Kings of Sweden have no Tombs and Monuments as in England and other Countries but are put into Copper Coffins with Inscriptions on them and placed one by another in Vaults adjoyning to the Gray-Friers Church These Vaults are about eight in Number having Turrets over them with Veins of Copper gilt carved into the Cyphers of the several Kings who give them their Names by being the first that are interred in them The Vault of the late King is not yet finished no more than the Fabricks above-mentioned which perhaps may be imputed to the late Troubles of Swedeland The Number of the Inhabitants of Stockholm are also much decreased within these few Years partly by reason of the removal of the Court of Admiralty and the Kings Ships from that City to Charles-Crown a new Haven lately made about 200 English Miles from thence which hath drawn many Families belonging to the Fleet and Admiralty from Stockholm to live there And partly because many of the Nobility Gentry and those that depended on them are as I said before withdrawn from Stockholm to a retired Life in the Country Nevertheless the ordinary sort of Burghers who still remain are extreamly poor seeing the Women are fain to work like Horses drawing Carts and as Labourers in England serving Masons and Bricklayers with Stone Bricks and Mortar and unloading Vessels that bring those Materials some of the poor Creatures in the Summer-time toiling in their Smocks without either Shooes or Stockings They perform also the part of Watermen and for a small matter will Row Passengers 40 Miles or more if they please The Court here is very thin and silent the King living frugally and seldom Dining in publick He Eats commonly with the two Queens his Mother and Consort who is a Virtuous Princess Sister to the King of Denmark She is the Mother of five Children three Sons and two Daughters with whom she spends most of her time in Retirement The King is a goodly Prince whom God hath Blessed and Endowed with Accomplishments far beyond what might have been expected from his Education wherein he was extreamly abused being Taught little more than his Mother Tongue He is Gracious Just and Valiant constant at his Devotion and utterly averse from all kind of Debauchery and the unfashionable Vanities of other Courts in Plays and Dancing His sports are Hunting and Exercising of his Guards and he rarely appears publickly or gives Audience to Strangers which is imputed to his Sense of the neglect of his Education He is a Prince that hath had a very hard beginning in the World which hath many times proved fortunate to great Men and indeed if we consider all the circumstances of his early Misfortunes how he was slighted and neglected by his Nobles who would hardly vouchsafe to pay him a visit when he was among them in the Country or to do him Homage for the Lands they held of the Crown and how by the pernicious Counsels of the French and the weakness or treachery of his Governors he was misled into a War that almost cost him his Crown having lost the best of his Territories in Germany and Schonen and most of his Forces both by Sea and Land If I say these things be considered it will probably appear that hardly any Prince before him hath in a shorter time or more fully setled the Authority and Prerogative of the Crown than he hath done in Sweden for which he stands no ways obliged to France as he was for the Restauration of what he lost during the War He is now as absolute as the French King and makes Edicts which have the Force of Laws without the concurrence of the Estates of the Kingdom He hath erected two Judicatures the one called the College of Reduction and the other of Inspections the first of which hath put his Majesty in Possession again of all Lands alienated from the Crown and the other called to account all Persons even the Heirs and Executors of those who had cheated the Crown and made them refund what they or their Predecessors had appropriated to their own use of the publick Revenue These two necessary Constitutions as they have reduced many great Families to a pinch who formerly lived splendidly upon the Crown Lands and Revenues and obliged them to live at home upon their ancient and private Patrimony in the Country which is one great cause that the Court of Sweden is at present so unfrequented so have they enabled his Majesty without burdening of his Subjects to support the Charges of the Government and to maintain 64000 Men in pay The Truth is his other Revenues are but small what arises from the Copper and Iron Mines one Silver Mine the Pitch and Tar the Customs and Excise amounts to no extraordinary Sum of Money and the Land Tax in so barren a Country scarcely deserving to be named The Customes and Excise I confess are very high and the rigorous manner of exacting them pernicious to Trade As for instance If a Ship come to Stockholme from London with a hundred several sorts of Goods and those Goods assigned to fifty several Men more or less if any of those fifty do not pay the Custom of what belongs to him though it be for a Barrel of Beer the Ship shall not be unladen nor no Man have his Goods out though he hath fully pay'd the Customs for them till this last Man hath pay'd his There are several other silly Customs in Swedeland that discourages Men from Trading there as if any Stranger Die there a third of his Estate must go to the City or Town where he Traded No Foreign Merchant in Stockholme can Travel into any Country where there is a Fair without a Passport And at present seeing there is no Treaty of Trade betwixt England and Sweden though the English bring as considerable a Trade to that Kingdom as any other Country whatsoever yet they are very unkindly used by the Officers of the Custom-House whereas the Dutch in Lubeck and other Cities have new and greater Privileges allowed them Nor would I Counsel an English-man to go to Law with a Swedish Burgher in Sweden especially if he be a Whiggish Scot who hath got his Freedom in Stockholme for those are a kind of Scrapers whom I have observed to be more inveterate against the English than the Native Swedes Of all the Swedish Army of 64000 Men the King keeps but 12 Companies of 200 Men a-peice with some few Horse Guards in Stockholme who are not upon Duty as Sentinels at the Court Gates as at the Courts of other Princes The rest are dispersed into Quarters and Garisons upon the Frontiers which are so far distant in that large compass of Land which his Territories take up that it would require a hard and tedious work to bring them together to a general Muster They are however kept under very strict Discipline and those that lie near often viewed by the King They have odd sort of Punishments
