Though a very unpromising name to Englishmen, who are accustomed to
associate it with very modern times and places in their own country, is
a most interesting ancient city, full of fine mediæval remains, and
curious domestic architecture. The Dom (Lutheran) contains the remains
of a rood screen and loft, with a central altar; but in a church now
disused for worship, and of which I was unable to ascertain the name, a
most elaborate screen, partly of stone, and partly of wood, is still
standing uninjured; the style verges on the cinque-cento, but all the
traditional forms and enrichments are preserved, and altogether it is a
magnificent and imposing work.
The other churches have been much modernized in adapting them to
Lutheran worship, which appears to vary in different places and
countries to a very considerable extent; for while at Lubeck and
Nuremberg the Catholic fittings remain intact, at Brunswick and other
places they have nearly disappeared, and been replaced by modern
abominations. Perhaps the preservation of these fine remains is
principally owing to the want of funds in the cities whose commerce has
decayed; they have not had the temporal means to spoil them. This is
strikingly observable in remote parish churches in England, where no
rates could be raised for their repairs, for they are usually in a very
perfect state; while in large and populous towns, the churchwardens have
had so much to expend, that they are completely gutted and ruined.