PLAINS OF THE ELBE AND WESER, ETC. 281 



and jealously nourish ancient traditions and laws. Many of their farmhouses are 

 even now built in the same style as in the time of Charlemagne. The isolated 

 homestead is bounded on the one side by a garden, and on the other by meadows 

 and fields. Its gable- ends are ornamented with wooden horses' heads. The 

 interior is divided into three compartments : one for the family, the members of 

 Avhich sleep in berths placed one above the other, as on board ship ; another for 

 the animals ; and a third for the hay and tools. The fireplace occupies the centre 

 of the house, the housewife being thus able to control all that passes within 

 her domain, having under her eyes the children romping in the living-room, the 

 cattle occupying the other side of the house, and the labourers attending upon them. 

 The wealthy yeomen of Westphalia are most anxious that their land should be 

 handed down undivided to their heir. They have but few children, and most of 

 the farm-work is done by labourers. The Westphalians supply Prussia with her 

 first lawyers, for an avaricious peasant's son takes kindly to law. 



Towns. 



The Basin of the Lippe (Westphalia). — The Lippe, though tributary to the 

 Khine, rises on the plain which geographers call the Bay of Westphalia, as if it 

 were still covered by the floods of the ocean. Its most considerable springs rise at 

 Lippsp)'i)ige (2,173 inhabitants), one of those places where Charlemagne gave the 

 Saxons the choice of baptism or decapitation. Below that place the Lippe flows past 

 Padcrhorn (13,701 inhabitants), a town built around a church founded by Charle- 

 magne. It lies at one of the " doors " of the mountains, and an important highway 

 connecting the Rhine with the Weser passes through it. It was here Charle- 

 magne received the ambassadors of the Moorish princes of Zaragoza and Huesca, 

 and Pope Leo III. when a fugitive. In the Middle Ages Paderborn was one 

 of the most flourishing members of the Hanse. Lippdadt (8,137 inhabitants) and 

 Hamm (18,877 inhabitants), both on the Lippe, were members of the same league, 

 and are still seats of commerce and industry. Below Hamm, the Lippe, which 

 had hitherto flown near the fertile plateau of Hellweg and the coal basin of 

 Dortmund, turns northward and enters a less-favoured region, where large towns 

 are rare. Eeclilinghausen (5,000 inhabitants), Bottrop (6,576 inhabitants), and 

 Buer (5,022 inhabitants) lie some distance to the south of it, and are collections 

 of homesteads rather than towns. Bocholt (6,954 inhabitants) lies to the west, in 

 the basin of the Yssel, and close to the Dutch frontier. 



The Basin of the Ems. — Bielefeld (26,567 inhabitants) is the commercial 



capital of the Upper Ems, and, like Paderborn, it occupies one of the " doors " of the 



Teutoburg Forest. Its linen industry is very ancient, and received an impetus 



when Flemish refugees settled there in the sixteenth century. There are bleaching 



grounds, rope-walks, foundries, and machine shops. Amongst the exports are 



Westphalian hams, cervelat sausages,* lard, and smoked meat of every kind, 



principally produced in the south-west, around Gutersloh (4,491 inhabitants). 



* Known as " Brunswick " sausages in England. Saveloy is clearly a corruption of cervelat, in name 

 as well as in substance. 



