Route 18]

Leaving Landen, the railroad passes Attenhoven, a commune of 700 inhabitants, and soon after leaves the province of Liége, and enters that of Limburg, and shortly arrives at the station of Velm, a commune of Limburg, in the district of Hasselt, crossed by a Roman causeway. The population is 700.

ST. TROND is the chief place of a canton of the district of Hasselt, in the province of Limburg, situated upon the Cicindria. There are eleven churches, the principal situated in a vast square, in which is likewise the Town Hall, worthy of notice. The manufacture of lace is the principal occupation of the inhabitants, the population being 8,000. CORTENROSH, ALKEN, and HASSELT. MAESTRICHT station. 22,000 inhabitants. HOTELS.—Levrier (Greyhound); H. du Casque (Helmet).

MAESTRICHT, the capital of the Dutch portion of the province of Limburg, is situated on the Maas, and is united by a bridge of nine arches to the suburb called Wyck. This town has one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, garrisoned by Dutch troops. The Town Hall in the Market Place is a handsome building. The Church of St, Gervais is a fine edifice with 5 towers; it has a splendid portal; the quare in which this Church stands was the spot where William de la Marck was beheaded in 1485. The most remarkable things near Maestricht are the subterranean quarries, under the hill called the Vielersburg; they cover a space of 10 to 12 miles. Steamers daily to Liége, in 4 hours, returning in 24 hours. To Rotterdam, stopping for the night at Veuιoo. The next stations, MEERSSEN. FAQUEMONT, WYLIE, SIMPELVDDT, KOLSCHELDT, and AIX-LACHAPELLE, SCe page 71.

ROUTE 18.

Brussels to Cologne, by Malines, Louvain, Liege, and Aix-la-Chapelle BRUSSELS (page 31).-The railway quitting the station situated at the extremity of the Rue Neuve, takes a northerly direction, and enters the faubourgs of Laeken and Schaerbeck, Traversing the Senne, it follows the new road from Schaerbeck to Laeken, and rejoins the old line of railway leading to the station d'Allée Verte. To the left we see the Royal Palace of Laeken, on a height at the extreme end of a lange prairie, which descends to the banks of the Willebroeck canal.

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The château of Laeken dates no further back than 1782. It was built after a design of the Archduke Charles Albert, Governor of the Netherlands, and is erected in a charming posiThe park surrounding it contains an tion. orangery, a theatre, pavilions, and beautiful trees It was in this château that Napoleon signed the celerated declaration of war against Russia. The palace is now the property of the erown, and favourite residence of the Royal Family.

Before arriving at Vilvorde, our attention is arrested by the large building with the multitude of windows; it is the central house of correction, after the same plan as the model prisons in England and those of the United States. This prison is capable of containing 2,000 prisoners. The old château, upon the site of which this prison was built in 1776, served as a prison, but only for state prisoners. Madame Deshouliers was a prisoner of state there in 1657. The road, describing a circle from here, arrives at Vilvorde. VILVORDE (Route 2, page 15).

Quitting this station, the railroad traverses a beautiful and well cultivated country, passing the little village of Sempst, remarkable for its ancient church, we cross the Senne, and shortly after leave the province of Brabant and enter that of Antwerp, and perceive the gigantic tower, and churches of Lalines. The railway from Ghent, Courtray, Bruges, and Ostend, to Malines, is seen. to the left, describing a grand curve to unite itself to the one we travel by. Crossing the Louvain canal by a moveable bridge, we arrive at

MALINES (Route 1).

At a short distance from the station in Malines the railroad leaves the province of Antwerp, and enters that of Brabant. The village of Muysar and Haver, and the commune of Ryneman, the steeple of which is seen on the left at a distance, being passed, the station of Haecht is arrived at. It is the chief place of a commune of Louvain, and contains 1,900 inhabitants. Westpelaer is the next station arrived at; it is celebrated for its magnificent park, to which crowds of visitors resort during the season. "It presents," says a tourist, "a singular mixture of mythological statues, thickets, Chinese bridges, grottos, and Greek temples." On leaving Westpelaer the charming village of Shildouk is passed; its pointed steeple is seen from the railroad The church is

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worthy of notice. Advancing towards Louvain the railroad runs along the side of a canal, the edge of which is prettily planted with three rows of poplars. Crossing the river Dyle, then the road from Louvain to Aerschot, and passing the communes of Kessel and Loo, and Wilsile, the station outside the gate of Diest is arrived at.

