Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/240

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228
TOUR THROUGH

in a country where there are no quarries (though if I recollect right London is principally paved with stones from Scotland), but some attention should surely be paid to the security and comforts of the multitude. The streets of Amsterdam are paved with bricks; and in the trading part of the town are as dirty as Wapping or Thames-street.

Contrary to the practice of shopkeepers in England, the traders of Amsterdam make no ostentatious display of their commodities in the windows of their shops, and indeed they are generally unfit for exhibitions of that nature. A few of the coarsest articles which they sell, and least likely to be damaged by exposure are placed with little regularity or attention in their windows, and barely serve to announce the nature of their dealings. We found in the shops which we had occasion to visit, the men polite and intelligent; if they could not speak English or French, which frequently happened, we rarely had much difficulty in making them understand what we wanted, and they never in the least