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88 SWEDENBORG’S
TRAVELS
AND DIARIES. [Doc. 206.
Gothic ornaments ; from the interior of the church one can
look up into the tower to a great height, where the view is
closed by a ceiling representing the ascension of Christ. The
distance from Rotterdam to Antwerp is calculated at eighteen
[geographical] miles.
August 25. During the night I went in a large boat to
Boom, where we were transferred to a "treckschuyt" (canal
boat) of considerable size ; it was forty ells long, and six ells
wide, with five rooms, i. e. cabin, kitchen, and other apart
ments ; on the forward deck was an awning, under which people
could sit. We changed our "treckschuyts," which are drawn
by two horses, five times. It was a splendid and most beauti
ful trip. During the whole journey we had plantations of trees
on both sides ; people also were more civilized, so that in con
trast with their politeness the boorishness and heaviness of the
Dutch became very evident. We passed a town, called Vil
voorden, which had a very antiquated looking fortress. The
land on both sides was as flat as the water; in proportion,
however, as it rose it became necessary to provide locks or
sluices ; and from one lock we had to pass into another. About
11 o’clock in the fore-noon we arrived at Brussels, where I had
lodgings behind the town-hall at the house of a certain Cauter in
the "Runsefall." The distance from Antwerp to Brussels is
eight leagues. In Brussels I visited the cathedral which is called
the "gold church;" the most conspicuous ornament in it was
fourteen pillars, every one of which was dressed with foliage,
adorned with a statue, and furnished with an altar ; besides
other interesting objects. In addition to the other churches,
which I need not specify, I was in the principal rooms of the
town-hall, where I had occasion to admire the tapestry which
is manufactured in Brussels, and which surpasses the Gobelin
tapestry in Paris ; the woven pictures were so life-like, that no
painter could have made them finer ; they are still engaged
upon this kind of work at the present day. The houses facing
the market-place and many others in the town are much gilded ;
most of them are furnished with many windows, and are of
an old-fashioned style of architecture. Afterwards I visited
.
the arsenal where most of the curiosities were from the Em
peror ; among these were apparel of imperial purple, a shield
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