CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library arY308 Germany illustrated «^^^^^^^ The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032170957 Germany Illustrated WITH PEN AND PENCIL SAMUEL G. GREEN, D. D, and Prof. E P. THWING, Ph. D NEW YORK: HURST & COMPANY, Publishers, 134-136 Grand Street. COFYRIGHT, xSgSj BT aURST & COMPANYo ABGYLE PRESS, Book Manufaotnrers, Q65-267 Cherry St., In Y THE AMMERSEE ; IN THE BAVARIAN HIGHLANDS. PREFACE. THE following pages are a memorial of several journeys; and especially of one extended tour through the north and south of the German Fatherland. In so vast a circuit, much was of necessity rapidly passed over, or altogether omitted ; but visits were paid to the places of chief historical interest, as well as to other localities, especially in the South, comparatively little known in England, but of the highest attractiveness and beauty. A tour in Germany is now rendered easy by its admirable railway system ; the old money complications have been replaced, at least in the new Empire, by a simple and intelligible coinage ; the accommodation provided for the traveler in almost every town is sufficient for all but the unreasonably exacting ; and the journey can hardly fail to be full of charm, alike to the lover of the picturesque, to the anti- quary, and to those who chiefly delight to follow in the track of historic memories and noble names. Something of this varied interest it is hoped will be found in the descriptions and illustrations of the present volume. Nor can the thoughtful observer fail to be attracted by the outward signs that tell of the present condition and the prospects of the Fatherland, in its two great Empires, and their connected kingdoms and principalities. In Germany, the great- est problems of our time, social, political, and religious, are being discussed with a fullness and earnestness which tell upon the life of all civilized nations. The signs of this growth and conflict of thought appear everywhere, and the issues bid fair to 5 PREFACE. be more lasting than the effects of that imposing militarism which, since the wars of 1866 and 1870, has seemed to dominate every German state and city. Amid all these influences, the power of evangelical Protestant teaching is steadily and silently growing ; and if the plan of this work had so allowed, it would have been a pleasant task to show how, in various directions, especially by Bible distribution, Sunday-school teaching, and the diffusion of healthful Christian literature, many devoted laborers, both native and foreign, are carrying on among the people the work which men like Tholuck and Delitzsch have so nobly performed in connection ' ;st culture of the land.' GUTENBERG. CONTENTS. Part of the Dachstein Range— Austrian Ali's, The Ammersee, in the Bavarian Highlands, Gutenberg, Bregenz— the Gebhardsberg, with Lake of Constance, Frontispiece Freiburg in Breisgau (^frontispiece)^ Coblenz and Ehrenbreitstein, Drachenfels, from Rolandseck, Summit of Drachenfels, Bonn, . . ... • 13 14 ' Cat " and " Mouse " Towers, 15 St. Goar and the Rheinfels in the Seventeenth Century, On the Mosel, Katz Castle, St. Goar, . . ... Bacharach C-S^cc/zz'^ra), Oberwesel — The Ochsenthurm, Riidesheim and the Bingerloch, ... Mayence — Thorwald^^en's Statue of Gutenberg, . Mayence Cathedral, Worms, , 16 18 19 23 24 25 26 Cathedral. Worms, . Worms — The K^aisersaal ^Imperial Half), . Luther Monument, Worms, .Heidelberg Bridge, , Heidelberg Castle, Gingenbach, A Black Forest Village, The Black Forest Railway, . ... A Black Forest Timber Raft, ... Source of the Danube, .... Breisach on the Rhine, near Freiburg, . Glen and Cascade near AUerheiligen ; Black Forest, The Hollenthal, . . .... At AUerheiligen, . . Ruins of AUerheiligen— Winter, .... Beethoven's House, Bonn, 27 29 30 31 34 35 37 38 39 40 42 43 44 46 47 G^iiUKiciS, By ViilKK^. Vienna -St. Stephen's Cathedral {frontispiece), . View from the Carlsbriicke, Prague, Prague, Prague — Statue of Charles IV, House in which John Hus was born (at Hussinetz), The Teynkirche (Old Hussite Church), Prague, Briinn, Vienna, from the Upper Terrace, Belvedere Palace, Street in Vienna— Wall Announcements, . Der Graben, Vienna, Votif-Kirche, Vienna — Interior, .... Vienna— Vot if- Kirche, ... . . At Schbnbrunn, nenr Vienna, PAGE • Q-l 95 . gS 99 . lOI 102 ■ 103 104 . 106 J 07 110 III 112 Vienna — The Jews' Quarter, . Salzburg Castle, Munich— The ** Bavaria " and the Hall of Fame, Ravine in the Pongau Valley, Salzburg Alps, Bavarian Highlands— The Early Start, . Bavarian Highland Costumes, .... The Chiemsee— Between Salzburg and Munich, The Bavarian Highlands — " Good Night ! " The Bavarian Highlands — " Good Morning ! " The Bavarian Highlands — Uphill, The Bavarian Highlands— Downhill, Ober-Ammergau, PAGE . 114 "5 116 118 . iig 120 . 122 123 . 123 124 . 124 125 ^'\it ¥Y^or< Sp "^M %^mt^^^ S:i,f^g. Schloss Sigmundskron, near Botzen (^frontispiece)^ Schloss-Tirol ; near Meran, St. Christoph, on the Arlberg Route, Dolomite Mountains — the Drei Zinnen, Innsbruck, ... Inhabitants of the Higher Alps, , , . . Andrew Hofer's House in the Passertl.al, Andrew Hofer, . ... Tomb of Maximilian, . ... On the Finstermiinz Pass, Botzen, PAGE . 128 129 130 132 134 . 136 137 . 138 140 141 Trient, The Eggenthal, southeast of Botzen, Tyrol — Country Wagon, . Taufers, . , . . . Bruneck, . .... Krimmler Fall, Unterdrauburg on the Drave, . Klagenfurt— the Dragon Fountain, In the Cavern of Adelsberg, On the Semmering Railway, Castle of Hohenschwangau, PAGE . 142 143 ■ 144 146 • 147 148 • 149 150 • 151 I 152 • 154 I^f^OM VisJKX^, Q>]^ ¥!js{ w^y ¥0 ^Ss; l(ai:N^- PAGE The Gesause Defile— -Road, Railway, and River (^frontispiece), 156 157 Linz — on the Danube, , Diirrenstein Castle on the Danube, Rathhaus — Brieg, in Silesia, Passau, ... Aussee, .... Gmunden and the Traunsee, Ravine — Salzkammergut, The Walhalla, near Ratisbon, . Ratisbon Cathedral, . . 160 161 162 164 165 166 PAGE i6g 170 172 174 Nuremberg— St. Lawrence Church, .... Nuremberg— the Schonchrunnen and Marien-Kirche, Nuremberg, with St. Sebald's Church and the Castle, . Nuremberg— Goose Fountain Nuremberg— St. Sebald's Tomb, [76 Statue of Hans Sachs, Nuremberg, .... Statue in bronze of Albert Durer, . Hou.se of Nassau, Nuremberg, Nuremberg— Albert Durer's House, Nuremberg— Diirer's Tomb, 177 178 iSo 181 iSi ^f}^KK5' .7V'" 1 >vJl-^wX'' Jh' '^ r~. — ' ■= — ':«'= — r ' I f ITT ^ *. ■ J ~ii, r7'~ 1 '^ '! ^ \ 'i^' -j_ worms: the kaisersaal {Imperial Hall). pear the effigies of Calvin and Zwingli, underneath a sentence of Luther, aptly and beautifully chosen, considering the divergences of opinion between these great men and himself : " Those that rightly understand Christ will not be moved by what man may enjoin. They are free, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." Finally, on the lower slab of the pedestal are depicted, in alto relievo, scenes from Luther's life : the nailing of his theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, his appearance before the Diet of Worms, his marriage to Catherine, and his translating the Bible in the castle of the Wartburg. On the whole, though the main outline of the monument is square and formal, and its allegorical personages are introduced among the effigies of living men with a taste that moderns disapprove, the general effect is singularly powerful. It is won- derful that the travelers who turn aside to see it are comparatively few. Germany has no more impressive, and, I will add, poetical memorial of the men and the 29 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. events that have not o-^ly shaped her modern history, but hav_ uplifted herself and kindred nations to intellectual and moral freedom. A great history has been written by inventive minds and plastic hands in those forms of stone and bronze. The next step in the journey was Heidelberg, most lovely in its summer beauty, on the banks of the sunny Neckar ; and with its ruined castle," so magnificent in its decay. Of course the usual points were visited — the Tun excepted — which, some- how, neither my companions nor myself cared to see. It was pleasanter to look upon the budding vines outside, and to wander for hours in the gardens and shrub- beries, resting here and there beneath the dark shadows of the ruins, covered now LUTHER MONUMENT, WORMS. with verdure and festooned with flowers, or to find one and another point of view, each lovelier than the last, from which to command the glorious valley, with the river winding to the distant Rhine ; the Vosges mountains lying purple beyond, and the spires and roofs of towns and hamlets flashing the sunlight from amid the verdure all over the plain. The walks are numberless, could one but stay ; and the Heidel- berg students, famed for duels, have at least an earthly paradise, in the midst of which to study hard, and drink beer, and fight, as German students will. A short run brought us to the roadside station of Oos, and thence to Baden- Baden. This is a place which, I suppose, most travelers to the Continent have at one time or another visited, and never without feeling the uniqueness of its charm. There are many places more beautiful in detail ; it may be hard to fix upon any one feature of the scene as supreme above the rest ; whatever single point you select is 30 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMAN V. surpassed elsewhere ; but take it all in all, and there is but' one Baden ! No scene in Europe could be brighter or more fraught with varied life' 'than the evening prom- enade in high summer, to the sound of exquisite music, in the great space before the Conversationshaus. The crowd is of all nationalities ; gentle and simple are there alike ; the only voucher of admission is the half-mark, collected by the attendants in so apparently casual, yet unerring a manner ; and the hum of polygot conversation fills the air, Some fears were expressed, about the time of my first visit to Baden, when the gaming tables had been newly suppressed, and the " princely " liberality of their lessee in throwing open to the public his grounds and spacious halls could no longer be exercised, that Baden in becoming decorous would be dull. Who now HEIDELBERG BRIDGE. would c.are to go ? The respectable who had forsworn the place would not readily change their plans, and the lovers of unhealthy excitement would depart elsewhere. How, again, could the stately rooms, the unrivaled reading salons, the noble orches- tra be now maintained ? For a while there seemed reason in these forebodings, but in the end they have been signally falsified, and Baden-Baden is more popular than ever. Many people, no doubt, find the value of the mineral waters and the hot baths ; but I suspect that the chief benefit here, as in many other places, is derived from the healthful air, — so bracing without harshness, — and from the absolute holiday. There are no great excursions for those who work harder at their play than at their more serious vocations ; the aspiring pedestrian must go elsewhere ; the Alpine Club-man will have nothing to say to Baden-Baden. Yet the enjoyment may be without indolence. There is quite enough to tax moderate energies in the walks to the Alte Schloss, and especially to the Hohe Felsen — vast picturesque masses of broken porphyry crags amid the pine woods, on a summit commanding a glorious 31 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. view of swelling hills and green valleys— and, further still, to the Mercuriusberg, the highest "mountain" in the neighborhood, 2205 feet, with a tower on the summit, from which the valleys of the Rhine and the Neckar, with the inclosing hills, may be beautifully seen on a clear day— or, again, to the Eberstein ruins, commanding the valley of Murg, a different view from either— and one, to my mind, surpassing in loveliness all others in this neighborhood. But we will suppose these excursions duly taken. The chief delights of the place lie even nearer at hand, in the walks by the clear, swift, quaint little embanked stream that runs, in its walled-in trench, between its garden-covered banks, or in leisurely strolls along the Lichtenthaler Avenue, where oak and maple cast broad shadows between which the sunlight is reflected in the hues of a thousand flowers. But to many the favorite time is still that of early morning, when the visitors, who are conscientiously undergoing "the treatment," go to the Trinkhalle for their un- pleasant draught, while those who prefer the freshness of the morning air without any such addition, stroll through the open space, or ascend the little hill where the Greek church reflects the sunlight dazzlingly from its gilded dome, and watch the mist curling upward through the pine forests. At seven — for we have not turned out at an unreasonably early hour after all ! — the band takes its place in the pavilion, and their first piece is always a chorale, or hymn, grandly rendered; "Nun danket alle Gott," or " Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott," or some kindred strain, filling the still air with rich melody, and by happy associations awaking thoughts that consecrate the morning hours. Whatever may be thought of early rising in the abstract, I can assure all readers that it is worth while to leave their couches earlier than usual at Baden, if only for the sake of joining in spirit in the hymn that thus ushers in the day. One day's excursion from Baden-Baden stands out in memory with peculiar pleasantness. Having been favored with an introduction to a baron of the German Empire, whose home was at Gernsbach, I started, in company with a friend, to walk over the spur of the hill which separates the valley of the Oos from that of the Murg. After leaving the shaded Lichtenthaler Avenue we ascended, by a long but easy climb, first by an open road, then between woods of pine and beech, with the noble summit of the Mercuriusberg full in sight at every opening, until a turn in the road disclosed the lovely Murgthal, with its fields and woods, and the gleaming spire of a village church. No picture could well be fairer than that peaceful valley, bathed in the light of the summer sun. Thinking we had reached Gernsbach, we descended a steep slope to the village, speculating on the baronial habitation we should find, and the reception on which we might calculate. Was it to be wondered at if we recalled, for each other's amusement, old stories of Black Forest barons with their dark deeds ? Should we be met at the portal by baying hounds, or would haughty retainers demand our errand ere they suffered us to advance ? The place seemed so remote from the world, the houses were so quaint, and the few peasant women, working in the fields, so antique in garb, that it almost seemed as though one had stepped into medieval times. Our romance, however, was a little interrupted by discovering that we had not yet reached Gernsbach, but must walk some two miles farther along the valley. This being accomplished, in what we begun to feel the burden and heat of the day, we found ourselves in a little town, narrow-streeted, high-roofed, and, to speak comparatively, with a suggestion of better sanitary appli- 32 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. ances than we had found in some German villages before. The chips and debris of saw-yards, which here and there strewed the ground, showed the chief industry of the place ; and the people whom we met, and of whom we inquired the way, were robust-looking and well-to-do. There was no difficulty in finding our baron's, the principal house, as it seemed, in the little town ; and the waiting-room, into which we were shown while our names were sent up, was more like a well-furnished mission- hall than the grim ante-chamber which our imagination had pictured. Texts of Scrip- ture, in large letters, adorned the walls, with Scripture pictures hung between. There were notices of Christian meetings and evangelistic services; for which the desk fUf -^r- J**!?*' ^4(K* 1* \^ GINGENBACH, A BLACK FOREST VILLAGE. and seats, and hymn-books scattered about, made simple but ample provision. We had scarcely time to take all this in, and smilingly to remark on this new nineteenth- century style of baronial dwelling, when we were ushered into the presence of the mistress of the house, the baron himself being absent. We found a charming family circle, household, and visitors — into the privacy of which I have no right to . introduce my readers ; only this may be said, that the one topic of interest was the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world. News from London formed naturally the subject of inquiry ; but our friends were more concerned to learn what good was being done to the souls of men than to hear of commercial prospects or political changes. After our mid-day repast — by which time the baron had joined us — we read a chapter of the Bible together, sitting round the table, a verse each, my friend and I taking our turn in English, the rest in German ; while the cheerful informal character of the exercise showed that the Word of God was regarded as " daily 35 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. food." On rising from the table we were taken by our host into a large room down- stairs, where we found some young men busily at work, copying, correcting proof- sheets, folding circulars, while reams of printed paper occupied the shelves and presses of the apartment. Then we found that we were really in a large tract depot, our host himself undertaking the printing, publication, and distribution of tracts and periodicals, with some larger works, and a whole array of juvenile literature, with illustrations that we thought we recognized, as well as other pictures. We found that this enterprise is somewhat considerably assisted by the Religious Tract Society ; but the stress of the work is with the baron himself, who is thus scattering through the Black Forest district, and the Rhenish provinces generally, an immense amount of pure and valuable literature ; while the prayer-meetings, Bible-meetings, and evangelistic services held at Gernsbach ought to make the pretty little town in that fair valley an oasis of spiritual life and moral beauty. So it seemed to us, with, perhaps, too sanguine a judgment, as we sat, after our survey, in a trellised arbor, sipping our coffee beneath a spreading vine. By that time the afternoon was far advanced. With mutual good wishes we bid adieu to our hospitable friends, and addressed ourselves to our homeward walk. We afterward found that Gernsbach could be reached by rail from Baden-Baden by a long circuit, up the valley of the Murg by Rastatt ; and the route, no doubt, from its quiet picturesque beauty, will some day be better known by tourists ; the glens, which descend on both sides to the Murg, being some of them of exquisite loveliness. It was with many regrets that we took our departure from Baden, being anxious to see something more of the Black Forest than is possible here upon its edge. We adopted the easiest, and in some respects the most striking route, taking the main line up the Rhine valley as far as the roadside station of Offenburg, where we changed into the newly opened Black Forest Railway ; at first, gently ascending past fair meadows and among wooded hills, but soon finding ourselves amid wilder, grander scenes, zigzagging upward past gigantic pine-clad rocks, where the recent railway workings had laid bare the granite heart of the mountain in great scars which the kindly vegetation had not yet had time to festoon with beauty ; then along the edge of a steep slope where the forest climbs above and below, across wild glens of stupendous depth, and through ceaseless and most tantalizing tunnels. We begin, to learn now what the Black Forest really is ; although, to say the truth, the gloom which suggested the name is unfelt on such a day as that of an excursion. The hill-tops are bathed in sunlight, every clearing between the woods is brightly green ; swiftly as we speed along we catch the glint of innumerable flowers among the trees ; and the shadows which lie across every deep ravine only bring out more vividly the splendor of the slopes. There are times, no doubt, when among these hills the mists lie low, and hoarse storms mutter among leafless branches, and the sturdy pines bend beneath their weight of snow. Then around the stove, wild, weird legends are rehearsed, such as have given the Schwarzwald a foremost place in im- aginative literature and art. But it is impossible to believe in spirits, goblins, or witches to-day. Perhaps the railway has scared their very memories away from these recesses ; or the sunshine brings out qualities yet more enchanting. After passing several mountain stations, where little churches on the heights seem to keep watch and ward over the hamlets below, we reach our present destina- tion, the thriving forest town of Triberg, the Three Mountains, where we propose 36 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. to halt for awhile, making it the center of excursions; and certainly no place could better invite a prolonged sojourn than the Schwarzwald Hotel, perched on a little eminence commanding the three wooded hills and the forked valleys between, while behind, through a granite cleft, roars the magnificent waterfall of Gutach, in seven cascades, descending in all about 500 feet. It is said to be the most beautiful in North Germany, and we can well believe it without exploring the rest. Very rapidly, however, is it becoming a "lion," with the usual result. Undine and her nymphs are scared away, and the lime-light, with red and blue fire, has taken their place ! On the first night of our visit the whole town turned out, in festal excite- .6i' \ »'■' if''*' SJti)! ..,.3 *• < THE BLACK FOREST RAILWAY. ment, to see the first illumination of the season. The effect, no doubt, was very brilliant, as the torrent descended through the dark gulf in cataracts of many-colored flames, while the dimly seen trees on either bank stood with their branches in relief against the star-lit sky. As a fitting sequel, the front of the hotel itself was illumi- nated ; and far and wide no doubt the building shone, like some magician's palace among the hills. My friend and I will long retain a vivid remembrance of the mass of upturned German faces, seen from the hotel terrace by the reflected gleam of the ruddy flames. These gazers at least were lost in mute admiration, and showed all the national faculty of being easily amused. Our walks from Triberg were many, across the hills, through the woods, and down into primitive-looking villages, where the power of some rushing stream had brought saw-mills to its banks. This form of industry is necessarily the prevailing one of the district ; large numbers of persons being employed, frpm the wood-cutter to the sawyer and wood-carver. Down the broader stream, when swollen by winter 37 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. rains, great rafts are floated to the Rhine. The pine stems are loosely connected by supple willow bands, so adroitly that the raft in its descent can adapt its shape to the sinuosities of the stream, winding in and out in a very curious fashion, almost A BLACK FOREST TIMBER RAFT. like a living thing, while raftsmen in front, and a steersman behind, skillfully regulate its course. The number of people who, in one way or another, make a comfortable living out of these grand woods, from charcoal-burning to the most elaborate and beautiful carving, must be very large. We saw none who seemed wretchedly poor, and I do not remember in all our walks being once asked for alms. Nor, on the 38 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. Other hand, were there evidences of great wealth. There were no mansions or parks. Here and there stood farmhouses with surrounding buildings, that were plainly the abodes of well-to-do people ; but these bore only about the same relation to the rest as the half-dozen larger houses in a children's " German village " do to the quaint and uniform little rows among which they are set up. The reader must par- don the comparison : it was irresistible. Everywhere we saw the toy-houses of our childhood, magnified, as it were, to gigantic size ; and the churches too, with their round cupolas and little spires. Nor only so, but the very trees were there in fac- simile, standing in avenues, with their oddly-clipped tops tapering conically to a \ i^ ..' " . ' * - 5 -i ■/ 1* T' , ' * * fi . , ^ It _ . ~ '^K^, point. Like other artists, the Dutch, or rather German, " Deutsche," toymen, had, after all, only imitated what they had seen- Returning to Triberg, we spent a pleasant and amusing hour in the