May Crommelin

“ Passing all these, we drive partly through the famous wood.
Amsterdam is a town for commerce, rich merchants, heavy dinners, and some stiff old country families who cling in winter to their town houses. The Hague is gay, nineteenth century, somewhat cosmopolitan. But Haarlem, the Dutch say, is where people live "who have nothing to do." The description is pleasantly meant, and if not true in all cases, is so in that of my friend's. And now our brick-paved road goes out towards the country, among pretty villas, bright with flowers, of course, in this flower-loving land, and shady with trees. ”

“ Or again, we perhaps cross the road to a pleasant wood belonging to Hugo's brother-in-law and sister, whose demesne ranges with Lindenroede, so closely indeed, that, but for a rustic bridge over a water trench green with duckweed and shaded by willows, the sandy shrubbery paths would seem to intermingle. The wood rises agreeably in little ups and downs, once, no doubt, sand-hills ages ago. ”

“ Lonely and sheltered, with fresh sea-air and sweet copse scents, the downs are pleasant to ramble in through a summer's day, taking one's lunch in a basket, as the Lindenroede household do. Near the coast, sandy tracts are carefully and anxiously planted with coarse grass-tufts, each only a foot apart, for this grass binding the loose sand against cruel winds forms the bulwark of the land. ”

“ Finch-catching during October and November is a favorite amusement all day long of Dutch sportsmen who have 'finch-houses.'" Jacqueline drove us, therefore, early, through green tree-tunnels, whence sandy copse paths diverged, into the heart of the downs, where the air was fresh and stillness great. Putting up the coureuse at one of the picturesque little farms scattered here and there — mostly of bright painted brick, with a broad black stripe along the base and then a white one — we walked through sandy potato clearings and coppice till we came to a level lawn before a wooden hut. ”

“ Come outside the house and you shall see Dutch pleasure-grounds. The lawn is perfectly flat, of course, but — what some English who imagine Holland a vast plain studded with a few pollards, do not understand — the trees are so fine and so many, they bound the view and keep one's thoughts from much noticing the level ground. A brown piece of water, shaded by weeping willows, winds through the trees till bounded by a little rise topped by a small temple. Every country house around is sure to have such a piece of water, larger or smaller ”

“ I had been promised that my wish to see a dairy farm should be gratified. Accordingly we started early next morning to visit one some miles off, taking its friendly owner, Baron van H—, by surprise. Off we sallied, walking to Heemstede village, past the Thirsty-Hole public-house, with its closed door and muslin-curtained windows looking as respectable as its neighbors, even more decorous, though within are strange bottles labelled with such names dear to the peasantry as Parfait Amour, and others too coarse for ears polite. ”

“ Lindenroede (Lime Lawn) is a good specimen of an ordinary Dutch country house. Square and white, with its green shutters, and raised terrace in front, it stands close to the highroad, as do all its neighbors, behind its gravel sweep. What is almost as universal, too, it is bright and fresh with paint, shaded by fine trees. Even before coming in sight of the house itself I greeted its stork's nest, standing as of old in the meadow across the road, in full view of the windows. Most country houses around have one just so placed ”

“ Monsieur van H— takes the greatest interest in bulb-growing, which he does in his sandy fields to the same extent as many other gentlemen at home try farming on a small scale. The bulb-house was full of tiers of wooden trays, rising in a framework to the ceiling, and spread with bulbs. More, of all kinds, filled hampers standing ready to be carried to the fields, where, by good luck, work was now going on. But first, even with the warning calls of Hugo in our ears, who was leader and brains-carrier of the party — the baron hurried me in to see his pleasant dining-room. ”

“ Haarlem makes one seem to have stepped back a century or two, with its narrow, paved streets, gabled house-fronts with curious façades; quiet canals along which the gentry live, with high trees clipped in a screen before their doors ”

“ The second breakfast, corresponding more to a French déjeuner than our lunch, was just ready, it being half past twelve o'clock. So, after washing off the dust of the journey — and the very Sahara cannot be worse than the sand which drove in at the train windows along from the Hague, threatening to silt me up alive, — down I came. The very dining-room has an old friend's air from pleasant memories. There is the thick Deventer carpet — how handsome those carpets are, and how well they wear! it is a pity we do not know them better. ”

“ And beyond all, the Rembrandts, and dearest of these the noble old lady — a work of love — with the down of age on her chin, but such eternal beauty of soul shining through her wrinkled face that one knows she must have loved and suffered, laughed and wept, and lived as a true and good woman till she was painted there at eighty. ”

“ When Sunday morning comes, we drive into the French church at Haarlem; disregarding the glorious sounds of the cathedral organ reaching us even outside as we pass through the old market-place. No the Dutch service and sermon in there is too prosily long. Our church is small, whitewashed, and bare to ugliness. The few ladies sit on chairs in the middle, the fewer men in pent-house pews around. ”