their Industry and Art in Trading are become so excessive Rich and Potent that they began to Insult and would needs be Arbitrators to their Neighbouring Princes and States and encroach upon their Territories and Dominions This drew upon them that fatal War before-mentioned by which they were sorely weaken'd and brought so low that except GOD by a more than ordinary Providence had protected and appeared for them they had certainly been ruinated and never able to recover themselves again however their Pride hereby was much abated And as Luxury and Lasciviousness are the sad Effects of Prosperity as well as Pride so such Vices in a Body Politick and Commonwealth as do corrupt the Radical Humours by abating the Vigour of the Vital Parts do insensibly tend to the Consumption and Decay of the whole That this Commonwealth hath much recovered its Strength may clearly appear if we consider what great Things they have effected since the little time they have enjoyed Peace They have in less than 7 Years built about 40 gallant Ships of War They have laid out vast Sums of Treasure in refortifying Narden Maestricht Breda the Grave and many other Places They have paid vast Sums of Money to their Allies for their Auxiliary Troops as also 200000 l. Sterling to the King of England to Enjoy their Peace with him And besides all this their Encrease in Riches and Power may be guessed at by the many stately Houses built within these 5 Years in Amsterdam Rotterdam and other Places to all which we may add to what excessive height the Actions of the East and West-India Company are risen and the Obligations from the States are so esteemed as to Security that they can get as much Mony as they please at 2 per Cent. Not to speak of the exceeding Encrease of their Subjects occasioned by the French King's Tyranny against the distressed Protestants in France Alsace and other parts of his Conquests neither will we speak of other Signs of the Encrease of this Commonwealth as not judging it convenient to commit them to Paper but will now proceed to shew the Method of Living and Travelling in the Dominions and Places of the States which if you do well consider you may see how happy and easy the Government of England is above that of other Nations The Briell in Holland is the usual place where the Pacquet and King's Pleasure-boats bring on such as come to see the United Provinces but of late Helvoet-Sluys is the place the Pacquet comes to as being the more convenient Port Here be sure to furnish your self well with Money From hence you take a Boat to Maesland-Sluys or Rotterdam which if you go in Company with others will only cost you 5 Stivers but if you take one for your self will cost 25 Stivers for Maeseland-Sluce and a Ducatoon to Rotterdam The fifth part of which goes to the States for a Tax they call Passagie Gelt and the other four parts are for the Boat-Men or Schippers who also out of their Gains must pay a Tax to the States so that by Computation you pay a fifth Penny to the States for your Travelling either in Boats by Water or in Wagons by Land As you pass by Maseland-Sluce you will see a very fair Fishing Village to which belong near Two hundred Herring Busses but if you go by the way of Rotterdam you Sail by two old Towns called Flardin and Schiedam Yet let me advise you before you depart from the Briell to take a serious view of it as being the City which in Queen Elizabeth's time was one of the Cautionary Towns Pawned to England The Briell had a Voice among the States but by reason Rotterdam hath got away their Trade by which having lost its former Lustre is now become a Fishing Town only Rotterdam is the Second City for Trade in Holland and by some is called Little London as having vast Traffick with England insomuch that many of the Citizens Speak good English There are in this City two considerable Churches of English and Scotch And how great a Trade they drive with the King of England's Subjects is evident for in the year 1674 at the opening of the Waters after a great Frost there departed out of Rotterdam 300. Sail of English Scotch and Irish Ships at once with an Easterly Wind And if a Reason should be demanded how it comes to pass that so many English Ships should frequently come to that Haven It is easily answered because they can ordinarily Load and Unload and make returns to England from Rotterdam before a Ship can get clear from Amsterdam and the Texel And therefore your English Merchants find it Cheaper and more Commodious for Trade that after their Goods are arrived at Rotterdam to send their Goods in Boats Landward into Amsterdam This City is Famous as being the place where great Erasmus was Born whose Statue of Brass stands erected in the Market-place And although the Buildings here are not so superb as those of Amsterdam Leyden or Haerlem yet the places worth the seeing are first the great Church where several Admirals lie stately Entombed here you see their Admiralty East-India and Stadt-Houses together with that called Het Gemeen Lands Huis From Rotterdam you may for five Stivers have a Boat to bring you to Delft but before you come thither you pass through a fair Village called Overschie where the French and English Youths are trained up in Litterature as to the Latin and Dutch Tongue Book-keeping c. From thence in the same Boat you come to Delft which is Famous for making of Porceline to that degree that it much resembles the China but only it is not Transparent In Delft is the great Magazin of Arms for the whole Province of Holland Their Churches are very large in one of which are Tombs of the Princes of Orange Admiral Tromp and General Morgans Lady and in the Cloister over against the Church you have an Inscription in a Pillar of Brass shewing after what manner William the First that Famous Prince of Orange was shot to Death by a Miscreant Jesuit with his deserved Punishment Delft hath the third Voice in the States of Holland and sends its Deputies unto the College of the States General and to all other Colleges of the Commonwealth They have also a Chamber in the East-India Company as shall be more largely spoken to when we shall come to Treat of the State of the said Company From Delft you may by Boat be brought to the Hague for two Stivers and an half which is accounted the fairest Village in the World both for pompous Buildings and the largeness thereof here the Princes of Orange hold their Residence as also the States General and the Council of State here you have the Courts of Justice Chancery and other Courts of Law Here you see that great Hall in which many Hundreds of Colours are hung up in Trophy taken from the Emperor Spaniard and other Potentates with whom
at 8 in the Evening From the 15 of September to the 11 of March at 8 in the Morning at 1 in the Afternoon and at 7 in the Evening And From Utrecht to Amsterdam at the same Hours From Amsterdam to Gouda or Tergoes as 't is corruptly called From the first of April to the last of September in the Morning at 7 and in the Evening at 8. In October November and March Morning and Evening at 8. From Gouda to Amsterdam In the Morning at 11 and in the Evening at 8. In December January and February no Boat goes in the Morning from either place and only one at 8 in the Evening From Tergoes you may go by Wagon to Rotterdam or from Rotterdam to Tergoes for about 12 or 14 Stivers which is a convenient Passage for Strangers there being the least shifting of Boats From Amsterdam to Rotterdam and from Rotterdam to Amsterdam The Market-Boat for carrying Goods goes off at 12 at Noon every Day From Amsterdam to the Hague and from the Hague to Amsterdam the same at 12 at Noon From Amsterdam through Muyden to Naerden In the Summer from the first of April to the last of September Morning at 6 8 and 10 Afternoon at 2 4 and 6. In the Winter Mornings at 7 9 and 11 Afternoon 1 3 and 5. This is a Fortification very well worth seeing From Naerden through Muyden to Amsterdam In the Summer at 5 7 and 9 Mornings and at 2 4 and 6 Afternoons In the Winter Mornings 7 8 and 10 Afternoons 1 3 and 5. From Leyden to Gouda Every Day a Boat goes at 11 in the Fornenoon and on Saturdays at 2 in the Afternoon From Gouda to Leyden Every Day at 11 in the Forenoon and on Thursdays at 12. From Leyden through Woerden to Utrccht In the Morning at 9 Afternoon at 12 1 2 and Evening at 9. From Utrecht through Woerden to Leyden Mornings at 8 and 12 