The Henson Journals

[274]

Tuesday, August 22nd, 1911. The Hague.

We began a busy day by walking to the Binnenhof, and inspecting the Hall of the Knights, where the Queen opens the Chambers, & where the International Peace Conference held its session. We saw also the Court of Justice, in which Barneveldt & Grotius were condemned. We were shown in the adjacent Building the Chamber of the Estates of Holland, where the First Chamber holds its sittings. It is a rectangular building, the Ministry sit facing the President. Then we visited the great Picture Gallery in the Mauritshuis, & worked religiously through Baedeker! Rembrandt's 'School of Anatomy' and Paul Potter's 'Bull' stand topmost in our recollection, but, perhaps, we enjoyed more those numerous smaller pictures, which seem to lift the veil from 17th century Dutch life, in all its aspect. The portrait of Paul Potter himself lingers in the memory – a moody, sensuous, face, ear–marked for early death. I was particularly interested in the portraits of the great Stadtholders – William the Silent, his son Maurice, & our own William III. From the Gallery we passed to the Gevangenpoort, which had been used as a prison, & contained a number of sinister memorials [275] which attest the fact. Here the unfortunate brothers de Witt met their terrible fate. Cornelius de Witt's bed in the infirmary is shown: on the adjacent wood–work he had scratched a drawing of his own house & of his brother's house. Divers instruments of torture are here preserved – thumbscrews, whipping–ports, branding irons, stocks, &c. Also the plank on which prisoners were bound and beheaded. The deep cuts of the axe suggested a large practice in decapitation.

In the afternoon we made an expedition to Gouda. In the Groote Kerk, a very large & grand late–Gothic building are no less than '31 large & 13 smaller stained–glass windows, presented by princes, towns, & private individuals' after the fire of 1552, which destroyed the Church. The bright sun showed up these magnificent windows to great advantage. Two especially arrested our notice: The one was presented by William the Silent: the other by his enemy & murderer, Philip II. The last is truly splendid. It represents the last Supper: Philip himself & his Queen Mary of England are being presented by one of the Apostles, presumably S. Philip, to our Lord. The Royal Arms of England stand beside those of Spain in the compartment below. On the window is inscribed the legend. "Veritas temporis filia". It would be impossible to imagine a more striking [276] & piquant inscription in that place. Time has indeed disclosed the truth about Philip II. What his own contemporaries could not but suspect, but yet in default of proof could not believe, respecting that monarch's crimes has been demonstrated after more than 200 years of the publication of the official documents, many of which are noted with his own hand. "There is nothing hidden which shall not be made known" said the JUDGE.

The country between the Hague & Gouda is typically Dutch – flat as a pancake, intersected everywhere by canals, admirably cultivated, & carrying numbers of windmills. I counted 22 of these at once from the train–windows. Great numbers of fat cattle are grazing on either side of the line. They are of a large breed, black & white in colour, not often seen in England. I observed also not a few solemn stately storks standing like national sentinels beside the canals, or winging their heavy flight over the fields.

After dinner I wrote two letters – to Dr Gow, & to Gilbert.

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