This is a very old Belgian custom, but of late years the _Kermesses_
in the big towns have changed in character, and are just ordinary
fairs, with menageries and things of that sort, which you can find in
England or anywhere else. If you want to see a real Kermesse you must
go to some village in Flanders, and there you will find it very
amusing.
CHAPTER III
TRAVELLING IN BELGIUM
Travelling in Belgium is cheap and easy. The best way to see the
out-of-the-way parts of the country would be to journey about in a
barge on the canals. There are a great many canals. You could go all
the way from France to the other side of Belgium in a barge, threading
your way through fields, and meadow-lands, and villages, and stopping
every now and then at some of the big towns. If you read that charming
book "Vanity Fair," you will see that Mr. Thackeray, who wrote it,
says that once an Englishman, who went to Belgium for a week, found
the eating and drinking on these boats so good that he went backwards
and forwards on the canal between Bruges and Ghent perpetually till
the railways were invented, when he drowned himself on the last trip
of the boat!
But if that ever happened it was long ago.
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