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212 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
Champaigne; and the coftly falt meats admit of no other convoy than Port and Ma-
deira. You muft not think that this takes place only on feftivals; by no means; it is
the daily food of the rich ; and their way of living is adapted in every thing to this.
Iam foon to make fome vifits in the country houfes near town, which are out of all
number. Fquipages, furniture, play tables, every thing, in a word, is anfwerable to the
expence of the table. Few affemblies of Parifian people of fafhion, are more brilliant
than the parties who meet in villas here, and they hardly play as high. ‘Thofe who can
afford to {pend no more than twenty or thirty thoufand livres a year, rank among the
middling clafs, and though they are all obliged to fupport themfelves by their own in-
duftry, and that there is fcarce any nobility with a {tated revenue to be met with, there
are many families who {pend from forty to fifty or fixty thoufand livres a year in their
houfekeeping.
Notwithitanding all this love of good eating, the mind is not opprefled and borne
down by the body here as it is in the fouthern parts of Germany. ‘The Hamburghers
of the higher clafs are {till more jovial, more happy, more converfible, and more witty,
than the Saxons. You meet here with many literati of the firft clafs. Natural hiftory
particularly flourifhes much, and is held in high eftimation. It was a Hamburgher who
gave Linnzus the fundamental ideas of his Sy/tema Nature. As moft of the young
people are fent abroad to form trading connections in the feveral ports of London, Pe-
terfburg, Calais, Bourdeaux, &c. in all which the Hamburghers have houfes, a f{tranger
is fure to meet with fome people who are acquainted with his native country. The
Hamburghers upon the whole are great travellers, which renders the fociety of this
place particularly lively and animated.
_ The women of this place are handfome, genteel, and freer in their manners than they
generally are in proteftant countries; particularly there obtains a vivacity which a man
is not ufed to look for in the north, and is a ftrong contraft to the aldermannic gulto of
Holland. Doubtlefs the good eating occafions this.
One of the great pleafures of this city arifes from the Alfterflufs. It comes from the
north, almoft through the middle of the city, and forms a lake in it, nearly eight hun-
dred paces in circumference. Ina fummer evening this lake is almoft covered over
with gondolas, which have not fuch a melancholy afpeét as the Venetian ones. Thefe
are filled with family or other parties, and have often boats in attendance upon them
with mufic. ‘The whole has an aftonifhing good effect, which is {till greater from there
being a much-frequented public walk by the lake; the livelinefs of which correfponds
very pleafingly with that of the people on the water.
Near the city there are fome villages on the Elbe called the Four Lands, which are
alfo in fummer a notable rendezvous of pleafure. The farmers who live in thefe villages
are in very good circumftances, and take a prodigious fum of money from the town,
for their excellent vegetables, particularly for their green peafe. Every day during the
fummer you meet here with parties from the city, who are as confpicuous for their gen-
teel appearance, as for their excefs in eating and drinking. The farmers’ daughters are
very pretty, and their drefs the handfomeft I have yet feen amongft this clafs of beings.
They allure the young men of the city to their cots; and many quarter themfelves here
under the pretence of a milk diet, but in fact to be near their {weethearts.
Thefe above mentioned four villages fupply the town with vegetables, butter, milk,
hay, and many other things of the kind—alfo with moft of the women of pleafure, and
moft of the fpinners.
The city of Altona, which lies at no greeat diftance from this town, alfo affords this
people many opportunities of amufing themfelves. The King of Denmark, who from
9 a jea-
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