedingly beautiful. The great canal, which enters the city on the eastern side between the _Porte de Gand_ and the Infantry Barracks, and divides it into two unequal parts, is interesting from end to end, and as there are roads on each side, and it is spanned by five bridges, there is no difficulty in exploring it. The most picturesque route is from the Bourg by the _rue de l'âne Aveugle_ and the terrace which skirts the backwater of the Roya--the _Quai des Marbriers_, as it is called, and the _Quai Vert_. Hard-by the spot where the main stream of the Roya--a vista here of ancient gables with the _Poorters Logie_ and its charming tower in the distance--empties itself into the canal is the old tavern which Rubens is said to have frequented. It stands in the _rue des Blanchisseurs_, a narrow lane off the road which skirts the right-hand bank of the canal, and is called the _Vlissinghe_. A most interesting old place this, the tourist should not fail to visit it. The accompanying sketch is of the back of the house. [Illustration: THE VLISSINGHE TAVERN, FREQUENTED BY RUBENS]