It will be advisable not to take up more money than will be sufficient to last as far as the island of Fynen or Funen; as the only money there received, and so on to the capital, is the currency of Denmark Proper. It will be most convenient to take rix dollar notes instead of coin. It may be as well here to state the post regulations. If the number of travellers exceeds three, they are compellable to take four horses.

In Holstein and Slesvig as far as Hadersleb, a horse is twenty skillings of that currency, per mile Danish, which is equal to five miles English; the other charges are per station or post; thus,

It is usual, however, to encrease this latter charge to one rix-dollar per station. With respect to this charge two drivers are only considered as one,

Having procured all this essential information, the carriage appeared at the door, surrounded by a crowd of gaping pea

20 sants, who gazed upon it as if they expected to see us mount in the air with it. As soon as we had passed the town-gate, we instantly dropped into a deep sand; through which we ploughed our way at the rate of two miles and an half in an hour, and beheld on each side of us nothing but a dreary waste. Had not the cheering beams of the sun refreshed and supported us all the way, we must have suffered pretty severely under the pressure of a distemper which foreigners confine, and very justly, to Englishmen. Our driver was mounted on the near shaft-horse, drove four in hand in rope harness, and carried, more for show than service, a prodigious long lash whip; he was dressed in scarlet, with yellow facings, and wore a brass plate on his hat, on which was stamped "Christ" 7."; from a string which was suspended over his right shoulder, depended his french horn, somewhat battered by long exercise, which he applied to his mouth with the most frightful consequences whenever we met a traveller, and with which, whenever we ascended a hill, he never failed to serenade our ears and those of his cattle, who, deafened by long use, or having no taste for the concord of sweet sounds, seldom turned their auricular organs towards this hoarse croaking tube. Thus did we move in all the majesty of a menagerie upon the point of entering a town on a fair-day.

THE VILLAGE WONDER-MUSICAL POSTILLIONS.

Two or three times in the course of each post, our driver begged to have a little snap money. Snaps is one of the

SNAPS FARM-HOUSES AND INN.

21

earliest and most frequent words which a traveller will pick up in Denmark; in plain English it signifies a refreshing glass of spirits. We always found our account in granting this request.

The Danish driver is merciful to his horses: to equalize their labour, in the course of the station, he changes the situation of each of them. A whimsical fellow of this condition amused us not a little, by every now and then peeping into the carriage, or as he called it the waggon, to see that we and the luggage were all safe; these men, whenever they stop to refresh themselves, feed their horses with large slices of barley bread. We passed some neat farm-houses, having the barn with two large folding doors in the centre, the offices belonging to the farm on one side, and the farm-house on the other; the whole upon a ground floor, and under one roof.

As we approached Flensborg, the country became more agreeable, and we observed the wonderful activity with which nature was every where exerting herself, in a climate which so much confines her to time: it was then the 30th of May, and the ground had been covered with snow only three weeks before, and some bitter winds very sensibly informed us that winter had not as yet retreated very far.

At a very clean inn where we dined, we found some excellent red dried beef, sweet butter, good bread, baked like

English tops and bottoms, and miserable vin du pays.

In

our dining-room the best china and glass tumblers made a gala show upon the tester of the bed, which gave a double capacity to the room. I was highly pleased to observe, that whilst the postillion took very good care of himself, he did not neglect his horses.

At eight in the evening we reached Flensborg, having accomplished twenty-five English miles in nine hours; a tedious time, sufficient to make any traveller peevish who had been accustomed to the velocity of an English mail. It was solely owing to the great depth of the roads, for upon better ground, our horses "were not hollow pampered jades of Asia, which cannot go but thirty miles a day."

As soon as we had entered the inn, our driver presented us with a small printed paper, that directed the traveller to state his opinion of the conduct of the former, which is afterwards submitted to the postmaster; and, by an ordinance of government, if any cause of complaint arises, the postillion is punishable.

Upon a traveller's reaching the end of a Danish post, it will be lucky for him if he does not find his patience put to a trial, by having to wait in general an hour for horses to forward him, which, at the time of his arrival, are nibbling the

blade in some distant field. Our inn was the post-house, which every where affords the best accommodations.

Flensborg is a large commercial town, very neat and pleasantly situated; it is well supplied with excellent water from fountains, which are placed at certain intervals in the centre of the principal street: the houses are like those at Husum, with the addition of strong braces of iron. The view from the quay, the river, and the opposite village, is very beautiful; the language thus far is German, and the religion of the country throughout is lutheran, The English chariot was still the object of admiration; smiths thronged the yard to examine the springs, and waggon-builders to contemplate the wheels and body. The patent boxes of the former excited uncommon astonishment. At the corner of the yard, the last beams of the setting sun threw an agreeable tint upon a variety of interesting faces, all waiting for intelligence-the friend, the lover, and the merchant, for the postman had just arrived, the

--Messenger of grief

Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some;
To him indiff'rent whether grief or joy.

Houses in ashes, or the fall of stocks,

Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet

With tears, that trickled down the writer's cheeks,

Fast as the periods from his fluent quill,

Or charg'd with am'rous sighs of absent swains,

Or nymphs responsive, equally affect

His horse and him, unconscious of them all.