Toute une cuisine

 

    “On the whole, a march-past of Belgian troops summoned up the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, emaciated, Memling-like men-at-arms on their way to supervise the Crucifixion or some lesser martyrdom, while beside them tramped the clowns of Teniers or Brouwer, round rubicond countenances, haled away from carousing to be mustered in the ranks. These latter types were even more to be associated with the Netherlands contingent — obviously a hard and fast line was not to be drawn between these Low Country peoples—Colonel Van der Voort himself an almost perfect example. Van der Voort's features seemed to have parted company completely from Walloon admixtures— if, indeed, it was Walloon blood that produced those mediaeval faces.”

(In The Military Philosophers, 88-9)