HOLLAND.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 586, 19 July 1913, Page 3

HOLLAND.

ITS LANDSCAPES—ITS TOWNS AND VILLAGES. The inner parts of Holland on the German side arc very distinct ir their landscapes from the absolute-!;, flat, canal-and-river.permeated coastlands, which are below sen-level. Only the coast dunjs and the east ern parts of Friesland and Holland would still remain visible, .-i hundred feet or so above sea-level, if the se;i were not kept out by the works ol man. Inland Holland is a country of undulating moors and hillocks, of heaths brilliantly purple with heather and ling between July and October, of tall birches, scrubby pine~ : and noble beeches. Most cf th. country houses in this inland region can boast 01" beach-avenues of singii: lar beauty. Quite suddenly I the western edga ol Continental Holland drops — almost cliff-like in.places—into the new Holland which has been reclaimed from the sea. Here the land is absolutely flat,' save for some artificial townmound or fortification. The towns, villages, and isolated farm-houses are surrounded by copses or groves ol trees ; gardens and horticultural plots (the famous bulb-farms, for example) are marked off by Jow, neatly clipped hornbeam hedges, at this season (October) brilliantly orange or yellow-green in colour. The windmills, so characteristic 01 flat Holland, frequently have theii sails covered with orange-coloured canvas. Every village has its high, -:harp-pointed, conical church steeple; and the bigger towns have no lack of quietly splendid, nigh-roofed, highwindowed, cathedral-like churches, to vary the somewhat smug monotony of their eminently respectable dwell-ing-houses of dark red brick, pointed with v.-hj 4 .? mortar, with white frames to the windows and green doors. In these towns the pavement is of large, square stone blocks, clean, but noisy under traffic. The innumerable canals, trec-border-o.l, and an occasional large square of water, introduce an element of beauty with which no . Dutch town c.nn be commonplace and ugly, especially when tho shipi'ing—mainly barges and tugs—-is so gaily painted. The shops are well supplied with fairly cheap goods, and are made .".s'attractive as possible to the eyes of possible purchasers. Even somewhat remote from the main tourist routes the knowledge of English in shops, restaurants, on the excellent and convenient tram-cars at the large and well-equipped railway stations is remarkable ; and compared to my rememheances of Holland! twenty years ago, English is more spoken as a second language, now, than either German or French. Outside the towns of flat Holland one is brought back abruptly by tram, train. canal-L'oat (or by motorear on the rare roads that are bordered by stiff rows of pollarded trees) into the familiar Dutch landscapes of flat green meadows intersected by straight dykes. Occasionally there is a canal sufficiently meandering to make one think it n>:>.y be a natural river. On the emerald green meadows are feeding black and white caws, their backs covered with a wrapper of sail-cloth to protect them from the rain. C-rey-and-black hooded crows .are flying about the cattle or perching on them ; from the beautiful reedy pools and open spaces of water bordered with red-yellow reeds tnftcd with grey blossom rise in languid flappings big grey herons and screaming sea-gulls. Glossy-green, black, and white lapwings and grey-and-white geese dot the meadows in large and small relief ; and tame swans are common on the dykes and pools, where they greedily eat that brown-red duck-" weed which covers so much of the untroubled surface of these Dutch waterways.—Sir Harry Johnson, in the "Westminster Gazette."