dulged ourselves in standing at the same time in both, countries, we placed ourselves under the wing of the Prussian eagle, and arrived to a late dinner at Memel

Memel is a large commercial town, lying on the shores of the Baltic, most wretchedly paved, and for ever covered with mud; yet the ladies figured away in nankeen shoes and silk stockings, and displayed many a well-turned ankle. From the citadel is an agreeable view of the town; we saw the prisons, which appeared to be very wretched.

We waited at Memel two days, in hourly expectation of the wind's changing, that we might proceed to Koningberg by water, instead of wading a tract of mountainous sand, eighty English miles long, and not more than three in breadth in its broadest part, called the Curiche Haff, that runs up within half mile of Memel, and divides the Baltic from an im-, mense space of water which flows within one stage of Koningberg. During this period, I every day attended the parade and drills, and was shocked at the inhurman blows which, upon every petty occasion, assailed the backs of the soldiers, not from a light supple cane, but a heavy stick, making every blow. resound. My blood boiled in my veins, to see a little deformed bantam officer, covered with, almost extinguished by, a huge cocked hat, inflicting these disgraceful strokes, that, savagely as they were administered, cut deeper into the spirit than the flesh, upon portly respectable soldier for some trivial mistake. saw no such severity in Russia, where some of the finest troops in the world may be seen. I observed, not only here, but in other parts of Prussia, that every soldier is provided with a sword. The river which runs up to the town from the Baltic was crowded with vessels; the market boats were filled with butter, pumpkins, red onions, and Baltic fish in wells.

As the wind shewed no disposition to change in our favour, we embarked, with our horses and carriages, in the ferry-boats, and proceeded on the Curiche Haff:

by keeping the right wheels as we much as could in the Baltic, which frequently surrounded us, we arrived at the first post-house, which lay in the centre of mountains of sand. Here we learned that some preceding travellers had carried away all the horses, and accordingly our hostess recommended us to embark with our vehicles in a boat which is kept for such emergencies, and proceed by the lake to the next stage; which advice we accepted, and were indebted to a ponderous fat young lady belonging to the posthouse, who waded into the water, and, turning her back towards us, shoved us off from the beach. We set sail with a favourable light breeze, which died away after we had proceeded about seven English miles, when we put into a creek before a few little wretched fishing huts, under the roof of which, with cocks, hens, ducks, pigs, and dogs, we passed an uncomfortable night. The whole of this hideous waste Jooked like the region of famine.

A shift of wind springing up, we ventured once more upon the lake; and after a little fair sailing, we were driven, in our little open boat, where, there was scarcely room for the helm's-man to steer, nearly out of sight of land; the wind freshened to a gale, and the rain fell heavily: at last, when we had renounced all sanguine expectations of ever touching land again, a favourable breeze sprung up, and about ten o'clock at night we reached the quay of the post-house called Nidden, and after supping, were shewn into a large gloomy room to our cribs, where we were surrounded by at least fourteen sleeping damsels, lying with their clothes on, in filth and coarseness, fit to be the inamoratas of the coal-heavers of London.

As we approached Koningberg the country assumed a more agreeable aspect; at the inns we found better accommodations, and met with what to us was a great treat, excellent potatoes, a vegetable which has only been introduced into the north within these twenty years. It is scarcely possible to conceive the

dreadful state of the roads during the last stage from Mulsen: it was a succession of pits. On the tenth of October we saw the spires of Koningberg and af ter passing the place of execution, where three posts were standing, surmounted with wheels, upon which malefactors are exposed, we entered the ancient capital of Prussia Proper: as we were proceeding to the Ditchen Hause, a noble hotel, we passed a vast antique and gloomy pile of red brick; one of my companions pronounced it to be either the gaol or the palace; it proved to be the latter, and to be inhabited by the governor; in the church adjoining, Frederick the Great was crowned. The city was first founded in 1235; is extensive, having fourteen parishes; the streets are narrow, terribly paved, and have no footpath; almost every woman I saw was handsome, and wore great thick boots, and a black ribbon tied in a bow in the front of their caps. The parade exhibited three fine regiments: previous to their forming the line we were again shocked with several instances of the severity of Prussian drilling. The King of Prussia scarcely ever visits this city. The trade is very considerable: one thousand vessels sailed last year into its ports. The river Pregel, which is here rather shallow, was crowded with market boats, filled with fish, butter, bread, plumbs, and bergamot pears. I was present at a marriage ceremony in one of the reformed catholic churches, which was very simple: the priest joined the hands of the couple, and addressed them extemporaneously with considerable eloquence, as it was explained to me, invoking thenr to constancy, to love and cherish each other. The young bride and bridegroom seemed much affected, and shed many tears.