local exhibi- tion, where the industries of the neighborhood, especially the wood-carving and clock- making, are illustrated in a remarkably complete and interesting way. The Dutch clocks of all kinds, from the simplest and cheapest up to the most elaborately and artistically carved, are there to tempt the purchaser; and almost everything into which wood can be carved or shaped may be found in this unique collection. ^ Each exhibitor seems to have a compartment for his own wares, and the prices, which are astonishingly moderate, are plainly marked. The cuckoo-clocks, in particular, are innumerable ; one would hardly have thought that the demand for that irritating curiosity could ever have met the supply in this one exhibition. And, as the clocks were nearly all wound up and going, the amount of cuckooing, when the hour struck, was something tremendous ; although, with much considerateness, the clockmakers had avoided strict uniformity in their time, and so had distributed the sound. A 39 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. wonderful mechanical nightingale, in a cage, with notes hardly to be distinguished from those of the living bird, was one of the attractions of the exhibition ; while the climax of constructive ingenuity seemed reached by an instrument at the end of the room, called, I believe, the Orchestrion, which was wound up like a gigantic musical box, and gave a good imitation of a military band. The next halting-place to Triberg, on the Black Forest Railway, for most trav- BREISACH ON THE RHINE, NEAR FREIBURG. elers is Donaueschingen, where rises, in a pretty garden, a spring of clear water which, at least, helps to form the Danube. The spring is surrounded by a stone basin, and the traveler is told that here he witnesses the veritable source of the mighty river. There are, however, streams rising higher among the hills which flow into the same grand current; while the whole region of Donaueschingen is saturated with waters in the form of marshes, pools, and streams, that find an outlet in the same direction. Here, then, within thirty or forty miles of the Rhine, is the begin- ning of Its mightier rival. And as the Neckar, and other tributaries of the Rhine, have their source in the Black Forest, the water-shed being often only a low ridge, it IS possible, as has been often remarked, for drops of water that begin their course 40 * 42 GLEN AND CASCADE NEAR ALLERHEILIGEN ; BLACK FOREST. UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. almost together — falling as rain, for instance, on the opposite ridges of the same roof — to find their destination, one in the Black Sea, the other in the German Ocean. The illustration is an impressive one of the way in which associated lives may part at last. At Singen, near Schaffhausen, the Black Forest Railway re-enters the valley of THE HOLLENTHAL. the Rhine ; and of all entrances into Switzerland this is surely the most beautiful. We must, however, retrace our course to Freiburg, which may be reached from Donaueschingen on the main line to Basd, if we wish to explore farther some of the most characteristic scenery of the region. The glens which run up among the Black Forest Hills from this neighborhood are, perhaps, unsurpassed' for beauty in the whole district ; especially that known as Hollenthal, the Vale of Hell, a name doubt- less conferred before the terrors of the ravine had been removed by the excellent road which now winds along the edge of its rocky steeps, giving the delighted trav- 43 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. eler full leisure to admire the Trossachs-like glory of overhanging woods, and enabling him to enter the darkest shade of the ravine without fear. _ Himmel- reich," the Kingdom of Heaven, is the name given, in the same old times, to the sunny upland reached after the glen is passed. . ^ . , u c • t7 ■ Freiburg itself ("Freiburg in Breisgau," to distinguish it from the Swiss Fri> "^^^^^^>;f> AT ALLERHEILIGEN, bourg) is a place of much interest, and the most hurried traveler to the Black Forest should at least find time to visit its cathedral, " almost the only large Gothic church in Germany which is finished," with a tower of extraordinary beauty, an octagon resting on a massive square base, and surmounted by a spire of open tracery-work, wrought in stone, and in the union of strength and lightness surpassing almost every other work of the kind. On the whole, the Black Forest is not rich in ecclesiastical architecture ; but the Abbey of Allerheiligen, All Saints, a comparatively modern ruin, is described as very fine, both in itself and in its environment. It is best reached from Baden-Baden ; I was, however, unable to visit it. Dr. Stoughton, in 44 46 RUINS OF ALLERHEILIGEN — WINTER. UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. his " Reminiscences of the Black Forest," published in the Leis2ire Hour, pleasantly describes an excursion to the spot : " On a brilliant autumn morning we started from Baden by rail to Oos, and on to Achern by the main line. Achern is the third station south of Oos, and the thriving little town which lends the name is situated at the mouth of the Kapper- thal, boasting of a monument to the Grand Duke Leopold, and possessing in its vicinity a large lunatic asylum, containing four hundred patients. Several carriao-es BEETHOVEN S HOUSE, BONN. are found awaiting the train, and engaging one of these, we directed the coachman to drive to Allerheiligen, about nine or ten miles farther, where there are ruins of a famous abbey, a great 'object of attraction in these parts, and which we had been advised by all means to visit. The road leads through the Kappeler Thai, a bright green dale, such as are frequent in the depths of the Schwarzwald ; and on the left could be seen, high up on the hills, the Brigittenschloss, commanding a noble pros- pect. Two small villages were passed, and then, ascending by the course of the Achernbach, leaving the Cha,teau of Rodeck to the left, we reached Ottenhofen, 1 020 feet above the sea, a German resort containing humble pensions, where people can live for thirty-seven cents a day. A fine walk can be taken in that neighbor- 47 UP THE RHINE, AND INTO GERMANY. hood, over hill and dale, and across brooks and meadows, and by grottoes redolent with leo-endary lore ; but the carriage road ascends the Unterwasserthal to a place called Neuhaus, when it makes a curve, enabling the tourist to enjoy rich retrospec- tive views of rural tranquillity left behind. From the top of the hill the road de- scends, and as the carriage winds down, we come upon a densely wooded dale, out of which rise noble ruins belonging to the ancient abbey of All Saints, of the Pre- monstratensian order, an order founded by St. Nprbert in the twelfth century. They are not equal to those at Tintern, or Fountains, or Melrose, but they are stately, and contain some fine columns and arches and windows, and they cover the whole breadth of the narrow dale. The abbey was founded by the Duchess Uta of Schauenburg, in 1196, soon after the institution of the order. We sauntered about on the green turf, where once broad stones were trodden by the feet of the brother- hood ; round the crumbling walls, so unsteady that accidents sometimes occur, — a gentleman lost his life fifteen years ago, — down the widening valley into depths of wooded pastures ; and then rested and refreshed ourselves in a convenient rustic dining-room attached to the inn near the ruins. A drive back in the evening to Achern, where we caught the train which conveyed us home to Baden, completed a^ most agreeable excursion, which we would commend to every reader who goes that way." But, in truth, the excursions that may be taken with delight and advantage in this beautiful region are endless. The railway has opened up some of the finest parts ; but there are sequestered glens, and busy villages, lying away from its route, that startle the roving pedestrian by their charm. Let him only know the language, and be prepared for rough accommodation and homely manners, and a ramble almost anywhere in the Black Forest, if the weather be good (an important consider- ation), will vie with any excursion in Europe, not, indeed, in the grandest features of mountain sublimity, but in satisfying beauty of scenery, wholesome invigorating air, and pleasant intercourse with simple friendly people ; and all this at compara- tively inconsiderable cost. A fortnight, out and home, will enable the tired Lon- doner, who can secure no longer holiday, to see it all. 48 BRUNSWICK : THE OLD MARKET. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. HE entrance to Northern Germany by the Elbe is in its way as pleasant as that by the Rhine, and avoids the fatigue of a long railway journey before reaching the principal cities. In fact, I am not sure that, if a holiday be the object, the end is not better attained by making Hamburg the starting-point. The descent of the Thames by one of the noble steamers which cross the Ger- man Ocean, in fine weather and with congenial companionship, is a joy to be remembered ; and the sea itself has its moods of sunny calm ; although it must be confessed that storm and fog are not un- common. In almost any case the four and twenty hours spent in crossing from river to river may be considered as well spent by the tired worker, the best possible preparation for a true rest. I shall not soon forget the splendor of the spring afternoon when the mists at last had lifted, and over a smooth sea in the light of the westering sun the great screw steamer, with its scanty company of passengers, 51 ir jt; )?, V '^p GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERL passed by the little port of Cuxhaven, and entered the broad river. The islet of Heligoland was visible on our left, though this singular little appendage to the British Empire was not so plainly seen as we had hoped.' Night closed around us as we passed up the Elbe ; for a while only the line of low shore on either side could be discerned, with lights gleaming here and there. Then, on our left hand the right bank of the river, appeared the outline of dark woods and sloping hills' dis cerned in relief against the starlit sky. The air was musical with the song of birds —the thrush, the blackbird, and the nightingale. Amid the woods, here and there' the lights of houses twinkled ; gradually they became more numerous ; at length on both sides of the river the lamps of a great city came into full view, and we retired to our bert-hs for a short night's rest, before the next day's attempt to gather new German pictures in a new scene. A great seaport city must always have its points of interest, and Hamburg is no HELIGOLAND. exception ; although, truth to say, there is little in its architecture or its associations to detain the traveler. Among the churches that of St. Nicholas, of which the late WhS V "'' '''''. ^' P^^-^"^^"«"t in beauty ; and has, it is said, the highest spire in Europe, surpassing that of Strassburg by a few feet. We much ad- mired IS stately exterior, although the great plain brick buttresses suggest a kind of Sculntnr d / ^^'f-^^^-' ^^ich marks the Gothic cathedrals of former ages, tte s'imn tr' f ' Z '°^ 'T^'' ^"' legends carved in stone, are alien ffom the sZdo.' tTk '' '"^ "' ''" "^" ^'^P^"- -i^h the elaboration and Ich'lfli fi ' . ;°1 •"^'•r''^^^^"^^^'^ "^^ ''''' -d the material of which so "Lt or we'T/ '?"'' ''""°' '^ "^^^ ^^ ^ff-^'- - ^^on.. Into the iTerv seTect" " ^"^ admittance, as service was proceeding in the presence of a very select company indeed. Our visit happened to be on nLme/s/aLs^a^, As- ' Now a part of Germany. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. cension Day. In a Roman Catholic town the churches would have been even more accessible than usual at such a time ; here it was different, everywhere ; though in one or two places service was going on, the congregations being even smaller than that at St. Nicholas, the entrances were jealously guarded against all chance-comers ; and when there was no service the doors were rigorously shut. On account of the CANAL AT HAMBURG. day, also, the shops of the city were mostly closed, and we could only conjecture the aspect of the busy city as it is at ordinary times. The newness of many of the stately streets, in contrast with the antique high- roofed buildings of other parts, was very noticeable. After the great fire of 1842, the city was, in great part, rebuilt on a uniform plan, to the loss of the old pictur- esqueness, of which glimpses may still be gained along the banks of the canals that intersect the town ; but much, no doubt, to the promotion of convenience and healthfulness. The Alster lakes are, undoubtedly, the chief beauty of Hamburg ; a 53 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. river which descends into the Elbe being formed in the upper part of the city into a vast double reservoir, the point of union being crossed by a handsome bridge. The waters are beautifully clear, and on the day of our visit were gay with canoes, row- HAMBURG MARKET WOMAN. ing-boats, and tiny steamers, while holiday-makers promenaded on the broad quays, or in the gardens near the bridge. Here stands a very fine statue of Schiller, the first of many such memorials that we were to see in Germany, and the one, perhaps, in which the likeness to Byron is more marked than any other. It is, however, a likeness exalted and spiritualized by a purer genius. Among the streets which encircle the pedestal of the statue was a charming little garden, bright with spring flowers. 54 ~ MFSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. We saw in the city a few market-women with their singular costume, which here, as in other towns of Germany, is, to a great extent, being discontinued, to the loss of much picturesqueness, especially since the change to a commonplace attire seems to mean slovenliness also. I suppose that with anything like a uniform, there comes also a pride in its neatness and grace : it is certain that the peasantry who retained the old-fashioned attire contrasted most favorably with those who had conformed to the LUBECK : THE HOLSTEIN GATE. modern indistinguishable style. The fineness of the day, and the holiday occasion, had brought out great numbers of children, who walked or played with true German sedateness. We wondered whether the cause of what appeared to us the unchild- like gravity was to be traced to infancy, and to the habit, which seemed universal at Hamburg, of wheeling the small occupants of the perambulators backward, with their faces to the nurse, instead of frontwise, as in England, with liberty to look about them! It was a characteristic illustration of the spirit of surveillance that begins with earliest life, culminating in universal drill. " Eyes right" is the word of comnrand, even in infancy ; and so the shaping of the national life may be said to begin in the perambulator ! The next point in our journey was Berlin, reached in the evening of the same 57 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. day by rail. The journey suggested that in Northern Germany, at least, the chief points of interest must be sought in the cities, rather than in the country. One level plain extended over the whole distance, a vast sandy expanse, evidently once the bed of the sea, while it seemed as if a slight change would make it so again. In most places careful husbandry had done its best with the soil ; the expanses of scanty herbage were succeeded by fields of springing corn, or patches yellow with the rape- seed flower, while woods of fir and beech relieved the monotony of the scene. On the railway there were no tunnels, of course, and scarcely a cutting or an em- bankment. I was reminded of the neighborhood of Southport, in Lancashire. A junction for Lubeck is on this line : the town may also be reached direct from Hamburg, and is well worth a visit, preserv- ing, as it does, far more than its great rival city, the characteristic memorials of its former gfreat- ness. Here may be seen, as in the days when Lubeck stood chief among the eighty cities of the Hanseatic League, the old gabled houses, the quaint churches with their wonderful carvings, and the imposing remnants of the fortifications. Among these the finest is the Holstein Gate, recently restored, with its conically roofed round towers, built of variegated brick, chiefly red and black, like most of the edifices in this vast sandy plain. The church of St. Mary, also, with its two timber spires, is a fine example of the Gothic style, to which the architects of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in these districts were led by the absence of stone. In this church there is a " Dance of Death," thirty or forty years older than that by Holbein, and singularly illustrating the costumes of the period. From Lubeck, a short railway journey leads to Rostock, also an old Hanseatic town, and still prosperous as the capital of Mecklenburg. Stralsund, also, if the traveler cares to pursue his route along the sandy plain so far, will be found to'excel even these two cities in curious quaintness of brick architecture ; and the pretty island of Rugen, reached from Stralsund across a narrow strait, will remind the Eng- lish tourist of nothing so much as the Isle of Wight, with its chalk cliffs and fair 58 ROSTOCK : THE STEINTHOR. Co ROSTOCK : OLD FORTIFICATIONS, GATE AND TOWER. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. wooded downs, while the primitive simplicity and piety of the people are very re- freshing. The Baltic Sea is now reached, and a visit to these cities, however brief, THE RAT-CATCHER S HOUSE, HAMELN. makes one feel how really important to the commerce of the world was that Schles- wig-Holstein question, which once threatened to disturb the peace. of Europe, but which most people in England were ready to give up, as one of the inexplicable puzzles of a pedantic and litigious statesmanship. On these sandy flats is the key to GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. the mercantile greatness, perhaps of the old Hanseatic towns resuscitated, perhaps of cities yet unborn. Should there be sufficient time at command, and the tourist not care to visit the Holstein and Mecklenburg districts, he will find much to attract him in the route by- Hanover. This city itself, apart from the interest which attaches to it from its con- nection with the roj'al house of England, is handsome, and its situation may even be called beautiful, at the junction of two little rivers. The recent incorporation of the kingdom with Prussia seems to have rather stimulated its commercial progress than otherwise, although not a few of the people regret, as is natural, the " old times "; at any rate, Hanover is now one of the busiest and most thriving cities of North Ger- many. From Hanover the lover of the picturesque should by all means make excursions to some of the towns in the neighborhood ; as Hildesheim, with its old timbered houses, or Hameln on the Weser, famed for the Rat story, so mar- velously told by Mr. Browning. The "Ratcatcher's House" still remains, and to doubt the legend — the fate of the children included — is almost as bad as it would be in the Four Cantons to throw suspicion upon the history of William Tell. From Hanover, by Brunswick, an old-fashioned, quiet town, well meriting a few hours' visit from the most hurried tourist, the railroad leads straight to Berlin. Berlin is so familiar to many who know but little else of Northern Germany that the briefest reference to our visit may suffice. The summit of the newly erected Column of Victory, commemora- ting the Franco-Prussian war, is a good place from which to view the city as a whole. The monument stands a little dis- tance outside the Brandenburg Gate, at the western end of Unter den Linden, which noble avenue is full in view, with the stately buildings which close it in at the east : palaces, universities, museums, theaters, surrounding the colossal statue of Frederick the Great. Thence the eye ranges through long, wide, well-built streets in every direction, until the city melts into the great plain beyond. Immediately below the monument extends the beautiful Thiergarten, with its leafy avenues now clothed in all the freshness of the spring. No city view could, in its way, be finer, though one felt the want of undulation and irregularity. The very architecture of the city, with its unbroken straight lines, speaks of the universal drill. There is no originality ; there is no attempt even to reproduce the German past ; all is modern classic, or, if I may say so, the taste of Germany seems passing through a kind of Georgian era, the Wilhelmstrasse being the Berlin Regent Street. Everywhere are the evidences of growing wealth and conscious power, as of a great nation, not unduly 62 STREET IN HANOVER. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. self-assertive. There were fewer outward signs of militarism than I had expected to find ; nor was there anything like the same arrogance in little matters as I remember to have noticed after the war of 1870. Frederick the Great, our own Carlyle's hero, appropriately enough. holds the chief place in the city, by the famous bronze equestrian statue erected to his memory in 1 85 1. The monument is a very striking one, not only for the boldness with which the artist has represented the monarch, " in his habit as he lived "—cocked hat and pigtail, coronation robes and walking-stick— but for the finish and expressiveness of ^ 'r '^ ^. yrrr^'irr^ ^TTjgr T — *> ?