Chapter I: O. M. Et Diis (4)

The wind setting fair for England, I hasten to _Rotterdam_, to take leave of his Excellency, who embarked at two a clock. Here I purchase a large number of books, and other necessaries, to a considerable value.

April ii.

I quit my lodgings at _Rotterdam_, and remove to the _Hague_. The day following I visit the church of _Launsdone_ where I found this inscription under two brass basins: _Margareta, Hermani Comitis Henebergae uxor, filia Gulielmi Caesaris, anno_ MCCLXXVI 365 _enixa est pueros etc. sicut in hac tabula ex vetustis tam manuscriptis, quam typis excusis, chronicis positum ac enarratum est_. The same afternoon I pass on to _Honstardyke_, where I see the _orangery_ four hundred and fifty yards long; the East India _buffalo_, male and female; the aviary, in which is a white peacock, the birds called _lepelaars_, and variety of foreign ducks and geese; the stable of foreign beasts, among which is the _mamót_ of East India (like a stag, but with twisted horns) and a _cassaware_; the gardens, in which are several beautiful statues, particularly one of a _gladiator_; the house consisting of one intire quadrangle within two good galleries, the Queen’s japan cabinet, and the King’s well furnished with curious paintings.

April xvii.

I now return again to _Amsterdam_, by the way of _Gouda_, in company with Mr. _Vandeput_. Here we stop to observe the excellent painted glass in the several windows of that church; and then proceeding in our passage by the _treck schuyt_ arrive at _Amsterdam_ by six a clock next morning, and after diner make a visit to Dr. _Cockburn_. The next day we are introduced by the Doctor to see Mr. _De Wild’s_ cabinet, richly furnished with coins, gems, sculptures, and statues. Among the rest of his curiosities he has an excellent piece, representing the _Massacre_ of the _De Witts_, a good brass _Otho_, and a fine _Venus Anadyomene_. The day following the Doctor procured for us the like favour from Mr. _Vincent_, whose cabinet consists of a very numerous and well disposed collection of animals and shells.

April xxii.

Mr. _Cockburn_, son of the Doctor, Mr. _Vandeput_, and I, divert ourselves, by making a short excursion to _Sardam_, in _North Holland_, remarkable for the great number of windmills that surround it, and the large quantity of timber, which always lies there ready prepared for building of ships. We return in the evening to _Amsterdam_; and the next day I purchase of _Mynhéer Visscher_ a set of _Geographical Charts_, both _Old_ and _New_; and then visit _Mynhéer Uilenbroek_, a curious gentleman, possessed of a very large and well chosen library, as also a cabinet of coins and other rarities.

April xxiv.

I depart for _Harlem_, and there visit the learned _Antony Van Dale_, by profession a physician, in opinion an anabaptist. He entertained me very obligingly with a sight of the neat gardens, costly tulips, and other amusements of that place. In discoursing with him on divers subjects of learning, he seemed in some things over sceptical, questioning particularly the authority of the _Apocalypse_. I go the same night to _Leyden_, and from thence the next day to _Rotterdam_.

April xxviii.

Returning again to _Harlem_, Mr. _Van Dale_ carries me to visit _Mynhéer Koolaert_, a merchant, and father of a beautiful daughter, named _Hester_, about seventeen years of age, born deaf and consequently dumb; but taught to speak (tho not very articulately) by one Dr. _Amman_, who has published a book upon that art, of which the young lady gave me a copy in _Dutch_, and her father another in _Latin_. She asked me after Mr. _Rombouts_ of _Constantinople_; and I answering he is dead, she discerned what I said by the motion of my lips. By the same means she can discourse at large with her mother even in the dark, by feeling her lips when speaking. She writes well, and paints curiously. And her mother is an excellent Latinist. The same day Mr. _Van Dale_ shewed me a specimen of the first printing, kept in the town house of this place; and in the market place the inscription, asserting that invention to _Harlem_:

MEMORIAE SACRVM
TYPOGRAPHICA ARS ARTIVM OMNIVM CONSERVATRIX
HIC PRIMVM INVENTA A L. COSTERO HARLEMENSI MCCCCXXIIX.

The next day I leave _Harlem_, and return to _Amsterdam_.

May i.

This morning, with Dr. _Cockburn_ and Mr. _Vandeput_, I visit the learned Mr. _le Clerc_. He shewed me the _Thesaurus linguae Latinae_ of _Rob. Stephanus_, improved by manuscript notes of the author’s own hand; as also _Irenaeus_, _Lib._ v. _cap._ 2. concerning the presence in the sacrament; and complained of Mr. _Grabe_, as misrepresenting the church of England in his notes. In the afternoon, in company with Mr. _Vandeput_, I review the cabinet of _Mynhéer Uilenbroek_; and by his leave copy the two following sepulchral inscriptions, one in Latin, and the other in Greek, the former of which is peculiarly remarkable for the corruption of the language.