Complete and unabridged, with 60 full-page plates by Jan Vermeer van Haarlem the Elder, Jan Vermeer van Haarlem and Jan Steen. The Dutch republic from the revolt against Spain to the nineteenth century, written for English readers by an Irish writer who had lived for years in Brussels. Grattan gives the wars, the trade, the drainage and the painting as one subject, which is the only way the country makes sense. He is sharp about the East India Company and admiring of a people who built their ground before they built on it.