« "^ gfr ■■IT-"'"— " -*^RH^ ^ AiHH'^f ^^i^ .""'mj HILDESHEIM : OLD GATE-HOUSE. the sculptures which surround the pedestal. One series represents the succesbive events of the king's life from his early education to his imagined apotheosis ; another, still more striking, portrays, in relief, his chief officers and cpmpanions in arms, with other illustrious men of his reign. The portraits are evidently accurate ; and the successive groups into which these personages are thrown are wonderfully lifelike. In the side of the monument here shown, the figures to the right are those of Kant and Lessing, so that the claims of literature and philosophy are not wholly omitted in this, great tribute to warlike prowess. Another tier of the pedestal on three sides contains names, to the, number of nearly a hundred, of soldiers, statesmen, and scholars of the epoch ; the fourth bearing the inscription : " To Frederick the Great, Frederick William III, 1840. Completed under Frederick William IV, 1851." A little farther on, after a hasty view of the King's Palace, the University build- 63 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. ings and other edifices, more imposing from their forming one vast group than for any architectural splendor which they possess separately, we entered the Lust-garten, "Pleasure Garden," which proves that those who planned it took pleasure in the extreme of symmetry, neatness, and formality. Thence we passed to the Palace Bridge, commanding a good view up and down the somewhat insignificant river Spree, but chiefly noticeable for a series of marble statues on the piers, intended to glorify the life of a warrior, and mingling ancient mythology with modern ideas in a very extraordinary way. Mercury is seen instructing the youthful soldier, and pre- senting him with weapons ; Victory supports him when wounded, and crowns him HILDESHEIM : CATHEDRAL CRYPT AND OLD ROSE TREE. when successful ; and, finally. Iris carries him when slain, to Olympus. It is curious to see all this among the busy crowds of a nineteenth-century city ; among the gas- lamps and telegraph-wires, and almost within sound of the railway-whistle. The cocked hat and walking-stick of the other statue were, after all, more congruous with the true idea of Art. A hurried visit to the Museum was all that could be achieved. The stately building is opposite the Pleasure Garden, the central part of the New Museum, con- nected with it behind, rising like a Grecian temple high in the air. As we passed under the great Ionic portico which forms the entrance, we recognized an old friend in Kiss's Amazon contending with a Tiger, well remembered as among the chief orna- ments of the Hyde Park Exhibition in 1851. The galleries themselves are rich in casts, with some fine sculptures, and a large number of paintings, which it is no part of my plan to enumerate, however briefly. We were, however, much struck by the 64 H Is) a < o o o w a H b) GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. very full representation which the galleries give of that early form of art which peo- ple now call pre-Raphaelite. The amount of thought and skill thrown by the elder painters, especially of sacred subjects, into the portrayal of incongruities, anachro- nisms, impossibilities, is, at least, a phenomenon to be accounted for by all who hold that they were not actually fools, but had some distinct meaning, intelligible enough BERLIN : STATUE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. to themselves and their contemporaries. In one picture, a personage in modern attire, clad in black doublet and hose, kneels in the grotto-manger at Bethlehem, before the Infant Saviour in His mother's arms, with Joseph kneeHng on the other side ; in another, our Lord converses with the woman of Samaria, the two sitting by a great marble basin, such as may be seen in any Italian town. A hill and valley, unmistakably Italian too, with a broad lake or river, form the background on one side, while on the other the twelve disciples, their heads all close together, are seen coming through a wood to the spot. Did the painter really believe that such was the external aspect of the interview ? Then, again, in many of these pictures, the 67 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. backgrounds are, to us, grotesque— hardly more like hills or trees than a child's first attempts— out of proportion, out of character, mere conventionalities thrown in. Yet in these paintings there is often true genius ; they tell their tale very expres- sively, sometimes very wonderfully, though not in our way. In those early days, when a painter would place on canvas his conception of the Divine story, he did not feel it necessary to travel to Palestine to encamp for weeks together in the valley of the Jordan, nor did he go to Nazareth to make a study of the form and fashion of the tools in the carpenter's shop. True, this accuracy of detail must be good, when there is with it the insight and vivifying power of genius ; to imitate in any servile way the ancient method would be worse than absurd. The art of every age has, so to speak, its own dialect, and those are wise who can understand all. Among the most ambitious achievements of modern painting, as here represented, are the six wall-paintings designed by Kaulbach, and intended to represent the great cycles of human history, as illustrating the law of progress. The series begins with the dispersion of mankind. Nimrod appears in the center, as smitten by supernal power and perishing amid the ruins of his ambitious work ; his master builder is stoned by an angry crowd ; and the three great divisions of the human race appear as if hastily grouped for departure ; the children of Shem, with their flocks, a beauti- ful group, occupying one side of the painting ; the graver, statelier group of Japhet- ites the other. The second picture attempts to represent the rise of classic civiliza- tion. Above, the gods of Greece are on their rainbow thrones ; below, a noble vessel approaches the shore, with Homer in its prow. As he sings, poets, philosophers, statesmen, warriors listen ; and the multitude are attracted in reverential awe. The third epoch chosen is the destruction of Jerusalem, an awful scene of bloodshed and despair. The victorious army advances with triumphant ferocity ; in the foreground the high priest, having slain his family, is inflicting the fatal blow upon himself ; to the left of the picture the fabled Wandering Jew flees in a wild frenzy, and on the right a company of Christians are seen escaping, beneath angelic guardianship. This last group is, perhaps, the most beautiful in all three pictures. Next we see the Battle of the Huns, a wild, poetic picture. Rome itself is in the background. Attila brandishes his scourge ■ and, according to the legend, the hosts of the dead rise and renew their combat in the air. The fifth picture illustrates the Middle Ages, with their poetry and chivalry, and above all, with the Crusades, which held so important a part in shaping the life of modern Europe. Godfrey of Bouillon at the head of the exulting host, having won the crown of Jerusalem, presents it to the Saviour King, while minstrels sing of the great victory. But, whatever may be thought of this illustration of human progress, there can be no doubt respecting the applicability of the next and last, a really splendid picture symbolizing the Reforma- tion era. In a vast cathedral, Luther holds up an open Bible. Beside him is a group of Reformers, including Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin. Wycliffe, John Hus, and other pioneers of the Reformation surround them. The monarchs and great generals who befriended the Reformation form another group, chief among them Elizabeth of England, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and Coligny of France. And lastly, the aisles of the cathedral are occupied by those men of science, artists and great thinkers, who, in their various ways, aided the emancipation of the human intellect : Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton ; Christopher Columbus and John Guten- burg ; Shakespeare, Dante, and Cervantes ; Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, Diirer 68 r i.1 K ^ I w en > M H S5 O o o a u en > A H Z & O o GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. and Holbein, with many more. This picture is more realistic than the rest, with all its anachronisms', but is, perhaps, the most attractive of the series. The whole form a wonderfully poetic interpretation of history, and deserve far more attention and study than I was able to bestow. The events of modern time have made the metropolis of the German Empire one of the most interesting of cities to all who are concerned for the progress of man- kind. And, turning from the strange union of militarism and culture which it pre- sents, — as if, for the first time, in the history of the world; the Roman force of arms and the Greek power of thought existed in their highest realization side by side, — the Christian observer cannot but ask what may be hoped as regards the future from the religion of the people. I do not mean their theology, or rather the theology of the professors in their universities. These are of different schools enough, as all the world knows ; and while there is much thinly disguised deism under the garb of " lib- eral Christian thought," there is also much of that earnest evangelical spirit which foupd its highest expression in the teachings of Tholuck, and which still lives at Leipsic in the lectures and conversation of Delitzsch. The contributions of many German critics to the true and deep interpretation of Scripture, have been far too important and precious to be set aside by any wholesale condemnation. But as regards the people at large, what are the hopes that may be formed from the con- dition of the pulpit and the Church ? Superficially, the answer that must be given to this question seems most portentous. It has been said recently, I know not on what authority, that only seventeen per cent, of the population of Berlin are atten- dants, however occasionally, on public worship ; and it is certain that the supply of religious instruction is quite inadequate to the needs of the people. Yet there is a more hopeful side. I had some conversation with a very thoughtful and competent observer of the state of the city, who spoke from long and intimate knowledge of every phase of its religious life. "The population," he said, "had quite outgrown the means of religious instruction. The school equals their advance, but the Church lags behind. There is, in fact, no adequate religious provision for the people." " But if the National Church thus fail, may not other bodies, take up the work, as in England, and supply the need ?" " Partly, bufvery slightly, they do so ; but, remem- ber, Germany is not England. For one thing, there is not the same religious free- dom : baptism, and even confirmation, are made national matters, and until lately were practically compulsory. But even if there were full freedom, the habit of drill is so inveterate with the Germans, that very few of them, even under the impulse of the strongest conviction, will get out of step with the rest. So, what have the various missions and denominations done ? Some of them have worked very nobly ; the Baptists have probably, by this time, about twenty thousand members in Germany ; then there are the Wesleyan Methodists, and the American Presbyterians, each of which bodies is doing good in Berlin ; but at the best there are but a few score of thousands in a population of forty millions ! No, the growth of a true religious belief and life in this great people must be from within their own Church ; and this, as it gathers strength, will , be potent enough to break through old forms, and to work out new ones for itself." "But are there any signs of this?" "Well, there are— partly in the great attention that is paid to the study of the Bible. The edu- cated youth of Prussia know the Scriptures to an extent which might surprise you. The common schools, of which there is one now in every village, are doing a great 71 GLIMPSES OF NORTH ERmY GERMANY. work for the young, that will yet bear marvelous fruit ; and the growth of the Sun- day-school system in Germany of late years is extraordinary ; while there is, after all, much very faithful and powerful exposition of Bible truth in German pulpits." " But is there not an alarming growth of popular infidelity?" "True ; but you are now touching upon a different question. The infidelity which is spreading among the working classes is not what we term rationalism at all ; it is just atheism, the out- growth, in fact, of social democracy ; a protest against society as it exists. Striving after social equality, disdaining the thought of a ruler, men strike at the great Ruler of all, as the presumed head of a system by which they feel themselves oppressed." rr'is^^^ ^^v pi -,1 iJn^ J II iJJ i 1 ay I'lEii PALACE OF THE CROWN PRINCE, BERLIN. " Then there is no deliberate rejection of Scriptural teaching, on the ground of dis- satisfaction with its evidence, and the like ?" " Oh no ; none, or very little ; it is just rebellion against the Supreme Authority; and in our religious appeals — appeals to the heart and conscience — we must leave it on one side. I do not say that it is not a great danger ahead of all of us, in Church and State ; but we may go forward hope- fully, in our own way, preaching the gospel and teaching the truths of Scripture in spite of it." • My friend closed the deeply interesting conversation, of which the above is but an outline, by referring me to some words of his, written three or four years since, and incorporated in the Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for 1877. The remarks seem too valuable and just not to reproduce here. " The Germany of 1876 differs widely from that of 1856. Then Frankfort was 72 74 MONUMENT OF VICTORS, THIERGARTEN, BERLIN. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. its political capital, and Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck were German cities ; it comprised thirty-five states, with a population of 44,000,000, and the Emperor of Austria was at its head. Now, on the contrary, Bohemia, Austria Proper, the Tyrol, and Luxemburg are no part of Germany, while the excluded Prussian provinces, with Schleswig, Alsace, and Lorraine, have been taken in ; the thirty-five states have been reduced to twenty-six, and the population to 42,000,000. The King of Prussia is German Emperor ; the old College of Ambassadors, which used to sit at Frankfort, is replaced by a National Parliament meeting at Berlin ; the new order of things has given to Germany a common army, a common coinage, and almost a common post ; and the German Fatherland, which was formerly a patriotic fiction, is now what the people proudly call ■ a world-historical fact.' The bearing of these political changes upon the Society's work has been marked ; they have been made to serve the interests of God's kingdom. Twenty years ago Austria, followed by Wurtemburg and Baden, bound herself by her Concordat to the Papal See ; in Prussia the Romish hierarchy had a freedom surpassing that which they enjoyed even in Catholic lands ; the Jesuits flooded the country ; and the German bishops used to meet periodically in secret session in Fulda, at the grave of St. Boniface. Influences such as these thwarted the efforts of the society almost everywhere out of Prussia : and in most of the smaller kingdoms and states colportage was rendered impracticable. Now all is changed. The wars of 1859 and 1864 shook Austrian ascendency in Germany, and .that of 1866 destroyed it. The concordats and conven- tions are all abrogated ; the freedom of the bishops in Prussia is transformed into a subjection, perhaps too rigorous ; the whole land has been gradually opened by legis- lation or negotiation, and the Society has been permitted to enter and take posses- sion in her Master's name. The workers in 1856 were four — Dr. Pinkerton, Captain Graydon, Mr. N. B. Millard, and Mr. Edward Millard. Of these, the last only Remains, and he has returned to the field in Eastern Europe, from which he had been expelled. Mr. Davies was sent early in 1857 to succeed Dr. Pinkerton, and in his hands the superintendence of the Bible Society's operations in Germany and Switzer- land has since then been concentrated The work of this large agency has shown steady development. The circulation of 198,000 in 1856 has risen to 339,039 ; while, as is well known, in the year of the Franco-German war it exceeded a million copies. This progress is none the less satisfactory, if viewed in relation to the work of the native societies, whose energies, instead of being paralyzed, have been greatly stimu- lated by British enterprise. The Prussian Bible Society may be taken as a con- venient standard of comparison, because it depends upon itself, and draws no books from other sources. Between the years 1804 and 1831 the British and Foreign Bible Society had an average circulation yearly of 11,280 German Scriptures ; while the Prussian, Bible Society, with its auxiliaries, which in this same period received aid from the funds of this society to the extent of $300,000, had an average annual circulation of 17,644. In the next period, reaching to 1847, during which no more money grants were made, and this Society had its own agent but no colporteurs, its yearly average was 47,677 copies, and that of the Prussian Bible Society 60,964. In 1847 a "^w^ ^''^ began in. the operations of the British society; colporteurs were appointed, and by the end of March,. 1876, the issues had been increased to 9,147,- 120, giving an annual average of 349,900. The increase on the German side was in nothing like the same ratio, but still an advance was made to 94,680, which was the 75 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. more noteworthy as the circulation of Bibles and Testaments, in the case of the Prussian society, is as 3 to i, while with us the reverse holds good, if to Testaments we add portions. " It is worth while also to view this progress in its bearing on the growth of religious life ; for Bible work is not an end in itself, but is of value only as it pro- motes virtue and godliness in a land. In 1856 there were few if any Sunday Schools in the English sense of the word, in connection with the Established or other Churches of Germany ; whereas in 1877 their numbers exceed 1300, with more than 5000 teachers, and about 100,000 scholars. There were then but two Christian THE PALACE, POTSDAM. homes for artisans and journeymen mechanics; now there are about 130, in which hundreds of thousands of workingmen are lodged every year, and for the time screened from the foul moral atmosphere of the cheap lodging-houses. In 1856 the eight German Missionary Societies (including that of Basel) had 143 stations and an income of $236,000; in 1876 they had 298 stations and an income of half a million. Home missions in their present organized form arose only seven years prior to 1856 ; they have since then spread over the land a vast network of institutions for the suc- cor of the tempted, the reclaiming of the fallen, the nursing of the sick, the shelter of the aged, and the reconciliation of classes socially estranged. It is not pretended that all these are the direct fruit of this Society's work ; yet there is no branch of this manifold activity with which it has not co-operated, as the Asylum, the Hospital, the Refuge, the Sunday School, the Deaconesses' Homes, and all the other institu- tions can abundantly testify. ' I know ' says Mr. Davies, ' the shadows of German 76 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. and Swiss religious life. They are deep and dark enough. New clouds even are visible, black as the blackest of those already on the sky. But behind the clouds there is light, and between them shoots forth the cheering ray. The glory which we see is glory not departing, but advancing ; and the Bible societies, our own at their head, are playing no unimportant part in accelerating the advance.'" v'S 'ft WITTENBERG : MARKET-FLACE, WITH LUTHER AND MALANCHTHON STATUES. It would have been interesting to visit Potsdam Palace and gardens, the Ver- sailles of Berlin, but a stronger attraction drew us to Wittenberg, a little town not to be passed by, seeing that beyond all other German cities it is associated with the work of Luther. There is another Wittenberg, generally for distinction spelled Wit- tenberge, between Hamburg and Berlin ; and this has sometimes been taken by trav- elers as the site of Luther's University, in which, also, according to our dramatist, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, studied once upon a time. We did not expect, how- ever, that we should be shown Hamlet's rooms, as Juliet's tomb is actually shown at Verona ; ^nd were simply intent therefore on memorials of Luther and his associate 77 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. Melanchthon, when we alighted at the little country station. The town was reached after ten minutes' walk along a pleasant road, in which is to be seen an oak, planted on the spot where Luther burned the Pope's bull. The town we found to consist chiefly of one long street, opening, about half-way up, into a wide market-place, which on the day of our visit was crowded by country people offering the produce of their farms and gardens. It was amusing to note their various costumes, and to listen to their lively provincial talk ; but our attention was soon fastened on two fine bronze statues, near each other, in the open space, each under its Gothic canopy; with admir- able fidelity and spirit portraying Luther and Melanchthon. On the pedestal of each is a characteristic motto, that on Luther's being a couplet of his own : Ist's Gottes Werk, so wird's bestehn, Ist's Menschenwerk, wird's untergehn. .J^^ /* r l» il ;f [^\^'IS u^ "• ' «^ H n ^ or ^Eb LUTHER S ROOM, WITTENBERG " If it is God's work, it will endure ; if it is man's work, it will perish " ; while that on Melanchthon's is the text of Scripture, " Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." At the end of the town we reached the Schlosskirche, a large building with a tower, plain and unpretending enough, but forever famous as the church on whose door Luther nailed, on the 31st of October, 1517, his ninety- five theses against the doctrine of indulgences and similar corruptions of the truth. That challenge from the brave young Wittenberg professor was the critical point in the Reformation. It would have been something to see the veritable doors to which the document was fastened, but these were destroyed in 1813 by the French ; and in place of them a pair of bronze gates have been set up, very finely executed, with the theses in the original Latin text engraved upon them. In the church were buried both Luther and Melanchthon, but we could not see their tombs, as the building was closed, a notice at the door stating that the keys might be had on applying at Luther's house, at the other end of the town, which we had passed in entering from the station. It is a pity that our excellent guide-books, Murray and Baedeker, had 78 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. L-s?-— -^^^^^r-fe omitted to mention this fact, as many visitors, like ourselves, might have only time to spare between one train and another. The apartments of Luther in the old uni- versity are kept much as when he occupied them, and, we thought, had a delightful air of quiet and "learned leisure," looking out upon a pleasant close, which might have been a quadrangle of one of the smaller colleges at Oxford or Cambridge. In the room where Luther wrote, his table, massive and worm-eaten, still remains, also his library chair, and in a glass case the jug from which he used to drink, a piece of embroidery wrought in gold thread by Catherine his wife, with a few MSS. and books. In the adjoining lecture-room is his professor's desk, on one side of which is his full- length portrait, on- the other, that of Melanchthon. These portraits are remarkably fine ; and the fidelity of Luther's is attested also by a cast of his head, taken after his death, and hanging up in one of these apartments. The University of Wittenberg exists no longer, having been incorporated, in 1817, with that of Halle. A theological college now occupies part of the building, while another is set apart as a school, from which, as we were standing in Luther's study, the voices of many children sud- denly rose in sweet harmony, singing a German chorale. .No- thing could have more beauti- fully fallen in with the associa- tions of the scene. A short railway journey brought us to Leipsic, one of the great centers of both com- mercial activity and intellectual life in Germany. Its fairs are famous all ovep the world ; but our visit was at a comparatively quiet time. Still the aspect of the narrow streets was one of busy life, beyond what we had yet seen, and the great book-shops in particular were very attractive. The Tauchnltz editions of English books are so famous all over the Continent, and are really so inestimable a boon to British travelers, that we had anticipated with much pleasure the opportunity of laying in a stock at their very headquarters. So, after some difficulty, we made our way to the place, only to find, to our disappointment, that the books there produced are not sold, excepting to booksellers. There is no shop bearing the name of Baron von Tauchnitz, though we had expected this to be one of the glories of Leipslc. It was something, however, to have visited the place from which this immense mass of English literature emanates ; for if we take the quality as well as the quantity of the issues into consideration, this admirable Baron is by far the greatest publisher in the world of English books. His thousandth volume, the New Testament, edited by the late Von Tischendorf, with the various readings of the chief ancient manu- scripts, is a book of the highest value, and one which, as there is no difficulty about its circulation in England, should be in every Christian household that speaks our mother tongue. Familiarity with this book will be, among other 79 AUGUSTINIAN MONASTERY, WITTENBERG. