[John] Evelyn was astonished at the immense number of pictures he saw in the Dutch fairs. He attributes the briskness of the trade in paintings to the necessary limitations of the country. The farmer or the citizen ofsea-locked Holland, unable to lay out his gains on tracts of land, found a medium for speculation or investment in these works of art.
1880,L. T. Meade [pseudonym; Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith], “By the Sea”, inAndrew Harvey’s Wife, London: W[illia]m Isbister, Limited, 56,Ludgate Hill,→OCLC,page220:
She was surprised to see what rapid advance the waves had made, but there was still a narrow belt of dry sand; she stepped along it, expecting to find broad open coast beyond; she found herself, however, only in another cove, smaller than the one she had first entered, and this cove was already completelysea-locked.
