Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, visited in 1837

Front matter

GERMANY, BOHEMIA, AND HUNGARY, Visited in 1837. BY THE REV. G. R. GLEIG. M.A., CHAPLAIN TO THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. M.DCCC.XXXIX. A

ADVERTISEMENT.

. The following volumes tell their own tale, and, except in reference to one or two points, hardly require that a sentence should be written in explanation of them. I am aware, for example, that in the circumstances Avhich induced me to undertake a scheme of foreign travel, the public is very little likely to take an interest. Yet it is due to myself, to state, that I went abroad, not through any love of change, far less because I was tired of my home, or of the duties attached to it; but because my medical attendants assured me, that unless I withdrew for a season from labours under Avhich my constitution had greatly suffered, they could not be answer able for the consequences. I proceeded, therefore, to the Continent, in search of health, and I thank God that I found it. a

Chapter I. Embarkation

VOYAGE. ASCENT OF THE ELBE. HAM- BURG. ITS GENERAL APPEARANCE. HABITS OF THE PEOPLE. — THE EXCHANGE. — TABLE D'HOTE. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. On the last day of March, 1837, between the hours of ten and eleven o'clock at night, I embarked with my family on board of a steam boat, which lay at her moorings beside the Custom-House wharf, and was to sail at an early hour on the following morning, for Ham burg. Our heavy baggage having been shipped betimes, and other necessary preparations made, the business of adapting ourselves to the cir cumstances then around us, was neither a tedious nor a troublesome one. The children went at once to bed, — their mother soon fol lowed their example, — the servants disposed of VOL. I. B VOYAGE themselves, I do not know how, — and Mr. Stewart, my son's excellent tutor, walked the deck with me, so long as the objects near supplied food for admiration, or we found in our own converse, matter to interest and amuse.

When the former, including a thousand glan cing lights from the shore, the occasional pas sage of a vessel through the forest of masts that hemmed us in, and the bright twinkle of a million of stars over-head, began to pall, and the latter, wearing itself out, flagged and grew dull, we likewise turned our steps towards the companion stair, and creeping into our berths, were soon as indifferent to the world, as if we had ceased to be, in any sense of the term, actors upon its stage. A voyage from London to Hamburg is scarcely that which any scribbler, however determined, would in this age pause to describe. We experienced the usual alternations of con venience and discomfort, — the former arising from a well-kept table and obliging attendants, the latter occasioned by a stiff breeze from the north-east, of all the winds that blow, to fresh water sailors the least agreeable.

Our fellow TO HAMBURG. passengers, likewise, were as kind and accom modating as in such a situation we had a right to expect, and comprehended one, at least, from almost every nation under heaven, between the latitudes of North Cape and the Bay of Naples. There were, besides English, Scotch, and Irish, a Dane, a Russian, two Swedes, a citizen of Hamburg, a Mecklenburger, a Prus sian, a merchant of Venice, and a Neapolitan. These, associating familiarly together in one small cabin, and often conversing by pairs in half a dozen different languages at the same time, made such of my party as had not previously visited the Continent, aware that a new scene in the great drama of life had opened upon them. Neither must I forget Ishmael Schlevakey, the Polish Jew and smuggler, who, after an exile of several years, was returning to the land of his birth, not without some mis givings as to the truth of a report which had reached him, that for such transgressions as his a general amnesty had been proclaimed.

Ishmael was a filthy, squalid creature, with a long, shaggy beard, and a sheep-skin cloak ; and as he either could not or would not afford to B ISHMAEL SCHLEVAKEY. pay for a place in the cabin, he sat shivering day and night under the lee of the chimney. I do not know that I ever beheld a better subject than this Jew for the pencil of one who might wish to delineate on canvass old Isaac of York, as the pen of the mighty magician has described him. There was the same small, twinkling, dark eye, of which Sir Walter speaks, as turning hither and thither perpetually. There was the low and crouching figure, the fawning manner, the eagerness to appear satisfied, the undisguised alarm, as often as allusion was made to the probable contents of a box which was never for a moment permitted to pass beyond his reach, — all these brought back to my recollection the graphic sketch of the Jew, as he is first introduced to the reader's acquaintance in the hall of Cedric.

