Lace-making is one of the industries of Bruges, and there is a trade in linen and woollen goods and pottery. The city to-day is not a bustling, commercial place, as in mediæval times, and to some visitors it may savour of sadness.
Mr Harry Quilter is a traveller who finds the Gothic towns "more than ordinarily depressing," by reason of their monotony. "Perhaps it is the effect of the angular roofs and windows, wearying to the eye as the diagrams in a book of Euclid. Perhaps it is the low-browed shops, the irregularly paved streets, the dull unrelieved brown and grey of the houses. But for whatever reason, the effect is certainly dreary."
If we do not find Bruges a town of dull aspect it is due to personal temperament and taste. There may be greyness in these old Gothic towns, there may be a suggestion of decay in Bruges; but there is also a strong fascination, a charm that appeals to those whose eyes have grown weary of modern streets with their regular outlines and monotonous architecture. These tortuous lanes of Belgium and Holland, the gables, and the tall irregular houses, are steeped in an old-world atmosphere, and every corner suggests a subject for the painter's brush. Certainly, the term "picturesque" may be used in speaking of Bruges.
It is still a large town, with a big population; but the thoroughfares seem rarely thronged, and there is slumber in the by-lanes. There appears to be no demand for new houses, and no indication that Bruges will grow. Its hotels prosper through the number of strangers that visit the city. Few tourists in Belgium neglect to visit this old town.
From Bruges to Ghent the distance is about twenty-eight miles. The railroad runs by the side of a placid canal, with banks planted with rows of tall trees--such as Hobbema painted--and traverses a fertile country, a verdant district of West Flanders, famous for its gardens and orchards. Though an inland town, Ghent can be approached by large vessels, by way of the Schelde and a big canal draining from the river.
From the top of the belfry tower the eye wanders over the countless spires and towers of the city, and a vague, distant expanse of flat country. There are few city views in Europe to be compared with this. The prospect is vast and impressive; the town below presents a curious scene, partly old-world, and yet bustling and modern in many aspects; for Ghent, with over one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, is one of the largest centres of Belgian commerce, and was once the capital of Flanders. In the fourteenth century it was said that over seventy thousand of its citizens were trained to arms, while the industrial population was large and thriving.