[Cmms-support] rt of the 'Austrian Netherlands,' was a

[Zais M. <st...@so...>]

Works relating to Bruges, there is nothing better than Mr. Wilfrid
Robinson's _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, a short and clear history,
coming down to

modern times (Louis de Plancke, Bruges, 1899).] In olden times

watchmen were always on duty on the Belfry to give warning if enemies
approached or fire broke out in any part of the town, a constant
source of danger when most of the houses were built of wood. Even in
these more prosaic days the custom of keeping watch and ward
unceasingly is still maintained, and if there
is a fire, the alarum-bell clangs over the city. All day, from
year's end to year's end, the chimes ring every quarter of an hour;
and all night, too,
during the wildest storms of winter, when the wind shrieks round the
tower; and in summer, when the old town lies slumbering in the
moonlight.
[Illustration: BRUGES. A corner
of the Market on the Grand' Place.] From the top of the Belfry one
looks down
on what is practically a mediaeval city.
The Market-Place seems to lose its modern aspect when seen from
above; and all round there is nothing visible but houses with
high-pointed gables and red roofs, intersected by canals,
and streets so narrow that they appear to be mere lanes. Above these
rise, sometimes from trees and gardens, churches, convents, venerable
buildings, the lofty spire of Notre Dame, the tower of St.
Sauveur, the turrets of the Gruthuise, the Hospital of St. John,
famous for its paintings by Memlinc,

the Church of Ste. Elizabeth in the grove of the Beguinage, the
pinnacles of the Palais du Franc, the steep roof of the Hotel de
Ville,
the dome of the Couvent des
Dames Anglaises, and beyond that to the east the slender tower which
rises above
the Guildhouse of the Archers of St. Sebastian. The