The Groote
Kerk is of unusual interest. It is five hundred years old and famous
for its very elaborate pulpit--a little cathedral in itself--and an
organ. Zwolle also has an ancient church which retains its original
religion--the church of Notre Dame, with a crucifix curiously protected
by iron bars. I looked into the stadhuis to see a Gothic council room;
and smoked meditatively among the stalls of a little flower market,
wondering why some of the costumes of Holland are so charming and
others so unpleasing. A few dear old women in lace caps were present,
but there were also younger women who had made their pretty heads
ugly with their decorations.
At Zwolle M. Havard was disappointed to find no wax figure of the
famous wild girl found in the Cranenburg Forest in 1718. She roamed
its recesses almost naked for some time, eluding all capture, but was
at last taken with nets and conveyed to Zwolle. As she could not be
understood, an account of her was circulated widely, and at length
a woman in Antwerp who had lost a daughter in 1702 heard of her,
and on reaching Zwolle immediately recognised her as her child. The
magistrates, accepting the story, handed the girl to her affectionate
parent, who at once set about exhibiting her throughout the country
at a great profit.
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