L?beck: the Rath-Haus, 1864. On arriving at the market-place, the first object which attracts the attention of the visitor is the Rath-haus, or Senate-house, a noble Gothic building, faced with red and green bricks, and buttressed...with a number of tower-like structures that terminate in elegant pinnacles. This grand old pile puts a bold face upon the decay of the city of which it was and is one of the chief ornaments, and looks as though it could tell many a tale of its former self that would make the ears of these degenerate days tingle with envy. It could speak of the eighty-five representatives of the League, who from every great city of the Middle Ages...assembled here in the Hall of the Hansa to impose tariffs, to arrange commercial treaties, to regulate customs, to make war or peace, and to keep the blue highway clear for the march of King Commerce. Verily it had a voice in that old time, which Prince, and Emperor, and Czar were fain to listen to with respect; for then the chapman was a man of might, who could wield a stouter weapon than a yard measure and barter blows with a heavy tare and tret against all customers. The Rath-haus could tell, peradventure, of the wondrous wine which lay stored in the Rathkeller beneath. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.