Louvain-(Hotel de Suede, the best).

The capital of the arrondissement of the ime name, a large, irregularly-built town, of a circular form, situated on the Dyle, which passes through it. We enter the town by a gilt iron railing, or gate. The foundation of Louvain has been attributed to Cæsar; but nothing certain is known of the history of the place until the year 888, when the Emperor Arnold, in order to protect the country from the predatory incursions of the Normans, built in the place of Louvain a castle, which has been long improperly called Château César (Cæsar's Castle). The Dukes of Brabant resided many years in the castle, and Henry, the first Count of Louvain, was assassinated there in 1308. It was rebuilt at the expense of the magistrates in 1375, and was the winter residence of Edward III. of England and his Queen, in 1485. At a later period it was selected as the place of abode of the illustrious Charles V. during his youth. The ruins of the castle are still remaining. Till the year 1792, when the revolutionary troops, under General Kleber, made themselves masters of the town, Louvain could boast of never having been taken by an enemy, though it had been repeatedly besieged during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth

centuries.

In the beginning of the fourteenth century Louvain was a large, populous, and rich city, in which the manufacture of woollen stuffs was so considerable, that in 1317 it reckoned 4,000 establishments connected with the cloth trade alone, and contained 150,000 inhabitants. During the reign of Duke Wenceslas, however, and about the year 1370, a tumult arose in the town, in consequence of the arbitrary punishment of a citizen, after he had been judicially acquitted of a petty theft of which he was accused. A number of cloth manufacturers took part in this tumult, and on its suppression were banished from the town. These ingenious workmen retired to England, drawing after them many of their relations and friends; and so rapidly did the town

[Route 18

decrease in population from that period, that in less than forty years Louvain presented all the appearances of a vast deserted city. To remedy the evil, John, the fifth Duke of Brabant, founded, in 1246, a university, which afterwards became one of the most celebrated in Europe. It was suppressed by the French in 1793, and the building converted into an hospital for invalids. It was, however, re-established, under the late government, in 1817, in a large building of great simplicity, erected at the close of the last century. There are 17 professors and about 500 students. The library contains about 40,000 volumes, and the university also possesses a botanical garden and a tolerably good museum of zoology and mineralogy. Strangers are struck with admiration on the first view of the immense edifice of the Halles-its vast and superb saloons, devoted to the study of civil law, physic, and theology.

The principal productions of Louvain are woollen stuffs and dimities, with the various articles proceeding from the salt-works, sugar refineries, manufactories of potash and starch, bottle works, window-glass manufactories, potteries, brandy and gin distilleries, and establishments for extracting oil from rape-seed and colza. There are also a number of cotton-printing establishments and several printing offices. The white beer of Louvain is in great repute, and exported to all parts of Belgium; besides which, another kind of malt liquor, called peterman, is the common table beer of the higher classes. Some idea may be formed of the trade in beer, when it is known that the town comprises upwards of forty breweries, producing, annually, above 200,000 barrels of malt liquor.

The Hôtel de Ville is, perhaps, the most perfect specimen of its kind of Gothic architecture extant; and the innumerable carved figures which enrich the front exhibit indubitable traces, notwithstanding the ravages of time, of exquisite workmanship. It was built in 1439. In the council chamber are some paintings by Verhaegen, and the Continence of Scipio, by Luca Giordans; and in the Grand Saloon is a collection comprising the Resurrection, by Rubens Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, by Crayer; and a por. trait of Lepsius, by Van Dyck.

The Cathedral Church of St. Peter a beautiful