Читать книгу Art in Theory - Группа авторов - Страница 58

The king’s court is square and on the right side of the town when you enter from Gotton. It is easily as big as the town of Haarlem and enclosed by a remarkable wall, similar to the city wall. It is divided into many fine palaces, houses and rooms for courtiers and has beautiful long galleries about as big as the Exchange at Amsterdam, and one yet bigger than the others, all resting on wooden pillars, covered from top to bottom with cast copper, which depict deeds of war and battle scenes. These are carefully maintained. Most of the royal houses in the court are covered with palm‐leaves instead of planks, and each is adorned with a pyramidal tower which has at its apex a skilfully wrought, very life‐like copper bird, spreading its wings.

The town has thirty very straight broad streets, each about 120 feet wide, as wide as the Keisersgracht or the Heerengracht in Amsterdam, from the houses on one side to those on the other, and in addition there are many broad intersecting streets, though these are somewhat narrower.