Jacob van Lennep route, Part 12 (Winschoten - Hoogezand)

Crops
On Friday, June 27, Van Lennep and Van Hogendorp take a road from Winschoten that leads past cornfields, clumps of eglantine and other wild roses. A view that you will not soon find again. During his journey through the Netherlands, Van Lennep also sees crops that are hardly grown nowadays, such as buckwheat, rye and, in Zeeland, madder. The corn walls did not yet exist in 1823.

Peat colonies
The walkers conclude their visit to Groningen with a tour through the peat colonies. They pass through Stadskanaal and Veendam, among others, but are the first to pass through the Pekel, which is bathed in prosperity at that time. Van Lennep sees many new houses, saw, peeling and oil mills, ship carpentry yards and shops. "In 1819, two thousand more ships passed through the lower lock," he writes. According to Van Lennep, that number will decrease quickly - and with it economic prosperity. He mentions the departure of Louis Napoleon as the reason. Indeed, the younger brother of Emperor Napoleon. During the time that Louis was King of Holland (1806-1810), on his orders "(...) an untold amount of smuggling was carried out in Delfzijl and on the entire southeast side of Groningen" and further on through the Pekel spread in the Netherlands. According to Van Lennep, everyone in this region still speaks with great pleasure about the French occupation.

Floor sources
-Jakob van Lennep," The summer of 1823": part 1, chapter 9.
-Geert Mak, The summer of 1823 as a television series : episode 4.
-Maya Schepers, The summer of 1823 as a radio series : episode 4.