A452 Route 56. GORINCHEM.

107 M. Kesteren, the junction for Dordrecht (Rotterdam, Hook
of Holland, Flushing), see below.

We now cross the Rhine, and reach Rhenen, which possesses an
old church (St. Cunera), with a fine Renaissance screen and a
massive late-Gothic tower, built in 1492-1531. Rhenen has astation
on the steam-tramway from Arnhem to Zeist (p. 445). — 1131/, M.
Veenendaal, the junction of the Arnhem-Utrecht line (p. 444), —
126 M. Amersfoort, and railway thence to Amsterdam, see p. 422.

From NYMWEGEN To RoTTERDAM vIA KrsTEREN AND DonDRECHT.
— To (107 M.) Kesteren, see above. The next station is Echteld.

1141/5 M. Tiel (Hotel Corbelyn), a town with 10,600 inhab., on
the right bank of the Waal, received its municipal liberties from
Otho I. in 972; in the early middle ages it was a commercial place
of some importance. In 1582 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the
Spaniards, but it was taken by Turenne in 1672. The Kleiberg
Gate (1647) is a relic of the fortifications. — A steam-ferry plies to
Wamel (p. 449), on the left bank of the Waal. Steamer to Nymwegen,
Arnhem, ’S Hertogenbosch, and Rotterdam, see pp. 449, 443.

Then, Wadenoyen, prettily situated; 1211/, M. Geldermalsen,
on the Linge, the junction of the Boxtel and Utrecht line (p. 436),
Then, Beesd, Leerdam, and Arkel.

138 M. Gorinchem or Gorcum (Hétel Oosterwyk, 18 R. at
1-3 f1., B.600., D. 18/4, omn. 1/4 fl.), a busy town with 12,000 in-
hab., one of the first places which the ‘Water Gueux’, or those in-
surgents who aided their compatriots by sea, took from the Spaniards
in 1572, possesses numerous picturesque gabled houses of brick and
freestone, dating from the 16-47th century. In the Burg-Straat is
one of 1563, and in the Gasthuis-Straat is the so-called Bethlehem
House of 1566. Gorinchem is situated at the point where the Linge
flows into the Merwede, the name given for a short distance to the
river formed by the union of the Waal and the Meuse (2M. to the
B.), which beyond Dordrecht is called De Noord (p.207) and before
reaching Rotterdam resumes the name of Meuse (steamer to Dor-
drecht and Rotterdam, see p. 302).

A visit to Gorinchem and to Woudrichem (steamboat hourly) is full of
attraction for those who are interested in early Dutch brick and stone
buildings with mosaic decorations and for landscape-painters. The salmon-
fishery also is noteworthy. — A little above Woudrichem, on the other
side of the Mense, is the Castle of Loevenstein. In 1619 Hogerbeets and Hugo
Grotius (De Groot), the pensionaries or chief senators of Leyden and Rotter-
dam, were condemned as Arminians (p. 457) to be imprisoned for life
in this castle. The latter, however, with the aid of his wife, effected
his escape in a book-chest the following year.

About 4 M. below Gorinchem, on the left bank, begins the Biesbosch
(literally ‘reed-forest’), a vast district, consisting of upwards of 100 islands,
more than 40 sq. M. in area, formed at the same time as the Hollandsch
Diep (p. 456) by a destructive inundation in 142{. No fewer than 72 mar-
ket-towns and villages were destroyed by the floods and upwards of
100,000 persons perished. The Biesbosch has lately been reclaimed by

means of dykes, and is now intersected by the broad artificial channel
of the Nieuwe Merwede.