Evenings at 8. From Rotterdam to Dort and from Dort to Rotterdam Every Day a Boat as the Tide serves as also to Antwerp the same It will be unnecessary to particularize any more these being all that Englishmen have occasion for for whom these Remarks are made though it will not be improper if I insert the Order for the Post-Wagons which some for Expedition make use of The Order of the Post-Wagons which go between Amsterdam and the Hague Every Day except Sundays from the 26 of February to the 29 of September there goes a Post-Wagon at 6 in the Morning From the first of October to the sixth of November at 7 in the Morning From the 8 of November to the 19 of January at half an Hour past 7 in the Morning From the 21 of January to the 24 of February at 7 in the Morning In the great Vacation of the Courts of Holland which is all the Month of August there goes no Wagon in the Morning At 12 at Noon there goes a Wagon every Day Sundays and all throughout the Year The Passage in the Post-Wagon for each Person is 4 G. 3 St. besides Passage-Gelt And if any hire a whole Wagon they may go at what Hour they please and pay 24 G. 18 St. and Passage-Gelt provided there be no more than 6 Persons And if you are set down by the way you shall be abated proportionably of the Passage but then you must give notice of it before Hand and be content to take your place after those that go quite out And now having said so much of the States Government and of Amsterdam in particular it will not be amiss to take notice of some bad Customs and Practices now in vogue in Holland and leave it to the Reader to judge what they may portend There are Tollerated in the City of Amsterdam amongst other abuses at least 50 Musick-houses where lewd Persons of both Sexes meet and practise their Villanies There is also a place called the Long-Seller a Tollerated Exchange or publick Meeting House for Whores and Rogues to Rendezvous in and make their filthy Bargains This Exchange is open from six a Clock in the Evening until nine at Night every Whore must pay three Stivers at the Door for her Entrance or Admission I confess the Ministers Preach and exclaim from the Pulpit against this horrible Abuse but who they be that protect them I know not yet I have heard some plead for the Tolleration of these wicked Meetings upon pretext that when the East-India Fleets come home the Seamen are so mad for Women that if they had not such Houses to bait in they would force the very Citizens Wives and Daughters but it is well known that as Money does countenance so Discipline might suppress that abuse The old severe and frugal way of living is now almost quite out of date in Holland there is very little to be seen of that sober Modesty in Apparel Diet and Habitations as formerly In stead of convenient Dwellings the Hollanders now build stately Palaces have their delightful Gardens and Houses of Pleasure keep Coaches Wagons and Sleas have very rich Furniture for their Horses with Trappings adorned with Silver Bells I have seen the Vanity of a Vintners Son who had the Bosses of the Bit and Trapping of his Horse of pure Silver his Toot-Man and Coach-Man having Silver Fring'd Gloves yea so much is the humour of the Women altered and of their Children also that no Apparel can now serve them but the best and richest that France and other Countries affords and their Sons are so much addicted to Play that many Families in Amsterdam are ruined by it not that England is less extravagant then the Dutch who as I said before got such great Estates by their Frugality whilst they were not addicted to such Prodigality and Wantonness as the English are whose excess I cannot excuse nevertheless the grave and sober People of Holland are very sensible of the great alteration that now is in their Country and as they say Paracelsus used to Cure his Patients of their Disease with a full Belly so a good Burghermaster desirous to convince his Amsterdammers of their dissolute kind of Life invited the 36 Magistrates and their Wives to a Feast who being come and the Ladies big with Expectation of some rare and extraordinary Entertainment sat down at Table where the first Course was Buttermilk boil'd with Apples Stock-fish Butter'd Turnips and Carrots Lettice Sallat and Red Herrings and only small Bear without any Wine at this the Ladies startled and began to whisper to their Husbands that they expected no such Entertainment but upon removing of the Dishes and Plates they found underneath Printed Verses importing That after that manner of living they began to thrive and had inlarged their City The Second Course consisted of Bocke de kooks Quarters of Lamb Roasted Rabbits and a sort of Pudding they call a Brother here they had Dort and English Beer with French Wine yet all this did not please the Dainty Dames
by sending such a sudden Thaw as was never seen before for in less than ten hours the Ice so sunk and such Floods of Snow came down from the Highlands that the French were fain to make a very disorderly retreat marching up to the middle for haste because on the Banks there could not march above four Men a-breast so they were constrained to leave behind them the greatest part of the Plunder they had robb'd from the Innocent Country People and the nimble Dutch-men on their Scates so long as the Ice would bear them did shoot down the French like Ducks diving under Water so that it cost Luxemburg's Army dear though they had the pleasure to burn the poor People of which the French afterward wickedly made their boast The third was as wonderful as the two others and although I do not believe Miracles as do the Papists yet I say nothing I ever observed looked more like a Miracle than this to wit when the English and French Fleet lay before Scheveling with a design to land and the French ready on their March to joyn with the English and other French as soon as they should land at the same time the Bishop of Munster lying before Groeningen and the French before Gorcom so that now all things looked with a dreadful face for the States yet at this very time God sent a third relief by sending such Mists and wonderful sorts of Tydes as so separated the two Fleets that the English were forced to quit Scheveling Shore and were driven on the side of the Texel Road from whence they were constrained by the season of the Year to retire home And such were the sudden and great Showers of Rain that the Bishop of Munster was forced in disorder to raise his Siege at Groeningen and the French to quit Gorcom I could add many more Observations of the Providences of God to these People as the preserving the Prince of Orange His present Majesty of Great Britain from the many treacherous Designs contrived against him from his Cradle but Moses must be preserved to go in and out before his People Certainly never young Prince endured so many Fatigues as did his Highness in his tender Years of which I was an Eye-witness and had his Highness had the Years and Experience and such a good Disciplined Army as now he hath in the Year 1671. when the French entred the Country his Highness had given them as good a Welcom as he did at Bergen I will say no more of this Subject only this That the Peace at Nimeguen was also a very wonderful thing for that not above eight Days before the Peace was signed most of the Plenipotentiaries did believe the War would have continued another Year first because the King of Denmark and Duke of Brandenburg prospered exceedingly against Sweedland and totally refused the Propositions of France and secondly because the