E. V. Lucas pdf A Wanderer in Holland

It was once possible to sail all the way to Rotterdam by either of the two lines of steamshipsfrom England—the Great Eastern, viâ Harwich, and the Batavier, direct from London. But that ispossible now only by the Batavier, passengers by the better-known Harwich route being landednow and henceforward at the Hook at five A.M. I am sorry for this, because after a roughpassage it was very pleasant to glide in the early morning steadily up the Maas and graduallyacquire a sense of Dutch quietude and greyness. No longer, however, can this be done, as theBatavier boats reach Rotterdam at night; and one therefore misses the river, with the little Page2villages on its banks, each with a tiny canal-harbour of its own; the groups of trees in the earlymist; the gulls and herons; and the increasing traffic as one drew nearer Schiedam and at lastreached that forest of masts which is known as Rotterdam.But now that the only road to Rotterdam by daylight is the road of iron all that is past, and yetthere is some compensation, for short as the journey is one may in its progress ground oneselfvery thoroughly in the characteristic scenery of Holland. No one who looks steadily out of thewindows between the Hook and Rotterdam has much to learn thereafter. Only changing skiesand atmospheric effects can provide him with novelty, for most of Holland is like that. He hasthe formula. Nor is it necessarily new to him if he knows England well, North Holland beingmerely the Norfolk Broads, the Essex marshlands about Burnham-on-Crouch, extended. Only inits peculiarity of light and in its towns has Holland anything that we have not at home.England has even its canal life too, if one cared to investigate it; the Broads are populous withwherries and barges; cheese is manufactured in England in a score of districts; cows range ourmeadows as they range the meadows of the Dutch. We go to Holland to see the towns, the 4pictures and the people. We go also because so many of us are so constituted that we never useour eyes until we are on foreign soil. It is as though a Cook’s ticket performed an operation forcataract.Girl’s HeadJan Vermeer of DelftFrom the picture in the MauritshuisBut because one can learn the character of Dutch scenery so quickly—on a single railwayjourney—I do not wish to suggest that henceforward it becomes monotonous and trite. One maylearn the character of a friend very quickly, and yet wish to be in his company continually.Holland is one of the most delightful countries to move Page 3about in: everything that happens init is of interest. I have never quite lost the sense of excitement in crossing a canal in the train andgetting a momentary glimpse of its receding straightness, perhaps broken by a brown sail. In acountry where, between the towns, so little happens, even the slightest things make a heightenedappeal to the observer; while one’s eyes are continually kept bright and one’s mind stimulated bythe ever-present freshness and clearness of the land and its air.