Moreover, Ishmael, like Isaac, had his better points about him, which were the more striking, because of the contrast which they presented to what may be called the staple of his nature. He would not purchase the convenience of a bed ; that was too expensive a luxury for him : he preferred the open air, even at night ; and a CUXHAVEN. cold shoulder of mutton, with a loaf of mouldy bread, both of them brought from London, were all the dainties of which he would partake during the passage. Yet he rejected haughtily the offer of pecuniary assistance which one of the passengers, in the overflowing of a generous heart, would have pressed upon him. With what consummate skill has Scott brought for ward a similar trait in the character of Isaac ! how broad and clear is the line of distinction which he draws between parsimony, however stringent, and absolute meanness.

For two days and nights the wind blew right a-head, yet we regarded it not. There might be slender consumption of viands in the cabin, but the vessel held her course ; and by an early hour in the morning of the 3rd of April, land was in sight. It proved to be the island of Neuwerk, a sterile spot, scarce raised, as it seemed to me, above the surface of the ocean ; and containing, as far as I could discern, in addition to the light-house, only a single home stead and a dilapidated redoubt. By-and-by the little town of Cuxhaven made its appearance ; and in due time was skirted a stretch of CUXHAVEN. the Hanoverian shore, low and flat, and covered by a sea-dyke. From that moment till the arrival of the ship at her destination, we were never at a loss for amusement. Tbe lordly Elbe was before us; and in watching the objects which on either hand it introduced to us, all thought of discomfort, now happily removed, was laid aside.

The Elbe, as is well known, though it carry a prodigious body of water into the North Sea, affords but indifferent facilities to navigation, and these limited in their extent. From Cux haven to Hamburg, for example, the channel is both intricate and narrow, and beyond Hamburg, vessels of heavy burden cannot proceed. Nei ther may the scenery of its banks compare for a moment with that of our own Thames, the most uniformly beautiful, perhaps, of all Euro pean rivers. Yet is the scene from Gluckstadt upwards exceedingly agreeable. On the Hano verian side, to be sure, the stranger sees little else than a wide extent of plain, dotted here and there with churches, and well feathered with trees, chiefly pollarded willows. But the side of Holstein is different. First we have ALTONA. Blackanese, a long, straggling village, which, climbing, as it were, up the face of a range of sand-hills, shows to peculiar advantage from amid the groves of pine and birch that over shadow its roofs.

Next, there are villas, gentlemen's seats and hamlets without number, the latter built along the margin of the stream, and on a level with its waters ; the former crowning the heights that rise, it may be, a hundred feet or two above. To these succeeds Altona, an old-fashioned and picturesque town ; the Ultima Thule, on this side, of Danish territory, and a place of much apparent life and bustle. And last of all, Hamburg itself, separated from Al tona only by a creek, with its tall spires, its sharp roofs, its pointed gables, its numerous storehouses, its dwellings, composed partly of brick, partly of timber, its succession of wharfs, and its roadstead crowded with shipping. All these, as one after another they push forward their claims to notice, give to the mind of one who sees them for the first time, ample food for employment, which he relinquishes not with out a feeling akin to regret, when the splash of HAMBURG BOATMEN. the anchor from the ship's bow gives notice that the voyage is at an end.

As we ascended the river, we had been struck with certain peculiarities in the working habits, if I may so express myself, of its maritime population. With us, a seaman pulls ancl hauls, if on board of a man-of-war, to the notes of the boatswain's whistle : if in a merchant vessel, to the Yo-he-vo of his leader. Here, both sailors and landsmen, animate one another to their tasks, by singing in concert snatches of merry tunes. In like manner, the mode in which the boatmen propel their skiffs, is, on the Elbe, directly at variance with that pursued in England. Our peojale sit with their faces to the boat's stern, and pull backwards ; the northern watermen stand upright, look to the stem, and ply the oar by pushing its handle from them. We found, however, on making trial of their skill, that the Hamburgers were by no means deficient, and that their charges were, at least, as moderate, and their bearing as civil, as those of their brother functionaries in other parts of the world.

