Belgium and Holland, including the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg : handbook for travellers / by Karl Baedeker.

  • Karl Baedeker (Firm)
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Belgium and Holland, including the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg : handbook for travellers / by Karl Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    20/704
    The Belgian Cap^b closely resemble those of Paris. They are most frequented about midday aud in the evening. Coffee, liqueurs, and beer are the beverages offered here. It is not the custom of the country to breakfast at a caf^, and hence the price of this meal is apt to be as high as at a hotel. Gratuity 5-10 c. — At the Coif- PBOTioNERs’ (pdtisseriet) ices and liqueurs of numerous kinds and occasionally beer may be obtained. Breakfast may in some cases be secured at a moderate price. Newspapers (Journaux). The chief caf^s are usually supplied with the Brussels newspapers and the chief Paris journals; English papers are rare The principal Brussels journals are VIndipendance. VEtaCt Belgt. Le Petit Bleu, ha Gazette, ha ChrorUque (all liberal), he Courrier de Bruxellet, he PatrioU, he Petit Beige (clerical), and he Peuple (socialist). The Belguia Gazette is an English weekly paper. At Antwerp the leading papers are he Pricurteur, he Matin, De Nieuae Gazti Oiberal), ha Mitropole, De Gaut van Antwerpen (clerical), and De Werker (socialist). The most widely-read journal in Ghent is the neutral Gazette van Gent, which appeared first in 1667 and is one of the oldest of existing newspapers. VI. Language. The population of Belgium is mainly divided between two chief races: the Walloons, almost exclusively confined to the basin of the Meuse or Maas, and the Flemings (about five-eighths of the whole), in the basin of the Scheldt. The boundary between the Walloon and Flemish languages is a fairly straight line drawn from Vise (p. 264) southwards past Brussels and Courtrai to Calais, Walloon being spoken in a few isolated districts to the K., and Flemish here and there to the S. of the line.t In spite of the efforts of the Flemish population (p. xvii), Febkch is still the language of the government, the army, of most of the newspapers, of public traffic, of scientific literature, and indeed of all the upper classes, as it has been since the time of the crusades. The Walloon language is an early French (Romanic) patois, with Celtic and Teutonic elements, but almost as unintelligible to a Frenchman as Flemish is to a German. Its literary importance is of the slightest. The learned Florentine Ouicciardim (d. 1589), who as Tuscan ambassador resided for severalyears in the Nether- lands, describes the Walloon language, in his Descriptio totius Belgii, as ‘sermo communiter Oallicus; sed quia Oalliam inter atque Oer- maniam et Belglcam positi, corruptus valde et perabsurdus. The following popular rhymes from the ‘Almanack par malire Malhieu Laensbergk' will serve as a specimen of the language: Jakuabt: II gna pu d'broCli ki d'pouttSr. | II y a plus de boue que de poussiirc. + Of the totel population of 6,693,5*8 in 1900, 2,822,005^ke Flemish only, i57A806 French only, 801,687 Flemish and French, 28.314 German only, 66,4*7 German and Frencli, 7238 Flemish and German, *2,839 Flemish, French, and German, and ^,5OT other languages only.