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

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

Peat colonies
The walkers conclude their visit to Groningen with a trip through the peat colonies. They run through Stadskanaal and Veendam, among other places, but are the first to pass through the Pekel, which is bathed in prosperity at that time. Van Lennep sees many new houses, sawmills, peeling mills and oil mills, shipyards and shops."In 1819, 2,000 ships passed through the lower lock\\\", he writes. According to Van Lennep, that number will decrease rapidly - and with it the economic prosperity. He cites the departure of Louis Napoleon as the reason. Indeed, the younger brother of Emperor Napoleon. During the time that Lodewijk was King of Holland (1806-1810), on his order"(...) in Delfzijl and on the entire south-east side of Groningen, an untold amount was smuggled in" and continued through the Pekel. spread in the Netherlands. According to Van Lennep, everyone in this region therefore 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.