LETTERS FROM A TRAVELLER AT BERLIN. I2£ 



party; endeavour whenever they can, to attach at leaft 

 one foreigner to them, and fometimes more, whom ac- 

 cident has brought thither, and who are always to be 

 found there in the fummer feafon ; and no where does 

 a foreigner find it eafier to meet with a conductor in his 

 excursions in the interior of i, country, than there* 

 The native is ufeful to the foreigner by his knowledge 

 of the topography, the language, the manners of the 

 country : the latter enhances the pleafures of the for- 

 mer^ inafmuch as by conlidering every thing in a quite 

 hew arid peculiar point of view, he gives rife to re- 

 marks, which would never have ftruck the minds of 

 the natives. Hamburg is certainly obliged to this cir- 

 cumstance alone, for the extraordinary fame it has ac- 

 quired on account of its Situation, and the beauty of 

 the country around it, of which its inhabitants are fo 

 proud. It is true, for a flat country, it pofTeffes coh~ 

 liderable variety. The villages about Hamburg, which 

 all partake of the opulence of that city, every where 

 fhew traces of it; they are clean and well-built, and 

 manifeft a comfortable condition rarely to be found in 

 the villages of Germany. The fcite of the city itfelf, 

 on the broad majeftic Elbe, into which the Alfter flows, 

 where they form a handfome bafin, doubtlefs contri- 

 butes not a little to this reputation. At the fame time, 

 it is not to be denied, that Hamburg owes fomething 

 of it to the admiration of the multitudes of Germans, 

 who go thither from parts not very highly favoured by 

 nature, and probably have never before beheld a large 

 river in all their lives. No man; will ever perfuade me, 

 . that the banks of the Elbe at Hamburg are more de- 

 lightful than they are at Drefden; and what is the 

 vol. i* k %hok 



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