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courage to try them.* I very soon, in my own defence, found it needful to like tobacco-smoking; for as my companion hardly had his pipe from his lips during our journey to Hanover, I found it as well to imbibe the fumes for my own pleasure, as perforce, and at secondhand. I was very much struck with the appearance of the female peasantry during this journey; the first time we fell in with them, (and indeed, excepting the postilions and the invariably old women at the hovels before spoken of, with any human beings whatever) was towards the close of our first day's journey, when their gaudy-hued dresses, short petticoats, and a large bundle of some kind, which each was bearing on her head, had at a little distance the effect of an immense turban; their figures, too, being the only visible objects between the eye and the rich sunset horizon, gave them altogether a new and truly outlandish appearance. I became, however, in the course of the next morning, so much accustomed to their costume-the seemingly useless little chintz skull-cap that they wear, having taken place of the huge fancied turban-that when, on arriving at some post-town in our route, I saw a girl habited in a plain black silk gown, with her hair in curls, instead of being simply parted on the forehead, and braided behind the ear, according to the present fashion with us, and the almost national mode of Germany, my first impression was that she was English.

We got to Hanover after a journey of nearly three days, during which I got very little sleep, but superabundance of jolting. At Hanover I only stayed one week, and shall defer any observations on the place and its inhabitants to the relation of a longer sojourn, which I subsequently made there. I merely now notice two particular customs: the first a general one-that of every man's taking off his hat to each acquaintance he met in the street. Individuals, who seemed to be on such terms of intimacy as in London would authorise them now-a-days to shake, or at least touch hands with one another, even if they stopped and spoke, invariably uncovered their heads both at meeting and parting; so that in a small town like Hanover, every man not quite unknown, was sure of having plenty of opportunities of ventilating his head during his perambulations through the streets, as he could hardly fail of meeting many, with whom he was acquainted. This custom, besides being a formal and inconvenient one, is absolutely uneconomical; for the brim of a man's hat unavoidably gets worn and shabby by such continual thumbing. The other custom was an anniversary one :-it was Whitsun-week, and all the inhabitants of the middle or lower rank had large fresh-gathered branches of trees either hung from their windows, or fastened to their door-posts; and as long as the leaves remained green, this had a very pleasant effect. I started for Göttingen, not in the regular post diligence, but in a hired carriage, and assuredly any extra convenience I might have gained by this arrangement was more than compensated for by the exceeding dilatoriness of our progress. I was thoroughly at the mercy of the driver,

* A friend of mine, living in Northamptonshire, who has glanced over these recollections, laughs at my cockney ignorance, and tells me that English bacon is by the country people and himself eaten more frequently raw than cooked: 1 had heard of this before, indeed, but as I had never "analyzed" or "tasted" it, I could not be said to "know" it.

for I could not speak five words of German, and so was even forced to let him have his own way, however tedious he might choose to make it. I slept one night on the road, at the little town of Einbeck, about midway between Hanover and Göttingen-a place I shall have to make more mention of hereafter. I was not a little pleased to find at the inn where we put up, (the Kron Prinz,) that our hostess was an Englishwoman, though from long residence in Germany she had almost forgotten her native tongue: her husband, in fact, though a German, spoke English as well, if not better, than she; and between them both I was made very comfortable and at home-two thorough English expressions. I arrived at Göttingen the following forenoon in a shower, that seemed expressly to have fallen in order characteristically to welcome me to what, among students from more favoured parts of the land, has obtained the elegant nick-name of "The Cesspool of Germany." The town itself, as I was driven along the principal street, struck me as looking — -as far at least as a town in such a rain as was then falling could be anyway said to look-a clean and neat place enough, and singularly quiet and empty; at any rate, I was egregiously misled on the two latter points. As soon as I had alighted at the inn, I contrived to make myself so far understood as to procure the guidance of the waiter, to the Botanical Garden, to the Inspector of which I had a letter of introduction from a gentleman in Hanover: on my road thither I became fully initiated in the practical value of the German proverb, "Out of the rain into the gutter"-equivalent to our "Out of the frying-pan into the fire." The gutter, in this sense of the word, was a leaden pipe, protruding a yard or two from the roof of the house, to carry off the waste water, which was thus precipitated in a heavy column on the street or the passengers below. The irregular distances at which these spouts occurred, together with the uncertain length of their projection, rendered the steerage through their waters a service of much skill and some danger. The ends of the pipes were generally adorned with some grotesque sculpture, usually a head, from the distended jaws of which the falling water is vomited: they are common in this country on the roofs of village churches, but I have never seen them here on any civilized dwelling-house. They were getting out of fashion, too, in Germany; for outside all the more modern buildings, a decent pipe was made to convey the water soberly to the level of the pavement at least, and sometimes quite into a drain beneath. By the kindly assistance of the Botanical Garden Inspector, who spoke a very little English, I succeeded in hiring the only unoccupied lodging in the town, for the University was full to its utmost that half year. The rooms that thus fell to my lot were on the first-floor of a saddler's, small and uncomfortable enough. They had, however, the advantage of being in the principal street, and the two windows which, squeezed together almost into one, yet occupied the whole breadth of the room, looked out opposite the Jacobi Kirche, one of the largest churches in the town. This narrow slip formed the sitting-room, and was tolerably furnished with tables and chairs, and that indispensable article in a German apartment, a sofa; the floor was sanded, for carpets, as I found afterwards, were almost unknown luxuries in the country. My bed-room was a small, square, dark closet, not bigger than would hold the bed, and only lighted, if light it might be termed, by a small glass

