The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-09-24

little individuality to start with. the adventures
and patchngs of time have endued it with a
picturesqueness of its own. The builders gave
It practically decoration, but such solid works
receive all they need from the hand of time.
which adds detail with unerrng taste. The
palmer edifce may have been to start with,
the better time adorns 1t, provided it has been
built with sound materials, good workmanship
and In good proportions Most of Englands noblest
castles must have looked gaunt and even Ito
contemporary eyes) ugly. To the Saxon citizens
of London the White doubtless whtewashed)
tower can hardly have conveyed esthetic pleas
ure. But time has even decorated Norman
ties, so that not the baldest modern sky-scraper
need despair of future admiration If 1t hold
itself end up long enough.
Amersfoort tower is anything rather than plain
On the contrary II is in the Gothic style tending
towards famboyant while its general design is
Of the type Of the tower at Utrecht, which, indeed
being only fourteen miles away, doubtless sug-
gested II. That built during the middle half
OF the fourteenth century; Amersfoort at the
very end of the fifteenth. Both have the open
octagona top story already described. Utrecht is
33S feet high. Amersfoort 312 feet. The latter is
considered TO be the finest Gothic tower In Hol-
land. / suppose 1t to have been surmounted
intended to be surmounted by plain spire, but
the present bulbous top and open-work crown
were put on in 1855. Where did Holland get it's
taste for these bulbs? She did not have a mo-
nopoy OF them. for they are numerous enough i'm
Germany and In Switzerland An oriental
original probably suggested them. The Amers-
foort church built in the fourteenth century.
and the tower may well have been projected from
the first An explosion damaged the building, but
the damage made good and the tower for
tunately escaped.
Few tourists stop at Amersfoort, but plenty OF
them can see the tower from the train on their
way eastward from Amsterdam The summit OF
II looks northward far away over the Zuyder Zee.
Ia 1.ln
Hat as water. There was some fun i'm building
high towers in Holland. they could be seen from
clear day, and both of them Rhenen q imagine)
which Rembrandt sketched
Anyone who has landed at Flushing and pro-
ceeded thence anywhither by train has been
carried for the first few miles over the am
phibious region OF the island OF Walcheren. He
has passed Mddelburg and presently II he looked
away off to the left. he will have seen at n dis.
tance Of two three miles the little town of
Veere. Both old towns and highly pictur.
esque. So indeed Durer recorded them 10 be
when he visited them I'm the cold December OF
1920. Middelburg" he said, "is good town.
fine place for sketching. II has a beautiful town
hall with fine tower. There is much art shown
in all things here" All he has to say about veere
is that 1T is a fine little town where lie ships
from all lands" The object of Durer's unfor.
tunate winter journey TO the islands OF iceland
was not. however. to towers and town halls.
but to satisfy his Unsuitable curiosity about
natural history. He wanted TO make a drawing
OF a whale that had been stranded I'm those
parts Such curiosity in the case OF men like
Durer and Leonardo is the first indication wa
possess OF the approach OF the age of science.
The whale had been washed away before Durers