The list of streets and houses with old-time
associations like these might be extended indefinitely, for in
Bruges the past is ever present.
[Footnote *: In the _Flandria Illustrata_ of Sanderus, vol. i.,
p. 275, there is a picture of the 'Domus Anglorum.']
[Illustration: BRUGES. Vegetable Market.]
Even the flat-fronted, plain houses with which poverty or the bad
taste of the last century replaced many of the older buildings
do not spoil the picturesque appearance of the town as a whole,
because it is no larger now than it was 600 years ago, and these
modern structures are quite lost amongst their venerable neighbours.
Thus Bruges retains its mediaeval character. In the midst, however,
of all this wealth of architectural beauty and historical interest,
the atmosphere of common everyday life seems to be so very dull and
depressing that people living there are apt to be driven, by sheer
boredom, into spending their lives in a round of small excitements
and incessant, wearisome gossip, and into taking far more interest
in the paltry squabbles of their neighbours over some storm in
a teacup than in the more important topics which invigorate the
minds of men and women in healthier and broader societies.
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