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that any body should come come into this Storehouse but
Decourt prevailed on the man who is charged with them
to let us in. They are very nearly the same as far as
I can remember as some I have been used to see in Woolwich
Warren. A Particular account of the Shipbuilding
or other information which I procure would take up too
much time to copy out for you. it is as much as I can
do to set it down for my own use. You must be satisfied
for the present at least with my telling you of the
occasions I have of get procuring information.
In the evening [Saturday] we called upon a family with
whom of Decourt's acquaintance in which there was a lady
who offered was pressing enough in her offers of teaching
me dutch. She was the most lively dutch lady I have seen, and had I staid at that place any time
I should have liked much to have had so agreable an
Instructress. about 7 o Clock we went to a Club
of which decourt is a Member. The first thing I saw
at ing coming into the house or rather garden was half
a dozen of the members playing at Marbles.
The garden is called a Botanical garden but it is so
very small that if it were filled with the scarcest
plants it could not contain any very great
variety. The company consisted of between 20 & 30
and when it was too dark to amuse themselves
in the garden where the smoak they made had room
to escape, they retired to a room which they soon
made scarcely bearable. There they plaid at drafts
and talked of trade & politics. In the winter time
they are sanctiones musical & sometimes about once
a month they act some plays among themselves,
which they invite their friends to see.
On Sunday morning at ½ past 9 I parted with took my leave of
Decourt. He went to Church & I onboard a
Vessel for Rotterdam I arrived there about
½ past 1. I wandered about the town for about ¾ of
an hour before I could find out my Lodgings. Dinner was
here over and as I thought a little fasting would do me no
harm on a Sabbath day I went to church with an empty
stomach. The organist I had heard was very great, but at the
same time quite blind. I paid very dearly for By what little I heard him play at the end
of when the service was over, by coming so long before the
sermon was finished. Perhaps he thought it sinful to give
people any pleasure in a church: for however great the execution
might be, I could not make out the least air in his
Voluntary. You know the Dutch keep on their hats
4)
in Church during the greatest part of the service, by which
means they have it in their power to shew an extraordinary
degree of reverence for particular parts. They seem to make
use of a great deal more Rhetoric in their sermons, than we
hear in our Churches. As to the matter I suppose it is pretty much
the same. I staid with Strachan while he drank tea, and
as he had some business to do and I wished to have an hour
or two to write about what I had seen at Dort and to construct
an information Pump, I went to my lodgings
and Strachan came in the evening to sup with me at the
ordinary there. It was easy enough to perceive I had had no
dinner. We were chiefly employed in settling how he could be
of the greatest use to me in procuring what information I
wished to have from his part of the world.
The monday morning too I staid at home till twelve
o'Clock drawing up a set of Queries of which I am to
give a copy to him and Decourt and which they prom
to do all in their power to procure answers to. Many of th
are such as they can answer of themselves. It is impossibl
for them to appear more disposed to serve me. In return
I am to have a paper of Queries from each of them.
This will be an excedingly agreable intercourse as there are
no Queries which they can put but what will be in
some degree interesting to one or other of us two. Strachan
will relate I believe chiefly to the political oeconomy of
Russia and chiefly with respect to Agriculture. And I
dare to say that I shall have friends there who will be able
to answer them without any trouble to myself.
I dined on monday with Strachan at his ordinary whi
is quite in the dutch stile. For want of understanding the
language I can form no idea of the character of persons
but from their appearances. There was a dutch Captain
of a man of war with whom I should have liked to have
had some conversation if we had had any common language
There was a french Priest who was as fine as his profession
would admit of without side, but who thought that
a Silk underwaistcoat would make more shew and be
less expensive than Shirts. There were 2 Avocats who
always appear shabby genteel, and the rest were fat
Bourgois. The dinner dutch dinners are between the English
French & German taste except they have pipes to smoak their Pipes
instead of Soup to eat. They have not so many dishes
as the french and more than the English: but always
a desert. We had a few grapes, Walnuts, Pears, some
very indifferent plums and 2 sorts of biscuits.
In the afternoon we went to look at some Yatchts which
of which there are a great many in every street where
the canals come. Some are very expensive; and though
in general clumzy, are many of them well contrived.
I cast a wishfull eye over the public Dock yard;
and even attempted to go in without permission: but I we
was stop were turned back before we had got 10 steps.
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Identifier: | JB/538/372/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 538.
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1779-09-09 |
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538 |
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372 |
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002 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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