“ The hostess packs all the older neighbors into a kind of char-à-banc made for such occasions, called a Jan-plaisir; it is big enough to hold an army of chaperons, and is covered at top, with open sides, and blinds to roll up or down. These follow the gay procession of little chaises which last file off, with fast-trotting horses, at a spanking pace. All the people in the villages rush out to see them pass, and catch showers of sugar-plums thrown to them in largesse. And at every bridge — which in Holland are many — and at sight of a black sheep, each Jehu is " permitted" to kiss his companion. ”

“ To right and left in winter, the horned heads of fifty-eight black and white cows would be seen. "Now we must come by the walls and see how the cows stand," said Hugo. "Yes, yes," cried the baron, "you all would naturally walk along the middle here, and see the cows' heads only. But in winter the peasants come in often to admire the cows, and as from the after part of these animals — (eh, what, Hugo, isn't that what they call it in English? Why do you laugh?) ”

“ This handsome armoire for the housekeeper's treasures is a pride and prime necessity in all the Dutch houses I have seen. And nearly all of them possess also, as downstairs in the servants' room at Lindenroede, handsome carved mangles, and screw-presses for keeping table linen always flat and tidy, these being sometimes so ornamental as to stand in the dining-room. But the antique room, has some rarer curios, such as a carved board and roller-pin, date 1650, for mangling small fine things I was told, and hanging near it from the wainscot a very ancient deep-cut yard measure. ”

“ It was a handsome massive walnut armoire, which when unlocked displayed piles of fine damask, laid on shelves edged with lace stamped paper. "That is the correct old fashion," he explained, then we both hastened outside to appease our best of time-keepers. "It must be a lovely sight when all your flowers are in blow," I said, as we went through sandy walks under the trees and out into a meadow. "Yes, but unhappily, it is often such cold weather. The rain comes, and so! — they look wretched; it is a pity."
The bulb-grounds were surrounded and intersected into square plots by hedges of saplings. ”

“ Church over, we get warmed driving back in the cheery sunlight to lunch. In the afternoon the large carriage and pair of horses takes us all for an hour's drive through the woods of pretty Bloemendaal or Overween, full of charming villas inhabited by rich Amsterdam merchants or retired Java planters. Then about four we turn — like all the carriages of the neighborhood — towards Haarlem Wood. "Sunday afternoon in the wood" is a Haarlem sight. In one of the open spaces of the old wood, which is one of the chief beauties of the town, a band plays opposite the club or societeit. ”

“ Lake of Haarlem, dimly indicated by lines of poplars; next come market-gardens that supply Haarlem and Amsterdam with vegetables, and the peasants with the winter flowers the poorest cherish in their houses. Their fancy changes — this year it was all for small pink spireas, I believe, and hundreds of these were being grown, to be sold for two or three pence each. Then came peat-fields stocked with turf, and under the lee of some wood where lay a brown canal, or at a village bridge, great boats were piled with the fuel. ”

“ We recognize from afar various gentlemen from the country round, and some lady friends, then we turn homewards towards five o'clock.
Life, on the whole, goes comfortably and cheerily in the Haarlem neighborhood, if quietly. There were a good many country-house dinners going on during my visit, and a few tennis parties; though tennis is not made the rage and accomplishment it is in England. Most people were straying home from various German watering-places; and many of those who had country-seats would nevertheless go into town, the Hague, or Amsterdam, for some winter months. ”

“ Ten or twelve little gigs are in waiting on the gravel; some like the peasants' ones, but others — kept as heirlooms in families — of the right old-fashioned kind, the body carved, gilded, and painted with curious scenes, the wheels very high, seat very narrow. The hostess pairs off her party, and woe to the luckless couple who do not like the arrangements; for each driver forthwith seats himself on the left side of his gig, passing his right arm round his fair companion 's waist. ”

“ Many men whose business is in Amsterdam, but who have houses in Haarlem for economy and quiet, will go to their offices and work till 1 or 2 P.M. without food.
The womankind left behind do odds and ends of work and writing, then lure out the master of the house from his Oriental study to find ripe figs in the beautiful big kitchen garden, and try the grapes sunning on the south wall. ”

“ Under the fore feet is sand, most carefully marked now, it being summer season, in ornamental patterns, although there was no one to see it, as we might say, not recognizing easily a love of artistic effect for its own sake in a simple peasant dairy-farmer and his wife. (The dairy farm is no show one, and Baron van H. does not concern himself therewith, having let it to these good souls.) A cord was stretched along the cow-house above the "after part" of the cows, to which all the fifty-eight tails are tied up in winter, lest they should dirty their owners. "And are the cows washed?" ”

