304 Route 23. - LIEGE. From Mechlin

choir, enclosed by a screen of copper gilt, were ranged the monu-
ments of the Prince Bps. : it was utterly demolished at the French
Rey.; the last traces were removed in 1828.

The Hotel de Ville, erected 1493-7 and rebuilt 2 centuries
later, was scarcely completed when it was destroyed by the
French bombardment in 1691; the present edifice was erected in .
1714; its style is bad : the interior is furnished in the style of
Louis XIV. Opposite it, on the Place du Grand Marché, is a foun-
tain erected in 1696 from the designs of J. Delcour, surmounted
by fignres of the 3 Graces supporting a pineapple.

The University, created by the late King of Holland in 1816,
and inaugurated 18 Sept. 1817, occupies what was formerly
a Jesuit College, the pillars of whose church now serve to sustain
its peristyle. There are here 46 professors and about 500 students.
The Library, open to the public daily, contains 80,000 printed
vols. and 468 Mss. brought hither from suppressed monasteries,
some of them date from the X cent. The Gallery of Anatomy
contains more than 400 skeletons besides one of the most valuable
collections of human and animal anatomical specimens in Europe
formed by the late professor Fohmann. The Museum contains
a fine collection of more than 3000 medals, anct. and modern,
and about 2800 mineralogical specimens : the two great attractions
however are the Zoological and Botanical Departments ; the first
of these contains the bones of almost every species of animal,
Asiatic as well as European, said to have been found and collected
in the numerous caverns in the neighbourhood of Liege; human
bones and skulls having in more than one instance heen discovered
in the same cave with those of elephants, rhinoceroses, bears and
hyenas : these remains would appear however to have been
introduced at a later period than those of the animals. The Bota-
nical department or cabinet of vegetable anatomy is the only one
of its kind in Europe; every plant being exhibited thoroughly
dissected, and every fibre clearly shown : these specimens are
preserved in spirits of wine : it includes also a collection of
fruits, specimens of every kind of timber, and a complete herbal
of the Province, besides a curious collection of fossil plants obtained
from the mines in the neighbourhood.

The Botanic Gardens, entered from the Rue Louvrex, are
well stored with plants and beautifully kept : the vanilla plant
flowered here annually for the first time in Europe.

On the square facing the University, called the Place Gretry,
is a colossal statue of that celebrated composer in bronze by
Geefs, 1842; he was born in a little house close by, in the Rue des
Recollets, marked with this inscription on a marble tablet: « Jet
est ne André Ernest Modeste Gretry le 11 Fevrier 1741. »