with shady walks and a good hotel; or extend the drive to Haarlem's
watering-place Zaandvoort, which otherwise can be gained by steam-tram,
and where, says the author of _Through Noord-Holland_, "the billowing
is strong and strengthening". The same author tells us also that
"the ponnies and asses have a separated standing-place, whilst
severe stipulations warrant the bathers for trouble of the animals
and their driver".

Of this book I ought perhaps to say more, for I am greatly indebted
to it. Most of the larger towns of Holland have guides, and for
the most part they are written in good English, albeit of Dutch
extraction; but _Through Noord-Holland_ is an agreeable exception
in that it covers all the ground between Amsterdam and the Helder,
and is constructed in a peculiar sport of Babel. In Dutch it is I
have no doubt an ordinary guide-book; in English it is something far
more precious. The following extract from the preface to the second
edition ought to be quoted before I borrow further from its pages:--

Being completed with the necessary alterations and corrections I
send it into the world for the second time. As it will be published
besides in Dutch also in French and English, the aim of the edition
will surely be favoured, and our poor misappreciated country that
so often is regarded with contempt by our countrymen as well as by
foreigners will soon be an attraction for tourists. For were not it
those large extensive quiet heatheries those rustling green woods and
those quiet low meadows which inspired our great painters to bring
their fascinating landscapes on the cloth? Had not that bloomy sky
and that sunny mysterious light, those soft green meadows with their
multi-coloured flowers, through which the river is streaming as a
silver band, had not all this a quieting influence to the agitated mind