It is impossible for an Englishman who has never left his own country, to form any notion of the Prus sian roads in general, particularly of that which lay before us to Eibing: I cannot say that we moved by land or by water, but in a skilful mixture of both,

through which we waded, axletree-deep, over trees said across each other at unequal distances. To complain would be useless; moreover, the most terrible of joltings, every minute threatening a general dislocation, would hazard the repining tongue being severed by the teeth.

We reached Elbing to breakfast; a very neat town, not unlike a swallow's nest, which is within very comfortable, and without, nothing but sticks and mud. Considerable commerce is carried on, and the appearance of the people is respectable, prosperous, and happy. The fruit and vegetable sellers carry their articles in little pails, suspended at the ends of a curved stick, like the milk-wonen of London. The houses are very singular; but, as they resemble those of Dantzig, one description will be sufficient.

The post from Elbing to Marienbourg is nineteen English miles, a tremendous long stage; indeed, an autumnal day's journey upon such roads, which were precisely the same as those we had already passed, except that we had the variety of an endless row of shabby sombre willow pollards. Our poor horses halted several times, when they had a copious libation of water, but nothing else. The German postillions seem to think with Dr. Sangrado, that nothing is so nourishing as water; and what is more surpriz ing the horses seern to think so too. I have seen a German horse drink three large pails full, as fast as his driver could supply him.

We were thirteen hours in reaching Dantzig from Marienbourg, a distance of thirty English miles, through a country abounding with corn-fields, in one of which we counted nine bustards, each of them larger than a turkey. After passing several monasteries, beautifully embosomed in trees, and the suburbs of Dantzig, extending nearly two English miles, we reached the drawbridge, and entered the capital of Pomerella in the evening; and, at the hotel de lion blanc, which was very crowded at the time of our

arrival, we were very glad to resume our old quarters, to which we appeared to have a travelling prescriptive right, a vast ball and card room.

Nothing can exceed the fantastic appearance of the houses, which are very lofty, and have vast sloping roofs, the fronts of which are surmounted with lions, angels, suns, griffins, &c. The windows are very large and square; and the outsides of these edifices are generally painted with brown or green colours, with great softness and variety: in the streets, which are wretchedly paved, and narrow, and, if the atmosphere be damp, covered ankle-deep with mud, are noble chesnut and walnut-trees. The Rathhaus, or hotel de ville, is an elegant spiral structure of stone, with a variety of elaborate decorations. The prison is well arranged: on one side are felons; and, on the other, the house of correction, where the women are separated from the men.

The Lutheran church is a noble structure: in one of the towers is a gloomy well, in which certain offenders against the catholic faith, many years since, used to be let down, and left to perish: the stirrups and chains by which they descended were shewn to us. The Bourse is most whimsically decorated with a marble statue of Augustus III. king of Poland, models of ships, heavy carvings in wood, and great dingy pictures. The Vistula, the largest and longest river in Poland, after springing from mount Crapach, on the confines of Silesia, and crossing Poland and Prussia, washes the walls of Dantzig, and falls into the Baltic. Upon this river a stranger cannot fail being struck with the singular appearance of the Polish grain boats, in shape resembling a canoe, many of which are eighty feet long, by fourteen broad, without any deck, and have a single elastic mast, tapering to the top fifty, and even sixty, feet high, upon which they fasten a small light sail, that is capable of being raised or depressed, so as to catch the wind, above the undulating heights of the shores of the Vistula.

We