As if it were Holland or Brussels

Ghent is almost as much intersected by canals as if it were a town of Holland; and they talk of its twenty-seven islands and three hundred bridges, which are probably about three times the actual number. In the architecture of the churches we observed nothing very remarkable, but the stepped gables of the houses give a peculiar character to the town. It has some good streets and open squares that are lighted with gas; and we could not but notice that a great many more well dressed people, both ladies and gentlemen, appeared abroad in the streets, than we had observed elsewhere; it appeared, however, that the greater part of them were English, who have congregated here in numbers as considerable, perhaps, as at Brussels. There are, no doubt, many inducements held out at Ghent for English families, in moderate circumstances, to fix their abode there. All the necessaries of life are abundant and cheap. There is an excellent college, at which the pupils are instructed in every branch of literature on the most reasonable terms; and no distinction made between protestant and catholic.

Lees het volledige reisverhaal op GoogleBooks (exempl. UGent, 1839): (John Barrow): A family tour