I noticed this particularly on an afternoon journey from Amsterdam to Hilversum, between the city and Weesp, where the meadows (cricket grounds _manques_) are flat as billiard tables.
The train later runs between great meres, some day perhaps to be reclaimed, and then dashes into country that resembles very closely our Government land about Woking and Bisley--the first sand and firs that we have seen in Holland.

It has an odd and unexpected appearance; but as a matter of fact hundreds of square miles of Holland in the south and east have this character; while there are stretches of Dutch heather in which one can feel in Scotland.
All about Naarden and Hilversum are sanatoria, country-seats and pleasure grounds, the softening effect of the pines upon the strong air of the Zuyder Zee being very beneficial.

Many of the heights have towers or pavilions, some of which move the author of _Through Noord-Holland_ to ecstasies.

As thus, of the Larenberg: "The most charming is the tower, where one can enjoy a perspective that only rarely presents itself.

We can see here the towers of Nijkerk, Harderwijk, Utrecht, Amersfoort, Bunschoten, Amsterdam and many others." And again, of a wood at Heideheuvel: "The perspective beauty here formed cannot be said in words".
Hilversum is the Chislehurst of Holland--a discreet and wealthy suburb, where business men have their villas amid the trees.