Some Account lxxii
world, have since his death acquired an addi-
tional value; for by the baleful success and
ravages of the French plunderers, who since
that period have desolated Europe, many of
the most celebrated works of the Flemish
School in the Netherlands (for I will not
gratify our English republicans by calling it
Belgium) have been either destroyed or car-
ried away to that " OPPROBRIOUS DEN OF
SHAME," which it is to be hoped no po-
lished Englishman will ever visit. — Many
of the pictures of Rubens being to be sold in
1783, in consequence of certain religious
houses being suppressed by the Emperor,
he again in that year visited Antwerp and
Brussels, and devoted several days to con-
templating the productions of that great
painter.41 On his return from his first tour,
41 On viewing the pictures of Rubens a second time,
they appeared much less brilliant than they had done on
the former inspection. He could not for some time ac-
count for this circumstance; but when he recollected,