Assembling of the Congregation of the Free Church at Wanlockhead, Dumfries.

THE village of Wanlockhead is situated in the parish of Sanquhar, the higher district of the county of Dumfries. It contains about eight hundred inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in the adjoining lead mines. The Duke of Buccleuch is the sole proprietor of the village, and of the immediate surrounding country. The villagers are in his employment. The parish church in the town of Sanquhar, is about eight miles distant, but, for the accommodation of the inhabitants, a chapel in connection with the established church was built here many years since. Since the Free Church movement, about three-fourths of the population of Wanlockhead have left the Establishment. They made an application to the Duke of Buccleuch, and others, for a site on which to erect a chapel, but none was granted. The number of communicants was two hundred and seventy-four, of whom fifty were from the neighboring village of Leadhills. Possessed of the spirit of the old Covenanters, the congregation regularly assembled for public worship on the Sabbath, in the open air, even in severe weather, during winter. The engraving represents the congregation at Wanlockhead, during a snow storm, on their way to their place of worship in a ravine about five hundred yards distant from the village, where the minister preached from a pulpit which partly gave him a shelter.

472

Then kneeling down to Heaven's eternal King

ing

The Saint, the Father, and the Hufband prays: preffirings exalting on trumphant wing, That thus they

I shall meet in fature days. Thire ever bath in uncreated rays, rever

Wom

No more to figh; or shed the better tear :
Together hymning their breator's praise
In fuck fociety, yet still more dear;

While winding

"wes round in an eternal sphere.

time moves

то

17.

FAC-SIMILE OF ROBERT BURNS' HAND WRITING.

Being a copy of the sixteenth stanza of the Cotter's Saturday Night, as he prepared it for the press. The whole of the poem is on three half sheets of paper (foolscap size) written on both sides.

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

IN

HOLLAND,

AND

HOLLAND AND BELGIU M.

HOLLAND the name of which, (the hollow land,) indicates the nature of the country-may be considered as little more than a large marsh drained by human industry. It extends from 51 deg. 10 min. to 53 deg. 30 min. north latitude, and from 3 deg. 20 min. to 7 deg. 10 min. of east longitude. In the northern provinces of this kingdom there are neither mountains nor hills to relieve the eye from the monotony of one continued flat surface; and when viewed from the top of a tower, or steeple, the country appears like a vast marshy plain intersected in all directions by canals and ditches. The prospect, however, is beautiful-vast meadows with the freshest verdure, covered with numerous herds of cattle, every where appear. The number of boats passing in every direction tend to enliven the scene, and the close succession of beautiful farms, villages, and towns, show at once the industry and wealth of the country.

Holland has been long noted as a Protestant state, although rather more than a third of the population are Catholics, and there are about 50,000 Jews. Since the separation from Belgium in 1830, the Dutch kingdom of Holland has consisted of ten provinces, the population of which, in 1850, was 3,081,153. The greater part of the Protestants are Calvinists in doctrine, and Presbyterian in church government. The clergy, of all denominations, are recognized by law, and receive salaries from the public purse, Catholic as well as Protestant.

The physical features of a large portion of this country has been entirely changed by the formation of the Zuyder Zee. It has been observed, that in few parts of the world does the ocean long retain precisely its original limits. It either encroaches with more or less rapidity on the land, or it yields its own bed to the operations of human industry. On the whole coast of Holland it has for many ages been making the most alarming encroachments.

On consulting the ancient maps, it will be found that the river Yssel ran into an inland lake called Flevo, and from that lake a river pursued

But at

its course for a distance of fifty miles before it reached the sea. present, this very lake forms part of the sea. All the intervening country has been swallowed up; a broad expanse of water, more than seventy miles in length and forty in breadth, covers it; and the islands of the Texel, Vlieland, Schelling, and Ameland are the only remains of the old continent. History is silent as to the period of this dreadful desolation, but it is subsequent to the time of the Romans.

The Scheldt originally formed a mere delta at its mouth, divided by four or five moderate streams; but these are now widened into very considerable arms and creeks of the sea, and the continent is separated into the distant island of Beveland, Walcheren, and Schouwen. This occurred in the tenth century; and as lately as the fifteenth century a vast lake was suddenly formed to the south-east of Dort, overwhelming seventy-two large villages, with 100,000 inhabitants, who perished in the deluge.

This constant encroachment of the sea, and these sudden and horrible devastations threatened, perhaps at no very distant period, the inundation and destruction of the whole country. To avert this calamity, the inhabitants commenced and brought to perfection an undertaking which has filled Europe and the world with astonishment. They began to raise banks or mounds against the sea; and although the work of many a year was often swept away in an hour, they persevered with all the character. istic steadiness and obstinacy which have been justly attributed to them. Their banks slowly grew into enormous mounds. They became consolidated by time. The sea covered them with sand, and thus furnished them with a defense against its own fury; and the Dutch can now truly say to the raging ocean in its wildest commotion, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further."

These dykes are of various height and thickness, according to their situation, and the urgency of the case. They are formed sloping on each side, the breadth of the base being very considerable, and many of them sufficiently wide on the top for two carriages to go abreast. Although the sea has still continued to rise upon their coast, and some of their land is forty feet below high-water mark, they consider themselves in perfect security. The traveler experiences a sensation of mingled pleasure, astonishment, and apprehension, when he walks at the foot of some of the dykes, and hears the surges dash far above his head.

In the same manner they have built numerous dykes on the banks of their rivers, and seem to have brought into complete subjection the vast body of water which runs through or surrounds their country. These dykes are properly considerd to be national works, and are maintained at incredible labor and expense.

There is usually a second dyke within, and near to the first; so that should the water burst or overflow the outer embankment, the second may prevent it from inundating the neighboring country, while the hollow between the dykes serves as a canal or aqueduct to carry off any occasional flood. The side of the mound towards the sea is strengthened by a species of reed, (Arundo arenosa,) which the Hollanders carefully plant in the spring and autumn. This catching the sand which the tide drives against the dyke, it rapidly accumulates, and soon affords a thick covering for the original mound, and defies the ravages of storms.

Many of the towns of Holland derive their name from these dykes. Rotterdam is so called from the dyke or dam on the banks of the river Rotter, which flows through that city; and Amsterdam is so denominated from the dyke or dam on the Amstel. At convenient distances are vast sluices, by means of which the whole country may be inundated to a considerable depth at the shortest notice. In desperate cases this would prove a sufficient security against the attack of an enemy; but only in desperate cases could it be resorted to, for while the enemy would be checked or destroyed, the country likewise would be laid waste.

Having raised these immense bulwarks against the ravages of the ocean, the inhabitants next diligently employed themselves in draining the morasses with which the Netherlands abounded. They even attacked, and succeeded in recovering, many immense tracts of land which the sea had entirely covered. The canals that formed a high road from one town to another, and with which they intersected every part of the country, contributed to effect this object, and to secure its permanence.

The proximity of the northern provinces to the sea, and the numerous rivers, lakes, and canals, that intersect the country, render the atmosphere damp and foggy. This seems not to affect the health of the natives. Their countenances, except in a few districts, exhibit no traces of sickness or disease; and instances of longevity, especially in the provinces of Utrecht and Guelderland, are not uncommon.

HISTORY OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.

The early history of these kingdoms is enveloped in complete obscurity, and we can trace little with certainty before the time of Julius Cæsar. When that conqueror invaded Gaul, this country was inhabited by various warlike tribes. The Menapii, the Tungri, the Nervii, and the Morini, possessed Belgium. Holland and the northern provinces were peopled by the Batavi. The original population was doubtless Celtic;