網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

been constructed at an enormous cost. The foundations are mostly of granite -the superstructure of brick and stucco. The designs show great variety and sometimes beauty. The arcade opening out of the Jungfernstieg is deserving of attention for its extent and beauty. Other improvements consist in conducting the drains to the Elbe without allowing them to enter the canals, and in causing the water of the Alster basin to flow through the town canals, and in the conversion into a new quarter of the town of a low marshy tract on the rt. bank of the Elbe called Hammerbrook. It has been intersected by canals, the water pumped out by a steamengine the surface raised 4 ft. over a space of an English square m. by the rubbish arising from the fire; thus turning to account what would other wise have been an encumbrance; and the whole is being covered with streets and warehouses.

The objects chiefly calculated to attract a stranger's attention are, first, the Costumes seen in the streets of Hamburg; they are not a little singular. Servant girls, housemaids, and cooks, according to the custom of the place, rarely appear in public except in the gayest attire; with lace caps, long kid gloves, and a splendid shawl. The last article is elegantly arranged under the arm, so as to conceal a basket shaped like a child's coffin, containing clothes, butter or cheese, or other articles purchased at market, as the case may be. The peasants who frequent the market wear a very picturesque attire; they are chiefly natives of a part of the Hamburg territory bordering on the Elbe, called Vierland, which is principally laid out in gardens, and supplies the market with vegetables. The costume of some of the other peasant women of the neighbourhood is likewise picturesque: they are distinguished by a small cap at the back of the head, covered with gold or silver embroidery, and a gaily decorated boddice.

Funeral processions in Hamburg are not composed of friends of the deceased, but of hired mourners, called Reiten Diener, dressed in black, with plaited

[ocr errors]

ruffs round their necks, curled and powdered wigs, short Spanish cloaks, and swords. The same persons, whose number is limited to 16, attend at marriage festivals, and form also a sort of bodyguard to the magistrates. Their situations were formerly purchased at a high price, in consideration of the perquisites and fees attached to them. Upon the death of a burgomaster or other personage of importance in the town, the town trumpeter, a civic officer, is set to blow a dirge from one of the steeples.

The churches have little architectural beauty. St. Nicholas, however, with a tower at the W. end, of openwork, will be a beautiful building. It is designed by the English architect Scott, who built Camberwell Ch. St. Peter's has been rebuilt, and is a fine lofty church. St. Michael's has one of the loftiest steeples in Europe, 456 feet high, about 100 feet higher than St. Paul's in London (340 ft.), from which the town and the Elbe, nearly as far as the sea, Holstein on the N., and Hanover on the S., present themselves advantageously to view. It is also the station of the fire-watch (§ 43.).

The Börse (Exchange), a fine building on the Adolphs Platz, is well designed. It forms a noble hall 48 paces by 26, exclusive of the surrounding colonade. On the first floor are reading rooms, offices, &c., corresponding with Lloyd's in London, and called the Börsenhalle. A stranger can be introduced to read the papers. It is also the seat of the Commercium, or Board of Trade, of the Chamber of Commerce (Handelsgericht), presided over by 2 lawyers and 9 merchants, as judges. Change commences at 1 o'clock, and it is worth while to see the crowd that comes thronging in at that hour. At this time the smartest and prettiest of the Vierlander flower girls may be seen about the Börse.

The Schulgebäude, erected 1834 on the site of the ancient Dom, includes the Johanneum, a college under the care of excellent professors, where a good classical and commercial education is given for 120 marks per annum. The

Town Library, consisting of about 200,000 vols. and many curious MSS., has been removed to this building.

The charitable institutions of Hamburg are on a very munificent scale. The Orphan Asylum (Waisenhaus) provides for 600 children, who are received as infants, reared, educated, and bound appentices to some useful trade. The Great Hospital (Krankenhaus), in the suburb of St. George, is capable of containing from 4000 to 5000 sick. The yearly cost of supporting this admirable institution is nearly 17,000l. Its utility is not confined to the poor alone, as even persons of the higher classes resort to the hospital to avail themselves of the advantages of the excellent medical treatment which they may here obtain. Such patients are admitted as lodgers, on payment of a sum varying from 8d. to 88. a day. The Chapel contains a painting by Overbeck. The subject is Christ's Agony in the Garden, with the 3 disciples sleeping below. The arrangement and attitudes are Giottesque, the colour thick and low.

