t at
seven o'clock in the morning, when our march began, we had every
prospect before us of a pleasant journey. There was no dust to annoy;
the hedge-rows, on either hand, (for it must be remembered that, in all
the states of Germany, the highways are planted, at the expense of the
government, with a double row of trees,) sent forth an unceasing
concert of sweet sounds, and the very people whom we met, seemed by
their joyous countenances to confess the influence of the balmy
atmosphere. And by the way, I must not forget to observe, that the
costumes of the country people, both male and female, had varied a good
deal since we commenced our ramble. In the neighbourhood of Tetchen,
the smock-frock made its appearance among wagoners and even labouring
men, while the women wore, as in Saxony, short bodice jackets with long
skirts, red or red and white striped petticoats, and round their heads
either a flaring red handkerchief, or a cap adorned behind with two
enormous flies. As we penetrated further into Bohemia, the smock-frock
among the men gave place to a cloth or velvetine jacket, and the cap
was supplanted by a coarse steeple-crowned hat. It strikes me that the
female portion of the community exhibited less love of change, till we
reached Silesia; and then I looked twice before I could persuade
myself, that Queen Elizabeth, and the dames and virgins of her day,
were not returned to upper air. Long waists, with hips famously padded,
reduced the shapes of such as had any shape, to the symmetry of a wasp,
while round their necks were enormous, stiffly-starched ruffs, which
stuck out so far, and rose so high, as to give to the red, round,
blowsy faces which protruded over them, a tolerably exact resemblance
to so many field-turnips. More comical-looking animals I have rarely
seen, though they were evidently of a different opinion.

We passed through Greiffenberg about eight o'clock, and found it by no
means the formidable sort of place which our fears,--the offspring of
our poverty,--had represented it to be. An old town, built irregularly
along the side of a hill, it seems to possess neither trade nor
manufactures; indeed, a flour-mill or two, planted by the river's side,
sufficiently marked it out as the head of a purely agricultural
district. The view from the eminence above, is, however, exceedingly
fine. Sweeping over a vast and fertile plain, throughout which
abundance of wood is scattered, and resting from time to ti