French King writ such bitter Letters against the States-General Yet eight Days after drest a Letter unto the States in which he calls them his Good Friends and Old Alleys offering them not only Maestricht but every Foot of Ground they could lay claim to in the World also giving them new Terms and Conditions as to their Privileges in France by way of Trade Neither can I forget how speedily and as strangely the French King did quit his Conquered Towns after the Valiant Prince of Orange took Naerden which was the first step to the French's Ruine in the States Dominions I come now according to promise in the beginning of this Book to give the Reader some Remarks I made in other Countries where I have been during my Sixteen Years Travels To give a full account of all that might be observed in so many Countries is not a Task for one Man nor a Subject for so small a Book I shall only therefore briefly take notice of some remarkable Matters which may in some measure satisfie the Curiosity of my Country-men who have not been in the said places and convince if possible all of them that no Country that ever I was in affords so great Conveniencies for the generality of People to live in as the Kingdom of England doth Though I have twice made the grand tour of Germany Hungary Italy and France and after my return back to England travelling a third time through Holland as far as Strasbourg and so back by Francfort to Denmark and Sueden yet the Reader is not to expect I should follow a Geographical Method and Order in speaking of the Places I have been in that is to be lookt for in the Map and not in Travels but only that I mention Places as I found them on my Road according as Business or Curiosity led me to Travel THE first considerable Place I then met with after I was out of the Dominions of the States-General was Cleave the Capital City of the Province so called a fair and lovely City standing upon the Rhine and the Rivers Wall and Leck This Province much resembles England in rich Soil and pleasantness of its Rivers The Inhabitants of the Country would have me believe that they were Originally descended of those Saxons who made a descent into England and conquered it and to convince the truth of this they shew'd me a Cloyster standing on a Hill called Eltham from which they say our Eltham in Kent had its Name I was made to observe also two places standing upon the Rhine near Emmerick called Doadford and Gronewich which according to them gave the Names to Dedford and Greenwich in England But many such Analogies and Similitudes of Names are to be found in other places of Germany but especially in upper Saxony and Denmark The greatest part of this Province of Cleave and part of the Dutchies of Juliers and Berg and of the Provinces of Marke and Ravensbourg belongs to the Elector of Brandenbourg the rest belonging to the Duke of Newbourg now Elector Palatine and the Elector of Cologne The Inhabitants are partly Roman Catholicks partly Lutherans and partly Calvinists who all live promiscuously and peaceably together both in City and Country The City of Cleave is the utmost Limit of the Territories of the Elector of Brandenbourg on this side of Germany from whence his Electoral Highness can Travel Two Hundred Dutch Miles out-right in his own Dominions and never sleep out of his own Country but one Night in the Territories of the Bishop of Osnabrug FRom Cleave I went to a small Town called Rhinberg but a very strong Fortification belonging to the Elector of Cologne which lies at two Miles distance from the City of Wesel that belongs to the Elector of Brandenbourg Through Dusseldorpe situated on the Rhine and the Residence of the Duke of Newbourg I went next to Cologne a very large City called by the Romans Colonia Agrippina and the French Rome d'Allemagne Cologne is an Imperial City and a Republick though for some things it does Homage to the Elector of that Name
and receives an Oath from him It is much decayed within these Hundred Years having been much Priest-ridden a Misfortune that hath undone many other great Cities The Jesuits have had so great Influence upon the Magistrates that they prevailed with them to banish all Protestants who removed to Hambourg and Amsterdam so that Cologne is become so dispeopled that the Houses daily fall to ruine for want of Inhabitants and a great deal of Corn and Wine now grows within the Walls upon Ground where Houses formerly stood I dare be bold to affirm that there is twice the Number of Inhabitants in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields as there is in Cologne and yet it contains as many Parish-Churches Monasteries and Chappels as there are days in the Year The Streets are very large and so are the Houses also in many of which one may drive a Coach or Wagon into the first Room from the Streets But the Streets are so thin of People that one may pass some of them and not meet Ten Men or Women unless it be Church-Men or Religious Sisters The most considerable Inhabitants of the City are Protestant Merchants though but few in Number and they not allowed a Church neither but at a place called Woullin a Mile without the City the rest of the Inhabitants who are Lay-men are miserably poor There are no less than 3000 Students in Cologne taught by the Jesuits gratis who have the privilege to beg in Musical Notes in the Day-time and take to themselves the liberty of borrowing Hats and Cloaks in the Night But if in the Jesuits Schools there be any Rich Burghermasters Sons who have Parts they are sure to be snapt up and adopted into the Society Formerly before the Matter was otherwise adjusted in the Dyet of Ratubonne there have been Designs of Voting Protestant Magistrates into the Government again but so soon as the Jesuits came to discover who of the Magistrates were for that they immediately preferred their Sons or Daughters and made them Canons Abbots or Canonesses and so diverted them by Interest It 's pity to see a City so famous for Traffick in former times now brought to so great a decay that were it not for the Trade of Rhenish-Wine it would be utterly forsaken and left wholly to the Church-Men The continual Alarms the Magistrates have had by Foreign Designs upon their Liberty and the Jealousies fomented among themselves as it is thought by the Agents and Favourers of France and especially the Bishop of Strasbourg have for several years kept them in continual disquiet and necessitated them to raise great Taxes which hath not a little contributed to the impoverishing of the People especially the Boars round about who tho' the Country they live in be one of the most pleasant and fertile Plains of Germany yet are so wretchedly poor that Canvas Cloaths Wooden Shoes and Straw to sleep on in the same room with their Beasts is the greatest worldly Happiness that most of them can attain unto The Elector of Cologne is Bishop of four great Bishopricks viz. Cologne Prince of Liege Munster and Heldershime To speak of all the Miracles of the three Kings of Cologne and the vast number of Saints who were removed out of England and interred there would be but tedious and perhaps incredible to the Reader as well as wide of my design I shall therefore proceed FRom Cologne I took Water on the Rhine and advanced to the City of Bon and so forward to Coblentz the Residence of the Elector of Trier Over-against this City on the other side of the Rhine stands that impregnable Fort called Herminshine built on a high rocky Hill as high again as Windsor-Castle and on the North-side of it the River Moselle