Ach, Brussel!

Een Britse bezoeker in 1843 kon zijn enthousiasme nauwelijks bedwingen.

“A more strikingly handsome place, a more cheerful and inviting looking city is not to be met with on the continent of Europe. Her modern houses, handsomely stuccoed, seem petty palaces. Her wide streets and squares are airy and clean. Like Edinburgh, she is divided into two distinct towns, the old and new; the former is dirty and irregular as her prototype the capital of Scotland, the latter is handsome and picturesque, as the recent improvement in modern Athens. The Park of Brussels is one of the most enchanting gardens imaginable: planted with splendid old trees, arranged in the fashion of the early part of the last century, divided by broad walks, and square cut grass plots, it may seem in mere written description as stiff and unpicturesque, but viewed in reality on a fine day, every vista is affording the view of some splendid building at the close of it; dotted here and there with flowers, ornamented with statues. It is thronged with a crowd of gay well dressed people: the scene is almost fairy like and strongly reminds one of the old pictures of al fresco fêtes when Dames and Knights, stretched along the grass, wiled away the time in telling love tales, or listening to the soft breathings of some dulcet lute. I am aware that such romantic language is ill fitted for the pages of a dry guide-book, but I have no other terms in which I can properly give an idea of this lovely garden, which is basely styled a park.”

En gisteren nog even mooi.

H. R. Addison, Belgium as she is, 1843. Zie ook L. Huet, Mijn België, 2004, p. 11.