their words to the nature of the fubject: hence a peculiar characteristic of their language, which, if I may prefame to form an opinion on the little knowledge I was able to acquire of it during my abode in this country, is the molt fimple and expreffive in the world. The fair fex are never introduced as a topic of converfation; nay, they even pafs in the streets without obtaining the fmalleft notice from the men. The places they are known to frequent are deemed facred and inacceffible; and a man would feel himfelf affronted, who fhould be accufed of having remarked or faluted a woman in public. Europeans, I know, confider thefe eastern manners as the refult of gloomy jealoufy; but I rather regard them as the confequences of a punctilious delicacy relative to the point of honour in the fex, who, according to the maxims of Afia, are not fuppofed to have any acquaintance with men, except in the perfon of one individual. The women, nevertheless, contrive to pafs the time agreeably by themselves; and as the fole object of their parties is amusement, little affected by any ingredient that can give occafion to latent difguft, they probably experience more real gaiety of heart than the fair European, who, in the midst of her crowded and promifcuous affemblies, is often liable to be disturbed by envy, jealoufy, and refentment. With a mind eafy and unembarraffed, the Afiatic feems to move in a sphere which affords a finer relish for the fociety and enjoyment of her companions. She receives the vifits of her friends in her own apartments, while the garden, the bath, and the tomb, are the places of her public refort. This oriental custom of frequenting the tombs is a strong proof of female fenfibility; the mind being nicely fufceptible of impreffions, but at the fame time endowed with a pe culiar verfatility of reflection, has ftamped its own image on this kind of affembly. Upon their arrival at the grave of a deceafed friend, they give full vent to the forrow and anguifh of their bofoms; afterwards they gradually enter into converfation, which takes a ferious, gay, or even ludicrous turn, according to their different characters. After all, a good heart may here find relief; and many, I have no doubt, profit by the leffons of moral instruction they receive at the grave, however extraordinary the cultom itself may appear to ftrangers. DESCRIPTION of the CITY of ANTWERP. (With a View elegantly engraved.) T great folemnity, declared the HE French having, with Scheldt open, an event which may prove of confiderable importance to feveral of the mercantile countries of Europe, -we have this month prefented our fair readers with a view and defcription of the celebrated city fituated on its banks, and which formerly derived opulence and fplendor from the navigation of that river. The city of Antwerp is the capital of the marquifate of the fame name, in the country which fome time fince was the Auftrian Netherlands. It ftands on the caft bank of the Scheldt, in a low and fenny ground, and is furrounded by the province of Brabant. The city is built in the form of a crefcent on the river, which is here twenty feet deep, and four hundred yards in breadth, fo that vessels of burthen can come up to the quay; and canals are cut through the town from the river, up which small vesfels may be brought to the very doors of the houses. The city is furrounded with a fine wall, planted on each fide of it with rows of trees, and walks between them wide enough for two coaches to go abreaft. | miles below Antwerp, and on the narrowest part of the river, to hin der all ships from coming up, except uch as paid them cuftom. And as Flushing, in the province of Zealand, is fituated at the mouth of the river, the Dutch took effectual care to render the navigation that way impracticable; fo that now the trade nas removed from Antwerp to Amterdam. The lofs of their trade caufed the merchants of Antwerp to apply themfelves to jewelling, painting, and banking; all which, particularly the latter, they have continued to the prefent time, in the great ft perfection; for bills of ex any fum, and to any part of Europe. On the Scheldt, about fix miles below Antwerp, is Fort St. Mary. Antwerp contains twenty-two pablic fquares, two hundred and-twelve streets, all ftraight, broad, and the houfes built high; the antiquity of which even adds to their beauty, as fhowing what the city was at its first erection. Most of the houfs have court-yards or areas within, and gardens behind. The principal street in Antwerp is called Mere; it is well paved, and fo broad that fix coaches may go abreast in it; and the houfes are generally of free-change may be negotiated here for ftone. At the head of the Mere is a fine brafs crucifix, thirty-three feet high, on a marble pedestal, which was erected in the year 1633. Adjoining to this treet is the exchange for merchants, from which Sir Thomas Gresham took the model of the Royal Ex.ha ge he erected in London, and the burghers of Amfterdam that of theirs, built in the latter city. The exchange of Antwerp has four fpacious gates oppofite to one another, and always open. The walks round it are fupported by forty-three pillars of blue marble, all engraved, but not two of them alike. This exchange is one hundred and