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. advantages, a most excellent preparation for the Revised Version published a few years ago. The Museum at Leipsic interested us chiefly by some fine Murillos, and by a splendid collection of engravings, historically arranged, and evidently deserving pro- longed study. For the rest, the sights of the town were soon exhausted ; nor is there anything very remarkable in its public buildings, except for the way in which the theater towers above everything else, in the very center of the place ; its terrace, in the rear, commanding some wide and lovely public gardens with a pleasant lake, which occupy the place of the old city ramparts, and must be a great attraction to the inhabitants. The front of the theater, with imposing Corinthian portico, looks RATHHAUS, LEIPSIC. upon the Augustus Platz, a vast open square, which to us looked very empty, and a great contrast to the picturesque and lively Markt-Platz in another part of the town, with its quaint old buildings, and gabled Rathhaus, with singular tower. But there are times when the Augustus Platz also teems with busy life. The great Easter fair brings to Leipsic the representatives of all the chief booksellers in Europe. And the " Christmas-Tree Fair," of more local and domestic interest, is a great sight for the visitor. A short railway journey took us from Leipsic to Dresden, traversing first the great plain, where, in October, 1813, the army of Napoleon was not so much defeated as overwhelmed by the forces of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, after three days' tre- mendous and sanguinary conflict. The Germans called the battle of Leipsic the Volkerschlacht, the " Conflict of Nations." A small iron obelisk marks the spot where the three sovereigns, who had rolled back the tide of invasion from Eastern Europe, met at the close of the memorable struggle. Few other monuments of the battle remain, save the tombs of one and another warrior in village churches, and the mounds that cover the nameless dead. 80 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. There are two lines to Dresden, one of them passing Meissen, an old town on the Elbe, where the " Dresden china " manufacture was first introduced, and is still carried on at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory — a place well worth visiting. The Albrechtsburg, the castle which commands the town from a rocky height, long the residence of the Saxon princes, has recently been restored. Our illustration shows it LEIPSIC : ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH. in its winter aspect. Beside it stands the cathedral, the finest Gothic church in Sax- ony, with a tower and spire two hundred and" fifty-four feet high. It was long the burial-place of the Saxon princes, whose monumental brasses are many of them exquisitely wrought ; among them being Ernest and Albert, the heroes of the Prin- zenraub, so graphically related by Carlyle. A Descent from the Cross, by L. Cranach, in the Princes' Chapel, introduces the portrait of Martin Luther. From the tower of the cathedral the view of the valley of the Elbe is magnificent. Dresden is in many respects one of the most attractive cities of Europe. Its external aspect is striking, especially when viewed from the bridge which separates the 83 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. Old from the New Town. The Elbe rushes swiftly hy. Toward the right towers the Roman Catholic Cathedral, or Court Church, with its heavy and somewhat ungraceful Italian ornamentation ; and beyond is the great pile of the palace build- ings ; while, farther still, but out of sight in our view, is the imposing theater; on the left a flight of steps leads to the Briihl Terrace, a charming promenade command- ing the river, behind which is seen the dome of the Frauenkirche, Our Lady's Church, where the national or Lutheran form of worship is now celebrated. For Saxony is remarkable'in this, that while the royal family is Roman Catholic the people are Protestant, There is a mutual understanding to tolerate each other ; although it cannot be said that the situation is accepted on either side without some uneasiness. In the upper part of the Old Town is the English church, with a pretty spire, the gift of the Goschen family. On the Sunday which we spent in the city there was a large congregation, made up to a great extent of residents, and of the young people who have come to Dresden for education. No city on the Continent offers greater facilities to English pupils of both sexes ; and in none is there an Eng- lish quarter more largely inhabited by families who have been drawn thither partly by the economy of living which here is possible, and partly by the artistic and liter- ary attractions of the place. For, as every one knows, the glory of Dresden is in its art galleries. These we may not attempt to describe ; it would only be to catalogue a series of world- famous pictures, which in engraving and photograph are familiar to all. The build- ing that contains the chief of these treasures occupies one side of the Zwinger, or Great Court, built in the early part of last century, in the florid rococo style, which was then the taste, and designed as the forecourt of a sumptuous palace, which was never completed. The pictures are arranged in a long series of rooms lighted from above, with side courts ; the effect being not to bewilder by a multiplicity of beautiful objects crowded upon the sight at once, but rather to carry the spectator on from one part of the collection to another, with ever-fresh wonder and delight. We went nrst, as perhaps every visitor does on his earliest visit, to the cabinet where hangs, alone, the masterpiece of Raphael, the Madonna di San Sisto., After all that has been said and written on this incomparable picture, it would be impertinent here to dwell upon its beauties ; only I must say, what thousands of spectators have no doubt felt before, that, however we may recoil from the associations of mistaken reverence and false worship which have attached to the Virgin Mother, as here por- trayed, none can resist the exquisite appealing beauty of the child faces that look upon us from the canvas — ^whether of the Holy Babe, who, if a painter can portray the Divine, is so depicted here ; or of the cherub countenances that gaze upward with simple and adoring reverence from the lower part of the picture. These two faces, in particular, seem to defy the efforts of all copyists — whether by painting, en- gi'aving, or photography — to reproduce. Before other world-famous pictures, also, we were fain to linger. There is the Notte of Correggio, where, in wondrous arrangement of light and shade, the manger of Bethlehem is illuminated, as by the glory of the Divine Child, while the dawn breaks over the Eastern hills. Here, too, by the same artist, is the small but lovely Recumbent Magdalen ; one of the most perfect pictures ever painted. Masterpieces of Paul Veronese are here — the Adoration of the Magi, the Marriage at Cana, and the Supper at Emmaus. Titian's Tribute Money is also in one of the cabinets, surely the noblest representation of the Saviour to which art has ever yet attained. 84 is- y^> 86 MEISSEN : CATHEDRAL AND ALBERT S TOWER. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. A multitude of pictures, of lower aim than these great, but after all, inadequate efforts to represent the Divine, hang around them on the walls, some painful and revolting, some, like those by Rubens, " of the earth, earthy," but many most beauti- ful. Van Dyck has his lordly portraits, though not perhaps in such number as in Munich ; Ruysdael has his landscapes ; Teniers, his too realistic groups of village boors. Holbein, Van Eyck, Albert Diirer, Gerard Dow, Rembrandt, and other great German painters are largely represented ; the white horse of Wouvermans continually appears. Nor are the chief Italian artists absent. Besides those already mentioned. Carlo Dolce is here with his St. Cecilia, Guido Reniwithan Ecce Homo, Leonardo da Vinci with a Holy Family ; not to enumerate others of equal or scarcely inferior name. A few of the moderns, also, are worthy to be mentioned with these L=-4s?''^ ^^^^MEh^3 DRESDEN : ENTRANCE TO THE ZWINGER, AND THE STATUE OF FREDERICK AUGUSTUS. great masters ; although it must be confessed that, as a whole, the galleries devoted to the later schools of art are disappointing. We were interested by a very elaborate painting of Julius Hiibner, representmg the disputation between Luther and Dr. Eck, at Leipsic, in 15 19. The principal figures here are grandly delineated, while the attitude and expression of the listen- ers on both sides strikingly indicate the various passions aroused by the contro- versy We were also much moved by a large picture, familiar through engraving, of The Woman taken in Adultery. Her attitude of crouching shame-the bearing of the cold, intolerant, and expectant Pharisees, the scorn of some bystanders, the halt- reluctant sympathy of others, and the gracious pity of Him who, reading all hearts, and forbearing to condemn, said, " Go, and sin no more," have surely never been more touchingly portrayed. It was with reluctance that we left the gallery, hoping to return, as to an inex- haustible feast. Other sights of Dresden, In themselves remarkable on various ac- counts-some, indeed, of great beauty and instructlveness-had to be much more 87 GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. briefly dispatched. Among them was the curious exhibition of wealth stored up by Saxon princes of former times, and now collected in the Green Vault. Probably there is no such collection of treasure in Europe brought into one view. Its value is said to amount to millions ; and the variety is absolutely dazzling. First we see bronzes of most exquisite finish, then innumerable ivory carvings, enamels, and mosaics ; gold and silver plate, massive and richly ornamented ; precious stones carved into the most various and fantastic shapes, jeweled watches, jeweled goblets, jeweled portraits; groups, figures, statuettes wrought in fine gold and silver, studded with gems; with emeralds, sapphires, rubies, pearls, and diamonds, set in chains and collars, wrought into sword-hilts, and artistically combined in a royal crown. The DRESDEN : BRIDGE OVER THE ELBE. riches, in truth, defy description ; if riches they can be called that lie idly there from generation to generation. The wealth is something to look upon once, with much admiration of a certain sort, yet without coveting. Other collections and museums of the city we must pass by — although the His- torical Museum, or Armory, is also in its way wonderfully fine, containing as it does a collection of weapons offensive and defensive from the ages of chivalry to the present time, not only. for war, but for the tournament and the chase. The collection of fire- arms, in particular, from the rudest matchlock of the fifteenth century to the finished rifle of our own times, is very noticeable. But if any one wishes to obtain a vivid impression of what war has become in our own time, nothing can be better than a visit to the barracks, which occupy an elevated spot overlooking the Elbe at a little distance northeast of the city. Range after range of stately buildings — a town in themselves — seem capacious enough to contain an army, yet they are not too large, even for that portion of the Saxon con- tingent which finds its headquarters at Dresden. There is probably nothing of the O S H O z N Ed S Q a o GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. kind in Europe so vast and complete ; it is but a symptom of the tacit conviction everywliere prevailing that force is master of mankind. The drive was beautiful, among wood-covered hills, and slopes covered with vineyards, with the swift Elbe below, and glimpses of the " Saxon Switzerland " in the distance. Crossing by a ferry, we re-entered Dresden by the Great Garden, or rather, park — for it may here be noted, once for all, that the " gardens," without which no large German town would be complete, are almost always what we understand by parks ; there being often few or no flowers, but walks, shaded by trees, and open lawns. This of Dresden is peculiarly beautiful, occupying about three hundred acres, and form- ing a pleasant resort for the inhabit- ants of all classes. There are restau- rants and cafes at intervals; and in summer a band plays here regularly, as at watering-places and holiday re- sorts in England.- The numbers of people that we meet, strolling in fam- ily groups or. seated in temperate en- joyment on a summer's evening round the cafes, is a pleasant sight to see ; and, I am bound to add, that although the favorite beverage at such times and places seems to be the beer of the country, in the tall, cylindrical, foam- ing glasses, which soon become so familiar to the sight, there is little or no apparent drunkenness. On the evening of a holiday I have met thousands enjoying themselves in this way, and have not seen one the worse for liquor. There is food for reflection here in all who desire the well-being of our own people. From Dresden, my way toward the southeast led through the region called Saxon Switzerland. The name is not very happily chosen ; partly because it suggests some connection with Switzerland proper, with which the district has nothing to do, and partly, also, because it creates expectations which will be disap- pointed. The little tract of country in question is not Switzerland ; it is not like Swit- zerland; but it has surprising beauties of its own. A few miles above Dresden the Elbe emerges from a gorge cut through a giant sandstone hilly range into the open plain, into which the hills almost suddenly sink down. But in the course of ages the range itself has been worn and cut away wherever the rock was softest, so as to leave hills standing, not in the shapes caused by upheavals, as in mountain regipns generally, but in every variety of wild and fantastic form. Beginning with the river itself, we ■see, on each side, bare precipices frowning sheer over the stream, or shelved, and sloping just sufficiently to retain the soil on which hanging woods are clustered. These precipices are pierced at intervals by ravines, down which torrents come roar- 91 DRESDEN : THE PAVILION, ZWINGER. GLIMPSES OF NORTHERN GERMANY. incr and leaping from the higher ground beyond ; every one of these glens, especially on" the right, or northern bank of the river, having a beauty of its own in the luxu- riance of herbage that springs among the tumbled masses of rock and in the woods that clothe the steep hill-sides. Then between these gorges the hill-range itself is broken into separate eminences, some standing sheer and columnar, others shooting up in slender pinnacles ; some, like the opposite heights of Konigstein and Lilien- stein, forming vast solitary hills with precipitous sides, and a table-land on the sum- mit. ' Here and there bridges have been thrown from peak to peak to facilitate access ; some still remain ; the ruins of others mark where robber lords of ancient times had their fastnesses ; one or two natural bridges, In romantic positions, unite neicrhborino- cliffs, and on one of the rocks, Konigstein, is a fortress which. It is said, precisely resembles the hill-forts of India. The tour of Saxon Switzerland may easily be made in three days, from Dresden and back, either by aid of the railway, which runs along the left bank of the river, with stations at the chief points of interest, or by the steamers which ply between Dresden and Schandau, where the chief beauty of the district ends. It will be neces- sary to explore the wildest ravines on foot ; and the pedestrian will make a point of ascending at least one of the highest hills for the sake of the wonderful panoramic view. Those already mentioned are perhaps the best ; but the Bastei, an immense rock overhanging the right bank, some distance lower down, Is the most frequented. There is a little inn at the top, from the belvedere of which the traveler commands a view absolutely unique in Europe, a vast amphitheater bounded by distant hills and Inclosing countless lonely pinnacled and castellated hills, some of shapes most grotesque, with gorges richly wooded between, and in the midst of them the broad and rapid Elbe sweeping in a great curve immediately below. The railway is carried along the left bank of the river for the greater part of the distance to Prague, diverging a few miles below that city to the Moldau, which Is a tributary of the Elbe. SAXON SWITZERLAND : THE PREBISCHTHOR, A COLOSSAL NATURAL ARCH. 92 VIENNA : ST. STEPHENS CATHEDRAL. 94 VIEW FROM THE CARLSBRUCKE, PRAGUE. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. THE first walk through Prague, after the journey from Dresden, more than revived the impressions of novelty and strangeness with which one lands upon a foreign shore. It seemed as though I had passed, at a step, from the Europe of to-day into the medieval times. The ancient gates and towers, the quaint houses, with their fantastic decorations, which line the narrow streets, the very footways,, wrought with blue and yellowish limestone into arabesque patterns, are all more like the reproduction of sixteenth-century pictures than anything we have seen m the. Europe of to-day. The language, too, aids the impression ; utterly unlike, as it seems in words and in construction to any of our western tongues. It was. absolutely unrecognizable. Ndmdsti for place (Platz), Most for bridge, Chram for cathedral, Vchod fdr entrance, and so on ; I had to give it up! I bought a. humorous paper, and tried, by help of the pictures, to understand the jokes ; but it was of no avail. ,11 • These Bohemians seem very proud of their language, too : I have hardly ever seen a place where inscriptions in the vernacular on shop fronts and walls were more abundant, or where there was a greater display-of placards of, every kind. A few lei- surely strolls through the streets of Prague would have almost served the purpose of grammar and dictionary; especially as several considerate, persons, had appended the German equivalent in a side translation. I suspect that this bi-lmgual method. 95 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. is becoming more prevalent ; but, as it has obvious inconveniences, it must end in on6 way. The weaker language must succumb, and by the law of survival of the fittest, the German will become universal in the Austrian Empire, as in thqse of the north- ern federation. As it is, the two languages are taught in all the nationa;l schools ; and every one above the poorest has to carry on business in both, a method which may make capital linguists, but is apt to be distracting. The sights of Prague are chiefly in the streets ; and these, to the stranger, are unfailing in their quaint attractiveness. There is nothing very picturesque in the costumes of the people, except, indeed, in the. dress of the police, a dark-colored long coat, with belt, and a plume of dyed cock's feathers in a dark felt hat. They stood about mournfully, as having little to do in a busy, good-tempered, and well-conducted population. The number of book-shops was remarkable, in every quarter of the town ; the photographs in the shop windows were literally innumerable, and at the time of my visit, from among the portraits of the Imperial Austrian house, loyally displayed by its loyal Bohemian subjects, there looked out everywhere the fair smil- ing features of the Belgian princess, Stephanie, whose happy betrothal to the Crown Prince had recently given a new turn to the old saying : Tu felix, Austria, nube. It is from the Carlsbriicke, the ancient bridge over the Moldau, that the specta- tor best apprehends how beautiful for situation is this ancient city. A gateway and tower guards each end of the bridge ; that shown in the cut at the head of the chapter forms the approach to the Kleinseite, or " Small Side," of Prague, opposite to the business part of the city, the Old and New Town. To the right, a steep hill is crowned by the imposing buildings of the old palace of the Bohemian kings, with the citadel and a great unfinished cathedral, dedicated to St. Veit, or Vitus. An ascent to the Acropolis of Prague, as this hill may truly be called, and a walk along the ramparts which inclose the Kleinseite, disclose some glorious views. The city' appears as in a rocky basin, through the midst of which the swift Moldau cuts its way ; towers and spires arise in all directions above the high-pitched roofs, and the summits of green hills beyond the city walls here and there suggest the memory of great names and historic deeds. There is the height whence Tycho Brahe explored ' the secrets of the heavens ; and there, to turn to a very different association, the hill where Ziska, the blind Hussite leader, bade defiance to the Emperor Sigismund. On a terrace beneath the palace walls are two small obelisks, marking the spot where the imperial councilors, Martinitz and Slawata, fell when thrown out of the window of the council chamber, at the bidding of Count von Thurn, by the infuriated Protestant deputies to whom they had communicated the emperor's intolerant decrees. Happily, the councilors fell in a soft place, and were not injured ; their secretary, Fabricius, who was flung out after them, escaped equally unscathed, and was consoled afterward by the title of Count von Hohenfall, which, it has been sug- gested, might be rendered into English, Earl of Somersault ; but the act was the immediate occasion of the Thirty Years' War, May 23, 1618. And as that memo- rable contest began, so it ended at Prague, 1648, with the unsuccessful attack on the city by the Swedish forces, who had mastered the Kleinseite, and were advancing to the bridge, which had been left unguarded, when a student from a neighboring uni- versity rushed out, lowered the portcullis, raised the alarm, and held the place until 96 a PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. the Imperialist troops could rally and drive back the Swedes. This event has its nionument, also, in the figure of a student, in seventeenth-century costume, set up in the court of the great Jesuit Clementine College, close by the bridge. In this city, almpst more than in any other, one lives over the great struggles of the past, especially in the various stages of the mighty conflict in which the rir % ' ' ^V' ' PRAGUE : STATUE OF CHARLES IV. Protestants and Romanists of Europe appealed with such varying success to the weapons of earthly warfare. The Reformers before the Reformation made here their boldest stand. John Hus was Rector of the Prague University, and here first taught the doctrines which he had learned from Wycliffe. After his base betrayal and martyrdom at Constance, 1415, followed in the next year by that of his friend Jerome of Prague, the standard of revolt was raised here by the* Hussites, under their blind leader John Ziska. He defeated the emperor beneath the walls of Prague, and bravely held his own until his death in 1424, For more than a hundred years the 99 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. Strife of opinions continued between the followers of Hus and the adherents of the Papacy. When the great Reformers of the sixteenth century arose, the influence of Protestantism became for a time permanent in Bohemia ; but in 1620 the Battle of the White Hill turned the scale in favor of the Papacy. The military genius of Wallenstein secured the advantage thus won to the imperial cause, and the ground thus lost was never regained, even with that great general's reverse of fortune. It was to Prague that Wallenstein, or, as he is here called, Waldstein, retired in 1630, when for a time banished from the emperor's favor, and here he lived in almost royal state. Wallenstein's Palace, in the Kleinseite, is still shown, and retains much of its former splendor. A hundred houses, it is said, were leveled to clear a space for the edifice ; the artists of many lands were summoned to decorate it ; the very stables were sumptuous with marble and gilding. Such were the consolations of adversity ; but the end soon came. The emperor found that the general was necessary to his cause, and once again summoned him to his side, less as a servant now than a master. The battle of Lutzen followed, when Gustavus Adolphus fell — the Protestant cause, though momentarily victorious, losing thus its most trusted leader. What follows in the history of Wallenstein is likely always to remain a mystery. Whether the accusation brought against him of treason to the emperor was just, and by whose secret orders, if by any, he was assassinated, are among the unsolved historical problems. From the death of the two great generals the war became an ignoble struggle ; ' the conflict of principles was succeeded by that of rival egotisms ; it is no wonder that Prague was never reclaimed to the cause of freedom. And so it is that this noble city, that may be called the very cradle of the Reformation, became and has ever since remained among the foremost, on all the continent of Europe, in its adherence to Rome. I was, however, much struck to find with what care the memorials of Hus are still preserved in the city which had thus practically disowned him. In the Library of the Bohemian Museum, among its greatest treasures, is the autograph challenge which Hus affixed to the gate of the University of Prague, offering to maintain against all comers the articles of his belief — an anticipation of Luther's Ninety Theses at Wit- tenberg ; the Jesuits' College contains many of his manuscripts, and, most curious of all, preserves a Hussite Liturgy of a later period, with illuminations illustrating partly the Gospel History, partly the life of Hus himself ; on one of the pages of which are three small pictures — Wycliffe striking the Light, Hus blowing the Flame, and Luther holding the blazing Torch. The college fathers point to these minia- tures with a smile, perhaps a whispered absit omen / They may point to the city without, which, faithless to its early promise, is " wholly given " now to Popery ; but there is a reality in the symbol which the world will one day prove ! As it is, the signs of the dominant faith are encountered everywhere. The great bridge contains between twenty and thirty statues and groups of saints, with a great crucifix in the center, bearing on its pedestal the inscription. