The Madonna of Lombaerdzyde
did not prevail to keep the sea from invading the village at the
time when the inhabitants were driven to Nieuport, but the belief
in her miraculous power is as strong to-day as it was in the Dark
Ages.
[Illustration: ADINKERQUE. Village and Canal.]
There is a view of Lombaerdzyde which no one strolling on the dunes
near Nieuport should fail to see--a perfect picture, as typical
of the scenery in these parts as any landscape chosen by Hobbema
or Ruysdael. A causeway running straight between two lofty dunes
of bare sand, and bordered by stunted trees, forms a long vista at
the end of which Lombaerdzyde appears--a group of red-roofed houses,
with narrow gables and white walls, and in the middle the pointed
spire of the church, beyond which the level plain of Flanders,
dotted with other villages and churches and trees in formal rows,
stretches away into the distance until it merges in the horizon.
Adinkerque, a picturesque village beyond Furnes, is another place
which calls to mind many a picture of the Flemish artists in the
Musee of Antwerp and the Mauritshuis at The Hague; and the recesses
of the dune country in which these places are hidden has a wonderful
fascination about it--the irregular outlines of the dunes, some
high and some low, sinking here into deep hollows of firm sand,
and rising there into strange fantastic shapes, sometimes with
sides like small precipices on which nothing can grow, and sometimes
sloping gently downwards and covered with trembling poplars, spread
in confusion on every side.
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