CUSTOM-HOUSE. There is some show of custom-house vigilance in the port of Hamburg, but it is not vexatious. A guard-ship lies at anchor in the mouth of the creek, which separates the Danish waters from those of the free town, whence revenue officers board the steamer after she is moored, without, however, paying the slightest attention to the passengers or their baggage. These, on the contrary, are permitted to make their own arrangements with the watermen who surround the vessel, and are transported, unquestioned, to a sort of wooden jetty, on which stands a watch-bouse ; where their trunks being counted, are delivered over to them again, on payment of a trifling fee, and an assurance that they contain only private baggage. This done, you ascend an oak staircase, at the summit of which a guard of soldiers is stationed, and find your self at the lower extremity of a steep, narrow street, crowded with porters and droskies that ply for hire.

I need not add that the competi tion for employment is great ; and I know from experience that a trifling disbursement deposits you, with all your chattels, safely and snugly in your hotel. b HAMBURG. Among the trading cities of continental Europe, Hamburg, I believe, holds the first rank. I am quite sure that it stands second to none which I, at least, have visited ; for every thing in and around the place, is redolent of commerce. Out of the hundred and thirty thousand souls that make up the sum of its population, there are probably not five hundred full-grown men who are not, somehow or another, interested in the exchanges. The higher classes are all to be found from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon in their counting-houses ; the lower orders act towards these magnates in the capacity of domestic servants, or carry their burdens, or fill and empty their warehouses, or navigate their ves sels.

The middle ranks are composed exclusively of shopkeepers, clerks, masters of hotels, artisans, ship-captains, and such like. A few professional persons there doubtless are : for a free city could not exist without lawyers to create, and burgomasters to settle disputes ; nor might a population so redundant die in peace unless the physician and apothecary were at hand to hurry forward the consummation. But THE YONG-FERSTEIG. with the exception of these, the parochial clergy, and a handful of troops barely sufficient to furnish the necessary guards, and these very feeble, you are quite safe in assuming that every person whom you meet, unless like yourself he be a bird of passage, is in some shape or another engaged in trade. The consequences are, first, that the mere traveller will look in vain throughout the city for those resources against ennui which it is the privilege of polished idle ness, and of it alone, to supply; and, secondly, that unless some strong claim of business or acquaintanceship detain him, he will make his sojourn here as brief as possible.

We were not slow in ascertaining that Hamburg could boast neither of choice galleries of paintings, nor of elaborate specimens in architecture or statuary ; yet it would be unjust to deny that we spent there some very agreeable days, though we had certainly no wish to enlarge their number. The house at which we established ourselves, the Hotel de Russie, stands upon the Yong fersteig, or Maiden's Walk, a broad avenue, shaded by rows of trees, which skirt the margin THE YONG-FERSTEIG. of a lake or basin, that is formed by the damming-up of the river Alster. Thither, in the summer evenings, the elite of the Hamburgers repair, to enjoy in the promenade the luxury of cool breezes, while the surface of the water is covered with gaily painted boats, and the air comes back upon them loaded with the sounds of sweet music.

Such, at least, was the tale told to us by our cicerone ; and I dare say the inferences which he drew from it were perfectly just ; but looking at the scene of action on a cold April day, when the snow lay thick under foot, and the trees along the banks were leafless, I confess that it excited in me sensations very different from those with which it was his purpose to impress me. There can, I think, be no greater mistake than the introduction of sheets of water into the heart of cities which do not lie under perpetual sunshine. While the dog-days endure, the eye doubtless loves to rest upon the clear and cool surface even of a horsepond ; but who can abstain from shivering while he hurries, wrapped up in his cloak, along the edge of that same pond in the dead of winter? Now, as the winter in Hamburg hap- THE BOULEVARDS. pens to comprise about seven, whilst the summer, and spring, and autumn include barely five months among them, I confess that to me the wisdom and good taste of thus creating a lake in the principal square of the city, appeared to be, in spite of the pride with which the Ham burgers regard it, exceedingly problematical.

