Bruges and West Flanders

There is no part of Europe more wanting in what is known as scenery than Flanders; and those who journey there must spend most of their time in the old towns which are still so strangely medieval in their aspect, or in country places which are worth seeing only because of their connection with some event in history--Nature has done so little for them. Thus the interest and the attraction of Flanders and the Flemish towns are chiefly historical. But it would be impossible to compress the history of such places as Bruges, Ypres, Furnes, or Nieuport within the limits of a few pages, except at the cost of loading them with a mass of dry facts.