And the gates, which are
not opened till five o'clock, were unfastened especially for us;
besides these, there was a penny toll on nearly every mile.
This dreadful annoyance of the constant stopping and the toll-bars
is unknown in Norway and in Sweden. There, an annual tax is paid
for every horse, and the owner can then drive freely through the
whole country, as no toll-bars are erected.
The farm-houses here are very large and far-spread, but the reason
is, that stable, barn, and shippen are under the same roof: the
walls of the houses are of wood filled in with bricks.
After passing Arensburg, we saw the steeples of Wandsbeck and
Hamburgh in the distance; the two towns seem to be one, and are, in
fact, only separated by pretty country-houses. But Wandsbeck
compared to Hamburgh is a village, not a town.
I arrived in Hamburgh about two o'clock in the afternoon; and my
relatives were so astonished at my arrival, that they almost took me
for a ghost. I was at first startled by their reception, but soon
understood the reason of it.
At the time I left Iceland another vessel went to Altona, by which I
sent a box of minerals and curiosities to my cousin in Hamburgh.
The sailor who brought the box gave such a description of the
wretched vessel in which I had gone to Copenhagen, that, after
having heard nothing of me for two months, he thought I must have
gone to the bottom of the sea with the ship.
