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.

I had indeed written from Copenhagen, but the letter had been lost; and hence their surprise and delight at my arrival..