THE

GERMAN SPY.

SIR,

M

LETTER I.

MUNSTER,

Y laft was from Amfterdam, which only informed you of my Arrival there; without attempting to give you any Account of a Country you are fo much better acquainted with than myself; having fo often travell'd thro' it, during the laft War, in your Way to the Armies, as well in the Netherlands, as on the Rhine. I made but a short Stay in that City; and, as in my former Journy to Vienna, I went by the Way of Francfort, the Black Foreft, Augsburg and Nurenburg, I refolved now to take a quite different Route, and after having visited the Hanfee-Towns of Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck, and the adjacent Countries of Holftein and Mecklenburg, to take a Tour to the Courts of Hanover and Wolfembuttel, and from thence to travel, thro' Saxony and Bohemia to the Imperial Court.

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Court. Of these Countries, and of the principal Towns and Cities of them, thro' which I fhall pass, I propose, in Obedience to your Commands, to give you fuch Accounts as may be acceptable, and not altogether void of Ufe, from one Friend to another; but which will by no Means bear the Scrutiny of a critical Examination. My Letters therefore, will be very unfit to be communicated to any but fuch intimate Friends, as your dear felf; and upon no Account proper to be expos'd to the Public; which, as undeferving of it as I am convinc'd they muft be, you might, without a Caution, be tempted to do, on Account of the Variety of Matter they will probably contain. I have thought this Caution the more neceffary, as, knowing I write to an indulgent Friend who will pardon all Faults, I fhall not be over-careful either as to my Stile or Order. I may, likewife, probably now and then, interfperfe, with my Hiftorical, Geographical, and Political Remarks, an Allegory, or a Piece of Private History, which it might not be fo proper to expofe to all the World.

My Refolution being fix'd for Bremen, I made Enquiry after the moft agreable and eafy Route; I was recommended to that thro' Eaft-Friefland as the pleasanteft, and leaft expenfive: But, to partake of these Benefits, I fhould have been obliged to wait fome Weeks, the Rivers and Canals not being yet fo free from Ice to admit of travelling in Treck-fchuyts. The common Poft-waggons, I was told, would be very inconvenient, on many Accounts; efpecially as they drive Night and Day: I was, therefore, advis'd to look out for a Companion or two, and then we might travel more at Eafe, and ly by every Night. I applied myfelf, for this End, to a young French Merchant, with whom I had contracted an Acquaintance, at the Ordinary in the Houfe where I lodg'd. He told

me,

me, he was to depart himself, in a few Days, for the famous Fair of Leipzick, and fhould take Bremen and Hamburg, in his Way. He was fo kind to offer me a Place in his Chaife, with himfelf and his Book-keeper: But gave me, at the fame Time, to understand, that being obliged to vifit feveral of his Correfpondents, at different Towns and Places, he could not promife me to go the nearest Way, nor that he might not be detained a few Days in fome Places. Thefe Circumstances being rather acceptable than difagreable to me, who am neither limited to Time nor Place, I readily accepted his Offer; and we left Amfterdam about a Week afterwards. Our first Tour was, by the Way of Utrecht, Nimeguen, Cleve and Santen, to Wefel, at each of which Places we staid a Night and Part of a Day, and at the latter three Days, on Occafion of a heavy Rain. I forbear giving you any Description of thefe Places, which I know you have travell'd thro' yourself more than once. My Fellow-traveller being an excellent Companion, who had feen the World, and, with a tolerable Share of Learning, had gain'd an Experience beyond his Years, I pafs'd my Time with him very agreably, notwithstanding the Mortification of bad Roads and worfe Weather. Comes jucundus in via pro vehicula eft.

Ar Wefel, he told me, he fhould now put my Patience to the Trial, and bid me prepare to look Poverty and Mifery in the Face, in their most ugly Shapes For we were going to travel thro' a Country, which had as great a. Share of both, as any in Germany; I mean Weftphalia. However, to raise my Spirits again, which began visibly to droop, on View of the frightful Images he had placed before me, he told me, he had taken Care to store his Hamper, with all the portable Conveniences we should stand in Need of. The first Night's

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Night's Lodging gave me but too evident Proofs of my Friend's Veracity: We came, about the Clofe of the Evening, to a miferable Village, where we might truly have faid, that Poverty ftared out of every Window, had there been any fuch Thing in the whole Place: But I foon perceived, that one large Entrance, at one End, and a small Door, about the Middle of each Side of the Houses, ferved not only for the Convenience of going in and out, but were as well all the Windows, as all the Chimnies they had. Thefe Houfes, which are low and thatch'd, confift of but one pretty large oblong Room, which ferves for Kitchen, Parlour, Bedchamber and Stable. We were carried to the Inn or Publick-Houfe; a Hovel, in nothing diftinguishable from the Reft, but by a Manger at the Door, and a crooked Billet for a Sign. Our Coachman drove directly into the Fore-part of the Castle, on each Side of which, I perceived, the Cows were ftationed. Here we alighted, and seeing a Fire towards the other End, we made up to it: found it environ'd by a Set of Wretches, who had little more of Humanity in them than their Shape.. They edg'd, indeed, together, to make Room for us; but, for any thing elfe, took no farther Notice. We accepted even of this fmall Token of their Favour, and fat down by them, on fome Logs, which ferved first for Seats and then for Fuel: But what with the Stench of their filthy Mundungus, and other disagreable Smells, added to the Smoak of the green Wood they burnt, that very much offended our Eyes, we foon left them, hugging themfelves with the Pleasure of feing our Uneafiness, which we perceived they were very merry upon. As we faw neither Chair nor Table, we made our Trunks ferve inftead of the former, and the Hanaper, which contained our Provifions, took Place of the latter to spread our Cloth upon: But we were

We

forced

forced to dispense with every other Conveniency. During our Supper, having heard of a Sort of Bread, which is their chief Food in this Country, called Pompernickel, I had the Curiofity to call for a Slice of it, which being hewed with a Hatchet, from a large Loaf of at leaft a Bufhel, was accordingly ferved, on a wooden Trencher, with great Form: But I had enough of the Looks of it, not to be tempted to tafte it. The Colour of it is a dark brown, pretty near approaching to Black, and by the Hew, one would take it to be a Compound of fome very filthy Materials. Upon Enquiry, I found it was made of Rye, coarfely ground, with all the Bran left in it, and that there had not been the greatest Care taken, to fever it from the Pieces of Straw, Hair, and other Naftinefs, which had been fwept with the Corn from the threshing Floor. I was curious to know the Etymology of the strange Name they gave it; but my Enquiry out-reached the Sphere of our Landlord's Knowledge, and I had remained in Ignorance of this important Secret, had not a Fellow, who took Care to inform us he was the School-master of the Village, laid down his Inch of Pipe, and folv'd the Matter, in the following Manner: "A Frenchman (said he) tra"velling thro' this Country, and asking for Bread, "had a Slice of this (for we have no other) Sort, "presented him; Upon which he cried out ça "eft bon pour Nicol (or, as our Parish-Prieft inter

prets it, that is good for Nicholas) a Name, it feems, he had given his Horfe; which Words, "in Imitation of our Betters, we have engraf.ed "into our Language, and thence produced the "barbarous Word Pompernickel". Having rewarded our Interpreter with a Glafs of Nantz, and cheer'd ourselves with a Couple of Bottles of good French Claret, we fhewed a Difpofition to Reft; Whereupon our Landlord, to treat us as Guests