When a woman is brought to bed, a bulletin is daily fix ed to her house, for the space of a fortnight, or longer if she recovers slowly, which contains a statement of the health of the mother and child. This bulletin is fastened to a board, ornamented with lace, according to the circum stances of the person lying in ; and serves to answer the in quiries of friends, and to prevent unnecessary noise near the house. IVhen a person of consequence is dangerously ill, a bulletin of health is generally affixed to their house ; but, unless it is a child-bed case, the board is not ornament ed with lace.
The women in Holland, in general, are lovely rather than beautiful ; in their persons they are well formed ; their complexions arc fair, and their features regular, but their countenances are inanimate. Women are shorter-lived in Holland than men ; and after twenty-five generally lose all their beauty. The management of children is very absurd and injudicious. The air of the country is regarded as so prejudicial to them, that for the first two or three months they are never taken abroad ; and, during this period, the windows of their apartments are kept invariably shut. Their dress consists in flannel rollers, girt very tightly about their bodies, and these rollers are farther covered with a large flannel wrapper, bound three or four times round the body of the infant, and fastened with pins at its feet. The use of water is rigorously denied them. Thus managed, they are sickly, squalid objects. Chil dren, particularly females, are frequently indulged in the pernicious use of chauppiede, or stoves, without which a Dutchwoman could not exist, and this adds to their unwholesome appearance. We may remark, by the bye, that the advances Britain in civilization and useful knowledge are perhaps it) no instance more decidedly con spicuous, than in the improved management of children. Many of our readers must remember the period, when British children were almost universally olothed and treat ed as Dutch children still are.
The female dress, such as it was generally worn in Hol land nearly two centuries since, is not unfrequently still seen on the daughters of the ancient stock of burghers. The hair is bound close to the head, and covered with a small unornamented cap, with large plates of thin gold projecting from each side of the forehead, and a plate in the middle; ponderous ear-rings, and necklaces of the same metal gowns of thick silk, heavily embroidered, and waists of un natural length and rotundity ; hats of the size of a small Chinese umbrella, gaudily lined within ; sometimes these hats are set up in the air like a spread fan ; yellow slippers, without quarters at the heel. Children, and women of se
venty, are frequently seen in this preposterous dress. The women of rank or fortune are very fond of ornamenting their dress with rare and valuable jewels. These, as well as the gold plates worn by lower orders, are of great antiquity, and are most carefully handed down from genera tion to generation.
The Dutch language is evidently of Gothic origin, but it is little known out of the United Provinces. Dutch litera ture will be more properly considered in the article NE THERLANDS; where, indeed, every thing relating general ly to the history and statistics of the Low Countries must be sought for ; as, in the present article, we confine our selves, as much as possible, to the province of Holland. With respect to the encouragement given to literature, this province was formerly very remarkable. Leyden, Am sterdam, and the Hague, may be seen on the title-pages of the most valuable works, in Latin and French, which were printed during the 17th, and the beginning of the 18th cen turies. The Elzivers, justly celebrated for the correct and beautiful editions which they have given to the world of the best writers of antiquity, resided in Leyden, and ennobled its press by the elegant specimens of typography, which, for the space of a century, appeared from their press. During the bright period of French literature, when the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, &e. were ea gerly sought after by the learned and curious of Europe, the booksellers at the Hague and Amsterdam multiplied the editions of these authors, and carried on a lucrative trade with their works. Haerlem is one of the places which lays claim to the honour of the invention of the art of print ing; but at present the literary character, as well as the bookselling and printing trade of Holland, are at a very low ebb. There is one university in the province of Holland at Ley-den, and an inferior college at Amsterdam.