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28 May 1882 — The Hague | |
Sunday. 28th May [1882]. Hill & I set off to walk together to the English church. We thought we would find our way there by the study of the plan of the town. After walking abt some time & failing to find it we came back to our hotel & got a cab. We found that the church was in the Wood & quite in a different direction from that indicated in the map. Of course we were late for the service. The Church is a very pretty little one built by our English Dutch Merchant Mr Tinné in memory of his eccentric sister who was murdered while travelling in Egypt. Coming out of church we met Mrs Hillyar & walked back to the Hotel with her. She introduced me to Baroness van Brienen a Dutch lady whose mother was English & who is a Protestant. Her husband & children are R.C. She very kindly invited me to go & see her in the afternoon at her house just out of the Wood called Clingendael. Mrs Hillyar came in to the hotel to write down the address & we agreed to meet there about 5. At 1 we lunched & at 3 we took a carriage & drove to the Wood to hear the band play. We saw an enclosure & went to it expecting to have to pay. We had only to give our card & address wh was referred to someone in the garden & we were admitted & took a place at a small table—had coffee & listened to the band wh was a very good one. It appears that the enclosure belongs to a society & I suppose is kept up by subscription. After sitting there about ½ hour we drove to Scheveningen through a very pretty wood thickly planted with trees & shrubs– The dunes rose up on each side of it & it is only by means of cultivation that the march of the sand is arrested & the Hague made safe. There are quantities of pretty villas on the road to Scheveningen & on the sea shore are hotels & baths & cafés. Being Sunday all the population were out walking. The women’s costume is very picturesque. They wear very full skirts of black stuff & coloured aprons. Little blue & grey woolen shawls which only come to the waist; white muslin caps under which they have a bright metal piece falling round the back of the head & covering their ears. At the sides of their eyes they have the usual gold spring only much larger than those worn at Middelburg & long gold pins tipped with pearls behind them. The effect of several women walking together & the metal plates in their heads shining in the sun was very curious. The men were all dressed in black sort of serge shirts. Some of the women who made an attempt at modern dress wore a European bonnet perched on the top of their caps wh was most hideous & absurd. We saw a few women with lace caps having long kinds of curtains to them so like a capote & the springs by the sides of the eyes. We sat on the raised road above the sands wh is paved with small bricks to keep off the sand—as are nearly all the roads in the Hague– We then got into the carriage & drove back to the Wood & on to a place called Clingendael wh we found to be a very pretty country house with a lovely garden– The B. & Bss live there in the summer & spend the winters in England hunting having hired a house near Tetbury. They sent their little girl to the door to meet us & to beg us to go to the garden where the gentlemen were playing tennis. She gave tea & we found Mr & Mrs Hillyar there & looked on at the game. The court is laid out on concrete & has a wall of wood at each end– We sat there till past 6 & then returned to the Hague– Dressed & went to dine at the British Legation– Met the Hillyars. Excellent dinner but not very lively. Mr Stuart was kind, Mrs S. ditto but she is very delicate & seemed to have little strength. Mr S. is recovering from the gout– We got home by 10 & played cribbage &c. | |
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