January xxix.
Leaving this disagreable place very early, we arrive at the gates of Bremen late at night, and are therefore obliged to lodge in the suburbs, till we could enter the town the next morning. It is a large and fair city, free of the empire, and one of the most considerable Hanse towns, seated on the Weser, or Visurgis. Here we baited at the wine cellar over against the Exchange, where there is a magazine of good Rhenish, inferior in nothing but the quantity of vessels, and largeness of the stock, to that of Hamburg. We then proceed by nine a clock (after I had visited Mr. Willet, an English merchant) and on the farther side of the town cross the river under a noble gate, which in an inscription calls this VETVSTISSIMVS VISVRGIS TRAIECTVS. The Weser is here fair, wide, and almost straight, affording a reception for the vessels belonging to the town; but those of a greater burthen are obliged to remain some leagues lower. At this river we now leave Lower Saxony, and enter the circle of Westphalia. In an hour and a half we come to Delmenhorst, an old town and castle belonging to the King of Denmark. From thence we proceed to Wildeshusen, a town in the dominion of the Elector of Hanover, where we lodge.