eighty feet long, and one hundred and forty broad. Underneath are vaults or magazines wel ftored with merchants' goods, and above is an academy for paint-low for wet. In the middle ftory, ing, ículpture, architecture, and the mathematics. Upwards of two hundred years ago, Antwerp was cne of the most flourishing mercantile cities in Europe, thips of very confiderable burthen coming up to its quays on the banks of the Scheldt, as they do on the Thames at London. But when the feven united provinces of Holland were declared a free flate, and the navigation of the Scheldt yieded to them by Spain, they built Fort Lillo, about feven The great market-place, in which ftands the town-house, is very fpacious, and the fcene of all public executions. The town-houfe is a very grand piece of architecture, a' large ftructure of free-ftone, with a fine frontifpiece, decorated with a variety of itatues, a cupola, and an eagle at top. The houfe of the Hans towns, for the convenience of the merchauts from the Baltic, called, by the Flemings, Eafterlings, which was built when the trade of Antwerp flourished, viz. in the year 1568, is a fquare building of ftone, two hundred and thirty feet long, with magazines in the upper parts for dry goods, and cellars be which has a gallery quite round the fquare, are three hundred lodgingrooms for merchants. But this edi. fice is now turned into a horfe-barrack, the cellars of which ferve for flables, and the rooms above for hay-lofts. Antwerp has feven gates, from each of which runs a long street, terminating at the cathedral, about the middle of the city. Thefe gates were, feveral of them, defigned by the famous painter and architect 312 fir fir Peter Paul Rubens, who was a native of Antwerp, and interred in St. James's church. No city in all the Netherlands has fo many churches, and fuch fine ftructures as thofe of Antwerp, which is the fee of a bishop, and a fuffragan to the archbishop of Mechlin. The cathedral, which is alfo a parochial church, is a very grand pile, being upwards of 500 feet long, two hundred and thirty broad, and three hundred and fixty high. The emperor Charles V. at his public entry into Antwerp, faid, that it ought to be put in a cafe, and fhewn only once a year as a rarity. Its fpire is four hundred and fixty-fix feet high, the cross at top one hundred and fifty one, the diameter of the clock thirty feet, and the circumference ninety. In its belfry are thirty-three great bells and two chimes. This is a curious piece of workmanship, and arched at top like an imperial crown. The three principal doors of this cathedral are enchafed with marble, and gilt. The altars in it are adorned with fine paintings, fome of which are by Rubens. The pic ture which reprefents the taking down of our Saviour from the crofs, in which the figures are all as large as life, is efteemed a mafter-piece. Here are four other parish churches, St. George, St. James which is alfo a collegiate church, St. Andrew, and St. Walburge; befides twenty-five colleges, nunneries, and other religious foundations. Among it thefe, the Jefuits' church is elteemed one of the finest in Europe. Its pavement is all of white marble, and the galleries are fupported by fiftyfix marble columns. The great altar is compoted of the fame materials, intermixed with jafper, porphyry, and gold; and on the ceiling are thirty-eight pictures from the hiftory of the New Tellament, by Rubens. The chapel of the Vir gin, contiguous to it, is ftill more magnificent. The pitture of the affumption of the Virgin, on the great altar, was painted by Rubens, and by him called his mafter-piece: round it are fix ftatues of alabafter, which reprefent the founders of the chapel. Some years ago, this church was very much damaged, and the marble galleries beaten down, by lightning; but it has fince been repaired, and is now much higher by the galleries being removed. The Jefuits' college alíc, with the library, are worth feeing. Among the nunneries in this city, is an Eng lifh one of the order of St. Therela. The nuns of it wear no linen, cat no flesh, and lie upon ftraw. The grates are fo difmal that they give it the appearance of a prifon. The citadel, which is reckoned one of the ftrongest in Europe, is very regular, being an exact pentagon. It ftands on the fouth fide of Antwerp, on the banks of the Scheldt, and commands the town, the river, and the neighbouring country. The erecting this fortreis by order of Philip H. of Spain, was the first check given to the trade and greatnefs of this city, which before was a free port. Among the many privileges granted this city by its princes, one is, that any perfon born in Antwerp is a citizen, though both father and mother be foreigners. The jurifdiction or territory of Antwerp includes the following cities and noted towns, viz. Liere, Heren tal, Hoogstrate, Turnhout, and Geel; be fides which, are many confiderable villages and boroughs, called liberties, namely Mol, Arendonk, Borgerhout, &c. Antwerp is governed by pine perfons, taken out of the nobility; and as many are nominated by the prefects, or mafters of the streets, who, together with eighteen of the principal citizens, make thirty-fix This city lies 36 miles N. of Bruffels, and at the fame distance N. E. of Ghent. |