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? At one end of the bridge is a singular group of souls in purgatory, more grotesque than impressive. But chief among the saints commemorated here is John Nepomuk, who, it is said, was flung from this bridge into the Moldau, in 1383, for refusing to betray the secrets of the confessional. His body, it is added, ' See Kohlrausch's History of Germany, ch. xxv. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. floated for some time on the surface with five stars hovering over his head. To commemorate the alleged miracle, there is a marble slab on the coping of the bridge, engraven with a cross and five stars. When I was in Prague the annual commemo- ration of this saint was about to be held, and the walls were covered with announce- ments of excursion trains, and various festivities in his honor. I was told that thousands of persons would visit the city ; that high mass would be celebrated in a temporary chapel on the bridge, at the place of his martyrdom, and that the crowds were usually so great as to prevent all traffic. All this, however, I could not stay to see; nor did I visit many of the sixty-two Romanist churches and chapels which Prague provides for its population of 170,000. The old Hussite church, the Teyn- (• 8>a> !>:' ^ft'":.-, ifi*' > ju >^ . V^4»J^g'.. jJtet-! HOUSE IN WHICH JOHN HUS WAS BORN (AT HUSSINETZ.) kirche, erected in the fifteenth century, and containing the tomb of Tycho Brahe, had, formerly, among its most prominent ornaments, a large gilded chalice, in token of the doctrine that the communion was to be administered to the laity in both kinds. After the Battle of the White Hill this was replaced by an image of the Virgin, which still remains. There are, however, still three Protestant churches in the city ; with eight Jewish synag9gues ; and those who care to penetrate through the narrow streets to the Jews' quarter, on the river side, a little below the old bridge, will find, among the sounds and smells of a swarming population, not a little that is curious and interesting. It is said that the Jews established themselves here before the de- struction of Jerusalem as slave-dealers ; buying, selling, and exchanging the captives taken by the Pagans in war. The authority for the tradition does not seem very satisfactory ; but it is certain that the settlement is an ancient one, and to this day the Jews have a Rathhaus, with magistrates and schools of their own. An old burying-ground, covered with dilapidated, moss-grown tombstones, bearing deep-cut Hebrew inscriptions and symbols, with little pebble-cairns cast. Eastern fashion, upon PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. every ledge, and the whole overgrown with crooked alders and intertwining brush- wood, is one of the most curious sights of Prague. But to exhaust the points of interest which crowd this most attractive city would be well-nigh impossible, nor was it practicable to visit every scene of his- toric interest in the neighborhood. I should much have liked to see the field of that Battle of Prague (celebrated so widely, at least in the piano-music of the last generation), won by Frederick the Great in 1757, when it seemed as though Bohemia must fall under the power of Prussia. At Kolin, however, not far off, the fortune of war was reversed, and the apparently irresistible monarch driven back finally from Eastern Eu- rope. Those who have seen the monu- ment of Frederick at Berlin, with its biographical bas-reliefs, will remember one, very finely executed, in which the king is represented as seated, after that defeat, in brooding melancholy, drawing with a cane upon the ground the plan of the disastrous battle. Art- other hundred years, and Kolin was to be avenged by Koniggratz. An evening stroll round the ram- parts of the Old Town appropriately closed my visit to this strangely fasci- nating ancient city. A band was playing some wildly plaintive Bo- hemian airs ; groups of people, re- leased from the day's business, were wandering in the gardens beneath the ramparts ; the towers of the city stood out grandly against the calm evening sky. All spoke of peace where in times past the hottest conflicts had raged ; and it was impossible not to think of the time when, without the cannon or the sword, the world's strife shall be composed, and truth's victories shall be won. A somewhat long day's journey brought me from Prague, by way of Kolin and Brunn, to Vienna. There was nothing very noticeable in the way, save the successive battle-fields which lay in, or near, the line of the journey. First, there was Kolin itself, where an obelisk on a neighboring height marks the Austrian victory ; then Koniggratz (or, as it is sometimes called from a neighboring village, Sadowa), where there are guides to show the different positions of the battle, as at Waterloo ; then Austerlitz, where the greatest of Napoleon's victories was won ; and, lastly, Wagram, where also he was victorious. The battle-field of Austerlitz is some twelve miles distant from Briinn, the capital of Moravia, prettily situated ipiS^^^^SSS -' tHE TEYNKIRCHE (OLD HUSSITE CHURCH) PRAGUE. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. at the confluence of two rivers, near the height on which stands the castle of Spielberg, famous as the prison of Silvio Pellico, as well as of the wild and turbu- lent Baron Trenck. The dismantled fortification is now the center of a lovely promenade and pleasure garden. Before reaching Vienna, the broad Danube is crossed, in the midst of low and marshy ground. The river at this point has nothing but its great breadth and mighty flow to make it impressive. It was of a pale, muddy color,, and was altogether a disappointment. I was to find hereafter that in its upper course it has beauties not to be surpassed even by those of the Rhin.e ; while in its BRUNN. descent it acquires all the magnificence that vastness can give. But I niust con- fess to a vanished illusion. Had I not somewhere or other read of the '^blue Donau " ? ' r 1 IT 1 ji 4. In Vienna the great sight is the city itself-a scene of busy life hardly to be surpassed in London or Paris. The general plan of the city is peculiar. The central part is surrounded by a series of broad, open_ spaces or "Rings often planted with trees, answering somewhat to the Parisian boulevards, but wider. , These take the place of the ancient fortifications, and are lined in many par s with the most sumptuous edifices, palaces, theaters, public buildings-either comp ete or in the course of erection. The Grecian orders of architecture still prevail and several of the incomplete buildings are of surpassing costliness and splendor- notablv the Hall of the Legislative Council, the Rathhaus, and the University - 1 withL a short distance' When these, and half a dozen structures on a corresponding scale are finished, they will form, with the New Opera a chain o buildings, I fhould think, unequaled in their style since the brightest days of PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. Greece and Rome. Still I could not but feel that the style is here out of place ; it was all cold, unimpressive magnificence. Beyond the Rings there lie a series of suburbs, in the aggregate much surpassing the city in extent ; they seem, indeed, to be regarded in a sense as separate towns, since at every corner we see not only the name of the street but the designation of the " Stadt " to which it belongs. The northern and eastern suburbs are separated from the boulevards by arms of the Danube, which unite near the northeastern part of the city and sweep round the inner boundary of the Prater — most beautiful of Euro- pean city parks, and the resort of gentle and simple alike. To draw a comparison from London, it is Hyde Park and Victoria Park in one, but with romantic beauties possessed by neither ; and at holiday times it affords a most lively and curious pic- ture of Austrian life and manners. In the city proper, all the main streets radiate to St. Stephen's Cathedral, which, VIENNA, FROM THE UPPER TERRACE, BELVEDERE PALACE. with its magnificent South Tower, forms the chief architectural glory of Vienna. Nothing can well be conceived more graceful in its proportions than this tower, which rises to the height of four hundred and forty-four feet, in a series of arches and buttresses regularly retreating, and wrought with the finest ela.boration. In walking round the exterior of the cathedral, it was curious to notice the tablets and monuments let into the wall, in almost every part, at a considerable height above the pavement. These originally faced a church-yard, which has long since been merged into the Platz. The interior of the building was chiefly remarkable for the great height of the nave and the splendor of the painted glass windows ; although in gen- eral effect it still yields to the incomparable Dom of Cologne. By way of contrast with St. Stephen's, I visited the newest of Gothic churches, the Votif-Kirche, hardly yet complete, erected by the Austrian people in gratitude for the escape of their late Emperor, Francis Joseph, from an attempt upon his life in 1853. The foundation stone of this church was brought, it is said, from the Mount of Olives, and was laid in 1856. Our engraving gives a general idea of the effect of the fine interior, which in some respects follows the plan of Cologne. 104 STREET IN VIENNA : WALL ANNOUNCEMENTS. io6 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. The museums and picture galleries of the city are very numerous ; and one, the Imperial Picture Gallery, may almost vie with that of Dresden. Three world- famous pictures, at least, are here, the Ecce Homo of Titian, Annibale Caracci's Christ and the Woman of Samaria, and Rubens's Refusal to admit the Emperor DER GRABEN, VIENNA. Theodosius to the Church in Milan. This last painting is very fine telling a grand story in a simple and noble way, and redeems the Rubens department from the vulgarity of thought and coloring which here, as elsewhere, too largely ch3.r3.ctGrizGS it But Vienna, after all, is best studied in the streets ; and no city can present more various types of character, jostling one another in one mighty crowd. It is a •' ■*■ 107 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. meeting-place of Eastern and Western Europe, and the observant visitor never for- gets that he is in the metropoHs, not of Austria only, but of Hungary. The " Gra- ben," a main street in the very center of the city, will be found full of interest at almost any hour of the day, while the shop windows, and especially the announce- ments on the walls (for which definite places seem permanently reserved), have a character all their own. I noticed that the custom, once so common in England, of hanging out signposts to denote the several trades, is still common in Vienna. As to what the city is religiously, I could only judge from superficial signs, as well as from the judgment of residents competent to form an opinion. With one of them, especially, I had a long and very interesting conversation. " The Viennese," it was remarked, "seem almost the more hopeless because of their attractive qualities. They are good-natured, kindly, even tolerant, but almost incurably superficial." " I had thought them especially bigoted," " Hardly so ; they value the excitements of their religion, and resent any attempt to dispossess them of it ; but it is not because they greatly care about their creed. The search after truth is a matter quite out of their line of thought." "How can they be reached?" " Perhaps through their love of reading ; this is a passion with all classes. But they must be amused." " Will they read stories with a Christian, evangelical moral ? " " Oh, yes ; or any lively, interesting periodical." " But how to get them to the people ? " " That is the difficulty, where colportage is forbidden, and none can sell printed matter without a license." The conclusion was that in Austria, as elsewhere, the endeavor must be to create an appetite for wholesome Christian reading ; and this once aroused, no priestly intolerance would be able to prevent its gratification. I asked to what extent the Sunday-school system had been introduced into Austria. " Not at all to the same extent as into Northern Germany. There is one good Sun- day-school in Vienna,' conducted amid many difficulties ; in Bohemia and Moravia the system is more hopefully extended. We have also a Young Men's Christian Association in the city, and this is doing some evangelistic work ; although the police difficulties in the way of holding meetings are almost insuperable." " Do you think, on the whole, that the native Protestant churches " are likely to carry on a work of evangelization?" "Hardly so; at least not until roused by some new impulse. They seem mostly content to be tolerated, and to hold their own. No ; I fear that the Hfe will not break out from that quarter. At present the one hope is in ' " It was only within the last few years that some Christian men had attempted, with varying success, to start, upon a small scale, Sunday-schools in the larger cities of Austria, and only in Vienna had a prolonged attempt been made. In 1873, the Rev. D. Moore and Count Bernstoff started a Sunday-school in a fourth-floor lodging. Sevdral of the schools were formed privately at that time, but all had ceased to exist. The first Sunday-school held in a public hall specially provided for such meetings was in 1875, at the Evangelical Chapel, in Vienna. The attendance varied for several years until 1877, when the number on the list steadily increased to nearly 300, with a regular attendance of about 160 children and 16 teachers. This movement was sharply watched by the priests, causing much trouble and annoyance to children and teachers. Although, some two months ago, a com- bined effort was made on the part of the priests and Roman Catholic School directors to crush the Sunday-school, the attempt had utterly failed, and it continued to exist to the present day. Many of the children had been threatened with expulsion from the day-schools by the priests, but still the parents persevered in sending them to the Sunday-school. There had been an earnest desire manifested in Vienna to form a Committee for Sunday-school work in Austria, and last year that wish was gratified in part at a Sunday-school Conference, where it was agreed to form what had been called the Bohemian and Moravian Sunday- school Society. One of its first efforts was the issue, in the Bojiemian language, of a Sunday-school Teacher's Magazine, for circulation in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and a large part of Hungary." — Speech by Rev. W. Priggen, of Vienna, at the Sun- day-school Union Centenary Conference, London, 1880. = According to the most recent statistics, the State religion of Austria proper, the Roman Catholic includes 804 in a thousand of the population ; the Greek Catholics, 117 ; Byzantine Greeks, 25 ; the Evangelical Protestants, 17 ; the remainder being made up of other sects. In the whole empire the numbers are 664 Romanist, no Greek Catholic, go Byzantine, and 104 Protestant. — Statesman's Year Book. 108 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. the press, and especially in the dissemination of the Scriptures, for which, of course, all other publications on- ly prepare the way." " Is the Bible read?" "It ,is difficult to say precisely; a good number of copies are sold every year." "What do you mean by a good number? " " Well, here is VOTIF-KIRCHE : VIENNA. HO PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. the memorandum for the year just closed of the British and Foreign Bible Society: 'Austria, Upper and Lower, 5519 Bibles. 22,159 Testaments, 8422 por- tions of the Scriptures— a total of 36,100; and for the empire at large, 23,032 Bibles, 68,714 Testaments, 24,491 portions— being a total of 116,237 aP'^rt from copies of the Scriptures supplied through other agencies.' And this in nearly twenty languages, the German and Hungarian, of course, taking the lead.' " Little could be added to these encouraging statistics; and the result of the conversation was to inspire much hope for the future of this great empire. A long night journey from Vienna brought me with the early dawn to the little town of Salzburg ; and sallying forth from the railway station, I thought that the world could contain but few pictures so beauti- ful. The town was still slumbering beside its swift river, Salza, rushing from among the distant Alps to the Danube. Morning mists were curl- ing upward from the richly wooded hills on one bank, and from the bare precipices on the other. Between these heights the castle-rock stood bare and stern ; while far up the valley snow-clad mountains had already bared their crests and whitely reflected the morning light. The hours that succeeded were full of charm. I climbed to the chief points of view that command the town, the Capucinbergwith its monastery on the right bank, the Monchbergon the left ; and as the day progressed and the town woke up to life, the scene acquired new richness of beauty, while the openings in the distant hills still suggested the wonders beyond. A local guide-book prepared for the use 9f our countrymen writes, with pardonable enthusiasm, if in imperfect English : " ' The sceneries of Salzburg,' Humboldt says, 'of Naples and Constantinople, I believe to be the finest in the world.' And no doubt, in regard to Salzburg, the opinion of this great author is well founded. Salzburg is an Eldorado for its magnificent scenery, and no man, subject to the charms of it, will ever forget the old houses, the venerable-looking old streets of the inner town, the proud fortress of Hohensalzburg, and all that grandly surrounded by a range of gigantic mountains, offers a view of delightful splendor. Tightly embraced by the Alpine Giants, the lovely grounds develop their charms to the astonished eye of the traveler, and in the midst of all, divided by the fresh waters of the Salzach, lies the town in silent grace. Turning to the opposite side, we see the fresh green Bavarian valleys, enlivened by many nice cottages, and we, not the less delighted, enjoy the agreeable contrast of the former scenes." Descending to the streets, which were reached from the Monchberg by a long flight of steps, I found, I confess, little that was very noticeable ; there is a large cathedral in a florid Italian style ; also an imposing fountain with v/ater streaming ' The number in 1877 was 144.376. VIENNA : VOTIF-KIRCHE. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. from the nostrils of bronze horses ; but more interesting was a statue of Mozart, and an inscription on the front of a house, near the river, notifying the fact that there the great musician was born. Germany is careful to note the birthplaces of its great men. At Hamburg there is a tablet to intimate where Mendelssohn was born ; at Leipsic, a similar memorial of his residence in that city ; and to leave any distin^ guished man without a statue or monument in his native town or village, would be regarded as strange indeed. gCET.nEL AT SCHONBRUNN, NEAR VIENNA. The cemetery, too, is beautiful. Quoting again from our local guide-book, " The poet Lenau says : Der fremde Wand'rer, kommend aus der Feme, Dem bier kein Gliick vermodert, weilt doch gerne Hier, wo die Schonheit Huteiin der Todten. Sie schlafen tief und sanft in ihren Arraen, Wohin zu neuem Leben sie erwarmen ; Die Blumen winken's, ihre stillen Boten. Translation : The wanderer, strange, coming from abroad, He, for whom no fortune here decays, yet stops enamored Here, where beauty is sole guardian to the dead. They sleep safe and sound in Beauty's arms, Where into new life she them enwarms ; The flowers hint it, their quiet messenger." As the name imports, Salzburg is the metropolis of the salt-producing district in Austria, or rather of its northern part ; the mines of Berchtesgaden and Hallein, at a little distance, being amongst the most considerable. These are well worth a 114 VIENNA : THE JEWS* QUARTER. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. visit. In some places (as at Northwich, in Cheshire), the salt is found in masses ; and the excavated galleries, gleaming with crystals, form a magnificent sight, especially when lighted up. But in most cases the salt is found only in combination with other minerals, and is extracted through the agency of water ; chambers being excavated at intervals in the rock ; and a mountain spring turned on until the chamber is quite full ; it is then closed, and the salt gradually finds its way from the veins of the rock in which it is imbedded, into the reservoir, where it dissolves, forming a strong brine. After an interval of weeks, or months, according to the character of the stratum, the reservoir is tapped, and the brine conveyed by pipes to salt works, where it is evap- orated in shallow pans, the salt crystalizing at boiling heat. A number of places devoted to this industry have their names ending with ^«//, evidently kindred with the SALZBURG CASTLE. Greek aki. One town at the foot of the Brenner Pass is called Hall without any prefix. The name of the Salzkammergut, a romantic region hereafter to be described, literally means " the domain of salt," and the district yields a consider- able revenue to the Austrian Government. From Salzburg many roads lead into the heart of the Alps, all of them rich in scenes of grandeur and beauty. The valley of the Pongau, with its ravines and torrents through the cloven rocks, is especially wonderful. But for the time my route took me altogether away from this mountain district to the city of Munich. The Alps were left behind, rising from the plain like a stupendous barrier ; the beautiful Chiemsee, the largest lake in Bavaria, was passed ; and over a perfectly level country I journeyed to the Bavarian metropolis, the environs of which, skirted, as it seemed, for some miles by the railway, rise straggling out of meadows and marshes without order or picturesqueness. The attention, however, is arrested near T15 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. the point of arrival by a modern building of fine proportions with a Doric colon- nade ; in front of which is a gigantic bronze statue of a robed woman crowned with laurel and holding a wreath aloft. This, I afterward found, was the celebrated Bava- ria — a statue sixty-one and a half feet high, on a pedestal of twenty-eight and a half more — a total of ninety feet. The wreath is in her left hand ; a sword in her right. The Bavarians are an intensely patriotic people, and the symbols denote that which they regard as the twofold honor of their country, military prowess and intellectual glory. Those who are curiously disposed may climb this wonderful statue by steps in the interior, and from apertures in the laurel crown may survey the whole city of Munich. The building in front of which it stands is called the " Hall of Fame," a kind of Walhalla dedicated to the famous personages of Bavarian story. MUNICH ; THE " BAVARIA AND THE HALL OF FAME. The nearer survey is full of interest, although hardly bearing out the enthu- siastic estimate of their capital by the Bavarians themselves, as the Florence of the North. " The Isar rolling rapidly " ' is not quite the Arno ; and in the flat surroundings of Munich, there is no Fiesole. Then, apart from this, the palaces and galleries of the Bavarian town, attractive as they undoubtedly are, can be regarded as no more than an imitation. To me at least the modern classic style of their architecture destroyed much of their effect ; and in the wide open places where they stand their aspect is dreary. Very anti- German too are the words by which the chief edifices are described. With such facility of compounding terms as their language pre-eminently possesses, why resort to the Greek for words which can never be less than barbarous to Teutonic ears. But let us enter the buildings themselves ; and, called by what- ' The Isar is nearly twenty miles from tlie field of Hohenlinden. Ii6 RAVINE IN THE PONGAU VALLEY, SALZBURG ALPS. Il8 PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. ever name, they are most attractive and beautiful in their contents. True, they are far below the Dresden Gallery, and do not even come up to that of Vienna ; but there is enough for wonder and delight, as well as for lengthened study. Again, I must not particularize, and the treasures of sculpture contained in the Glyptothek I must wholly pass by ; among the paintings in the Old Pinakothek, those which stand BAVARIAN HIGHLANDS : THE EARLY START. ou. mo. prominently in memory are the ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ four well-known pictures, and a senesof P" ^^ ''jj7„,f f „ Jeness 'a „d stately the former in sympathetic humor ; and the latter are '''\. interest of a different kind, the National Museum ;; -7;^^ ;-d ^.i- tor should omit a survey, however hurr.ed o '- -P^ ^/^^ in effect, placed ^^^ ;|:fera^:S^^d"lP«~r- M.imilia„strasse, and stand- PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. ing a little way back from a forecourt beautifully laid out with shrubs. The col- lection includes antiquities of every kind, domestic, industrial, military ; and the chronolop^ical order of classification is so admirably maintained that to pass from room to room is like reading successive chapters of richly illustrated history. Thus, one series of chambers displays the armor, weapons, and dress of the early times, from suits of chain-mail worn in the fourteenth century down to the very pistols and the celebrated cane of Frederick the Great ; another room contains models of ships, from the cumbrous galleys of fifteenth and sixteenth century warfare to the steamships of modern times. Church architecture and adornments are largely rep- resented, as are also the arts of carving in wood and ivory ; the manufacture and BAVARIAN HIGHLAND COSTUMES. Staining of glass ; MS. illumination and early printing, and much beside. The col- lection of tapestry is very large and valuable ; so is that of porcelain and ceramic ware. The whole is a complete index to the industrial and artistic progress of Bavaria, while other countries are not excluded. A little room, always crowded with curious spectators, contains a number of instruments of torture, including a rack, a spiked chair, a loaded scourge, thumbscrews, ducking-stool, and so on — means by which, in former ages, men attempted to check immorality, and in particular to sup- press differences of opinion on religious matters ! It was a mournful sight — yet one to enkindle thankfulness and hope. Looking on it, one felt that the progress of man- kind was not quite a dream. But perhaps the most unique part of this admirable exhibition is in the series of large wall-pictures carried on through all the rooms on one of the floors, and illus- trating the history of Bavaria from the earliest days to the present time. The paint- ings may not be in the highest style of art, but they are fairly well executed, and tell their story well. It was impossible to bestow on them more than a hasty glance, but that was enough to show the great value of such representations of a people's t'l .' 