It is but fair to add, however, that the buildings which surround the lake, are all creditable to the skill of the architect. Those that face the north, though of older date than the rest, are still exceedingly neat; those on the east and west form the commencement of what may be called a new town, and would do no discredit, in point of regularity, to Berlin itself. From the Yong-fersteig you naturally pass to she Boulevards, or ornamental gardens, which, since the termination of the late war, have arisen on the ruins of bastion and tower. It was a wise, as well as a humane arrangement which took away from Hamburg the unenviable distinction of being ranked among the strong-holds of Europe. So long as she retained that ancient but questionable honour, her citizens were liable* as often as their more pugnacious neighbours THE BOULEVARDS. fell out, to be involved in quarrels with which they might have no concern.

For it is not, I am afraid, the custom of statesmen, any more than of soldiers, to make much account of indi vidual suffering when aiming at the accomplishment of what they are pleased to consider some great public good. Now, however, the excuse of holding a strong position on the navigable Elbe is taken away; and Hamburg, as an open town, may, and probably will, escape visitations, which, so long as she retained her warlike atti tude, were sure to overtake her. And so it ought to be in all similar cases. Large and populous places ought never to be fortified; for, in the first place, it rarely happens that such garrisons can be spared for them as shall render effectual their resistance to an enemy who may have conquered in the field; and, in the next place, it never can happen, that the amount of private calamity sustained during a siege shall not more than counterbalance, in a moral point of view at least, the advantages even of successful resistance.

Hamburg herself sufficiently illustrated this truth during the memorable occurrences of 1813. It is well for her that THE BOULEVARDS. the temptation to illustrate it again has been taken away. The Boulevards are exceedingly pretty. Along the summit of the ramparts, over the salient angles of the bastions, and downwards through the ditch to the glacis, trees and shrubs are planted; amid which is drawn an endless variety of walks, that, twisting and turning in every direction, terminate here and there in a bower, a rustic seat, or a summer-house. I cannot add that in any direction tbe view over the surrounding country is fine. Except where the Elbe sweeps by, and Altona's grotesque buildings attract your attention, you look abroad upon a huge plain, badly cultivated, naturally barren, and in many places swampy.

Along the course of the Alster, indeed, there seems to be at once a better soil and a more scientific mode of dealing with it; but even there I saw nothing to call forth a very lively admiration. The scene was everywhere bleak, and cold, and uninviting. It is not, however, on the Boulevards, nor amid the well-proportioned regularity of the New Town, that the stranger must expect to GENERAL APPEARANCE form a just estimate of what may be called the characteristic peculiarities of Hamburg. These are to be sought for elsewhere, amid the long, narrow, steep, I had almost said perpendicular streets, in which the wealthy merchants carry on their business; in the antique squares, some of them to all appearance never completed, where dwelt of old her princely burgomasters; by the wharfs and quays along which her cargoes are discharged; and above all, in her Exchange.

For it is here that we discover not only evidence of great prosperity at the present moment, but of more than prosperity in the palmy days gone by, when the Hanse Towns took the lead of all Europe in the prosecution of commercial enterprise, and the treasures of the East were poured abundantly into their laps. We often find the task of description the most arduous, when the scenes to be described, whether natural or otherwise, have most de lighted ourselves. Yet there is uniformly, in such cases, a disposition to say something; and I, like others in a similar situation, obey but a natural impulse, when I endeavour, however ineffectually, to make a transcript of the feelings OF HAMBURG. 17 which possessed me while traversing the streets of Hamburg. We had the good fortune to wander through the old town on a market-day.

