Studio: international art (11.1897)

South Holland as a Sketching Ground

DORDRECHT, FROM THE RIVER FROM A PENCIL SKETCH BY G. HORTON

will gather away to the northern horizon. On all
other points the sky is clear perhaps, save that
here and there a single puff of white vapour sails
away like the feather of some gigantic bird floating
on an ocean of air. These isolated clouds which
have been pearly grey in the dim light of early day,
gradually take a lilac tint, which deepens into pink,
and then blushes suddenly to a fiery scarlet as the
red rim of the sun rises majestically over the
eastern horizon. All the heavens are filled with
colour, from the palest blue at the zenith to the
most brilliant crimson in the east, as though it
were Nature's palette, on which she had dashed
every tint that she possesses.

If you are fortunate enough to find yourself on
the outskirts of the town upon one of those
glorious early September mornings which some-
times come as a compensation for the utter vile-
ness and bitter disappointment of a wet summer,
you will be rewarded by glimpses of some of the
loveliest pastoral scenes it is possible to imagine.
Here a river winds its sluggish way through lush
and poplar-bordered marshes where the graceful
Friesland cattle stand knee-deep in flowers, through
fields of yellow corn undulating like a golden sea
30

beneath the pressure of the wind, past quaint
wooden windmills and occasional stretches of
wind-stricken waste land, brightened here and
there with patches of brilliant marigolds, till it is
lost beneath the picturesque cluster of red-tiled
roofs that mark the ancient town. The " short
and simple annals of the poor" may be studied
first-hand from the peasant tillers of the soil,
whose predominant idiosyncrasies are the outcome
of uneventful lives spent as labourers in'the land—
stolid in demeanour, and lethargic in movement—
with the stamp of heavy labour ploughed deeply
upon their rugged faces.

Throughout the South Holland towns, board
and lodging at the hotels is remarkably cheap, the
accommodation excellent, and the food plain but
good, while scrupulous cleanliness is prevalent
everywhere. The passion for cleanliness and good
order appears equally among the farmers and
labouring classes, fresh paint, shining glass, and
burnished brass-work being conspicuous every-
where. In fact, should circumstances necessitate
a sojourn in the rural districts, a visitor could not
do better than obtain lodging in a farmhouse,
where he is sure to be well looked after. The