Sunday, October 1st 1854 ~ Brussels, Belgium

"A canal near Brussels in 1871" (C. Monet).

Hotel de l’Univers ~ We all went to an English chapel this morning and heard the service badly performed. After church I wandered about the city and saw the Place Royale in the centre of which is a beautiful equestrian statue in bronze of Godfrey of Bouillon of enormous size. This square is in the very best part of the city at the upper end of the Park. I walked around the Park, seeing in passing the Palais Royal, the Palais de la Nation and the Museum or Palais des Beaux Arts. This last I went into, but was unable to see anything but ordinary paintings. Those by Rubens and Van Dyck being closed for the season. The public buildings are large and handsome and the whole city wears an air of fite. It is clean, has nice, broad sidewalks, wide streets and a gay mirth seeking population. Brussels is said to imitate Paris closely, at least as closely as a place of this size can. All the shops are open today and many places of amusement which are open once each week. Even during the morning the shops were all open. Many English people come here to enconomize, so many that Brussels has ceased to be a cheap place to live in. The Park is truly beautiful. It is made into hill and dale, and ornamented with statuary. It is well shaded with large trees and contains several little ponds of water. There was one that took my fancy very much, with a grotto at one end and in it a reclining nymph. The whole shaded with high trees and the grounds about covered with the greenest grass. Brussels like Paris boasts here Boulevarts, which are long wide avenues shaded with trees, not paved, but macadamized. These were originally the top of the walls of the city, but as the city grew, they have in some places become almost its centre. The boulevards today are crowded with ladies and gentlemen showily drest, walking and driving. Young men in handsome military uniforms form a large part of the assemblage. The stately trees, the gay looking people, the bright uniforms, the foreign intonation, the military bands, makes this to me a scene of enchantment. This city is more lively and strikes me as more beautiful than London. In this fashionable part of the town each house is a palace. I past the house in which the Dutchess of Richmond gave a ball the night before the battle of Waterloo. “There was a sound of revelry by night.” This house is close to the great conservatory. One of the largest in Europe. The weather is fine, too warm for an overcoat, and the trees have not yet lost their verdure.