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30 May 1882 — The Hague | |
Tuesday. 30th May [1882]. Breakfast at 8.30 & left the Hague by 9.50 train. We let Hill, luggage & bags go on to Amsterdam & Henry & I got out at Leiden. We were not lucky eno’ to find a cab at the station but a dirty old man who spoke English vociferously & almost unintelligently offered to show us the way to the town so we accepted his services. We went to the Town Museum in the Lakenhal & studied Lucas van Leyden’s last judgment wh seems to have been overcleaned & varnished but is most striking as to brilliancy of colours. The house in which all kinds of odds & ends are shown is a curious old Dutch house with an oak staircase & painted glass. While we were there we sent the dirty old man to find us a cab & then he mounted on the box by the driver & did the honors of the town. We went to Museum of Antiquities & the first thing we saw was that the passages were lined with casts of some of the bas reliefs Henry discovered at Nineveh. Going on we found a wonderful collection of Egyptian mummys &c papyri & some fine sarcophagi &c in fact a very good collection. We asked for the director D. Liemann & as he was not there Henry left his card for him & we went away much delighted– We drove abt the town to see it but there are comparatively few old houses remaining. The University was disappointing outside being nothing peculiar to look at– Altogether we were disappointed with the town. We had to hurry back to the station to go on by 12.19 train to Haarlem– On dismissing our old man & the vigilante we had a dispute as they fancied we did not know the tariff & wanted to impose upon us– However we got rid of them for 2½ guilders. Our train was ¼ hour late & we did not reach Haarlem till 1.30. We hurried into a cab & drove off to the Groote Kerke as being Tuesday the organ played from 1 to 2. We found it playing & had abt 20 minutes of it. It was very impressive & the church itself fine. All the men kept their hats on. After the organ ceased we walked round the church & admired 3 models of ships of war hanging up in the nave—also fine wood carving round what seems to be the chancel end of the church. We went from here to the Town Hall on Stadhuis, a most picturesque old building. We went thro the hall into a small doorway where a guardian who understood French admitted us. We were speedily entranced with the wonderful pictures by Frans Hals the portraits different officers of the rifle regiments– They are most splendid & painted in the free style of Velasquez but in composition were finer– One picture is merely a sketch as he was too old to complete it. There were also some good pictures by Jan van Bray. We went on to the Pavilion where there is a collection of modern Dutch pictures—not much worth seeing except one by ten Kate & one by Israels. We drove back to the station & got some coffee for it was 3.30 & we had had nothing since breakfast. We went on to Amsterdam by 3.50 train & got there at 4.15 went to the Hotel Amstel & found Hill & the luggage also a letter from Lady Walsham saying she had taken rooms at the Kaiserhof for us at Berlin. Table d’hôte at 5.30 & I sat next a Lady Fry who was very talkative & agreeable. Spent the eveng in our room. Cribbage &c. | |
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