A most interesting and, indeed, wonderful thing in the recent history
of the Netherlands is the rapid development of the Flemish littoral
from a waste of sand, with here and there a paltry fishing hamlet
and two or three small towns, into a great cosmopolitan pleasure
resort. Seventy-five years ago, when Belgium became an independent
country, and King Leopold I. ascended the throne, Ostend and Nieuport
were the only towns upon the coast which were of any size; but
Ostend was then a small fortified place, with a harbour wholly
unsuited for modern commerce, and Nieuport, in a state of decadence,
though it possessed a harbour, was a place of no importance. To-day
the whole coast is studded with busy watering-places, about twenty
of them, most of which have come into existence within the last
fifteen years, with a resident population of about 60,000, which
is raised by visitors in summer to, it is said, nearly 125,000. The
dunes, which the old Counts of Flanders fought so hard to preserve
from the waves, and which were at the beginning of the present
century mere wastes of sand, a sort of 'no man's land,' of little
or no use except for rabbit-shooting, are now valuable properties,
the price of which is rising every year.
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