Mr.Doughty, the author of an interesting book of Dutch travel, called _Friesland Meres_--he was the first that ever burst into these silent canals in a Norfolk wherry--gives Dokkum a very bad character, and so do other travellers.

It seems indeed always to have been an unruly and inhospitable town.

As long ago as 853 it was resisting the entry of strangers.

The strangers were Saint Boniface and his companion, whom Dokkum straightway massacred.

King Pepin was furious and sent an army on a punitive mission; while Heaven supplemented Pepin's efforts by permanently stigmatising the people of the town, all the men thenceforward being marked by a white tuft of hair and all the women by a bald patch.
At Leeuwarden is a patriotic society known as the "Vereenigung tot bevordering van vreemdelingenverkeer," whose ambition, as their title suggests, is to draw strangers to the town; and as part of their campaign they have issued a little guide to Leeuwarden and its environs, in English.