We
were shown Hoorn's treasures by a pleasant girl who allowed no shade
of tedium to cross her smiling courteous face, although the display
of these ancient pictures and implements, ornaments and domestic
articles must have been her daily work for years. In the top room
of all is a curious piece of carved stone on which may be read these
inscriptions:--
This most illustrious Prince,
Henry Lord Darnley, King of Scotland,
Father to our Soveraigne Lord King James.
He died at the age of 21.
The most excellent Princesse Marie, Queen of Scotland,
Mother of our Soveraigne, Lord King James.
She died 1586, and entombed at West Minster.
It would be interesting to know more of this memorial.
In another room are two carved doors from a house in Hoorn that had
been disfurnished which give one a very vivid idea of the old good
taste of this people and the little palaces of grave art in which
they lived.
Thursday is Hoorn's market day, and it is important to be there then
if one would see the market carts of North Holland in abundance. We
had particularly good fortune since our Thursday was not only market
day but the Kermis too. I noticed that the principal attraction of
the fair, for boys, was the stalls (unknown at the Kermis both at
Middelburg and Leyden) on which a variety of flat cake was chopped
with a hatchet.
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