Holland has not escaped the present taste for the collection of antiquities; but in that country where there is so deep a love of home, and where the peasants guard their possessions with the same tenacity and affection as the rich do their heirlooms, the collector is only rewarded after long years of patient search. However, many of the wealthy merchants and travellers, who are spending the well-earned afternoon and evening of their lives in their country seats near Arnhem, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Leyden, Dordrecht, Middelburg, Maestricht and other large cities and small towns, are able to show rare and interesting relics of the past. A house of a rich traveller will reflect naturally enough the wanderings as well as the taste of its owner. The spoils of Java, Dutch Guiana, the West Indies and other colonies, not to mention those of Egypt, Spain and Italy, adorn his rooms and render his cabinets highly interesting.

As a rule his study and the boudoirs of his wife and daughters, his drawing-room with its adjoining conservatory, his library and his bedrooms are furnished in the latest French taste. The dining-room is frequently painted in pale green, and here are displayed in the cupboards vitrines, cabinets, and on the hanging shelves his family treasures, consisting of curious and beautifully engraved glass, silver, and choice sets and individual pieces of porcelain. If, however, as is often the case, the owner is the collector, then he takes especial delight in the "antique-room," which he has fitted up in the style of a cabinet of the seventeenth century. The general impression of this apartment is brown, derived not only from the panelled ceiling, high wainscot and carved chimney-piece, but from the wall hangings of leather with its raised patterns of faded gold and the high-backed carved furniture.

Brightness is contributed by the array of brass, porcelain, delft, rugs, cushions and tiled fireplace, with its fine brass andirons, bellows and other equipments. On the ledge of the wainscot handsome jars and vases and other specimens of porcelain and delft are symmetrically arranged, and on the wall hang plaques and brass sconces. The room receives additional light from old brass chandeliers. A cabinet full of curios, a large kas, a Bible on a stand, a spinning-wheel, foot-warmers, pipes and old kitchen utensils are sure to be found here; and to these articles we may add a carved napkin-press, a mangle, an old carved board and rolling-pin for doing up fine linen, and an ancient carved, gilded and painted sled.

Collecting is not confined to the individual; for the study of old furniture and other antiquities that contribute so great an aid to the historian in constructing the social life of the past and so great an aid to the artist, architect and decorator, is widespread in Holland. The great museums of the large cities contain many superb and valuable specimens, and display them with great taste. In some cases whole rooms have been removed from some old palace or stadhouder's house with their original ceilings, chimney-pieces, hangings and furniture; and, again, entire rooms have been fitted up in the characteristic style of some province whose individual manners and customs are fast disappearing. Many of the small towns have a collection of local antiquities, which are, as a rule, attractively displayed; for the members of the numerous Dutch antiquarian societies take great pride in the history of their country. Sometimes, as in the case of the "Museum van Kunstnyver-heid" in Haarlem, the collection embraces the artistic industries of ancient and modern times.

This museum contains a particularly fine collection of kitchen utensils and other articles and furniture familiar to us in the pictures of Jan Steen, Maes and other Dutch masters.

The museums of Belgium are equally rich in old furniture, tapestries and other treasures.