the Hotel de Flandre, and found it crowded by Eng- lish people who had come from Ostende and Brussels to see the exhibition. The dining-room has been enlarged and glitters with new decoration, and the extension has eaten up a part of the garden, though the apple-tree and the wonderful bit of statuary still remain. The wine list still contains an admirable selection of burgundies — the pint of Volnay which I drank was exactly in the right condition ; and peep- ing into the kitchen, I found that it is as clean and as perfectly kept as of yore. The cooking at the Hotel de Flandre I have never found noticeably good, but it is quite sufficiently good not to interfere with one’s enjoyment of the burgundy ; and now that the scurry of an exhibition is no longer a disturbing element, I say to the good gourmet, go and sit under the apple-tree in the Flandre garden and study good burgundy under exceptionally pleasant conditions. Otto, who used to be head waiter at the Hotel de Flandre, is now proprietor of the Hotel de Londres in the Station Square, and he can cook The Hotel de a sole au gratin as well as any man Londres, Station can. In the visitors’ book of the hotel S(*uare are recorded the names of some of the patrons of the prize ring who went over to Bruges to see the fight between Smith and Kilrain. It is a puzzle to dis- cover who the proprietor thought some of the noble lords were when he tried to write their names. Heyst and Blankenberghe Time was, not so many years ago, when at both these towns, northwards along the coast from Ostende, there used to be inns much patronised by the Brussels tradespeople who come in numbers to both these seaside resorts during the bathing season. The guests took their seats at long tables, each man and woman 150 The Gourmet’s Guide to Europe with knife, fork, spoon, a yard of bread, and a glass before him or her. The serving maids then placed a great pile of plates, ten or twelve or even sixteen, in front of every diner. On the first occa- sion that I lunched at Heyst and this occurred, a horrible fear came upon me that I was going to be asked to carve some dish, but a glance round the table reassured me. The number of plates indicated the number of courses of the feast. All these old inns seem now to have vanished, and their places have been taken by tall modern hotels. I have lunched quite satisfactorily both at the restaurants of the Hotel des Bains and the Hotel du Kursaal at Blankenberghe, but they were modern moderate meals eaten amidst twentieth-century surroundings. NlEUPORT My experiences of the luncheons at the Esperance and Pelican at Nieuport, the old town which lies away south of Ostende, eleven miles down the coast, are that they are satisfying though not delicate meals. The gourmet will find, however, that the quaintness of the old town makes amends for its primitive cuisine. IV BRUSSELS The Restaurants of Brussels — The Clubs — “After Dinner.”

AI-modernized reading of the original text

the Hotel de Flandre, and found it crowded by English people who had come from Ostende and Brussels to see the exhibition. The dining-room has been enlarged and glitters with new decoration, and the extension has eaten up a part of the garden, though the apple-tree and the wonderful bit of statuary still remain. The wine list still contains an admirable selection of burgundies — the pint of Volnay which I drank was exactly in the right condition ; and peeping into the kitchen, I found that it is as clean and as perfectly kept as of yore. The cooking at the Hotel de Flandre I have never found noticeably good, but it is quite sufficiently good not to interfere with one’s enjoyment of the burgundy ; and now that the scurry of an exhibition is no longer a disturbing element, I say to the good gourmet, go and sit under the apple-tree in the Flandre garden and study good burgundy under exceptionally pleasant conditions. Otto, who used to be head waiter at the Hotel de Flandre, is now proprietor of the Hotel de Londres in the Station Square, and he can cook The Hotel de a sole au gratin as well as any man Londres, Station can. In the visitors’ book of the hotel S(*uare are recorded the names of some of the patrons of the prize ring who went over to Bruges to see the fight between Smith and Kilrain. It is a puzzle to discover who the proprietor thought some of the noble lords were when he tried to write their names. Heyst and Blankenberghe Time was, not so many years ago, when at both these towns, northwards along the coast from Ostende, there used to be inns much patronised by the Brussels tradespeople who come in numbers to both these seaside resorts during the bathing season. The guests took their seats at long tables, each man and woman 150 The Gourmet’s Guide to Europe with knife, fork, spoon, a yard of bread, and a glass before him or her. The serving maids then placed a great pile of plates, ten or twelve or even sixteen, in front of every diner. On the first occasion that I lunched at Heyst and this occurred, a horrible fear came upon me that I was going to be asked to carve some dish, but a glance round the table reassured me. The number of plates indicated the number of courses of the feast. All these old inns seem now to have vanished, and their places have been taken by tall modern hotels. I have lunched quite satisfactorily both at the restaurants of the Hotel des Bains and the Hotel du Kursaal at Blankenberghe, but they were modern moderate meals eaten amidst twentieth-century surroundings. NlEUPORT My experiences of the luncheons at the Esperance and Pelican at Nieuport, the old town which lies away south of Ostende, eleven miles down the coast, are that they are satisfying though not delicate meals. The gourmet will find, however, that the quaintness of the old town makes amends for its primitive cuisine. BRUSSELS The Restaurants of Brussels — The Clubs — “After Dinner.”

The gourmet's guide to Europe