24 HAGUE.

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by the examination of this vehicle. The fellies and the spokes are thieker than those of any carriages in England, but the joinings of the different parts of the fellies were so admirably made, that they were scarcely perceptible. The spokes were fitted to the fellies, and to the nave in the same nice manner; and to the eye of an observer, who had never “before seen a wheel, it would have appeared, that the whole must have been carved out of a solid block of wood. The iron work was equally neat; the joinings of the circle could not be perceived, nor even the naïls by which it was fastened, and altogether it was the completest piece of workmanship L had ever examined. The driver sat on a little dicky in front of, and somewhat lower than, the cabriole, and managed his four horses with considerable dexterity. I estimated that the carriage, the passengers, and the luggage stowed on the top, under the dicky and cabriole, and in a basket behind, which reached from the perch to the top of the coach, could not be less than three tons, and with this weight the horses rattled along at the rate of six miles an hour.

The Dutch are as punctual, as they are industrious and parsimonious. The diligences and treckschuyts start at the time appointed, during the striking of the clock. If you are told that the hour is seven, you may be sure to be away before the fourth of the seven strokes have sounded. The precision at which the hour of arrival is fixed, is such that you may depend upon it within a very few minutes; and the same reliance may be placed on the period of finishing the journey, whether it be made by water or by land.

The horses in Holland are good, look sleek as if well fed, and the property of substantial masters; they have a kind of

amble in their gait, are rather gay and prancing in their

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