“ We seat ourselves above on a bench shaded by a coppice, burning red with dying maple-leaves here and there, while surely that flash of living blue over the water down there was a kingfisher; and close by a rabbit pops out on the turf and sits unheeding our talk. Even putting aside chat about old acquaintances made in past visits on both sides across the water, my Dutch friends had plenty to talk about. Jacqueline and her husband had lately been in London ”

“ A cheap butter is made from the particles left on the surface of the whey-vats after the cheese is made. The remainder is given to the pigs. These were in a house near, but having no open yard smelt too horribly for some of us to dare to inspect them, in spite of being taken by our laughing host for cockneys.
At the end of the farmyard lay, conveniently, the brown slow water of the Leyden picturesquely shadowed by trees. Flat big boats were moored under their branches; on the level bank a woman was washing at a landing-step. ”

“ Old-fashioned Dutch people go further, I am told, washing up themselves knives, forks, and plates — no matter how many their servants —looking over all the linen from the wash, and pulling out any lace edges themselves. ”

“ And now some fun began in discussing the approaching wedding, and the pros and cons as to a Sgeesé party (chaise party) . This is verily a thorough old Dutch custom, though somewhat in disuse. There had not been one among the clan of neighbors and cousins since Jacqueline's wedding four years ago; but that had been a great success, the time of year and the guests all suiting. (The latter a prime necessity, as will be seen.) During the betrothal fortnight of wedding festivities, some sprightly neighbor gives the party, and assembles an equal number of young men and maidens early at her house. ”

“ After the heat of the afternoon, refreshment was grateful, and five o'clock tea is as yet new-fashioned in Holland. The young men drove off presently in a fly to the club in town, for an hour before six o'clock dinner; which I mention only because England, being club-land essentially, is apt to imagine that other people have few or no clubs, and so wonder what men do with themselves. People generally ask as to another country, "What sort of food did you have?" ”

“ Another morning we ladies started off so early that all the housemaids in Haarlem, wearing their regulation lilac prints, clear muslin caps with a thick frill all round (some with a Friesland silver skull-cap, shining under lace) , were busy syringing the windows with the brass household pumps for that purpose I have never seen with us; more's the pity! We went off for a "good day's shopping," and hiring a "monkey," a small open carriage, with a coachman wearing a glazed white hat and black cockade, we drove around to our heart's content. N.B. — The shops have a horribly close, damp smell ”

“ Concerning the latter, there are very few things I don't like in Holland; but, without a shadow of doubt, I detest rye bread. Eggs are boiled, if some one cares for them, in the kettle. The old-fashioned way was by means of a small sort of landing-net in which they were first popped; the newer one is to have wire or silver draining-spoons to lift them out. But the young men of the family going off to business in Haarlem do not even trouble the tea and bread and butter, much less the eggs. ”

“ Each also receives every week a florin and some beef, butter, and turf. I could enlarge on the exquisite tidiness and the prettiness of other homes of the poor I saw in Holland, but space fails. On the whole, in this small and prosperous land, everybody seems comfortable. The equal division of property between sons and daughters brings about, doubtless, the many often very early marriages. The eldest son keeps the family home, and if impoverished by giving an equivalent to his brothers and sisters, "Why, then he marries a rich wife!" The many here must not suffer for the eldest ”

“ Smaller carved ones are used by the people to keep the teapot brewing, and in the nurseries of rich people are useful for hot milk and other infantile wants. "We always use one for our children, with a spiritus lampas inside," explained the Princess to me, speaking of her small brothers and sister. Not to take an inventory of all Lindenroede house, I will only add that the kitchen is a pleasant sight, its walls glistening with tiles and bright with coppers and brass ”

“ And Dutch ladies are encouraged to spend more on their dress by fathers and husbands than their English sisters, while pleasant trips seem matters of course. Certainly, servants wages and house-rent are much cheaper than with us. ”

“ But here, near Haarlem, the country-seats are so many, that woods constantly break in closely on the uniformity of the level, whilst bright white villas, seldom far apart, greet us along the road from behind their short green lawns. Here and there, very often indeed, we come on canals by the roadside, these being just broader water ditches. Sometimes, when there has been a strong wind, and the sluices have been opened, they are cleanly brown enough ”

“ Driving home in time to dress for dinner, most likely some neighbors pay an evening visit afterwards, and stay chatting till nine or ten o'clock. In summer this is the favorite hour for callers, and the terrace is gay with laughter and voices in the warm evenings. But it was getting dark now to stroll out from Haarlem, or the environs. One day we saw a peasants' wedding passing the gate, a procession bound on the gala drive that follows the civil and religious ceremony. ”