1 ll ,1 Hll. u 5 < Pi N H W W !myt.^«Kiiae PRAGUE TO MUMCH, BY VIENNA. annals, supposing it to be faithful to the main facts. The dullest could thus read the story of their country, and become familiar with great deeds. As I passed along, not a few groups of the humbler classes were studying the pictures with much in- telligent interest. Other countries might usefully take the hint, and South Kensington might give us in like manner on its walls an Illus- trated History of England. Another series of pictures, by all means to be seen, will be found in the lower rooms of the King's Palace, a stately building copied from the Pitti Palace in Florence, and in the very center of the city. These paintings are in fresco by Julius Schnorr, and represent the personages and events of the Nibe- lungenlied. In the Entrance Hall are portrayed the chief persons of the poem, Siegfried and Kriemhild, Gunther and Brunhilde, with the rest: then follow four rooms ; each are called after the chief events portrayed in it, the Marriage Hall, the Hall of Treachery, the Hall of Revenge, and the Hall of Mourning. The story is splendidly told ; and I could only regret that my acquaint- ance with the national epic of Ger- THE BAVARIAN HIGHl-ANDS : " GOOU-NIGHT many was too limited for the full enjoyment of these truly magnificent pictures. A visit should by all means be paid to the Munich Cemetery, often called (as every reader of Longfellow knows) " God's Acre," but more usually the '-Court of Peace." It is of great extent, and has some interesting monuments. But the most striking scene is one which will affect different visitors differently; from which some will shrink, but which I confess to me was strangely impressive. Between death and the funeral the bodies of the dead are placed here in a kind of corridor behind a glass screen, with the coffin lid so raised as to show the r , i j u sleeping form. There lie old and young in their last rest, often decked by lovincr hands with flowers ; while friends come wistfully or tearfully to bid fare- well." A stranger's eye might seem almost a profanation there; and yet it was hardly so ; no one was questioned, none interfered with ; the place seemed to forbid THE BAVARIAN HIGHLANDS : " GOOD-MORNING ! " PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. THE BAVARIAN HIGHLANDS : UPHILL. all idle curiosity : the spirit was one of mournful sympathy, and of sadness relieved by hope and peace. At a certain hour of the day (three in the afternoon at the time of my visit), the coffins of those to be interred are closed : the priest or pastor appears — for the cemetery is common ground to Prot- estant and Catholics ; and a short service is held at the grave. Such scenes, I am told, were once frequent in Germany ; but are now almost peculiar to Munich. " In that case," retorted an American visitor at a table d'hote, " I congratulate the rest of Europe ! " Others, on the contrary, who had visited the spot, thought the custom touching and beautiful. It was just beforeWhit- suntide that I visited Mun- ich, and every one was talking of the Passions-Spiel ■dX Ober-Ammergau, the decennial celebration of which was to begin on the following Monday ; making therefore, the Bavarian High- lands, with their picturesque scenery, and homely, simple- minded peasant population, for a time the most popular resort in Europe. Apart from this special at- traction, there is enough to repay the traveler who rejoices in de- viating from the beaten paths. The village lies in an elevated nook among the mountains, which here present no features of peculiar grandeur, save for the majestic Kofel surmounted by Its cross, so familiar, from its height and peculiar shape, to every visitor. But it is not for its scenery that this Highland nook is visited. Only too probably, before these pages can be read, the public will have become weary of the Ammer- gau " mystery." They will know all that pictures and descriptions can tell them 124 THE BAVARIAN HIGHLANDS : DOWNHILL. PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. of the marvelous representation ; thousands will have seen it, and will have formed their own conclusions. I will only say here, how unfortunate it appears to me that the performance should have become a world's wonder. It is felt, I think, by all who have visited and conversed with the peasants of the village that they entered upon their task with the most serious simplicity. They were like children in the matter ; or rather like our own ancestors, who in mediaeval times could take part in similar representations without conscious profanity or irreverence. The Passions-Spiel is to the Ammergau villagers a solemn religious celebration. It is the great event of OBER-AMMERGAU. their lives ; and concurrent testimony goes to show that the people of the district are pre-eminent above their fellows for honesty, sobriety, and purity of life. This childlikehess, however, can hardly be maintained amid the blaze of publicity into which they have been brought. The falseness of the idea on which their religious life as Romanists is based, and which leads to this and similar celebrations, must manifest itself, to the moral and spiritual detriment of the people. A fatal self- consciousness must, sooner or later, be awakened, and the whole thing will become a profanation. Still, as it was, I am bound to record, after having conversed with several of the performers, old and young, as well as with many visitors who were present on that memorable Whitsun Monday, that the impression on all minds seemed very solemn and tender. To one little child I said, " And what part have PRAGUE TO MUNICH, BY VIENNA. you taken to-day?" "Oh," she replied, with kindling eye, "I cried Hosanna!" The villager in whose house I was staying came in during the mid-day pause after the first four hours' stage of the performance. "Are you not going to eat any- thing?" asked a friend who was with me. " Oh, no!" was the reply, " I am so full of Geist, I cannot eat ! " All this, no doubt, is upon a level far below the highest. I can understand and sympathize with the objection taken by many to the treatment of sacred subjects and personages by any form of art. Painting, poetry, music, all fail to express that which is highest and deepest in our souls. Hence there are deeply earnest and spiritual Christians who cannot endure at all the pictorial repre- sentation of the Saviour, in the days of His earthly life, much more upon His cross. To all such, these living pictures at Ober-Ammergau must be unspeakably repellent. But perhaps a larger charity would not refuse to sympathize with those who may need such material aids, and are yet upon the lowest rounds of the ladder that leads from earth to heaven. These simple people— who can tell ? — though nursed in superstitious forms of belief, may be led through their very attempt to realize the outward facts of the Divine story to a perception of its heavenly meaning ; and then, how thankfully will they discard the picture-book which so dimly guided their first thoughts to Him ! Some picture-cards, with Bible texts in German, issued by the Religious Tract Society, with which one of my fellow-travelers, an excellent Canon of the Church of England, had provided himself, were most eagerly received by the villagers, old and young, and were afterward seen in many homes. Tracts might have been rejected as sectarian or heretical, but the pure Word in this form was only welcome, and, it may be hoped, will do its silent work. Whitsunday will long be remembered, I doubt not, by many visitors to Ober- Ammergau. In the morning a goodly company of English and American Christians assembled in one of the largest rooms in th,e village for united worship ; and together celebrated the Supper of the Lord. To allay possible prejudice, the parish priest had been asked whether he would at all object to such a gathering. On the contrary, he was most happy that it should be held. It was afterward resolved, I may add, that the offerings collected at the service should be placed in his hands for the poor of the place — a proof of goodwill from Protestant visitors which seemed to touch him and others in the village very deeply. In the evening we reassembled for united prayer, when our friend the Canon preached an exquisite sermonette, appro- priate both to the day and the occasion, on " walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." We joined in Miss Auber's beautiful hymn. Our Blest Redeemer, ere He breathed His tender last farewell, A Guide, a Comforter bequeathed, With us to dwell, and united in the earnest prayer that those who were to be reminded during the ensuing weeks and months, in their own vivid way, of the history of Redemption, might understand their personal need of a Saviour, and give their hearts and lives to Him. But none the less, for all these happy and sacred associations, do I regard it as a serious misfortune that the great tide of tourists has been turned in 1880 to Ober- Ammergau. 126 ^H> ■|iil I 1 •■1 ^'--. a; N o <: Id z, z o 0! i^ tn n z o CO r' ^ /^^/y * •«■ ill ^ -' \^ . ''1.1' i»^V^: ^-* ^"^ SCHLOSS-TIROL ; NEAR MERAN. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. SWITZERLAND, as every one knows, has its "Regular Round"; the ways in the Tyrol are less beaten, and the traveler in search of the picturesque has an almost boundless diversity of choice. Nor can it be said that one part of this moun- tain region is so far beyond others in beauty as to claim a visit at the sacrifice of all the rest. The Eastern Alps have no Oberland, no Mont Blanc. Nor are there here the lakes that make every part of Switzerland so glorious ; although the Traunsee, in the Salzkammergut,, and the Konigssee, south of Salzburg, are of scarcely inferior attraction. The Tyrol is emphatically a mountain district ; " the great granitic backbone or framework of Europe runs entirely through Tyrol from west to east. It is flanked on both its northern and southern slopes with a zone of slate' rocks, which are in turn overlapped by a calcareous zone ; but as a general rule the central granite overlaps the flanking ridges. It forms several knots or groups of mountains, and sends off several secondary chains north and south within the boundaries of the land, which hence is composed of little else but mountains. It is traversed by two principal valleys, that of the Inn, in the north of the central chain, that of the Adige, to the south of it ; to which may be added the long trough between the mountains, formed by the union of the Pusterthal and Eisack valleys." To this succinct summary, it may be added that all through the Alpine region to the south of the Pusterthal and east of the Adige, comprising also the " Venetian 129 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. Alps " of Italy, there occurs the singular formation known as Dolomite, from the name of the French geologist, Dolomieu, who first described it. The dolomite mountains are unlike any others in the world. They stand sometimes like vast obelisks or towers splintered downward ; often in serrated ridges, with sharp peaks shooting into the air, high above the line of perpetual snow. They are white and barren, there are no rounded shapes or gentle slopes on which to rest the eye ; they are often imposing, fantastic, hardly beautiful. Their structure is magnesian lime- stone, but with these two great points of distinction from mountain limestone generally : first, the strata are upturned, the rock set on edge, as it were ; and next, the structure is crystalline, as though some great and sudden heat had penetrated the pores of the rock, at the time of its upheaval. By what mighty catastrophe the effect was produced is a question for geologists ; perhaps it can never be wholly solved ; meanwhile, a visit to this region, wild and solitary as it is, towering above a ST. CHRISTOPH, ON THE ARLBERG ROUTK. country studded with fair, verdant oases, and dotted over with charming villages, forms one of the most delightful excursions that the mountain land of Europe can furnish. Like most other travelers, I entered the Tyrol by Innsbruck, its beautiful metropolis. This may be done either by way of the Lake of Constance, starting from Lindau, a fine mountain excursion, by rail as far as Bludenz, thence over the Arlberg, striking the Valley of the Inn at Landeck ; or by Immenstadt and Kemp- ten, thence by the pass and fortress of Ehrenberg. Near this route is also the beau- tiful castle of Hohenschwangau, a summer residence of the King of Bavaria. But my way to Innsbruck was by rail from Munich, a route sufficiently delightful. At first it lay over the Bavarian plain, where the fields, undivided by hedges, already gave rich promise of harvest ; and the farm-laborers, including many women, who seem in many places here to have the hardest and roughest work assigned them, were busy everywhere. I noticed the village spires, as numerous as in a Northamp- tonshire landscape ; and the snug homesteads on the open plain told of an industrious, well-to-do rural population. At length the line of Alps seemed suddenly to rise 130 ^' . •• r V ' ft *- 132 DOLOMITE MOUNTAINS : THE DREI ZINNEN. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. before the eye— a majestic barrier towering sheer above the level country. We entered at a broad opening where the Inn comes forth into the plain, a broad majestic flood after its long course among the hills, and pursued our way between grand mountain walls on either side, covered in their beautiful lower slopes with forests of pine and beech. Ancient castles, some in ruins, and upon many a wooded rocky knoll, on the lower heights, show how important the pass was once esteemed for purposes of defense. But the signs of busy industry are more prominent now than those of warfare. At Hall there are large salt works ; on the hillsides are modest, yet substantial mansions, suggesting commercial prosperity. The snow-crowned ^i INNSBRUCK. mountain heights grow bolder and more precipitous as we advance. The opening to the Zillerthal, with its distant glaciers, is seen to the left. Right in front are the dark and threatening precipices which overhang the Brenner. But at length the Inn is crossed ; a long curving viaduct spans the valley, for all the world like the London and Greenwich Railway, the train swiftly traverses it, and we are in Innsbruck. One thing here surprised me. When we are told, as every one who describes Innsbruck tells us, that the mountains are so close that they seem to look down into the streets, the inference is that the air of the place must necessarily be confined and relaxing. Nothing could be a greater mistake. It is true that thte sun-blinds out- side every window speak of summer heats ; but the double windows equally suggest much winter cold and heavy storms. The climate, no doubt, is changeable ; but at 133 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. the time of my visit, through clouded or sunny spring days alike, the air was glori- ously fresh and exhilarating. In fact, the mountains are not near ; as the pedestrian will soon find, if he starts forth, as many are tempted to do, for a stroll up their sides. They are miles away, and it is only their great height and steepness which make them seem to overhang. The ascent to the little hill of Amras, where stands an old castle — an easy walk of about an hour — places the spectator in the midst of a magnificent amphitheater of snow-flecked limestone heights, guarding a INHABITANTS OF HIGHER ALPS. richly verdant valley, dotted everywhere with villages, and the broad river running swiftly by, with the Brenner railway just visible between the towns of Innsbruck and Hall. No introduction to the beauties of the Tyrol can be better than this charming view. Returning to the town, we find in the Ferdinandeum a small but well-arranged museum illustrating the history, products, and manufactures of the Tyrol. There are some good paintings by Tyroiese artists, and many fine specimens of wood-carving, while the mineral and floral treasures of the region are very completely displayed. The great salt industry of the Hall district contributes several specimens, and illus- trations of the processes employed. But even more attractive to the majority of visitors are the few treasured relics of the Tyroiese patriot Andrew Hofer, the village 134 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. innkeeper, whom his fellow-countrymen called to their head in their great insurrec- tion against Napoleon in 1809, and whose memory is passionately honored still as 'yy^^ ^ ^tC) .jr:r^& 'r^M^liS^ '*' \^atei^s^ that of a m^artyr to the cause of patriotism and freedom. The monument of Hofer in the Hofkirche shows the man as he must have been, a plain, honest countryman, with massive, determined face. His statue represents him standing with his rifle slung over his shoulder, while one hand grasps the banner of his fatherland. Opposite to this noble memorial is a monument surmounted by a crucifix to his Tyrolese comrades who fell in the struggle, with the inscription, " To its own chil- dren who fell in freedom's battle; their grateful father- land" ; and on the pedestal of the cross : " Death is swal- lowed up in victory." In this same church is the wonderful cenotaph of ' the Emperor Maximilian the First, occupying almost the whole of the nave. The first effect, on entering the edifice, is somewhat startling. On each side of the aisle, upon small pedestals ra.sed only a few inches above the floor, stands a line of gigantic bronze figures, men and ■^ 135 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. women, warriors, kings, and queens, all in their armor, or robes of state. They were all cast in or near the former half of the sixteenth century, and are intended to represent the worthies of Europe down to that period ; all standing, as in grim homage, about the tomb in which the remains of Maximilian — are not ! Clovis of France, Rudolph of Hapsburg, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Arthur of England, are among these efifigies ; with others, nearer to Maximilian's own time. The figures are twenty-eight in number, including two which face the nave, on either side of the choir. In the midst of them is the marble mausoleum, eight or ten feet above the floor, surmounted by a bronze statue of the emperor kneeling ; and in the four sides of the tomb, which is surrounded by an open gilded screen, there are twenty-four ANDREW HOFER S HOUSE IN THE PASSERTHAL. bas-reliefs of fine Carrara marble, arranged in two rows and protected by glass, rep- resenting successive stages in the life of Maximilian from his marriage in 1447 to the defense of Verona against the French in 15 16. These tablets are mostly in excellent preservation, and both for their artistic and their historical value deserve most careful study. In one of them, the Battle of Guinegate, 1515, our own Henry VIII is introduced. The fidelity of history, it must be owned, is in some instances sacrificed, in order to bring together great personages connected with the story. A word must be added as to the remarkable cleanliness and even elegance of this beautiful little town. The principal streets are broad and stately, the " Platze" are well kept ; the shops, and especially those of the booksellers and photographers, are well stocked and most attractive. The signs of an educated community are on every hand ; Innsbruck, in fact, is a University city, the instruction being absolutely gratuitous, and exhibitions to a considerable amount being awarded to the most 136 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. Verily, the Tyrolese have good cause to be proud of th eir successful students little metropolis. Two roads lead to Botzen from Innsbruck. One follows the course of the Inn as far as Finstermiinz, on the Swiss frontier, thence ascending southward, leaving the valley of the Engadine to the right hand, and descending to Meran, past the foot of the Stelvio Pass. No excursion can be more superb, especially where the Ortler Spitze, the grandest snow-peak in the Tyrol, if not in Europe, is full in view. The Stelvio itself is unquestionably the grandest mountain high road over the Alps. It is to be deplored that, through the competition of shorter routes, this incompara- ble road is likely to become neglected. Recent travelers in the early spring describe it as being in parts even dangerous, from the effect of winter avalanches and torrents. When the St. Gothard and the Simplon passes are both crossed by railway, and their grandest points, like those of Mont Cenis already, are lost in tunnels, it is to be hoped that the Stelvio road will remain intact, to show our children how grand and inspiring a thing it once was to cross the Alps ! With all the magnificence of the Finstermunz Pass, however, only the few can be found to traverse it. The majority of travelers will always choose the easy route — and it is very easy — over the Brenner. This, also, has beauties of its own. It mounts among grandly swelling hills clothed with pine forests, while every opening between the heights discloses snow-crowned mountain peaks in the distance. The railway never reaches the perpetual snow line ; Brenner itself is but a kind of open moorland, so sharply dividing the two valleys that the fountain-head o.f the Sill, the tributary of the Inn, by the side of which our upward course has for the most part lain, is but a few yards distant from that of the Eisack, which we are now to accompany downward. The descent is very gradual, and the railway makes some mighty curves ; a party of our fellow-travelers alighted at one station and laughingly rejoined it at the next, after a journey to us of some miles — to them a pleasant run down a mountain path. Perhaps the grandest part of the whole journey is when the railway enters a long gorge inclosed between vast porphyry rocks with great co- lumnar precipices, between which the river, the post road, and the railway have hardly space to pass. In fact, there are places where the railway has no room at all, and cuts the knot of the difficulty by diving into a tunnel. Above these precipices are broad table-lands, with woods, pastures, and many a village, of which now and then we obtain a glimpse. Castles, some dismantled, others still strongly fortified, stand at intervals along the heights ; and it is easy to understand how the valley might be 137 ANDREW HOFER. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. made impregnable to the invader. Here, too, we hear of Andrew Hofer's stand, and of his victories, until diplomacy and treachery brought about an overthrow which could never have occurred in fair fight. On reaching Botzen, the traveler well may ask whether he is yet in the German Fatherland. It is even so, as every Tyrolese would tell him. As I passed from the train, the distant reverberation of rifle-practice among the hills fell upon my ear, and in an evening walk outside the town I meta party of volunteers, or regular soldiers — I could not decide which — -jodeling'' melodiously as they kept time to their music. Yes, we are in Germany still ; and yet it is Italy. Gradually, as we have passed downward, the hillsideshave become clothed with vines: the chestnut, the fig, and even the olive have appeared. In the garden of the hotel where I take up my quarters there are growing the palm and the lemon ; and my evening walk leads past low-trellised vines, after the fashion so familiar in Italy, now in the full glory of their spring leafage. But the chief interest of Botzen is that now for the first time we come face to face with the wonderful Dolomite for- mation to which reference has already been made. I shall not soon forget my first view of these marvelous mountains, seen in the distance like a gigantic wall, with splintered pinnacles on one side of it, touched with crimson splendor by the setting sun, then suddenly becoming white, bare, almost ghastly as the light faded. The mountains thus visible are the Schlern and the Rosengarten groups ; and nothing can be more striking than the contrast between their white stern bareness and the smiling beauty of the hills that form the foreground. But we have not yet reached the German limit ; and before we retrace our steps — for not for us now is it to enter Italy — there is one other city of ancient fame at which we must at least steal a glance. This is Trient, better known as Trent, the scene of the famous Council, which for more than three hundred years has given tone and direction to Roman Catholic belief. The city is worth a visit for its own sake, notwithstanding the long and dreary level which separates it from Botzen. The city of the thirty towers — -whence its name — still retains its ancient characteristics. Most of the towers are standing to this day : the embattled walls remain, almost perfect ; the rocks which surround it are its natural fastnesses. It was a place where in the troubled days of the sixteenth century the north and the south might safely meet ; and accordingly the great Council held its assemblies from 1545 to 1563 without molestation. All other associations of Trient must yield to this in its peculiar kind of interest ; and accordingly, fine as is the cathedral, my steps were rather directed ' Singing a sportive music, with gay alternations in pitch and rhythm. 138 TOMB OF MAXIMILIAN. 140 ON THE FINSTERMUNZ PASS. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where most of the sessions of the Council were held, and where still may be seen, when, for a consideration, the curtain is with- drawn, the rude portraits of the cardinals and patriarchs, the archbishops and bishops, the abbots and professors — four hundred and thirty-eight in all — who made that bold attempt to fetter human thought to the end of time. There is a monument to the Virgin, erected in 1855, to celebrate the tercentenary of the Council : one looks at it with a curious feeling as to what may be the issue of men's thoughts and inquiries in the next three hundred years, even within, the bosom of the "infallible" Church! Trient, with its soft Italian climate, is a place in which to dream : but the visions of three centuries ago are not those which flit before the mind, even of the most cred- uluous, to-day. We have not yet reached the Italian frontier of Germany, but it is time to retrace our steps. Already nearly all that is characteristic of the Fatherland has been lost or obscured — save, indeed, the spirit of the people. Even in Trient they do not forget, nor will they suffer others to forget, that they are Tyrolese. Still, the national character, as the national scenery, is best discovered farther north ; and I retrace my steps, therefore, a little distance up the Brenner, to turn eastward along the Pusterthal, both as giving easiest entrance into the Dolomite district, and as affordino- to the observer some of the most characteristic studies of these mountain people. The line diverges eastward at Franzensveste, passing through the works of an imposing fortress, the Ehrenbreitstein of the pass ; then entering a long and fertile but somewhat monotonous valley that lies like a vast trough between the mountains. Slightly ascending for a time, by the bed of a mountain stream, the Rienz, we pur- sue our way at a rate which gives us ample leisure to admire the scenery. From time to time, on the south side, majestic Dolomite peaks appear, especially at the head of the valley, where at Toblach the Val Ampezzo opens up toward Italy. At this point the scene is truly magnificent ; the giant obelisks and ridges of bare stone, flecked with snow, contrasting with the dark pine forests on the mountain sides beneath ; the mountains on the north side of the Pusterthal, which here broadens into a kind of table-land, are richly picturesque, while up the southern valley dark 141 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. heights frown over a sohtary little lake. At Toblach, at the meeting of the val- leys, a handsome, Swiss-looking hotel was in course of erection or enlargement at the time of my visit ; from this point there is a capital carriage-road, by Cortina and the Val Cadore, Titian's birthplace, through the heart of the Dolomite scenery as far as Conegliano, where the railway is joined at a distance of thirty-six miles from Venice. The distance from Toblach to Conegliano is about one hundred miles ; but if the Dolomite mountains are the traveler's aim, and he does not care to go on to Venice, Cortina will be an excellent halting-place ; and excursions can thence be made to every part of this most remarkable district. It is easy to see that this route, at present little known in England, will become a familiar one when only the traveler's wants are met, as is so admirably done in Switzerland, by a chain TRIENT. of good hotels. At present, I am bound to say,, the accommodation is in general very homely, although almost everywhere through the Tyrol the inns are scrupu- lously clean. At Toblach, as we have seen, every possible requirement of the tourist is likely to be met. Many another excursion among beautiful and picturesque scenery may be taken by the valleys south of the Pusterthal : but that to Heiligenblut, in a northward direction, is even grander. I was not able to take it myself : but some fellow-trav- elers, who spent two or three days in the trip, starting from Lienz, described it as surpassing any other in the Tyrolese region in every characteristic of mountain sub- limity. The drive, for almost twenty miles, along a somewhat rough road, in a country einspanner, was not a difificult one, crossing the Iselberg, a low ridge that separates the Tyrol from Carinthia, and commanding southward a fine view of the Dolomite mountains. After a. short descent, the road, winding upward by a moun- tain torrent with some striking waterfalls, discloses scenes of increasing beauty until the village of Heiligenblut is reached, and the Gross Glockner, so called from the 142 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. bell-like shape of its graceful dome, appears in all its majesty— a pyramid of dazzling snow with dark rocks projecting on its flanks, and other mountain peaks surround- ing ; while the vast Pasterze Glacier descends into the valley, giving rise to the river Moll, by which beautiful mountain stream the lat- ter part of the route has lain. The glacier is still better seen, and the group of mountains more glori- ously disclosed, from a height to be reached by a rough walk of four hours, and named, after an im- perial visit in 1856, the "Franz Joseph's Hohe." This view may justly be classed with those from the Montanvert, from the Gorner Grat, and from Miirren ; though differing from them all, as they do one from another. The mountain peaks in their white majesty form a magnificent group, and the gla- cier lies immediately below, divided into two parts by a stupendous ice-fall — a " motionless, silent cat- aract." The grandeur and variety of the prospect came as a surprise to those who had been familiar chiefly with the Alpine world as seen in Switzerland ; and much wonder was expressed that a dis- trict so rich in all the elements of the sublime should be so compara- tively little visited by Englishmen. Undoubtedly, it lies somewhat out of the beaten track. The Glock- ner range, and its near neighbor and worthy compeer, the Gross Venediger, have until recently been among the most difficult of access of all the giants of the Alps. The way taken to them has generally been along the Upper Salzach valley, the Pinzgau ; ascending then one or other of the wild glens terminating in the glaciers which descend from these mountains ; a task not to be attempted by any but the hardiest pedestrians, accustomed to glacier walking. The Pusterthal railway now makes access easier, by enabling the traveler to attack these mountains, so to speak, in flank ; and certainly 143 THE EGGENTHAL, SOUTHEAST OF BOTZEN. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. no excursion can be taken more abounding in all that can astonish and delight even those who are most familiar with Switzerland. The region will undoubtedly become more familiar to our summer and autumn tourists : and then its great desideratum will be suppl-ied by the provision of decent mountain inns. As it is, the accommo- dation, where there is any, is of the poorest. It might be added that there is yet another way, easier than any of the fore- going, although, as I had no opportunity of testing it, I can only describe it as described to me. By this route a view of these grand scenes may be obtained at the cost of three days' not difficult walking, or one day's rough drive and two days walk, from the Bruneck Station, also on the Pusterthal line. The route lies first by a practicable carriage road up the valley of Taufers, beyond which village the copper mines of the district give employment to a numerous population, whose hamlets dot the hill-side, while in many places the unsightly heaps of refuse from the ore show the nature of its industry. The river Ahren waters the valley, which after some time contracts, and the road steeply as- cends between scenes of the richest and most varied beauty ; the glens which open up on the left hand continually disclosing the snowy summits of the Zillerthal range, while on the right and in front the mighty masses of the Gross Venediger group from time to time appear ; espe- cially of the Dreiherrnspitze, from the chief glacier of which the Ahren issues. At nightfall the traveler reaches the high- est group of houses, the village of Kasern, where he will find homely quarters, unless he had elected to stay at St. Valentin, a somewhat more inviting village, a little lower down. In the morning the course of the torrent is ascended by a rough, rocky track for about two hours and a half, near to where it breaks from the glazier, when the summit of the pass is attained, eight thousand nine hundred and ninety-four feet in height. The way lies over rocks, with snow patches interspersed ; the glacier world seems to surround the traveler on every side, groups of blasted pines form the foreground of the scene, and the roar of torrents fills the air. The Tauern Thorl is traversed until the downward slope is reached. Then a very steep descent leads by the Windbach, the Western branch of the Ache, the main feeder of the Salzach ; the torrent is crossed where the western and eastern branches meet, and for eight or nine miles the path continues downward, on the right bank of the Ache, amid the most magnificent scenery on both sides, to Krimml, where another night should be spent, as some hours ought to be devoted to exploring what has been called, with hardly any exaggeration, the finest waterfall in Europe. That this astonishingly grand cascade is so little known to English tourists, can only be explained by the great difficulty of access to it. It is a weary hour's walk from Krimml to the cascade, and another hour is necessary to climb to the upper and finest part of the fall. But when once attained, the sight repays all fatigue. First, in a sheer leap of one thousand feet, the stream precipi- 144 TYROL : COUNTRY WAGON. 146 TAUFERS. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. tates itself over the rock, then after a brief pause in a deep and seething caldron, it thunders down in a second fall over wild and tumbled rocks, the channel bordered by moss-clad precipices and overhanging pine trees, while clouds of spray arise, and in the sunshine sparkle with countless rainbow hues ; then, flowing on for a while, the stream gathers strength for a final plunge, and widening, dashes down another rocky staircase into the abyss below. In the three falls, together, the torrent descends two thousand feet ; and the dark pine woods which clothe the gorge, with the rocks, some moss-grown, some black and bare, in contrast with the white foam of BRUNECK. the hurrying waters, as seen in the sunlight of a fair afternoon in May, combined to make a picture never to be forgotten. From Krimml, the traveler finds a comparatively easy way through dark pine forests to the head of the Gerlos, and down the course of that stream to Zell in the Zillerthal ; from which there is a communication by diligence to the railway between Kufstein and Innsbruck. There is hardly a mountain walk in Europe, within the same compass, as those who have taken it agree in saying, which from the varied grandeur of its mountain and glacier scenery, and its glory of forest and of waterfall, leaves on the imagination a more ineffaceable impression than this three days' excursion from Bruneck to Zell. My own route, however, was eastward from Lienz, into Carinthia and Styria. The border of the Tyrol was crossed soon after leaving Lienz ; and thenceforward 147 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. for many miles the way lay along the valley of the Drave, the source of which had been passed at the summit of the Pucterthal near Toblach, but which soon widens into a beautiful river. As we descend '^ the valley the scenery becomes softer, "^^ still retaining, however, something of its wildness, with fine occasional views of Dolomite crags and snowy summits until Villach is reached, " the town of waters," so called from its hot springs, or else from the confluence here of the Drave with the Gail, another consider- able stream from the southwest. The mountain range which separates the two valleys, the Drobatsch Alp, here sinks almost abruptly down to the plain, and its ascent affords some magnificent views, which make it worth the tr4ve]- er's while to stay for a day at this little Carinthian town. Here, too, are some noteworthy historic memories ; for it was here that the Turks who, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had been the terror of South- eastern Europe, received a final blow from the Carin- thian army, aided by re-en- forcements from the Em- peror Maximilian. The battle of Villach, fought in 1492, has some claim, in- deed, to rank with that of Tours — which had driven back the Saracen from Western Europe seven cen- turies before — among the decisive battles of the world. Ten thousand Turks, and seven thousand of their op- ponents, fell in the sangu- inary encounter; and the mound raised over the bodies of the slain marks the site of the battle to this day. For a time, we now quit the banks of the Drave, reaching the shore of a charming lake, above which the railway runs for some miles. The country is beautiful, reminding me of the loveliest 148 KRIMMLER FALL. THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. parts of Devonshire— save that women were working everywhere in the fields, and seemed in many places to have the hardest part of the toil, the " Carin- thian boors" lounging at their side! After a time Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, was reached, in an open, smiling plain ; then, after a long run through a richly undulating country, the Drave, which had been crossed soon after leaving Klagenfurt, was again approached on the confines of Styria ; where for sev- eral miles the railway is carried along its right bank through one of the loveliest of winding glens. On both sides of the river, hills covered with fair woods slope down UNTERDRAUBURG ON THE DRAVE. almost to its verge ; frequent openings between their heights afford charming glimpses of secluded ravines ; the river winds throughout in graceful curves, often occupying, with the road and railway, the entire space between the mountains ; and the deep valley, clothed in the fresh brilliant coloring of spring-time, seen in the glow of a cloudless sunset, will long stand out in my remembrance as one of these scenes of absolutely perfect beauty, which were surely meant to suggest the thoughts of a richer loveliness and a more exquisite peace. O God ! good beyond compare ! If thus Thy meaner works are fair. If thus Thy beauties gild the span Of ruined earth and sinful man, How glorious must the mansion be, Where Thy redeemed shall dwell with Thee. 149 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. Perhaps, as I happened to be alone in the railway carriage, there was more scope for such thoughts than if it had been filled with passengers ; at any rate, I was sorry when the train drew up at Marburg, and the day's journey was done. Of this little town, the second in Styria, nestling pleasantly among its rounded, vine-clad hills, there is not much to say. Early the next morning I was en route for Gratz, the Styrian capital, turning northward, and leaving the Drave to pursue its southward, or rather southeasterly, course to the Danube. Gratz is a populous, evidently prosperous city, and is finely situated ; although there seemed nothing in it of commanding interest to detain a traveler long. Again and again was I told that, being at Marburg, so near to the southern KLAGENFURT : THE DRAGON FOUNTAIN. extremity of the Austrian Empire, I ought, even at the risk of leaving everything else unseen, to take the Trieste railway as far as Adelsberg, to visit the Stalactite Caves. This advice, as I did not profit by it, I leave on record for my readers. The cavern is, no doubt, the grandest of these natural wonders yet discovered in Europe. Those who have visited the Ingleborough Caves in Yorkshire, or the Cavern of the Peak in Derbyshire, may have some notion of what Adelsberg must be, with its vast halls, its wealth of drooping stalactites in every graceful or fantastic form, its stalag- mites rising in graceful, slender beauty, or of the columns and arches formed where the upward and the downward formations meet with niches and projections ; and, it almost seems, with sculptured forms like those of some great cathedral not made with hands. All this and far more the visitors to Adelsberg may see, by the dim 150 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. light of torches making the darkness of the farther recesses and of the lofty vaults overhead yet more awful ; while, having traced in part the course of a river through the cave, they may hear it, at another point of their weird journey, rushing by unseen to the abyss where it disappears, to rise into light at a distance of five miles. IN THE CAVERN OF ADELSBERG. For a mile and a half the visitor is led on through the galleries and halls of this cavern into the heart of the mountain, and then he is told that he has only reached about half the distance that has been actually explored. For him, however, it is enough ; and it is with almost a new sense of life and gladness that he once more sees the light of day and breathes the outer air. The railway from Trieste to Vienna by way of Marburg and Gratz, by which I was now traveling, is chiefly remarkable as being the first in which it was attempted 151 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. to cros3 the Alpine chain by rail. It was in the year 1854 that the Semmering line was opened ; other mountain railways have since that time been constructed, but this must still be counted the greatest because the first ; while in picturesque beauty, at least on the northern side, it is inferior to none. It extends in all for rather more than twenty-five miles, beginning from Miirzzuschlag on the south, and ending with Gloggnitz on the north ; the Semmering tunnel being at the summit, two thousand eight hundred and ninety-four feet above the level of the sea. The ascent from the south is comparatively easy, keeping for the most part to the course of a mountain torrent, the Miirz ; but after the tunnel is passed, the descent, across ravines, along -^^^^^ ON THE SEMMERING RAILWAY. the face of tremendous precipices, round the mountains in long sweep- ing curves, with ever-varying views of dark pine forests, green valleys, and snow-covered peaks, is truly magnifi- cent. The glimpses which we get, in descending, of the great viaducts which span the gorges, as well as of the stupendous galleries in which the line is hung, as it were in mid air, upon the cliffs, reveal even to the untutored eye the engineering marvels of the work ; while if anything were needed to complete the picturesqueness of the scene, it would be furnished by the villages nestling far below in the deep valleys, or by the castle-like watch-towers on projecting or isolated cliffs. It is a journey full of wonder, yet with no sense of danger. One feels as safe on that single line, curving in and out among the mountains, and looking down on diz- zying depths, as on the Underground Railway ; and the only regret is when the plain is reached, and we settle down to the commonplace again. 152 THE TYROL AND THE EASTERN ALPS. From Gloggnitz to Vienna the way lies over a vast plain, presenting no features specially noteworthy. Arriving once more at the great city, I found it keeping high festival. It was Corpus Christi Day. In the morning the Emperor and Empress had walked in procession through the streets, meekly following the Archbishop and his clergy, who bore beneath its gorgeous canopy the consecrated " Host" ; a long train of courtiers and soldiers bringing up the rear, and the vast multitudes kneeling as they passed. The rest of the day was given up to pleasure ; the shops were shut, and the crowds in the streets and public parks, in holiday costume, presented every phase of Viennese life. The churches were crowded too. To enter them, one would think that the people were the devoutest of the devout ; pass out again, and they seemed the gayest of the gay. As a pleasure-loving city, delighting in any oc- casion or excuse for hearty, unrestrained enjoyment, I should say, judging from out- ward appearance and from a hasty view, that Vienna surpasses Paris itself ; while I am bound to add that, so long as I watched the lively, passing scene, there were no signs of that intemperance which in so many places degrades and brutalizes the enjoyments of the people. Let but the bright, cordial nature of these Austrians be tempered by seriousness, by earnest purpose, and by manly Christian teaching, and few people could be more attractive in themselves, or more capable of noble and generous deeds. 153 154 CASTLE OF H0HEN9CHWANGAU. 156 THE GESAUSE DEFILE : ROAD, RAILWAY, AND RIVER. LINZ : ON THE DANUBE. FROM VIENNA, ON THE WAY TO THE RHINE. 