Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/75

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
69

others totally unroofed. The country for many miles was under water, owing to the overflowing of the canals; and at Delft the streets were covered with the wreck of public and private buildings. The old church, in which national gratitude has erected monuments to the memory of Admiral Van Trump and Peter Heyne, was unroofed, and many chimneys of the Military Institute, a modern erection, were blown down. Not a private house that I could perceive had escaped without some damage to its windows or roof; and the destruction had been particularly severe among the flight fantastic temples and summer-houses which adorn the gardens of the Dutch. The overthrow of temples and statues might afflict their possessors, but I regretted the fruit and forest trees that were destroyed: the ingenuity of man could repair the one, but time only re-establish the other.

The great character which the Hague has obtained for the elegance of its buildings, and the delightfulness of its situation, made me so impatient to visit it, particularly as I