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182

ANECDOTE OF MYTENS.

the antiqué, in copying the most celebrated paintings. of the best artists, and adding considerably to his improvement by an intimacy which he formed there with Carlo Maratti and Carlo Loti. The dreadful habits of dissipation to which Mytens was addicted, deplorably interfered with his advancement in his profession. His imagination was lively, his colouring agreeable, his composition good, and he designed with great facility. After a long residence in Italy, he returned to the Hague, where he was much admired and cherished by the lovers of the arts: his eminent qualities were displayed in those works which he painted at Rome, and upon his return to the Hague, where, not many years after, his productions became greatly depreciated, from his constant indulgence in the most intemperate excesses, to which he at length fell a victim in the year 1688. He acquired much and deserved reputation for the sketch of a very noble design for a ceiling of the painters' hall at the Hague: this work he commenced, and left unfinished for some years; at length he roused himself from his indolence, but it was only to shew what ravages it had made on his fine abilities, for he only injured the work which he attempted to improve. Another distinguished artist, who has shed lustre upon the Hague, is John Hanneman, who was born here in 1611; by some he was said to have been a pupil of Vandyke. By others, and with greater probability, that of

ANECDOTE OF HANNEMAN.

183

Hubert Ravestein; and in the soft and delicate tints of his carnations, he is considered to be very little inferior to Vandyke: many of Hanneman's copies of that illustrious artist are mistaken for the originals.

Hanneman continued in England sixteen years, and upon his return to the Hague became the favourite painter of the Princess of Orange: he was also employed by the Prince of Nassau, for whom he painted, amongst others, several historical pictures, which are now highly esteemed. The third and last artist I shall mension is John le Duc, who was born at the Hague in 1636, and was a disciple of Paul Potter, so justly celebrated as a painter of cattle, whose works, however, are often scarcely distinguishable from those of his pupil. His principal subjects were the same as those of his master, viz. horses, sheep, goats, cows, &c. He finished his pictures very highly, and possessed great facility of pencil and purity of style. He was appointed director of the academy of painting at the Hague in the year 1671. The desire of distinguishing himself in arms induced him to exert all his interest to obtain a company, and such was his gallantry in the field, that he obtained the epithet of " Brave," after which, unfortunately for the arts, he neither painted nor designed.

CHAPTER XI.

VEGETABLE PROBLEMS-APPROACH TO LEYDEN-GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT TOWN-THE TOWN HALL-CELEBRATED PICTURE OF LUCAS VAN LEYDEN-ANECDOTE OF THAT PAINTER-ALSO OF KAREL DE MOOR-PICTURE OF THE SIEGE OF LEYDEN-DESCRIPTION OF THAT HORRIBLE SIEGE-GENEROUS AND HEROIC CONDUCT OF THE DUTCH WOMEN--ALSO OF PETER ADRIAN-THE MOUNT-UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN-THE STUDENTS-ANECDOTES OF BOERHAAVE-PETER THE GREAT-GENIUS AND DIFFIDENCE-CONFIDENCE IN PROVIDENCE MONUMENT OF BOERHAAVE.

AFTER spending some days very pleasantly at the Hague, I proceeded to the Leyden treckschuyt, which lay at a great distance from the hotel, where I found, from the blunder of the waiter before detailed, that I was considered as a personage of considerable consequence, on account of my having engaged the whole of the ruif to myself. The day was brilliantly fine, and nothing could be more delightful than my passage to Leyden for two miles and a half the left bank of the canal presented an unbroken succession of handsome country houses and highly cultivated grounds, which although laid out like so many vegetable problems, abounded with a variety of forms, which, as they were clad in luxuriant green, were very agree

APPROACH TO LEYDEN.

185

able. Many of these spots were graced by the acacia and Weymouth pine, to which the soil and climate seemed to be congenial. On the other side were rich meadows, whose vivid green seemed to rival that of the emerald, and cornfields yellow with harvest. Enchanted with the day and the scenery, I envied not the aquatic pomp of Cleopatra,

although

"The barge she sat in like a burnish'd throne

"Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold,
"Purple the sails, and so performed, that

"The winds were love-sick with them."

The blunder of the waiter added not a little to the delights of my passage, for I sat a solitary grandee upon the top of the cabin, without a soul to interrupt the happy` frame of mind formed by the lovely prospects on every side of me. In this agreable manner three hours and a half passed away with feathered fleetness, and at the end of a long avenue of trees and a line of water, the spires and elevated buildings of Leyden appeared. We stopped about half way from the Hague at Leydehendam, a very neat pretty village, the neighbourhood of which abounds with pleasure houses and gardens. The country as I approached Leyden appeared to be thickly wooded, and displayed the novel variety of a gentle undulation of ground. After passing through a beautiful boulevard, and crossing some drawing bridges, I entered the elegant city

B B

186

DESCRIPTION OF LEYDEN.

of Leyden through the white gate, and proceeded to a very comfortable hotel in the principal street, called the Broad street, the length, spaciousness, and beauty of which entitles it to the highest admiration: there is no canal in it, and the buildings on each side are very handsome, many of them splendid mansions. This seat of learning is considered to be one of the handsomest in Holland, and next in size to Amsterdam; the entrance to it is through seven stone gates, at cach of which is a draw-bridge: the town is surrounded with a rampart, and a deep, broad canal, and is adorned by beautiful shady walks. The number of bridges in this city is astonishing, they are said to exceed one hundred and fortyfive of stone and railed with iron. It has also many canals, the most beautiful of which is the Rapenburg. It has been compared by travellers to Oxford, but I cannot see any resemblance, except in its being devoted to learning, and consequently presenting many of those features of meditation and consequent tranquillity, which are to be found in places destined to similar objects: but in its fortification, its buildings, streets, and canals, there is unquestionably no resemblance. The channels or gutters of the Broad street are covered with boards which open like a trap door, into which the moment any dirt is lodged, it is removed by persons appointed for that purpose; and lofty common pumps, with large brass ornaments constantly scoured and kept bright, are placed in different parts of it, to supply the

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