falls into the Rhine over which there is a stately Stone-Bridge This Prince governs his Subjects as the other Spiritual Electors do that is both by Temporal and Spiritual Authority which in that Country is pretty absolute The chief Trade of this Country is in Wine Corn Wood and Iron THE next Country I came to was that of the Elector of Mayence or Mentz who is likewise both a Secular and Ecclesiastical Prince and governs his Subjects accordingly He is reckoned to be wholly for the Interests of the French King who notwithstanding of that pretends a Title to the Cittadel of Mayence As I was upon my Journey to Mayence by Land I made a turn down the Rhine to visit the famous little City of Backrack and some Towns belonging to the Landtgrave of Hesse but especially Backrack because Travellers say it much resembles Jerusalem in its Situation and manner of Buildings The Burghermaster of this City told me that the whole Country about Backrack does not yield above 200 Fouders of Wine a year and yet the Merchants of Dort by an Art of Multiplication which they have used some years furnish England with several thousand of Fouders Here I shall take the Liberty to relate a strange Story which I found recorded in this Country tho' I know it to be mentioned in History There was a certain cruel and inhuman Bishop of Mayence who in a year of great scarcity and Famine when a great number of poor People came to his Gates begging for Bread caused the poor Wretches Men Women and Children to be put into a Barn under pretext of relieving their Necessities but so soon as they were got in caused the Barn Doors to be shut Fire set to it and so burnt them all alive And whil'st the poor Wretches cried and shrieked out for Horror and Pain the barbarous Miscreant said to those that were about him Hark how the Rats and Mice do cry But the just Judgment of GOD suffered not the Fact to pass unpunished for not long after the cruel Bishop was so haunted with Rats and Mice that all the Guards he kept about him could not secure him from them neither at Table nor in Bed at length he resolved to flee for Safety into a Tower that stood in the middle of the Rhine but the Rats pursued him got into his Chamber and devoured him alive so that the Justice of the Almighty made him a Prey to Vermin who had inhumanly reckoned his Fellow-Christians to be such The Tower which I saw to this day is call'd the Rats-Tower and the Story is upon Record in the City of Mayence On my Journey from thence I came to the little Village of Hockom not far distant famous for our Hockomore-Wine of which though the place does not produce above 150 Fouders a year yet the ingenious Hollanders of Dort make some thousand Fouders of it go off in England and the Indies FRom Hockom I proceeded to Francfort a pleasant City upon the River of Maine called formerly Teutoburgum and Helenopâ—lis and since Francfort because here the Franconians who came out of the Province of Franconia foarded over when they went upon their Expedition into Gallia which they conquered and named it France
the City but at a place called Altena a Village belonging to the King of Denmark a quarter of an hours walk distant from Hambourg This Commonwealth is Lutheran and governed by 4 Burghermasters 24 Radts-heers and a Common-Council of all the Burghers who have above 40 Shillings per Annum Freehold The Symbol or Motto under their Arms is Da Pacem Domine in Diebus nostris and in their Standards are these Letters S. P. Q. H. The People here groan under heavy Taxes and Impositions The State because of continual Alarms they have from the King of Denmark or other Neighbours and the Intestine Broils that frequently happen here as well as at Colâ—gne where the Burghermasters are often in danger of their Lives from the mutinous Mobile being forced to maintain 6 or 7000 Men in Pay besides 2 or 3 Men of War to guard their Havens from Pirats I shall not name all the ways of imposing Taxes which this Commonwealth uses because in most they imitate the Methods of the States-General as to that which have been mentioned before I shall only take notice of some peculiar Customs they have wherein they differ from Holland When a Barber Shoemaker or any other Artizan dies leaving a Widow and Children another of the same Trade is not admitted to set up for himself as a Master unless he compound with the Widow for a piece of Money or else marry her or a Daughter of hers with her consent If any Man cause another to be Arrested for Debt or upon any other Suit the Plaintiff must go along with the Officer who Arrests the Party and stay by him until the Prisoner be examined by the Sheriff so that if the Sheriff be not to be spoken with that night the Plaintiff must tarry with the Prisoner all night until the Sheriff examin the matter and see cause of discharging or committing the Party but this a Plaintiff may do by a Procuration Notarial If a Prisoner be committed for Debt the Plaintiff must maintain him in Prison according to his Quality and if the Party lie in Prison during the space of 6 Years at the expiration of that time the Prisoner is discharged and if during the time of his Imprisonment the Plaintiff do not punctually pay the Prisoner's Allowance at the Months end the Prisoner is set at liberty and nevertheless the Plaintiff must pay the Gaoler the last Month's Allowance This State is severe in the execution of Justice against Thieves Murderers and Cheats There is no Pardon to be expected for Murder and a Burghermaster himself if Guilty cannot escape The Punishment for Murder is here as in Sweden breaking Malefactors on the Wheel pinching their Breasts and Arms with hot Pincers spitting them in at the Fundament and out at the Shoulder They have also cruel ways of Torturing to make Prisoners confess and are very careful not to be cheated in their Publick Revenue their Excise-men and Collectors being Punished as in Holland They take a very good course not to be cheated in their Excise for all the Mills of the Country are in the hands of the State so that no Baker nor Brewer can grind his own Corn but must have it ground at the States Mills where they pay the Excise There is a General Tax upon all Houses and that is the Eighth Penny which nevertheless does not excuse them from Chimney-money The States here as at Genoua in Italy are the Publick Vintners of whom all People must buy their Wine which they buy from the Merchant or otherwise import it in their own Ships In their Ceremonies of Burying and Christening they are ridiculously Prodigal as for Instance If one invite a Burghermaster he must give him a Ducat in Gold if a Radts-heer that is an Alderman a Rixdollar to every Preacher Doctor of Physick Advocate or Secretary half a Rixdollar and to every Schoolmaster the third part of a Rixdollar The Women are the Inviters to Burials Weddings and Christenings who wear an Antick kind of a Dress having Mitred Caps as high again as the Mitre of a Bishop The Churches here are rich in Revenues and Ornaments as Images and stately Organs wherein they much delight They are great Lovers of Musick insomuch that I have told 75 Masters of several sorts of Musick in one Church besides those who were in the Organ-Gallery Their Organs are extraordinary large I measured the great Pipes in the Organs of St. Catherine's and St. James's Churches and found them to be 3 Foot and 3 quarters in circumference and 32 Foot long in each of which Organs there are two Pipes 5 Foot and 8 Inches round The Wealth and Trade of this City encreases daily they send one Year with