The House in which Klopstock the poet lived 30 years (1774—1803), and died, is No. 27. in the Königstrasse.

Some of the merchants possess a few good pictures, but there are no collections of much consequence here.

Rading's Museum is a collection of odds and ends, with some real curiosities, where half an hour may be spent when there is nothing better to do.

The old and new Jungfernstieg (Maiden's Walk) and the Alsterdamm are broad walks around the sides of a basin of water formed by damming up the small river Alster. Here is the fashionable promenade, especially resorted to in the summer evenings, when the surface of the water is covered with gaily painted boats filled with water parties. It is flanked on 3 sides by handsome rows of new houses, and has a broad terrace all round its margin. At the water-side are the two most frequented cafés in the town, called Pavilions. There are floating baths on the Alster.

The Stadt Theater is one of the largest in Germany, and the perform

ances and music generally very good. The play begins at 6 and usually ends

before 10.

The Thalia Theater, Pferde Market, is chiefly famed for comic pieces, and is a popular resort.

The public ball rooms in and about the town, though not frequented by the most respectable classes, being often the resort of low company, deserve to be looked at as one of the peculiarities of the place. The best are the Elbe Pavilion, and the Schweitzer Pavilion. Some of the cellars for suppers, beer, &c. are worth a visit.

Public Amusements in Hamburg and the neighbourhood are advertised in the daily papers taken in at all the hotels and cafés.

The Hamburg hung beef is celebrated.

Hamburg had once the misfortune to be a fortified town, and in consequence was subjected to the horrors of a siege from the French, and was twice occupied by their armies, who, under Davoust, in 1813, exercised the most cruel severities and atrocities upon the inhabitants; many hundreds of whom, men, women, and children, were driven out of the town to perish.

The Ramparts no longer exist, being levelled and converted into delightful boulevards or gardens, neatly laid out, which extend nearly round the town, and between the two Alster basins. The most pleasing view of the town and river, the shipping and opposite shore of the Elbe, presents itself from the eminence, at the extremity of these walks nearest to Altona, called the Elbhöhe, or Stintfang.

The picturesque part of the city runs eastward from the harbour. The weighing-house and many of the bricknogging tumble-down old buildings, along the waterside and the adjoining canals, offer admirable subjects for the pencil. In the morning these canals are crowded with the Vierlanders, in their picturesque costume, and boats laden with vegetables, fruit, &c. There is also a picturesque old church in this neighbourhood, most rich in colour, and quaint in outline.

About this part of the town a large portion of the poorer inhabitants live in cellars under the houses. In winter, and after a prevalence of west winds, which drive the waters of the German ocean into the mouth of the Elbe, the tides rise to a great height (sometimes 20 ft.) inundating all the streets near the river.

The tenants of these cellars are then driven from their habitations by the water, which keeps possession of them for days, leaving them filled with ooze, and in a most unhealthy condition from the moisture. The upper part of the house is let under condition that the occupiers of the cellars are to receive shelter at such seasons of calamity.

Outside the Damm Gate, not far from the Jungfernstieg, is the public Cemetery, which deserves a visit, as exhibiting the customs and usages of Germany with regard to the restingplace of the dead. (§ 45.)

The merchants of Hamburg are celebrated for their hospitality and the goodness of their dinners, as all strangers can testify who are well introduced. It is customary to give vails to servants in private houses; they expect at least two marks from each visitor. The English residents here are very numerous, and their language is almost universally understood even by the Germans. They have recently erected, with partial aid from the British Government, a Church for themselves. A British chargé d'affaires and consul general and vice-consul reside here. Reading Rooms At Perthes, Besser, and Maukes, 12. Jungfernstieg, more than 150 newspapers and journals are taken in. Entrance for a week, 1 mark. The best shops are upon the S. side of the Jungfernstieg, and the adjoining street Neuer Wall,

Post Office. Many foreign states have separate post-offices at Hamburg. The City post, the Thurn and Taxis, and Hanoverian post-offices, are in a large building with a lofty tower, on which the telegraph is placed, in the Post-strasse; the Prussian, is in the Gänsemarkt; the Danish and Mecklenburg, in the grosse Bleichen;

and the Norwegian and Swedish in the Grosse Theater-strasse. The City post is the office for letters to and from England.

