CHAP. XIII.

Route to Bremen. A wedding festival.

Bremen.

Cathedral, &c.

Salter.

The Rosen-keller.-Route to Osnaburg. Osnaburg. Iburg. Munster. - Church of St. Lambert.-John of Leyden. — Cathedral.— Town Hall.-Population, &c.

It was at first our intention to have returned at once to England, by sea, from this port; but in consequence of the alarming accounts we heard of vessels and their crews having been lost, we determined to extend the journey, by land, beyond what we had originally contemplated. Having, therefore, disposed of our carriage, for half what it had cost us, and forwarded our luggage by sea, we proceeded to Bremen.

The dulness and monotony of the country were now much increased by a considerable part of it being under water; for the inundations had extended themselves beyond Hamburgh. On stopping at Shezzar, our attention was attracted by a lad most fantastically dressed, and with a quantity of gilt paper and tinsel on his hat; and finding, on enquiry, that he belonged to a wedding party, in a house just by, we solicited permission to take a peep at the festivities. There were two rooms, crowded almost to suffocation;

A WEDDING FESTIVAL.

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and the guests were dancing, if dancing it could be called, in the most uproarious and turbulent manner, evidently not so much excited by the music, which proceeded from a groaning fiddle, as from the potations in which they had indulged. The floor was not very well calculated to assist their steps by its elasticity, for it was not boarded, so that the dancers had not only the pleasure of kicking up the dust, but the chance of stumbling into some of the hollows that gave an agreeable variety of hill and dale to its undulating surface. The fair cause of all this tumult, the bride, was a strapping creature, whose grenadier-like stature was further set off, not very advantageously, by a conical highcrowned hat, that actually touched the ceiling of the room. This was profusely decorated with tinsel; and her hair tied with several broad ribands that hung down to her heels. Her shape was of the most perfect symmetry - not Grecian, but Dutch; and a stomacher of black ribands, with a white apron, completed the ensemble of her charms and decorations. The other females were hardly less grotesquely attired; while the men wore hats rivalling in amplitude of verge those enormous constructions of black velvet which the English ladies thought so exceedingly graceful in the year 1827; and that certainly shielded them completely from the impertinent scrutiny of the disciples of

Gall and Spurzheim. As the apartments were not sufficiently spacious to permit all the company to join in the evolutions of the dance, some of the juniors had availed themselves of the propinquity of the churchyard; and were actually skipping on grave-covering turf, the windows being thrown open, so that they might catch the strains of the fiddler, and regulate their steps in concord with his harmony. Curiosity being satisfied as to these Baccho-hymeneal proceedings, we resumed our journey; and having passed through Rothenberg, reached the post-house at Salter: over the door of which, as well as those of many other houses, were inscriptions of a religious nature. accommodations here for horses, cows, and poultry, quadrupeds and bipeds, including, among the latter, the "bipes implumis," all beneath one roof; yet arranged with due regard to order, precedence, and rank.

The

-were

In a vast barn-like space, from fifty to a hundred feet in length, the cattle are ranged in stalls on each side, with their heads not towards the wall, but in the contrary direction. At the upper end is the dwelling-house, to which the rest of the building forms an external covering or case. This has doors and windows, from which the inmates may survey at once all of their enclosed territory. The whole has certainly a very comfortable, snug appearance; nor are any

ill effects found to arise from the air being so confined, or from the breath of so many animals.

Within ten miles of Bremen the country began to assume a more cheerful aspect; and the roads were adorned with trees on each side. Bremen, which is one of the Hanse towns, and the capital of the duchy of that name, is situated on a plain on the river Weser. Vestiges of its walls and ramparts still remain; as likewise the gates, with large round towers rising above them. This place, which contains about 40,000 inhabitants, is divided into the old and new town, the former of which lies to the north-east, the latter to the south-east. The square, in which the Dom or cathedral is situated, is rather handsome; and in another, which is used as a vegetable market, is a colossal statue of Roland, twenty feet in height. The houses of Bremen are very irregularly built, no attention being paid as to uniformity, either with regard to height or any other circumstance; but all of them are roofed with red tiles; and projecting windows, terminated above by some statue or ornament, seem to be a prevailing fashion. A few years ago one thousand houses were destroyed by gunpowder, and forty persons killed. The streets are narrow, and badly paved; and lamps are suspended in the centre, after the French mode. The church of Notre Dame, erected in 1134, is an interesting Gothic

pile, and contains within several carved figures attached to many parts of the walls; yet it has lately been white-washed, in the true churchwarden style, and the roof has been spangled over with gilded stars. The eastern extremity of the church is eight feet above the level of the rest, and ascended by a flight of steps. In an adjoining building are nine coffins, containing as many bodies, discovered in a cellar or vault close by. Although these are supposed to have been buried 130 years ago, they are all in a high state of preservation; and at first I conceived that they might have been purposely dried, as is the custom in Sicily; but was informed that their decomposition had been prevented by their having been placed in a particular current of air, which had produced a complete exsiccation. One of these bodies is said to be that of an Englishman, and another that of Lady Stanhope. The long cap and gloves of the latter were taken off by the person who showed us these relics of mortality. Whether these articles of dress, however, were original, may be doubted, as they had probably been since substituted. Contiguous to this church is a monastery, but it is now unoccupied. About twenty years ago, a museum was established here, which contains a collection of birds, &c., but the whole is badly arranged. The theatre, which is situated on the ramparts, and has a small colonnade in front, says little