window at top, that opened, as the phrase is-for in reality it would not open on the stairs. I am sure there was not another student so badly accommodated as myself in these particulars, for in general the rooms were large and well-aired; but I had come just after the commencement of the semester, or half-yearly term, and there was no help for it. That very day, the first of my arrival, I got into a scrape with one of the lowest agents of the constituted authorities; for having parted from my new acquaintance within sight of the inn, where I was going to dine, a little terrier I had brought over with me from home was violently assaulted and seized by a tall, large, shabbily-dressed man, bearing a formidable bludgeon. Not being at all acquainted with any cause for this mode of proceeding, I demanded of the man, in English, what right he had to interfere with the dog in that manner; and he answered me, in German, quite as much to my satisfaction as my comprehension. However, as his angry gestures and violent declamation plainly told me that his intentions towards the animal were any thing but amicable, I began a regular rescue of the dog from the durance in which he was held; but though I succeeded in liberating him from his captor's clutch, I saw there was an evident intention to seize him again if possible, which I had to evade by the best means I could. Meanwhile, a pretty large crowd of students and others had gathered round us, looking on with some degree of interest. Among the spectators was a short dirty Jew-dirty even for a Jew-who, in a very vehement manner and bad French, tried to make me understand that the man with the bludgeon would kill the dog unless I paid him a guilder. Now, in the first place, I was angry, and, right or wrong, determined not to yield on a point wherein I felt all my national notions of freedom were so strangely violated; and, in the second place, I at once saw, if the man was exercising any duty to remove the dog, (as it turned out, he was,) that this duty could not be discharged on his part by the payment of money on mine: so I stoutly refused to pay any thing, and was in the end allowed to depart, I believe chiefly owing to the interference of some of the students, who had taken pity on me as an evident stranger in their land; though, probably, they would not have wanted this kind motive to have induced them to oppose, as much as they safely might, any act which had its origin with the University Senate. I learned from a young Scotchman, a law-student, whom I met at the table-d'hôte, that the man in question had been enjoined to perambulate the streets for the purpose of slaying all dogs who should presume to make their appearance in public for a certain period, without being decently muzzled; and that this was in conformity with an edict of the magistracy, which was stuck on all the gates of the town. The plan adopted was certainly a forcible one of making the edict understood to any foreigner who might chance to enter their gates.

After dinner, I returned to my new lodgings, of which I at once took possession; and I had now, for the first time since I entered the town, leisure to look about me from my windows. Exactly opposite, as before-mentioned, rose the lofty round red-sandstone tower of the Jacobi Kirche, which stood in a small open space, planted with a few limes and poplars. Along the line of street, to the right and left of this open space, the houses-the lower part whereof was mostly occupied by shops-looked neat and foreign, owing perhaps to their white,