Consuls.-All the states of the new and old world are represented here. The British and most of the other Consulate Offices, are near the harbour. Travellers not already provided with a visé to their passports for the countries they intend to visit had better procure them here.

Hackney-coaches, called Droskies, ply for hire in all the principal thoroughfares of the town. They are good and cheap. Any distance within the town costs about 8d., and if hired by the hour the charge is 1s. 6d.

The gates of Hamburg are shut every evening at dusk, and a toll, increasing progressively every hour till 12, is demanded, after which persons may pass and repass all through the night, upon payment of 1 mark each. All eatables brought into the town are taxed at the gates, and even private carriages are sometimes searched, and game found in them has been seized.

Omnibuses ply through the town in various directions, to Altona and Rainville's garden,

[ocr errors]

Environs. It is a very pleasant drive to descend the right bank of the Elbe from Altona to Blankenese. The slopes bordering on the river are studded with country seats of merchants, and possess considerable natural beauty. Between Hamburg and Altona runs a narrow strip of about half a mile, called Hamburgerburg, occupied by low taverns and dancing-rooms; in fact, a sort of Wapping, extending to the gate of Altona, where the uniform of the sentinel and the Danish coat of arms mark the frontier of Holstein. At the

further end of Altona is the suburb of Ottonsen, where the brave Duke of Brunswick died, in 1806, from the wound he had received in the battle of Jena. In the churchyard, by the side of the road, and under an umbrageous elm, is The Tomb of Klopstock, author of the "Messiah." Here is also a monument to the 1138 Hamburgers, who perished in 1813-14, during the

siege and occupation of Hamburg by the French, and are interred here in one common grave: the subject of a pretty poem by Ruckert. Further on

[ocr errors]

is Rainville's Tavern and garden, overlooking the Elbe. The house itself was inhabited successively by Dumourier and Bourrienne. The view is fine, the cuisine very tolerable, and in fine summer afternoons very respectable company repair hither to dine or take coffee. Booth's Nursery Gardens, near Flottbeck, contain many choice and rare flowers. The amateur of horticulture will do wisely in purchasing seeds of stocks, wall-flowers, &c., which are brought to singular perfection here. At Blankenese, about 6 miles from Hamburg, Mr. Bauer's Pleasure Grounds, laid out in the Dutch taste, thrown open to the public on Thursdays and Sundays, are a common resort of the cockneys of Hamburg.

In an opposite direction, about 3 m. N. E. from Hamburg, lies the Holstein village of Wandsbeck, in a very pretty situation. Every Sunday and holiday it overflows with visitors from Hamburg of all classes, who repair hither to walk in the gardens of the Schloss, and enjoy the amusements of waltzing and music. Tycho Brahe the astronomer lived in the chateau, and Voss the poet also resided here.

Steam-boats across the Elbe to Haarburg 8 times a day. (Rte. 59.) To Amsterdam every 5 days, in 30 or 40 hours; to London, Tuesday and Friday at night in winter, they start from Cuxhaven ; to Hull, 4 times a week, average passage 42 hours; to Havre, once a week in 50 or 60 hours; to Cuxhaven, 4 times a week, in 6 or 8 hours; -to Heligoland, and up the Elbe to Magdeburg, daily.

Schnellposts daily to Bremen Lübeck twice a-day.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

A kind of long cart, called Stuhlwagen, is much used in this country upon the sandy cross roads. The body is made of wicker-work, so that it bends and yields to the ups and downs of the road. The seats are suspended across it, but as it is not hung on springs, the jolting is intolerable, and the best plan is to fill the bottom with hay, upon which the traveller may recline more at his ease.

The territory belonging to Lübeck begins about 6 m. from its walls: it is limited, comprehending altogether 36,000 inhab., and is bounded by Holstein, Lauenberg, and Mecklenburg.

