Click to enlarge Wijnstraat
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'Big Skipper's House', Anno 1576 | ||
 Wijnstraat
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'This is in Beavers' Burgh' The text on this stone is referring to the name of a wealthy family 'Van Beveren' who built the house in Wine Street. The house itself is situated slightly to the left of the side-street to the Old Harbour, where once stood the crane that hoisted the casks of wine from the ships' bellies onto the quay. | ||
 Unknown street
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'The World is at the End', 1585 I don't exactly know what inspired the owner to have this stone executed, but surely a pun has been intended. The text should be taken quite literally, as 'Endt' in 16th century Dutch meant both 'end' and 'eend', 'duck' in English. So, it reads, 'The world is on the duck', a situation that stirs definite feelings of discomfort. Not surprisingly, because a year earlier the 'Pater Patriae', William of Orange, had been treacherously murdered, the Spaniards were still at large in the countryside, the Count of Leicester - sent by queen Elizabeth to lead the Dutch resistance - couldn't do much to turn the fortunes of war and the reassuring defeat of the Spanish Armada was still lying three years into the future. | ||
 Hofstraat
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A house called 'The Magpie', Anno 1651 When this stone was put up, the Eighty Years War with Spain had ended - in 1648. A new struggle had only but started. This time it was naval supremacy the former allies - the English and the Dutch - were fighting each other for at sea. It took them another fourty years to find themselves reunited by a royal marriage, the wedding of William and Mary in 1688. This here stone reads:
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 Unknown street
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In 'the Fisherman' This stone was set in the façade of a back-street house in a less prosperous part of the old town. Apparently the fishermen in the 16th century were in the habit of clubbing their catch to death. |
Contents
Welcome
Introduction
The Gate
Ornamental stones
The Court
Epilogue
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