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20 A LUNATIC VILLAGE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Nected Happy Or Not With As Is We The A ...
Another version of the legend relates that the madmen saw the wicked Irishman cut off his daughter ' s headand thus were
frightened into their wits . Be that as it may , , the princess was hereafter known as the patroness of the insane ; and people brought
their mad relatives to pray at her tomb , and often left them with the neihboring cottagers in the hope of miraculous benefits ; and
so grew g up the extraordinary colony , which is neither a dream nor a delusionbut may be seen at this day clustered round the church of
, Saint Dymphne . Gheel , thus mysteriously introduced to the modern reader , is ,
however , but two days' journey from London . It lies in the flat country to the left of the railway between Antwerp and Malines , aiid is
passed by thousands of our countrymen every year . The traveller who desires to visit it must quit the main line at Contiehand take
, the branch leading to Turnhout . He must get out at a station named Herenthals , whence a diligence goes to Gheel twice a day . If , like
all wise and healthy travellers , he perches himself up on the banquette or seat at the top of the vehiclecovered by an immense hoodwhich
, , nods over in front like the poke of an old-fashioned bonnet , our traveller will see far and wide , for two hours , over a flat , sandy
country , through which passes the endless road , bordered with trees . Railways have well-nigh deprived us of the charm of foreign travel ,
for those who remember the strange poetry of the incessant trot , trot , over those long roads of France and Belgiumwhere we travelled from
early dawn to sunset , from one famous town , to another , seeing the far cathedral towers loom grey on the horizon , like ships out at sea .
It " was autumn when M . Jules Duval visited Gheel , and he draws a striking icture of the quiet and somewhat sombre countrywhose
sandy soil p forms a strong contrast to the greater part of fertile , and richly cultivated Belgium . La Campineas this tract is called , is a
sort of waste land , capable of being broug , ht into use by expenditure of capital in canalsroadsand agricultural colonies devoted to the
enrichment and reclam , ation , of the soil ; for which reason it has served as a means of employing paupers , and has thus gained some
repute among economists . The town of Gheel , being a very old settlement , is surrounded by well-cultivated farms and gardens ; it
v contains a population of between ten and eleven thousand people , of whom rather less than a thousand are madyet dwelling' among
, the others in peace and comparative liberty , sharing their homes , their meals , their agricultural and mechanical toil . So far from
being a place in which , " they who enter here leave hope behind / ' it bears the aspect of the paradise of fools . The ' principal and almost
the only street is not quite a mile long ; it is paved , clean , and bordered by white houses , backed by courts and gardens , and
intermixed with cafes , taverns , and hotels . In the centre of the street , in a squarelanted with treesrises the parish churchand at the
end , after making , p a sharp turn , , the traveller finds the hosp , ital , and
the church , of Saint Dymphne , which is particularly set apart for
20 A Lunatic Village.
20 A LUNATIC VILLAGE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1861, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031861/page/20/
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