another 70 Ships to Greenland and have wonderfully Engrossed that Trade from England and Holland and it 's believed that small and great there are belonging to this Commonwealth five thousand Sail of Ships After Amsterdam Genoua and Venice their Bank is reckoned the chief in Credit but in Trade they are accounted the third in Europe and come next to London and Amsterdam Hambourg is now become the Magazine of Germany and of the Baltick and Northern Seas They give great Privileges to the Jews and to all Strangers whatsoever especially the English Company of Merchant Adventurers whom they allow a large Building where they have a Church and where the Deputy-Governour Secretary Minister and the other Officers of the Company live to whom they yearly make Presents of Wine Beer Sheep Salmond and Sturgeon in their seasons And so much of Hambourg FRom Hambourg I went to Lubeck which is also a Commonwealth and Imperial Town It is a large well-built City containing ten Parish-Churches the Cathedral dedicated to St. Peter being in length 500 Foot with two high Spires all covered with Brass as the rest of the Churches of that City are In former times this City was the place where the Deputies of all the Hansiatick Towns assembled and was once so powerful as to make War against Denmark and Sweden and to conquer several places and Islands belonging to those two Crowns nay and to lend Ships to England and other Potentates without any prejudice to their own Trade wherein they vyed in all parts with their Neighbours but it is now exceedingly run into decay not only in Territories but in Wealth and Trade also And the reason of that was chiefly the Inconsiderate Zeal of their Lutheran Ministers who perswaded the Magistrates to banish all Roman Catholicks Calvinists Jews and all that dissented from them in matter of Religion even the English Company too who all went and setled in Hambourg to the great Advantage of that City and almost ruine of Lubeck which hath not now above 200 Ships belonging to it nor more Territories to the State than the City it self and a small part called Termond about eight Miles distant from it The rest of their Territories are now in the possession of the Danes and Swedes by whom the
Burghers are so continually alarmed that they are quite tired out with keeping Guard and paying of Taxes The City is indeed well fortified but the Government not being able to maintain above 1500 Soldiers in pay 400 Burghers in two Companies are obliged to watch every Day They have a large well-built Stadthouse and an Exchange covered on the top whereof the Globes of the World are painted This Exchange is about 50 Yards in the length and but 15 in breadth Over it there is a Room where the Skins of five Lyons which the Burghers killed at the City-Gates in the Year 1252. are kept stuft The great Market-place is very large where a Monumental-Stone is to be seen on which one of their Burghermasters was beheaded for running away without fighting in a Sea-Engagement The People here spend much time in their Churches at Devotion which consists chiefly in Singing The Women are beautiful but disfigured with a kind of Antick Dress they wearing Cloaks like Men. It is cheap living in this Town For one may hire a Palace for a matter of 20 l. a Year and have Provisions at very reasonable Rates besides the Air and Water is very good the City being supplied with Fountains of Excellent Fresh Water which Hambourg wants and good Ground for Celleridge there being Cellars here 40 or 50 Foot deep I Had the Curiosity to go from Lubeck to see the Ancient City of Magdeburg but found it so ruined and decayed by the Swedish War that I had no Encouragement to stay there I therefore hastened to Berlin the chief Residence of the Elector of Brandenburg at whose Court I met with a very Ingenuous French Merchant who told me that he and divers other Merchants were designed to have lived in England but were discouraged by a Letter sent from London by a French-Man that was removing from thence to Amsterdam for these following Reasons which I Copied out of his Letter First Because the Reformed Religion is persecuted in England as it is France the which I told him was a great Untruth for it is apparent that they have been all along graciously admitted and received into his Majesties Dominions without interruption and allowed the free Exercise of their own Form of Worship according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Churches of France Nor can they who converse with the French Ministers either in France or Holland be ignorant that the chiefest part if not all those Ministers are willing to comply with the Church of England and it is evident that most of the Dutch and French Protestants so called in Holland make use of Organs in their Churches A second thing was that both the Bank at London and the Bankers Goldsmiths were all broak the which I told this Frenchman was not true altogether for there are many able Bankers whom I named Neither was the Bank as he called the Chamber of London broak only it had been under the management of a bad Person whose design was to bring it into disgrace Besides there is the East-India-Company an unquestionable Security for those as have Money to dispose of together with another undeniable Security which is Land Thirdly he saith That in England there is no Register and therefore many Frauds in Purchases and Morgages which beget tedious Suits and renders both dangerous to trust Fourthly That if a Man would purchase Land he cannot being an Alien until Naturalized Fifthly That in England there are so many Plots and Confusions in Government that the Kingdom is hardly quiet 20 Years together Sixthly that false Witnesses were so common in England and the Crime of Perjury so slightly punished that no Man could be safe in Life or Estate if he chanced to be in Trouble Lastly he said that the English are so restless and quarelsom that they not only foment and cherish Animosities amongst one another but are every foot contriving and plotting against their Lawful Sovereign and the Government By such Surmises and Insinuations as these the French and Germans are scared from trusting themselves and Fortunes in England and therefore settle in Amsterdam Hamburgh and other Cities where there are Banks and Registers This I say is one cause why there are now to be seen at Amsterdam such vast numbers of French and Germans who have much enrich'd that City and raised the Rents of the Houses 20 per Cent. And the Silk-weavers grow also very rich keeping so many Alms-Children to do their Work and having all their Labour without any Charge only for the teaching them their Trades which hath lessened the Revenues of the French Crown and will in time greatly increase the number of the States Subjects and advance their publick Incomes Having made this Digression I return to Berlin It is a City enlarged with fair Streets and Palaces The Magistrates of the place are Lutherans which is the publick established Religion in all the Electors Dominions though he himself and his Children be Calvinists He is look'd upon to be so true to that Persuasion that he is reckoned the Protector of the Calvinists and indeed he sollicited the Emperor very hard for a Toleration of the Protestants in Hungary His Chaplains as most of the Lutheran Ministers also endeavour to imitate the English in their way of Preaching And his Highness is so much taken with English Divinity that he entertains Divines for translating English Books into the German Tongue as The Whole Duty of Man and