Morning dawned at length, and in a short time afterwards we reached
the great commercial city, which, half destroyed by the dreadful
conflagration of 1842, had risen grander and more majestic from its
ashes. {11} I took up my quarters with a cousin, who is married to
the Wurtemburg consul, the merchant Schmidt, in whose house I spent
a most agreeable and happy week. My cousin-in-law was polite enough
to escort me every where himself, and to shew me the lions of
Hamburgh.

First of all we visited the Exchange between the hours of one and
two, when it is at the fullest, and therefore best calculated to
impress a stranger with an idea of the extent and importance of the
business transacted there. The building contains a hall of great
size, with arcades and galleries, besides many large rooms, which
are partly used for consultations, partly for the sale of
refreshments. The most interesting thing of all is, however, to sit
in the gallery, and looking downwards, to observe the continually
increasing crowd passing and repassing each other in the immense
hall and through the galleries and chambers, and to listen to the
hubbub and noise of the thousands of eager voices talking at once.
At half-past one o'clock the hall is at its fullest, and the noise
becomes absolutely deafening; for now they are marking up the rates
of exchange, by which the merchants regulate their monetary
transactions.

Leaving the Exchange, we bent our steps towards the great harbour,
and entering a small boat, cruised in and about it in all
directions. I had resolved to count only the three-masted ships;