Trip to Belgium 1938

During the Easter holidays of 1938 fifteen boys, under the care of Francis Robert Howse, visited Brussels.

An account of the trip from the 1938 issue of The Bostonian written by R T Booth

On Thursday, April 7th, a party of fifteen members of the School left Boston to spend a week in Belgium. We travelled by way of London, Dover and Wikipedia:Ostend, and arrived at Wikipedia:Brussels on the same day.

During Friday afternoon we visited some the the [sic] interesting places of the city. At the Collegiate Church of Saint Gudule and Saint Michel we were greatly impressed by the stained glass windows and the exquisitely carved wooden pulpit representing the Fall. The Palais de Justice, Royal Palace, The Grand' Place - a treasure house for the student of architecture - and the Rifle Range, where Nurse Cavell was shot, were also visited during the course of the tour.

On Saturday we journeyed through Namur and Dinant to the Grottoes of Han in the Ardennes, so justly styled "the little Switzerland." About three hours were spent in admiring the beauties of nature in the varying formations of stalagmites and stalactites in these vast subterranean caves., through which flows the River Lesse.

Monday was the most eventful day of our stay, for we visited Cologne, which was bedecked as much as London was at the Coronation, in celebration of Hitler's victory in the plebiscite about Austria. After a drive round the city, during which we saw the famous Hohenzollern Bridge and the remains of the Old Roman wall, we were shown round the cathedral, which contains some of the finest stained glass in the world and the tomb of the Three Kings.

On Tuesday and Wednesday morning we inspected Brussels for the last time and bought souvenirs. In the afternoon of Wednesday we drove through the Forest of Soignies to the battlefield of Waterloo.

It was with regret that we said good-bye to Belgium the next day, after an exciting week blessed with brilliant sunshine. We wish to thank Mr. Howse for the trouble he took in making this, the fifth and, we hope, not the last, foreign tour such a success.