One of Hentze’s pupils, a heavy, bovine youth, invited me to Hamburg to his parents’ silver wedding festivities.  I was anxious to see Hamburg, so I accepted.  Moser’s parents inhabited an opulent and unimaginably hideous villa on the outskirts of Hamburg.  They treated me most hospitably and kindly, but never had I pictured such vast eatings and drinkings as took place in their house.  Moser’s other relations were equally hospitable, until I became stupid and comatose from excessive nourishment.  I could not discover the faintest trace of hostility to England amongst these wealthy Hamburg merchants.  They had nearly all traditional business connections with England, and most of them had commenced their commercial careers in London.  They resented, on the other hand, the manner in which they were looked down on by the Prussian Junkers, who, on the ground of their having no “von” before their names, tried to exclude them from every branch of the public service.  The whole of Germany had not yet become Prussianised.

These Hamburg men were intensely proud of their city.  They boasted, and I believe with perfect reason, that the dock and harbour facilities of Hamburg far exceeded anything to be found in the United Kingdom.  I was taken all over the docks, and treated indeed with such lavish hospitality that every seam of my garments strained under the unwonted pressure of these enormous repasts.  Hamburg being a Free Port, travellers leaving for any other part of Germany had to undergo a regular Customs examination at the railway station, as though it were a frontier post.  Hamburg impressed me as a vastly prosperous, handsome, well-kept town.  The attractive feature of the place is the “Alster Bassin,” the clear, fresh-water lake running into the very heart of the town.  All the best houses and hotels were built on the stone quays of the Alster facing the lake.  Geneva, Stockholm, and Copenhagen are the only other European towns I know of with clear lakes running into the middle of the city.  The Moser family’s silver wedding festivities did not err on the side of niggardliness.  The guests all assembled in full evening dress at three in the afternoon, when there was a conjuring and magic-lantern performance for the children.  This was followed by an excellent concert, which in its turn was succeeded by a vast and Gargantuan dinner.  Then came an elaborate display of fireworks, after which dancing continued till 4 a.m., only interrupted by a second colossal meal, thus affording, as young Moser proudly pointed out, thirteen hours’ uninterrupted amusement.

As I felt certain that I should promptly succumb to apoplexy, had I to devour any more food, I left next day for Heligoland, then, of course, still a British Colony, an island I had always had the greatest curiosity to see.  A longer stay in Hamburg might have broadened my mind, but it would also unquestionably have broadened my waist-belt as well.

The steamer accomplished the journey from Hamburg in seven hours, the last three over the angry waters of the open North Sea.  To my surprise the steamer, though island-owned, did not fly the British red ensign, but the Heligoland flag of horizontal bars of white, green, and red.  There is a local quatrain explaining these colours, which may be roughly Englished as—­