Excerpt from Chambers's Repository of Instructive and Amusing Tracts Travellers from England usually approach Belgium by way of Ostend, to which port steamers ply from London and Dover. Some prefer entering the country by the Scheldt to Antwerp; and others, less inclined to a sea-voyage, take the route b Dover to Calais, and thence by railway across the frontier at Li e. The visit to Belgium which it is now proposed to describe, was made by way of Ostend, which was reached after an agreable voyage of about four hours from Dover. In approaching the country in this direction, the little to exercise itself upon. The coast, consisting or downs, is barren and monotonous, and little is from the sea exec )t the tops of the walls and a few bathing-houses on the shore. N our arrival, a few minutes served for the dmmm'crs to make their examinations of baggage, and for the police to inspect passports, after which our iarty were at liberty to proceed to their hotel. Here we remained alf a day, which was fully sufficient for all purposes of curiosity. The town has really nothing to recommend it. It occu ies a low and confined situation within high walls, and is genera y ill paved and worse drained. The streets are built in straight lines; with a modern aspect, the town, indeed, being almost wholly constructed anew since its destruction during the wars of Louis XIV. Latterly, the port has increased in its traffic. We found the harbour full of shipping, and the daily arrival and departure of steamers appeared to bring a. Concourse of tourists to the place. This concentration of traflic has been greatly promoted by the opening of the line of railway to Brussels and the Rhine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.