READER, perhaps you were never in Belgium?
Haply you don't know the physiognomy of the country?
You have not its lineaments defined upon your memory, as I have them on mine?
Three--nay four--pictures line the four-walled cell where are stored for me the records of the past.

First, Eton.

All in that picture is in far perspective, receding, diminutive; but freshly coloured, green, dewy, with a spring sky, piled with glittering yet showery clouds; for my childhood was not all sunshine--it had its overcast, its cold, its stormy hours.

Second, X----, huge, dingy; the canvas cracked and smoked; a yellow sky, sooty clouds; no sun, no azure; the verdure of the suburbs blighted and sullied--a very dreary scene.
Third, Belgium; and I will pause before this landscape.

As to the fourth, a curtain covers it, which I may hereafter withdraw, or may not, as suits my convenience and capacity.