Let us enter one house; it will serve as a type of many houses in
Hamburg. Having mounted the stone steps, we stand before a half-glazed
folding-door, and seeing a small brass lever before us, we test its
power, and find the door yield to the pressure. But we have set a
clamorous bell ringing, like that of a suburban huxter, for this is the
Hamburger's substitute for a knocker. We enter a large stone-paved hall,
lighted from the back, where a glazed balcony overlooks the teeming
canal. You wish to wipe your shoes. Well! do you see this pattern of a
small area-railing cut in wood? That is our scraper and door-mat--all in
one.

To our right is a massive oaken staircase. We ascend in gloom, for the
staircase being built in the middle of the house, only a few straggling
rays of light can reach it, and whence they proceed is a mystery. Every
few steps we mount we are upon the point of stumbling into the door of
some cupboard or apartment; they are in all sorts of places. At length
we reach a broad landing paved with stone. What a complication of doors
and passages, which the vague light tends to make more obscure! Here are
huge presses, lumbering oaken cabinets, jammed into corners. We ascend a
second flight and arrive at another extensive landing. Here are two
suites of apartments, besides odd little cribs in the corners which are
not occupied by other presses. There are still two floors above, but as
they are both contained in the huge gable roof of the house, they are
more useful as store-rooms than as habitable apartments. The quantity of
wood we see about us is frightful when associated with the idea of fire.

We will enter the suite on the right hand; the apartments are light and
agreeable, and overlook the canal, and, when the tide is up, and the
canal full, and the grassy bleaching ground on the opposite bank is
dotted with white linen, it is a pleasant scene indeed; but when the tide
is out--ugh! the River Thames at low water is a paradise to it. The
tidal changes are carefully watched, and it is not an unusual occurrence
to hear the solemn gun booming through the air as a warning to the
inhabitants to block and barricade their cellars and kitchens against the
rush of waters.

* * * * *

It is Sunday morning, and the most beautiful melody of bells I ever heard
is toning through the air. They are the bells of S. Michael's church,
and I am told that the musician