3 LÜBECK.-Inns, Stadt Hamburg; very good:-bed, 1 mark 8 schillings; breakfast, 12 schill. ; dinner, with bottle of wine and coffee, 2 marks 12 sch. ; H. du Nord, also very good :— - table to d'hôte at 3 o'clock, mark 8 sch.; Fünf Thürme (5 towers); Stadt London.

Railroads to Berlin (Route 61.); -to Kiel (from Altona). (See Handbook of Northern Europe); to Hanover (Rte. 59.). Care should be taken to allow plenty of time for reaching the station of the Kiel railway, which is a considerable distance from

Money. Accounts are kept in marks courant and schillings as at Hamburg, except banking accounts, which are in marks banco. The small current coin is as much worn as at Hamburg, and is valueless out of Lübeck.

The Free Hanse town of Lübeck is built on a ridge between the rivers Trave and Wackenitz, which entirely surround its walls, and has a population of 25,600 souls; including its surrounding territory, 47,000. Lübeck was built by the Emperor Conrad, a. D. 1066. It was repeatedly destroyed by the Danes. In the commencement of the 13th cent. it was declared a free imperial city by the Emp. Frederick II. At a later period it entered into, and subsequently became the most considerable of the towns forming, the Hanseatic League, and as such deserved the name of the Carthage of the North. For full 4 centuries, from 1260 to 1669, Lübeck maintained that prominent position, the seat of the government of the Confederation, the repository of its archives, and the station of its fleet, to the command of which she was entitled to appoint one of her own citizens. From the dissolution of the League, however, her importance diminished, and her commerce decayed, until she dwindled into the existing state of insignificance, from which she is not likely soon to emerge, and which is at once made evident to the stranger, by the deserted and grass-grown streets, and the numerous empty houses.

After the fatal defeat of Jena (1806), Blucher, retreating with the wreck of the Prussian army, and hotly pursued by 3 French generals, Bernadotte, Soult, and Murat, threw himself into this unfortunate town, in spite of the remonstrances of its senate and citizens, and thereby involved it in his own ruin. A bloody engagement commenced outside the walls, but continued through the streets, and ended in the expulsion of the Prussians, and in the sacking and pillage of Lübeck for 3 days. The French army of 75,000 men was long quartered upon the town, to complete its ruin and misery.

It is an interesting town, prettily situated. Its haven, enlivened by shipping, is bounded on one side by the quay and its picturesque or grotesque old houses and magazines, and on the other side by the lofty Ramparts, probably some of the largest mounds of

earth that were ever made; planted with avenues, and laid out with walks and drives, from which the eye looks down on the water and shipping. Lübeck is one of the most picturesque old towns in Germany, and deserves nore attention than is usually given to it by travellers. In external appear

ance, its buildings have undergone little change since the 15th century. Its houses, distinguished by their quaint gables, and often by the splendour of their architecture, its feudal gates, its Gothic churches, and its venerable Rathhaus, all speak of the period of its prosperity as an imperial free city.

Principal Buildings:- The Dom or Cathedral at the S. end of the town (begun 1170, and finished, after interruptions, 1341), contains, in its side chapels, the monuments of many of the patrician families of Lübeck, and, in the choir, the tombs of numerous bishops and canons. The screen of the choir is perhaps one of the finest existing specimens of wood carving of the early German school, about the period of Lucas Cranach. The figures are the size of life, full of expression, and admirably executed. But the finest work of art in Lübeck is in one of the chapels in the N. aisle. It is an altarpiece with wings, covered with a double set of shutters Outside the outer pair the Annunciation is represented in grisaille. The drawing is more free and graceful in this than in the coloured pictures. The first pair of shutters being opened, St. Blaize, St. John, St. Jerome, and St. Ægidius are seen — noble and grave figures, betraying some timidity in drawing, but with heads full of character and individuality. These figures are executed in the most finished manner, and with the richest colours. When the second pair of shutters is opened, the Pictures of the Passion are seen in 3 compartments, each having a principal subject; but Memling, as was usual with the early masters, both German and Italian, has introduced, in no less than 23 distinct groups placed in the background, many of the events previous and accessory to the principal event set forth. The main group on

« 上一頁繼續 »