The outsides of the houses, with their cheerful white cornices on windows and doors, ornamental roofs and large windows with Flemish shades and adorned with blooming plants and boxes of flowers, give an impression of comfort and prosperity.

These homes are comfortably or luxuriously furnished, according to the purses and tastes of the dwellers, with the ordinary modern furniture; but every prosperous family possesses a few inherited pieces of furniture. Nearly every home contains one kas, if not more, and a small collection of porcelain, earthenware and silver. Oriental goods from the Dutch colonies are not rare.

One peculiarity of the Dutch home is the arrangement for storing and washing household linen. From the moment of a little girl's birth her female relatives begin to collect the household linen she will have as a portion of her dowry; and the large cupboards and presses of every well-to-do home are stored with linen and damask. As the family washing is done but four times a year, great hampers are used as receptacles for the soiled linen. These are lowered by ropes from the cranes at the top of the house, placed in the canal boats, and carried to the meadows, where they are washed in the canals and laid on the grass. There they are sprinkled by means of curiously shaped wooden spoons with long handles that are dipped in the canal. The clothes, again packed in the hampers, are carried to the house, where they are mangled. The mangle and the napkin-press are found in every house, and the press is not unfre-quently a decorative piece of furniture.

One of the most interesting provinces in Holland is Friesland - as yet unspoiled by tourists and rich in old buildings, quaint villas and picturesquely costumed inhabitants. Workum and Hindeloopen (celebrated for its gaily-painted houses) both contain some good buildings of the seventeenth century; while at Leeuwarden, the residence of the governors of Friesland (of the Nassaudietz family, and ancestors of the reigning house of Holland), the Frisian Museum, with its fine collection of antiquities and porcelain, repays more than a brief visit. Here are two rooms from Hindeloopen, correctly furnished; and many houses with similar rooms still exist in that town. The walls of the smaller room are encased with blue and white Dutch tiles, ornamented with Scriptural or other subjects. The floor is laid with red and brown tiles. A cabinet containing articles of porcelain and curious little silver ornaments hangs upon the wall; and, hidden behind the painted woodwork, is a bed, like a bunk in a steamer, to which access is gained by means of a small and gaily painted ladder. The tables, chairs and other furniture are of simple form, and are painted with bright flowers on a cream or white background.

The other room is similarly furnished, and has a number of wax figures of men, women and children dressed in the Hindeloopen costume.

The Rijks Museum also contains a Hindeloopen room with characteristic furniture.

We may, perhaps, be permitted to quote an extract from On Dutch Waterways, by G. Christopher Davies, as a vivid picture of the modern Frisian home.

"We crossed a tiny little bridge, over a tiny moat, passed through a tiny and spotlessly clean yard to the back door. The front door of a Dutch house in the country is for ornament only, and not for use, and is rarely opened save to be cleaned and painted afresh. This house was the most minutely clean and unique any of us had ever seen, and was a perfect and rich museum of the wealthier side of Frisian life. In the passage by the house door was a well, and the polish on its mahogany cover was only exceeded by the glisten on the copper bucket, with brass bands, and the shining brass chain which took the place of the ordinary rope. The floor of the hall as well as the doors leading from it looked as if they had only been painted yesterday.

"The kitchen, the living-room on the ground floor, the hall, a passage and a staircase were lined with Dutch tiles, those in the passage and dark staircase and corridors being white, or with a pattern or figure of an animal painted on them. At the foot of the stairs were hung several wooden bowls, painted with cupids and flowers in many colours. Climbing up the narrow staircase, we were ushered into the sacred front room, which would rarely be used for any purpose but show. It was the museum of the house, where a collection of antique treasures were preserved in a place which was worthy of them.

"The room was so jealously guarded from daylight by drawn inner and outer blinds that we could see nothing distinctly until one shutter was opened, and as we crept about cautiously over the highly polished oaken floor we had an uneasy feeling that we ought to have taken our shoes off, and, in fact, did debate in whispers whether we should do so or not.

"Three sides of the room were completely lined with tiles. Up to the height of six feet or so the tiles were adorned with various Biblical subjects, the Dutch conception of which was, in many instances, extremely comical. Above this dado the tiles were plain white, except that a blue bordering went round the oaken beams which supported the roof. On the fourth side was a range of magnificent oak cabinets, with lattice or fretwork doors, through the interstices of which the contents were visible. These consisted of rare old china and antique silver articles of every kind, spoons, teapots, pins, brooches, and even a silver birdcage.

"Many of the things were so curious that we could assign neither use nor ornament to them, and much of the interest of the collection was lost to us for want of some one to explain the uses of what we saw. Probably the following paragraph, which I have just seen in a weekly newspaper, may give the true explanation of the small size of some of the objects: The rich Dutch burghers of old believed very much in teaching children by means of their playthings, and used to give them elaborate dolls' houses furnished with utensils in solid silver that worked perfectly, and were exact models of those in daily use in the family. There were silver lamps and coffee pots, dishes, spice boxes and everything in miniature. Thus the little Dutch girls were housewives from their babyhood.