Crowds of country people, in all manner of grotesque costumes, were there ; as well as an endless variety of cooks, handmaidens, and other domestic servants, all of them dressed, according to the fashion of the place, in the very height of the mode. For a domestic servant never goes abroad here except in kid gloves and a lace cap ; her solitary badge of office being a cradle shaped basket, suspended from the left arm. The appearance of these groups interested us much; as did a funeral procession, — an affair entirely different, in all respects, from what one sees in almost any other city of Europe. On such occasions the Hamburgers do not consider themselves bound to mourn, or affect to mourn, in their own proper persons. That is a duty which they discharge by proxy; and there is a distinct order of persons on whom it devolves, as well as a distinct fee to be paid for its per formance.

The Reisten Dienen, or body-guard of the magistrates, act in the twofold capacity ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH. of mourners at a funeral and jubilators at a wedding. They are in number sixteen, and they dress for each occasion in ruffs, powdered wigs, short cloaks, and swords. One of the lions of the place to which visitors are invariably conducted, is the church of St. Michael. It is the largest and the oldest church in the city, but it has neither beauty nor any marked peculiarity of style to recommend it; unless, indeed, the prodigious height of the tower, which exceeds that of St. Paul's by nearly one hundred feet, may be so accounted. It is a huge, clumsy mass of red stone; substantial enough to defy, for ages yet to come, the natural operations of decay; yet nowise aided in its powers of endurance by the care that is bestowed upon it.

The quantity of broken glass in the windows struck me, indeed, as being quite discreditable; and the air of neglect and squalor which hung round it, both internally and externally, was distressing. I am aware that in Protestant Germany in general, little regard is taken of the neatness of the churches, and that the Germans themselves make very light of the matter. Nor is it, perhaps, quite ANTIQUE BUILDINGS. fair to draw conclusions that affect the character of a people, from circumstances in themselves so trivial. But one is apt to imagine, that where the outward badges of religion are neglected, religion itself is not very highly accounted of; and where there is no religion — deep, and earnest, and sincere, — it may surely be doubted whether there can be any such thing as sound morality or virtue.

St. Michael's church stands in one of those antique squares, of which I have already spoken ; the unpaved, uncultivated area of which is sur rounded by houses evidently of a date not later than the middle or end of the fifteenth century. Tall, gable-fronted, grotesque-looking edifices they are, with small, yet highly-decorated win dows; the stone mouldings of which give an air of solidity and pretension to the dark red brick-walls on which they are engrafted. The most striking of these front you when you look towards the south, whence also passes a steep and narrow street, which, leading towards the Elbe, introduces you, stage by stage, into all the bustle and hurry of wharfs and storehouses. Moreover as you descend towards the level of INUNDATIONS. the Elbe, you find that the Dutch are not the only people in Europe, who, either for the con venience of transfer, or because they relish the proximity of water to their dwellings, dig canals in their streets.

The Hamburgers, after dam ming up the Alster, so as to form the lake beside the Yong-fersteig, of which 1 have spoken, let off its waters through sluices, and causing them first to turn some flour-mills in their course, distribute them by-and-by in minute channels all over the town. There is, however, this difference between the canals in Rotterdam and those in Hamburg: that whereas the former occupy the centre of the way, the latter flank them. Moreover, in Hamburg certain incon veniences attach to the arrangement, which in the towns of Holland are not experienced. There never occurs a flood either in the Alster or the Elbe, whether from the prevalence of westerly winds, or from any other cause, which brings not with it a large amount of suffering to a large amount of the population. For in Hamburg the labouring classes inhabit almost exclusively under-ground cellars in the streets through which the canals pass; and on such INUNDATIONS. 21 occasions the swollen waters never fail of making their way into the poor people's dwellings.