or rather yellow-washed faces, steep slanting roofs with central ga. bles, low chimneys, and, here and there, projecting stones one over another. The windows were numerous, and for the most part casements: from nearly all of them young men were lounging, smoking from long pipes; others were walking below; some with pipes in their hands, but not smoking, were sauntering about with their arms round one-another's necks; some with portfolios under their arms, were hurrying on with a more business-like pace; many dressed in frock-coats, buckskin breeches, and jack-boots; and all with gay and various coloured caps on their heads. Here and there, I saw a man carrying a long steel basket-handled sword naked in his hand, or under his arm, the use or application of which I could not possibly divine. Young men in open carriages, with double seats, like our mo→ dern "mill-horses," and some on horse-back, were occasionally passing, but always at a foot-pace: every now and then, one of the walkers, or riders, would stop under a window, and either converse with the occupants of it, or, if it were empty, would, by shouting out a name, generally bring the tenant of the room thither. Among these evidently students, were seen a few (as evidently) tradespeople, distinguishable as well by their wearing hats, as by the timidly deferential manner in which they got out of the way of the former. Very few females were to be seen, and those only of the lower classes-most bearing great baskets on their backs, containing, as far as I could make out, chiefly vegetables or books. Some wore cloaks of striped linen; but not one did I see with a bonnet on, or any thing more nearly approaching to a covering for the head, than the small skull-cap already mentioned. Along the middle of the street, some peasant-lads, with blue smock-frocks, and little round black cloth caps, were parading up and down, bawling out something quite unintelligible, but which I rightly construed to be an offer for sale of some very small and seemingly wild strawberries, picked free from the stalks, which they carried in round flat baskets. This sort of strawberries, which grew in profusion in the woods, and were larger and better-flavoured than any of the wild species I ever tasted here, were almost the only ones I saw while in Germany; the cultivated kind I never saw at all for sale. In the course of the following day, I waited, of necessity, on the Universitaets-Rath, or Counsellor of the University; for no one is allowed to remain in the town over a certain period, unless he comes as student, teacher, or tradesman-I believe, a week-without express permission from the magistrates; and if he come in the character of a student, it is ordered that he shall, as soon as possible, obtain his matriculation. This ceremony I got through not without some difficulty, for neither the Herr Universitaets Rath, nor myself, could find a fitting medium for the communication of our ideas on the subject. French we could neither of us make any hand at; Latin we tried; but independently of my never having attempted to speak it before, our mutual difference of pronunciation rendered each quite unintelligible to the other. However, he made me understand so far, that I was to promise certain things, which I did, not clearly understanding what. He shook hands with me as a ratification of this solemn promise; and gave me my matriculation, a printed Latin paper, for which I paid a louis-d'or, and a copy of the University laws, which latter I honestly, and with shame, confess I never looked into till long

after I had left Göttingen. The matriculation, opening with the classical ejaculation, "Quod felix faustumque sit," imports that the new student, specifying his country and study, has promised sacredly, and instead of an oath

I. That he will pay due faith, obedience, and reverence to the Academical Senate, his lawful magistracy.

II. That he will sedulously follow true piety, sober and composed manners, decent dress, and whatever is thoroughly befitting an ingenuous and liberal man.

III. That he will in all things obey the academical laws and statutes, then made or to be made.

IV. That he will avoid nationalism and clandestine assembliesthings everywhere forbidden and exploded.

V. That he will neither himself, nor by others, avenge any injury offered him; that he will much less affect others with injuries, either by word or deed; that he will call out no one to a duel, or, if he shall be called out, that he will not accept the challenge, nor act as a second in a duel (nec secundas in duellis partes suscepturum!) either by fighting or presiding over a fight, but will implore the legitimate aid of the Academical Senate; that he will never incite any to altercations and hostile meetings; and that he will solicitously obey the edicts which obtain concerning duels, or which shall be thereafter promulgated.

VI. That he will not depart after the announcement of an arrest, or to defraud his creditors; and that he will not remove his goods without the knowledge of the academical magistracy.

VII. If it shall happen (which God avert) that, for misconduct, he should be relegated or rescinded from this university of studies (hac studiorum Universitate), that he will depart at the stated time from the town and its vicinity; and that he will not return, ever, if the punishment be perpetual; if temporary, till the term shall have elapsed.

VIII. Finally, that, through the whole course of his life, he will compass or do nothing by fraud or evil, whereby the state, the advantage, and the dignity of the academy may anywise be threatened.

And so I trust that nothing I may hereafter tell shall seem in anywise to threaten the dignity, the advantage, or the state of the university; or if it should so seem, I hereby once for all, very solemnly, and in the spirit of my matriculating promise, vow that I have no such fraudulent or evil intention; and having said thus much, I may fairly venture to relate the following circumstance. Alfieri, in his Memoirs, mentions that, during the period of his ignorance, he passed through Göttingen, and there met with-an ass! and that this meeting between a German and Italian ass so tickled his fancy, that had he had the power, he would certainly have written some verses on the occasion;— what he thought himself unable to do, a more audacious hand has attempted, as follows:

Alfieri to the Göttingen Ass.
Brother! for though thou art of Germany,
And I rank as a son of Italy,

Still this is but a difference of mothers;
For, pretty ass, we are so much the same

In thoughts and deeds, so stupid and so tame,

'Tis quite beyond a doubt we must be brothers.

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