Item 03: T. J. Cleary diary, 25 August 1918 - 5 July 1919 - Page 27

[Page 27]

stuck with their backs right against the Church giving a curious effect difficult to describe. Grande Place containing Hotel de Ville, Maison du Roi and Guild Houses, most of them elaborately Gilded. The Hotel de Ville is a beautiful building with a lovely spire but looks lopsided owing to the spire not being in the middle. The English officers were dancing in the Ballroom of the Hotel-de-Ville when they were summoned to the Battlefield of Waterloo. There is also the marriage room where all marriages have to be take place first or the ceremony is not legal. Mannekin Pis came next but I have nothing to say about that little wretch, excepting that he ought to be smacked.
Eglise St. Michel et St. Gudure [Gudule] a very very lovely Church from any point of view with a magnificent Pulpit of carved wood (called by the Guide an altar). I liked the inside of this Church better than anything that I seen in Brussells, it is magnificent, one could linger there for weeks, the windows are very lovely. Everything is harmonious even the Cathedral at Amiens never affected me as much as this. Palais de Beaux Arts said to be one of the finest in Europe but unfortunately I haven't the technical knowledge to criticize this. One of the Pictures is