To such an extent are the evils of inun dation felt to press, that private beneficence cannot keep pace with it. There is a law, therefore, which compels the inhabitants of the upper stories to give shelter, during the flood, to their humble neighbours, and a tax is levied on the community at large for the purpose of making good to the sufferers what they may have lost by the inundation. All this is very humane as well as politic, but the mischief done to health no pecuniary aid can remove; and it is impossible to provide against the recurrence of the same calamity from time to time, because the surface extent of Hamburg is by no means proportionate to the amount of its population. The poor people having no other habitations to retire to, are obliged to re-establish them selves in their cellars long before they have had time to dry; and fevers, and agues, and catarrhs, and rheumatisms are the inevitable consequence.

After loitering amid these picturesque streets, and living, while so occupied, for times past THE EXCHANGE. rather than for times present, the stranger will be reminded that the great hour of the day is at hand; and that if he desire to become an eye witness of the meeting of merchants in the Exchange, it will be necessary to thread his way back towards the heart of the city. I acted upon the guide's suggestion, of course nothing loth; and was introduced into a hall of large dimensions, the roof of which was supported by numerous pillars, and the walls set around with benches. Closets, or retiring rooms, were about it in great numbers ; each shut in by its own partitions and cut off from the great hall by glazed doors; so that the parties engaged within can enjoy all the advantages of private converse, and yet be able to observe the movements of the crowd without.

In the hall, likewise, as in our own Exchange in London, each portion of space appeared to be set 'apart to its legitimate uses. Of the many hundreds that crowded it, from all the nations under heaven, there was not an individual, myself alone excepted, who did not seem to know his own proper place, as well as the stations of those with whom he desired to transact business. There was no confusion, no THE EXCHANGE. jostling, no clamour; but amid a ceaseless buzz of tongues, men passed hither and thither; now halting to confer, now conferring while they walked, and anon returning to their respective stations. I have seldom witnessed a more animated or striking scene; — for the costumes of the traders were as varied as the dialects spoken were numerous, and the spirit of com mercial enterprise appeared to be alike powerful in all.

The 'change filled at three as if instinctively; no sooner had the clock struck four, than busi ness entirely ceased. One moment I looked round upon a crowded hall, — the next it was empty. As a matter of course I followed the living stream, which led me first into a little square, where knots and groups still lingered: and by-and-by towards the Borsenhalle, — a sort of club or tontine, which being supported by voluntary subscriptions, is well supplied with newspapers in all languages, and other sources of information. It was thronged with persons, not a few of whom appeared more intent on pushing forward their own schemes, than care ful to ascertain how matters stood in other parts of the world. This was quite natural, but it did not greatly interest me: so instead of lingering to watch the result, I walked back to my hotel, which I reached just in time to take my own proper place, and play my own particular part, in the table d'hote dinner.

There is no country in the world in which the business of dining is more gravely dealt with than in Germany. There is no city in Germany where men dine with greater zeal than in Hamburg. The affair is, indeed, a momentous one to all concerned; and the deliberation and seriousness with which its details go forward are truly edifying. Figure to yourself, gentle reader, a long table, spread in the centre of an uncarpeted room, with covers for some thirty or five-and-thirty guests, each of whom has a station assigned to him, more or less removed from the chair, according as his sojourn in the hotel may have been more or less protracted. As the clock strikes four, mine host — in this instance a grave portly per sonage — seats himself at the head of the board ; his wife, for such I presume the lady to have been, taking her place at his right hand.

A tureen of soup is then planted before him, from which he proceeds to administer to his guests their respective portions, with all the dignity, and not a little of the patronizing air which marks the bearing of a noble towards his country visitors. The soup is eaten lei surely, and with great relish; the operation being enlivened with much talk concerning money, and the occasional sipping of wine or beer, of which liquors you may or may not par take, without exciting the surprise of any human being, not even of a waiter. This done, and the tureen being removed, there are carried round two dishes of bouille, that is to say, of beef entirely innocent of fat, and boiled to tatters ; of which, with the addition of some sour sauce and putrefied cucumbers, the Germans eat greedily, while you, if your gorge revolt from it, must exercise your patience ; for it comes alone in its glory.