The glory has departed; two modern
dwelling-houses have taken the place of this commercial palace;
but it must surely be a very dull imagination on which the sight
of this spot, now so tranquil and commonplace, but once the centre
of such important transactions, makes no impression. From the Place
des Orientaux it is only a few minutes' stroll to the Rue Cour
de Gand and the dark brown wooden front of the small house, now
a lace shop, which tradition says was one of Memlinc's homes in
Bruges, where we can fancy him, laboriously and with loving care,
putting the last minute touches to some immortal painting.
Then there is the Rue Anglaise, off the Quai Spinola, where the
English Merchant Adventurers met to discuss their affairs in houses
with such names as 'Old England' or 'The Tower of London.' The
head of the colony, 'Governor of the English Nation beyond the
Seas' they called him, was a very busy man 400 years ago.[*] The
Scottish merchants were settled in the same district, close to
the Church of Ste. Walburge. They called their house 'Scotland,'
and doubtless made as good bargains as the 'auld enemy' in the
next street. There is a building called the Parijssche Halle, or
Halle de Paris, hidden away among the houses to the west of the
Market-Place, with a cafe and a theatre where Flemish plays are acted
now, which was formerly the Consulate of France; and subscription
balls and amateur theatricals are given by the English residents of
to-day in the fourteenth-century house of the Genoese merchants
in the Rue Flamande.
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