several others He has a large and stately Palace at Berlin and therein a copious Library enriched with many Manuscripts Medals and Rarities of Antiquity He may compare with most Princes for handsom Guards being all of them proper well-bodied Men and most part Officers who ride in his Guards of Horse As he is known in the World to be a Valiant and Warlike Prince so he maintains in Pay an Army of 36000 Men besides five or six thousand Horsemen who in time of War are modelled into Troops with which Body during the late War with Sweden his Highness's Father in Person beat the Swedes out of his Country He keeps his Forces in strict Discipline obliging all the Officers if Protestants on Sundays and Holy-days to march their several Companies in order to Church but if a Superiour Officer be of a contrary Perswasion then the next in Commission supplies his place This custom is Religiously observed by all his Highnesses Garisons whilst he himself goes constantly to the Calvinist Church adjoyning to the Court with his Children being five Sons two Daughters and two Daughters-in-Law Amongst other Acts of Publick Piety and Charity this Prince hath established and endowed some Religious Houses or Nunneries for Protestant young Ladies where they may live virtuously and spend their time in Devotion as long as they please or otherwise Marry if they think fit but then they lose the benefit of the Monastery There is one of these at Hertford in Westphalia where I was and had the Honour to wait upon the Lady Abbess
well disciplined Men and Commanded by good Officers both Natives and Strangers both French and Scots as Major General Duncan and Major General Veldun both Scottish-Men whom I saw at Copenhagen The Soldiers as well as Courtiers are quartered upon the Citizens a Custom which is likewise practised in Sweden and tho' somewhat uneasie yet not repined at by the People who by the care and good Government of the King find Trade much advanced For his Majesty by encouraging Strangers of all Religions to live in his Dominions and allowing the French and Dutch Calvinists to have publick Churches hath brought many Trading Families to Copenhagen and by the measure he hath taken for setling Trade in prohibiting the Importation of Foreign Manufactures and Reforming and new Modelling the East and West India Companies hath much encreased Commerce and thereby the Wealth of his Subjects so that notwithstanding the new Taxes imposed upon all Coaches Wagons Ploughs and all real and personal Estates which amount to considerable Sums of Money the People live very well and contented There are commonly about 8000 Men in Garison in Copenhagen and his Majesties Regiment of Foot Guards who are all Cloathed in Red with Cloaks to keep them warm in the Winter time is a very handsome Body of Men and with the Horse Guards who are bravely mounted and have their Granadeers and Hautboys make a very fine shew His Majesty hath caused several new Fortifications to be built upon the Elb and other Rivers and hath now in his Possession that strong Castle called Hilgueland at present commanded by a Scottish-man The Queen of Denmark is a most virtuous Princess Sister to the present Landtgrave of Hesse Cassel and in Perswasion a Calvinist having a Chapel allowed her within the Court though the publick Religion of the King and Kingdom be Lutheran The Clergy here are Learned many of them having studied at Oxford and Cambridge where they learnt the English Language and amongst the Bishops there is one Doctor King the Son of a Scottish-man But seeing it is my design rather to observe the condition of the People than to be punctual in describing all the Rarities that are remarkable in the Countries I have been in I shall conclude what I have to say of Denmark by acquainted the Reader that the People of that Country live far better than the Swedes and as well as most of their adjoyning Neighbours and that there are several places both there and in Norway which have the Names of English Towns as Arundale Totness London c. When I first began to write this Treatise I had some thoughts of making Observations upon the several Governments of other States and Dominions where I had travelled some years before I was in the Countries I have been speaking of as of the rest of Germany Hungary Switzerland Italy and France but that was a Subject so large and the usefulness of it to my present Design so inconsiderable that by doing so I found I could neither satisfie the Curious by adding any thing material to those many who have already obliged the Publick by the Remarks of their Travels in those Places or make my discontented Country-men more averse than they are already from removing into those Countries where I think few of them will chuse to transport themselves for the sake of Liberty and Property though England were even worse than they themselves fancy it can be All that remains to be done then is to conclude this Treatise with an obvious and popular Remark that those Countries where Cities are greatest and most frequented by voluntary Inhabitants are always the best to live in and by comparing the City of London with all other Cities of Europe and demonstrating by the Surveys I have made which I think will hardly be contradicted or confuted that of all the Capital Cities of Europe it is the biggest and most populous and so prove consequentially that England for the generality of People is the best Country in the World especially for its Natives to live in Now this being an Observation for what I know not hitherto made good by Induction and Instance as I intend to do it I hope it will please the Reader as much as if I gave him a particular account of other Countries and Governments and leave it to his own Reflection to state the Comparison Though London within the Walls cannot vye for bigness with many Cities of Europe yet take the City and Suburbs together according as it hath been survey'd by Mr. Morgan in breadth from St. George's Church in Southwark to Shoreditch and in length from Limehouse to Petty-France in Westminster and it is in a vast proportion larger in compass of Ground and number of Houses than any City in Europe whatsoever This I shall demonstrate first by comparing it with some Cities of Holland and then with the most considerable Cities of the other Countries of Europe which I shall set down in an Alphabetical Order with the number of the Houses they severally contain When London and Suburbs was surveyed some years ago by Mr. Morgan there were reckoned to be in it 84000 Houses besides Hospitals Alms-houses and other Buildings that paid no Chimney-money to the King Now if those were added and the vast number of new Houses that have been built since that Survey upon modest computation London may be reckoned to contain 100000 Houses nay 't is believed 120000 which truly considering the extraordinary Additions that have been made lately is not improbable I know the French vapour and would perswade the World that Paris is much bigger than London And the Hollanders will scarce believe that London hath more Houses than the 18 Cities in Holland that have Voices in the States for say they Amsterdam stands upon 1000 Morgans of Land and London stands but upon 1800. To both which I answer That it is very true that Paris takes up a great spot of Ground but then you must consider that in Paris there are several hundreds of Monasteries Churches Colleges and Cloisters some of them having large Gardens and that in Paris there are 7500 Palaces and Ports for Coaches which have likewise great Gardens whereas London is very thick built and in the City the Houses have scarce a Yard big enough to set a Pump or House of Conveniency in but the Weekly Bills of Mortality will decide this Question and plainly give it to London and so doth Monsieur la Cour and Sir William Petty in his last Essays dedicated to the King making it appear that London is bigger than Paris Roan and Rochel altogether and as for Amsterdam I do appeal to all knowing Men that have seen it that although it be true that it stands upon 1000 Morgans of Land yet there is not above 400 Morgans built and this I prove thus that the large Gardens on the Heeregraft Kysersgraft and Princegraft and the Burghwalls of Amsterdam take up more than a third part of the City then reckon
