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CONT JULY 25 accompaniment of many female voices is rather an impressive sight. After being there a short time, an old stout Beguin came in front of us, knelt & pulling a rope reminded me, in spite of the religious awe which ought perhaps to have inspired me, of that distich in Cock Robin’s nursery ballad

“Who’ll toll the bell
I, said the bull
Because I can pull.”

Two of the nuns went round at intervals for contributions, but a few centimes was all that was expected. Before the service concluded, we walked (by request of our Commissionaire) down the aisle to see them all pass out. The major part of them were old, others fat, fair & forty, & progressing they looked as though they had an easy life, and their invariably plump faces & figures reminded me vastly of John Reeve's personation of female characters, Stratonice in the last days of Pompeii & Moll Flaggon for example. They fold their tablecloths up very neatly & throw these over their heads square in front & hanging down behind, gathering up their long black outer garments so as not to have it soiled by contact with the earth. They reside in a great number of convents one of which we visited, & pictures of neatness were the dormitories, work room, dining hall, etc. of this establishment. Seven hundred beguines there are, of all ages from 18 to 100 & their convents being all within the walls form

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