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180 perishable materials of which buildings are composed. For this reason the paint-work of their houses is kept in excellent condition, and parts of them are painted and varnished which might be thought not to need such a protection. The same rigid attention to cleanliness equally pervades the interior of the houses in Holland, and is often carried to an excess that is inconvenient and disgusting to strangers. I allude to the odious custom which the Dutch have, who smoke after dinner, of introducing a spitting-pot upon the table, with the wine and glasses, which is handed round as regularly as the bottle, to the great annoyance of those who do not smoke, yet are obliged to pass the execrable utensil to their neighbours, in order that all who have occasion may discharge their saliva into it.

The custom of smoking, I am assured, does not prevail near so much in Holland at present as it did twenty years ago, and this is used as an argument to prove that the national character of the Dutch is wearing off. But I am somewhat at a loss to conceive