Holland - The Zuyder Zee ( Originally Published 1880 ) I had yet
to see ancient Frisia, Home's indomitable rebel, the land of
handsome women, big horses, and invisible skaters, the most
poetic of the Netherland provinces; and in going there I was to
satisfy another lively wish of mine, that of crossing the Zuyder
Zee, the latest-born of seas. This great basin of the North Sea,
which bathes five provinces, and has an extent of more than
seven hundred square kilometres, six hundred years ago was not
in existence. North Holland touched Friesland, and where the
gulf now extends there was a vast region sprinkled with fresh-
water lakes, the largest of which, the Flevo, mentioned by
Tacitus, was separated from the sea by a fertile and populous
isthmus. Whether the sea by its own force broke through the
natural dykes of the region, or whether the sinking of the land
left it free to invasion, is not certainly known. The great
transformation was completed during the course of the thirteenth
century. In 1205 the island