Oppressorum After having done Glorious Things at home and abroad having made a most firm Alliance with other Princes He is become the Avenger of His own Peoples Wrongs and a Defender of the Oppressed Under this there is a Pannel on which is a great Picture in which several brave Men are described Fighting against a Dragon with this Motto Uniti Fortius obstant They make the firmer Resistance being United In the Second Space Mare Transvectus liberat Britanniam late Dominantibus Ornatus Sceptris in Patriam publicâ cum Laetitiâ receptus est Crossing the Seas he delivered Britain where being Honoured with Scepters of large extended Power He is received again into his own Country with publick Joy Underneath in the small Pannel there is a Ballance and in one Scale several Crowns in the other a Sword which outweighs the Crowns with this Motto Praemia non Aequant The Rewards do not equal the Merit In the Third Space Lugente Patriâ Maerente Europâ Afflictâ Antiquissimâ Nassaviorum Stirpe Heroum Imperatorum Principum Faecundâ His Country Mourning Europe Grieving the most autient Family of Nassau which was fruitful of Heroes Emperors and Princes Lamenting And in the Pannel there is described a burning Phoenix with a young one arising out of her Ashes and this Motto Praelucet Posthuma Proles His Posthumous Issue shines the brighter This is designed for William the Second who died without Issue leaving the Princess Royal with Child of His Majesty In the Fourth Space Gulielmum Posthumum Britannorum Arausionensium Tertium Patriae Spem Reipublicae Palladium William the Posthumous the Third of Britain and Orange His Countries Hope the Palladium of the Common-wealth His Birth is described upon the Picture and three Crowns with a Scepter upon the Pannel with this Motto Tenues ornant Diademate Cunae His tender Cradle adorns the Diadem On that side towards the inner Court there are on the Fronts four other Spaces In the First Space there is this Inscription Fatum Europae favens de Caelo dedit futuram portendens Majestatem admodum Puerum exemplar constituit A favourable Fate to Europe gave him from Heaven and portending future Majesty set Him for a pattern when he was yet very Young Underneath His Education is described with a young Eagle Soaring against the Sun Beams upon the Pannel with this Motto Tener adversis enititur alis Though Young he bears up against it with His Wings In the Second Space Qui Juventute Strenué Transactâ Funestis jactatâ bellis ac dissidiis in tanto rerum discrimine Who spent his Youth bravely whilst it was tossed about by Bloody Wars and Discords the publick being in such dangerous Circumstances Upon the Pannel there is a Castle standing upon a Hill with a Pike by it and two Lawrels springing out of it with this Motto Contorta Triumphos portendit VVhen wreathed together it portends Triumphs In the Third Space Nutantis Belgii quâ Mari quâ Terrâ admotus in Pristinum Decus Gubernaculi Gloriam Aras Focos asseruit He being Restored to His Antient Dignity and Government Defended the Religion and Properties of the tottering Low Countries both by Sea Land On the Pannel there is a Ship row'd by Men in Armour with this Motto Alter erit Typhis There shall be another Typhis In the Fourth Space Meritis Famam Superantibus Tropaeis Principi Atavis Regibus Editae Felicibus junctus Hymenaeis His deserved Trophies out doing even Fame He was happily joyned in Wedlock to a Princess descended from an Antient Race of Kings The Picture represents Their Majesties Marriage and there are also in the Pannel an Unicorn and a Lyon moving together and the Unicorn Goaring of Serpents and Vipers with this Motto Virusque Fugant Viresque Repellunt They both drive away the Poison and repel the Strength At the top upon the Pedestal of the Kings Statue before there are these Words Populi Salus The Peoples Happiness And behind Procerum Decus The Honour of the Nobility Upon the great Cupola there are four distinct Histories Painted in four Pannels The First has this Motto Refert Saturnia Regna He brings back the Saturnian Reign The Second this Novos Orbes nova Sceptra paramus We prepare new Worlds and new Scepters The Third this Superare parcere vestrum est It is your part to Conquer and to Spare The Fourth this Caetera Transibunt Other Things shall pass away Over the small Arch on both sides the Arms of England were placed with their Supporters Over the great Arch the Arms of Holland were placed with two flying Images of Fame blowing of Trumpets A Description of the Fire-works with their Representations IN the Canal behind the Court upon a large Scaffold there were very fine Fireworks prepared which were Lighted the Evening after His Majesty entred the Hague In the middle was the Kings Cypher with a Crown over it On the sides stood two high Pyramids a Lyon a Hercules and a Sun On each Corner of the Scaffold there were four Cases of Rockets four of which were much larger then the rest which represented the four Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland with the Arms of those Kingdoms Round about there was Pallissado stuck with Rockets some Orange colour some white some blew placed alternately to the number of Three Hundered and Fifty They placed Fifteen Bulwarks round the Scaffold on which they had mounted Cannon and Mortar pieces Between which they had large Mortars made like Beehives and Pumps which were charged with several sorts of Fireworks About half an hour after Six in the Evenning the Fireworks were Lighted Just before Thirty pieces of Cannon that were planted upon the Wall of the Viver were discharged then follow'd Twenty five Mortar shot on both sides of the Scaffold and afterwards the Crown and Cypher WR which appeared like 350 Pearls shining in the Air. About the Pallissadoes they had planted several Devices Towards the States Chamber was one with these Words Triumphat semper Augustus He Triumphs always August On each side of this there was one planted One was Offensum metuunt Hostes His Enemies Dread him when he is Offended The other Carum venerantur Amici His Friends Worship Him who is so dear to them These shining very bright in the Air made a very pleasant show Over the Cipher and Crown was a Ship toss'd about as in a Storm with this Motto Ne metuas Caesarem vebis Fear not thou carriest Caesar This also was visible in the Air. When the Pyramids were Fired they gave a lowd buzzing Noise which was now and then Answered by the Mortars Then the Belgick Lyon and the Hercules play'd very wonderfully Hercules ' s Arms were Expanded firing with Eight several Pauses to denote his Labours which were 1. The Establishment of Religion and Liberty 2. The securing the Tranquillity of Europe 3. The Settlement of the Government upon a right Bottom 4. The Preservation of the Common Interests of