The Henson Journals

[269]

10th Sunday after Trinity, August 20th, 1911. Antwerp.

We hired a carriage and drove to the English Church in the Rue Grétry. This was a handsome building, far above the average of such churches in foreign towns. Here we attended Mattins. The congregation was very small, and the choir–stalls almost empty. Indeed everything suggested the depth of the dead or holiday season: but the service was simple & reverently rendered, & we were content.

As we returned we fell in with the great Festival procession of the Madonna. Taking our stand in the crowd at the western entrance of the Cathedral, we witnessed the return of the procession. It was surely a pompous pagan show enough. Crowds of bright banners escorted by boys with lighted candles, confraternities, guilds of workmen &c., the great Doll itself gleaming in the sunlight, a host of ecclesiastics in their robes, & to end all, the Blessed Host under a Canopy. I observed curiously the demeanour of the crowd. It was friendly & undevout, a few hats were raised, & a few women kneeled when the Host came by, but certainly there was no appearance of any deep religion. The crowds in the streets were very large. I should judge that Protestantism would be extremely unattractive to these pageant–loving Flemings. They want movement & colour.

[270]

In the afternoon we boarded a street car, and so were carried to the Zoological Gardens. Here we had tea, & then inspected the collection. The animals are well–arranged, and look extremely well. Especially the carnivorous birds made a fine show. The white–washing of their cages showed them to great advantage. On the whole, although the area of the gardens must be considerably less, & probably there are not nearly so many animals & birds, I could not honestly deny that many of the creatures looked better than those in the Regent's Park collection. We admired the skill which had so arranged the Gardens beside the Railway Station as effectively to conceal the unlovely features of the latter. There were great numbers of people enjoying themselves in the Zoo. I reflected on the decency of their behaviour, and the prosperity of their appearance. Family parties were evidently numerous: & of course there were the inevitable duets of lovers on every hand. The continental Sunday, as we have observed it today in Antwerp, does not merit the denunciations which it commonly provokes in England. After dinner, we wrote letters. I wrote to Ernest Rudling.

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