CHAPTER III.

The celebrated Three Crowns Battery--Hamlet’s grave--The Sound and its dues--To Fredericksborg--Iceland ponies--Denmark an equine paradise--From Copenhagen to Kiel--Tidemann, the Norwegian painter--Pictures at Düsseldorf--The boiling of the porridge--Düsseldorf theatricals--Memorial of Dutch courage--Young heroes--An attempt to describe the Dutch language--The Amsterdam canals--Half-and-half in Holland--Want of elbow-room--A new Jerusalem--A sketch for Juvenal--The museum of Dutch paintings--Magna Charta of Dutch independence--Jan Steen’s picture of the _fête_ of Saint Nicholas--Dutch art in the 17th century--To Zaandam--Traces of Peter the Great--Easy travelling--What the reeds seemed to whisper pp. 39-55