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Horticulture. HAARLEM. 42. Route. 355
ithe Spaarne, which flows through the town in a curve. The town
jis surrounded by gardens and promenades. In the 44-43th cent.
| Haarlem was the residence of the Counts of Holland. Its hasty par-
jticipation in the rising against the Spaniards resulted in a most
calamitous siege; after a heroic resistance of seven months (1572-73),
in which the women shared, the town was taken by the Spaniards
under Frederick of Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva. The command-
ant, the entire garrison, the Protestant clergy, and 2000 of the
townspeople were executed. Four years later the Spaniards were
fagain expelled. Haarlem attained the height of its prosperity in the
147th cent., when its school of art also was of some importance.
/Hendrik Goltzius, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruysdael, Allart van Ever-
‘dingen, the three Wouvermans, Adr. and Is. van Ostade, and other
painters dwelt here at that period; and at the same time there
flourished a school of architecture, founded by Lieven de Key (ca.
11560-1627), the city-mason of Haarlem, which was responsible for
many of the old gabled houses as well as the public buildings of
Haarlem.
Haarlem is famous for its Horticulture and supplies bulbs to every
country in Europe and to North America. About the end of April and
the be of May whole flelds of hyacinths, tulips, crocuses, anemones,
grouped in every variety of colour and diffusing the most
delicious perfumes, are around the town (comp. p. 314). One of the
jleading firms is that of 2. H. Krelage, Kleine Houtweg 49 (Pl. C, 6; visitors
admitted on writing their names in the visitors’ book; best times 10-42,
2-4, and in summer 6-8 also; fee to the gardener who acts as a guide).
iThe library of Messrs. Krelage contains an interesting collection of works
relating to the tulip and hyacinth trade.
In 1636 and 1637 the flower-trade in Holland assumed the form of a
mania, and tulips became as important an object of speculation as rail-
way-shares and the public funds at the present day. Capitalists, mer-
chants, and e private individuals entirely ignorant of floriculiure,
traded extensively in bulbs, and frequently amassed considerable fortunes,
Ihe rarer bulbs often realized enormous prices. It is recorded, for ex-
ample, that a ‘Semper Augustus’ was sold for 13,000 fl., an ‘Admiral Lief-
ikens’ for 4500 fl., a ‘Viceroy’ for 4200 fl., etc. A single Dutch town is
said to have gained upwards of 10 million fl. by the sale of tulip-roots
in one year, and a speculator at Amsterdam realised 68,000 fl. in four
months in the same manner. At length, however, a corresponding reaction
j3et in. Government declared that the contracts made were illegal, and the
ymania speedily subsided. The prices fell so rapidly that many of the bolder
speculators were totally ruined, and before long a root of the highly-
orized ‘Semper Augustus’ might be purchased for 50 fl. About a century
gater a similar phenomenon occurred in the trade in hyacinths, and an
rfficial list of 1784 prices a ‘Bleu Passe non plus ultra’ at 1600 florins.
In the middle of the town, reached from the handsome railway-
station (PI. D, 1) in about 10 min., by a route crossing the Park
-Laan and the Nieuwe Gracht, is the Groors Marxr (PI. C, D, 4),
tin which stand the Groote Kerk, the Stadhuis, and the Meat Market,
he “Meat Market (P1.20;D, 4), erected by Lieven de Key in 1602-3,
ithe quaintest brick and stone building in the country, perhaps even
of the entire N. Renaissance, has recently been restored and fitted
1p for the National Archives. The interior is well worth seeing
f :
entrance at the back). — Opposite, at the corner of the Smede- |