'HE title of this section may appear roughly chosen ; and yet hardly any other would so well indicate the somewhat random zigzag journey which it was now necessary to take to give any completeness to our view of the German Fatherland. Having traversed it from the northeast, and made an extensive circuit in the south, there yet remained the great central plain untouched, the course of the Danube, the Thuringian Forest, the Taunus Mountains, not to mention other districts, with world-famous cities, on the way to the valley of the Rhine. Let the na^^mes, then, of these two great rivers suggest the further pictures which, out of the many possible, we have now room to select. It was with regret that I turned from Eastern Germany, leaving Hungary unvisited ; with many a region of interest besides ; particularly the Riesengebirge, or Giant Mountains, in the north of the Austrian Empire, on the border between Bohemia and Prussian Silesia. The heights are not Alpine, but the hills and dales are wonderfully picturesque. Then, crossing the frontier, there is the valley of the Oder, with its great and flourishing city of Breslau, the second in Prussia ; while higher up the river is the pleasant old-world town of Brieg, from which the village 157 FROM VIENNA, ON THE WA Y TO THE RHINE. of Grafenberg may be reached, famed for Priessnitz and the "water-cure." From Brieg again, it is an easy run by railway to Cracow and the Vistula. But my steps had to be turned westward. A rapid journey up the plain of the Danube from Vienna to Linz brings the traveler to one of the most beautiful parts of this famous river. And here let me say that if disappointed in the first view of the Danube, I had abundant compensa- tion now. Its waters, after all, are " blue," at least when seen beneath an unclouded sky ; and when Linz is passed — a distance of more than a hundred miles from Vienna — the banks become grandly beautiful. In fact, there is scarcely a finer river DURRENSTEIN CASTLE, ON THE DANUBE. excursion in Europe than that from Linz to Passau, upward, or, which would have been preferable, had the plan of my journ'ey so been ordered, downward from Passau to Linz, the voyage with the current being performed almost twice as quickly as that against it. The greater part of the course lies between noble hills sloping down to the very edge of the stream, and clothed to the summit with dark pine forests. The river bends continually, often seeming closed in like a lake ; you wonder where the outlet can possibly be found, until a sudden turn of the steamer discloses another scene of even richer beauty than the last. Here and there gray ruined castles appear in the midst of the forests, or crown some bare, projecting rock ; and little villages upon the banks, where a bend in the hills or the opening of a narrow ravine gives room for a few cottages, with the red spire of their little church, afford a welcome relief to the eye, for after a while the sense of solitude becomes almost intense. 158 RATHHAUS : BRIEG, IN SILESIA. l6o FROM VIENNA, ON THE WA Y TO THE RHINE. The loneliness of the river seems unbroken save for our little steamer, and the world is shut out on either side by those vast and solemn hills. Great timber rafts moored to the banks of the river are the only signs of commerce on this veritably "silent highway." So the river continues, for some thirty or forty miles, until at length, almost suddenly, the towers and spires of a considerable town appear in front, with the battlements of a fortress on a commanding hill. A Httle farther and the river appears to divide into two streams, the broader coming down in strong current from the south, and the other from the west in the main direction of our course. The former and larger stream is the Inn, which here finishes its long and magnificent PASSAU, course ; the latter is the Danube. On the bold promontory in front of us, at the confluence of these rivers, lies Passau, the frontier town between Austria and Bavaria. Only the briefest stay is practicable here ; nor is there much to detain us save the grand view to be obtained from any of the heights of the two valleys ; the little dark-hued Ilz, too, descending from the Bohemian Forest in the north, to make a humble third in this grand meeting of the waters. Nor is the place without its his- toric memorials. It must not be forgotten that here, at Passau, the treaty was signed, July 31, 1552, between the Emperor Charles V and Maurice, Elector of Saxony, which secured freedom to the Lutheran Church. Very notable, therefore, is this romantic little city in the history of Germany, and so of mankind. But here I must not forget to mention that those who do not care for the sail on the Danube may, by taking a slight circuit, include in their journey some fine mountain scenery, with a lake district unequaled in the Eastern Alps. A railway, recently opened up the valley of the Enns, makes this magnificent excursion very ■easy. The valley itself is pleasing, though somewhat monotonous, and studded 161 FROM VIENNA, ON THE WA Y TO THE RHINE. with iron works. The railway is carried along by the broad rapid stream, and one rocky ravine through which it passes, the Gesause, a part of which is shown in the frontispiece to the present chapter, is exceedingly grand. But it is at Steinach, where a branch line diverges from the Enns, in the direction of the Salzkammergut, that the chief beauty of the excursion begins. First we ascend a romantic moun- tain pass, with many curves and windings, to the high marshy plain from which the Traun takes its rise. At the little watering place of Aussee the salt district is AUSSEE, entered ; the beryl hue of the stream, with the dark green of the lakes in its course, at once arrests the eye. The railroad runs through a grand rocky gorge beside the clear foaming torrent, and reaches the Lake of Hallstadt, wild and gloomy, "like Wastwater," one of my traveling companions remarked ; although the mountains are vaster, and the precipices more tremendous ; the lake itself, as nearly as I could judge, being of about the same extent. The traveler ought here to make some little stay ; at any rate, sufficient to enable him to explore the valley of the Gosau, on the opposite or western side of the lake, with the two lovely tarns in its upper region, and its glorious views of the Dachstein range, with its precipices and glaciers, while the valley is beautiful with meadows and shady woods. In all the 162 ■< h K H O ti£M.>iL«r.ULnw STATUE IN BRONZE OF ALBERT DURER. l8o HOUSE OF NASSAU, NUREMBERG. FROM. VIENNA,. ON. THE WAV TO THE RHINE, was evidently that of a person belonging to the humbler class, but was largely tollowed. bix young girls walked in front, bearing large bouquets of flowers with sprigs of box and cypress ; there followed two ministers in gown and cap ; then the coffin and the mourners. As soon as the grave was reached, a grand chorale was sung by men's voices ; one of the ministers then read a brief biography of the deceased, followed by an earnest extempore address which seemed deeply to move his auditors ; prayer followed, with the Lord's Prayer and benediction, and as the coffin was lowered into the grave, and the flowers were showered upon it in profusion, and the weeping mourn- ers bent over it in their last look, the voices of the singers rose again in another chorale, most exquisitely thrilling; a "song without words," so far as I was concerned, for I could not distinguish them ; but to me and to the silent, listening company, it seemed to say, " / am the Resurrection and the Life" Returning to the city, I spent some time in visiting its art collections, which were quite in keeping with the character of the place. One, consisting entirely of very early German and Flemish pictures, is in a little Gothic chapel close by St. Sebald's church. Another of remarkable interest,- the " German Museum," occupies the corridors and rooms of an old Carthusian monastery, to the south of the city, and illustrates the history of native art, with that of its manufacture also to some extent, in a very complete and in- structive way. Here are two works of Albert Diirer, simple portraits, one of the Emperor Max- imilian, the other of the Burgomaster Jerome Holzschuher, both of ex- traordinary power. The latter especially must surely be one of the most NUREMBERG : ALBERT DURER S HOUSE. iC, NUREMBERG : DURER S TOMB. vivid and expressive like- nesses ever painted. In another part of the museum there is a very large collection of illuminated and other MSS., and of early printed books, in splendid preservation, with wide margins, uncut edges, and the deep black of the fair and even lines un- impaired by time. Here, too, are many of the tracts and poems of Hans Sachs, apparently original editions, and in perfect preservation. These weapons of a holy war were more impressive to look upon than the weapons and armor that filled FROM VIENNA, ON THE WA Y TO THE RHINE. Other apartments ; while an instructive contrast was to be found in the torture cham- ber which this museum contains, as well as the castle before visited, and which is likewise filled with things most hideous and fiendish ! On the whole, this ancient city has played a noble part in the work of civiliza- tion. Its position between the Danube and the Rhine made it for several genera- tions an emporium for the produce both of east and west. This traffic brought to it great wealth, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the great merchants of Nuremberg were princes. Manufacture and invention, also, flourished here. Not to mention other productions of Nuremberg skill, it was here that watches were first made, about the year 1477 ; called from their shape, " Nuremberg eggs." The hearty adoption of Protestantism, with its liberal and progressive ideas, assisted in sustaining the prosperity of the city, until partly through the opening of other routes for commerce, but chiefly through the calamities of the Thirty Years' War, there ensued a period of decline. Of late, however, the activity and success of the Nurem- bergers have more than revived ; their city is now known as the " toy-shop of Europe " ; and the suburbs abound in large and prosperous manufactories. The railway-carriage works employ nearly four thousand men ; while Nuremberg seems the European center for stationary of every kind, for wood-carvings, and for fancy articles generally. It is stated that the lead pencils manufactured here amount to more than two hundred millions annually ! JJI^iTlHH-^s^ C-, f t MiWi !l,ilL|!iii|" li Iff fl^->^-* JJ- s-B? •m 184 THE WARTBURG : CASTLE COURT. FRANKFURT. FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. A SHORT and pleasant run from Nuremberg brought me into the fair valley of the Main, and after a halt, only too brief, at Wiirzburg, a town where the ancient and the modern seem singularly to mingle, I reached the world-famous city of Frankfurt. Here also the visitor is continually reminded of the state of things that has passed away. From the old watchtowers, which show the jealously guarded limits of the ancient " Free Imperial City," it is but a little way to the handsome railway stations which now open communication to all parts of the Empire. As in Vienna, the vast ancient ramparts have been leveled, and the " Ring," here called " Anlagen," beautifully, planted and adorned with sumptuous private and public buildings, gives an air of nobleness to the city. The Cathedral tower, St. Bartholomew's, is fine ; but beyond this, Franl^furt has few architectural attractions. Its real interest is in its history, dating from the days of Charlemagne, who selected the " Ford of the Franks " for a great convocation of bishops and nobles. From that time the city grew in importance, until it was fixed upon as the 185 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. place of the imperial election. " The Golden Bull " of the Emperor Charles V, bestowing this privilege, promulgated from Nuremberg, dated a. d. 1356, is still carefully preserved in the Romer, or City Hall, where also may be seen, almost in its original state, the Wahlzimmer, or Chamber of Election ; also the Kaisersaal, or Imperial Hall, in which the Emperor's election was celebrated by a solemn ban- quet. Here are portraits of more than fifty emperors in succession, from Conrad I in the tenth century to Francis H in the eighteenth, with the mottoes chosen by them at their inauguration — a most curious and interesting study ! One of my com- panions tried to read the spirit of each motto in the imperial countenance which sur- mounted it — I cannot say with any remarkable success. The series of portraits terminates with Francis H, whose forced renunciation of the imperial crown of Ger- many for that of Austria closed, in 1806, the history of a thousand years.' Many vicissitudes followed. Frankfurt was eventually recognized at the Congress of Vienna as a free city, and was the seat of the Germanic Diet, until after the war of 1866 it was absorbed in Prussia. The traditions of historic greatness, however, cling to it ; and one is reminded at every step that Frankfurt stands alone among the cities of Germany. The, Autobiography of Goethe, referring, of course, to a period when the imperial power was still at its height, shows how the associations of the city influenced the youthful poet.'" " Important," he says, "and fruitful for us was the Council House, named from the Romans. In its lower vault-like halls we liked but too well to lose ourselves. We obtained an entrance, too, into the large and very simple session-room of the Council. The walls as well as the arched ceiling were white, though wainscoted to a certain height ; and the whole was without a trace of painting or any kind of carved work ; only high up on the middle wall might be read this brief inscription : One man's word is no man's word, Justice needs that both be heard. " But whatever related to the election and coronation of the emperors possessed a greater charm. We managed to gain the favor of the keepers, so as to be allowed to mount the new, gay, imperial staircase, which was painted in fresco, and on other occasions closed with a grating. The election chamber, with its purple hangings and admirably fringed gold borders, filled us with awe. The representations of animals, on which little children or genii, clothed in the imperial ornairjents and laden with the insignia of the Empire, made a curious figure, were observed by us with great attention ; and we even hoped that we might live to see, some time or other, a coro- nation with our own eyes. They had great difficulty to get us out of the great Kaisersaal, when we had been once fortunate enough to steal in ; and we reckoned him our truest friend who, while we looked at the half-lengths of all the emperors painted round at a certain height, would tell us something of their deeds. " We listened to many a legend of Charlemagne. But that which was histori- cally interesting for us began with Rudolph of Hapsburg, who by his courage put an end to such violent commotions. Charles IV also attracted our notice. We had already heard of the Golden Bull, and of the statutes for the administration of crimi- ' Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of Germany, A. D. 800. ' Dicktung und Wahrheit, I, i, trans, by Oxenford. 186 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. nal justice. We knew, too, that he had not made the Frankfurters suffer for their adhesion to his noble rival, Emperor Gunther of Schwartzburg. We heard Maxi- milian praised, both as a friend to mankind and to the townsmen, his subjects, and were also told that it had been prophesied of him he would be the last emperor of a German house, which unhappily came to pass, as after his death the choice wavered only between the King of Spain (afterward Charles V), and the King of France, Francis I. With some anxiety it was added that a similar prophecy, or rather, inti- mation, was once more in circulation ; for it was obvious that there was room left for the portrait of only one more emperor, a circumstance which, though seemingly acci- dental, filled the patriotic with concern." Amid such scenes was the poet's child- hood passed. *' Lovely enough shine for us those years in old Teutonic Frankfurt ; mirrored in the far remembrance of the self-historian ; real yet ideal, they are among our most genuine poetic idyls. No smallest matter is too small for us, when we think who it was that did it or suffered it. The little long-clothed urchin, mercur- ial enough with all his stillness, can throw a whole cargo of new marketed crockery, piece by piece, from the balcony into the street, when once the feat is suggested to him ; and comically shatters cheap delft- ware with the same right hand which tragi- cally wrote and hurled forth the demoniac scorn of Mephistopheles, or, as 'right hand' of Faust, ' smote the universe to ruins.' Neither smile more than enough (if thou be wise) that the gray-haired, all-experienced man remembers how the boy walked on the Main bridge, and 'liked to look' at the bright weathercock on the barrier there. That foolish piece of gilt wood there, glit- tering sunlit, with its reflex wavering in the Main waters, is awakening quite another glitter in the young gifted soul ; is not this foolish sunlit splendor also, now, when there is an eye to behold it, one of Nature's doings ? The eye of the young seer is here, through the paltriest chink, looking into the infinite splendors of Nature — where one day himself is to enter and dwell." ' Goethe's house, like Shakspere's at Stratford-upon-Avon, is carefully preserved ; and throws much pleasant side-light on the autobiography. The inscription on the front reads thus : Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born in this house 28th August, 1749. It should be visited even by those who assign to this great poet a place distinctly be- low the highest, and who mourn over the inadequacy of the solution which the most consummate of literary artists has offered to the great problems of human existence." :i=m:^^^j^-=- FRANKFURT : GOETHE S BIRTHPLACE. ' Carlyle, Miscellaneous Essays, Goethe's Works. ' There is not in all literature a more disappointing, and indeed humiliating " Sequel,' than the Second Part of " Faust." 187 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. As every one knows, the greater part of the poet's life — no less than fifty-six years — was passed at Weimar, where a very noble bronze group, by Rietschel, rep- resents Goethe and Schiller side by side. Hardly any monument in Germany is more poetic. In looking at it one is reminded of some sentences by the late G. H. Lewes : " There are few nobler spectacles than the friendship of two great men ; and the history of literature presents nothing comparable to the friendship of Goethe and Schiller. Rivals they were, and are ; natures in many respects directly antago- nistic, chiefs of opposing camps, and brought into brotherly union only by what was highest in their characters and aims. To look on these great rivals was to see at once their profound dissimilarity. Goethe's beautiful head had the calm victorious grandeur of the Greek ideal. Schiller's, the earnest beauty of a Christian looking toward the future. The massive brow and large-pupiled eyes — like those given by Raphael to the infant Christ in the matchless Madonna di San Sisto — the strong and well-proportioned features, lined indeed by thought and suffering, yet showing that thought and suffering have troubled, but not vanquished the strong man, — a certain healthy vigor in the brown skin, and an indescribable something which shines out from the face, make Goethe a striking contrast to Schiller, with his eager eyes, narrow brow — tense and intense — his irregular features lined by thought and suffering, and weakened by sickness. The one looks, the other looks out. Both are majestic, but one has the majesty of repose, the other of conflict." ' From the house of Goethe, in the Hirschgraben, it is but a little way to the Dom Platz, where a yet greater man, and one who has left beyond all others the impress of his personality on the German mind, had his residence for a time. For here, on one visit, at least, was the home of Luther, The house is now marked by his por- trait, and the inscription: In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.'' It will be remembered that the selfsame words are taken as the motto of Keble's Christian Year. But the words were hardly prophetic. The " Troubles at Frankfurt," connected with the rise of the evangelical community in the city, have become historical. In 1554 John Knox accepted an invitation to Frankfurt from a band of English Prot- ' G. H. Lewes, Life of Goethe, Book vi, chap. i. The whole criticism, of which this is but a fragment, is well worth reading. * Isaiah xzx, 15. STATUES OF GOETHE AND SCHILLER AT WEIMAR. J^KANKF.URT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. estant exiles who had settled in this city. " That settlement and that ministry Were pregnant with consequences to the religious life of the English nation, of whichwe -have not.seen the end. It was at Frankfurt, under the ministry of John Knox, that .Puritanism took its rise^that Puritanism which was in aftertime to found the great Republic of the West, and to raise up champions all the world over for freedom to worship God.'" Of this notable con- gregation, John Fox the martyrologist was a member, with Bishop Bale, George Whitehead, Anthony Gilby, and Chris- topher Goodman, all afterward of high rank among the Puritans. But when Dr. Cox, who had been tutor to Edward VI, arrived among them, a controversy be- gan respecting the use of the Liturgy ; which was ended only by the expulsion of Knox, on the extraordinary charge of treason against the Emperor ; the great Scottish reformer retiring for a while to Geneva, where he was cordially welcomed by Calvin. The controversy was to be regretted, whatever view may be taken I of the principal matters involved : and assuredly nothing did so much to hinder the progress of the Reformation as these contentions on secondary matters be- tween those who had learned to make a principle of everything, and could not un- derstand concession. Frankfurt has also a noble monu- ment to Gutenburg and his compeers. Fust and Schoeffer, who stand together in a colossal group of bronze, upon a massive stone pedestal. On the frieze below the group are the heads of thirteen famous printers, including our own Caxton. In the lower part of the pedestal are the arms of the four cities in which printing was first practiced, Mayence, Frankfurt, Venice, and Strassburg. The seated figures at the corners are intended to represent The- ology, Poetry, Natural Science, and industrial Art as the printer's fourfold province — a sornewhat imperfect enumeration ! The four drinking fountains are intended to point to the four quarters of the globe, and the universal influence of the press. Passing by the monuments to Goethe and Schiller, which are also very striking, especially the former, the visitor, however hurried, should find time to see Dan- necker's celebrated statue of Ariadne on a panther, placed in a building called after this masterpiece of art, the Ariadneum ; nor should he omit the Studel Gallery of modern pictures, if only for Overbeck's grand painting of The Triumph of Religion ' Sunday at Home, November lo, 1877. l&g FRANKFURT ; LUTHER'S HOUSE. FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. in the Arts, the interest of which is due not only to its quasi-allegorical conception, but to the immense number of portraits of eminent authors, artists, and theologians. A key to the picture will be found in the room; and certainly the painter has suc- ceeded in very vividly illustrating the harmony of a true religion with every form of intellectual greatness. Few who visit Frankfurt omit to pay a visit to the Jews' quarter. This, as in Prague, Vienna, and other German cities, was long maintained apart from the rest of the city, almost as a separate colony, characterized by gloom, closeness, and squalor, not altogether from poverty, — as here the Rothschild family was founded, with other houses of wealth and note, — but from the long proscription of the hated and outcast race. Up to the end of the last cen- tury no Jew was permitted to cross the Rom- erburg ; and the gates of the Jews' quarter were closed every evening at an early hour, after which its inhabitants were forbidden, under heavy penalties, to appear in any other part of the city. Happily this exclusiveness is now at an end, and the Jew mingles on equal terms with his fellow-citizens. Two excursions from Frankfurt will long live in my remembrance. One was to the Taunus Mountains — to Soden and to Wies- baden. The latter resort is well known ; the former also is very charming. But let no one connect with this "mountain" district any thoughts of Alpine majesty. We in England should simply describe it as a beautiful undulating country, with charming varieties of hill and dale. It is mountain- ous, no doubt, in contrast with the vast monotonous levels which form the staple of German scenery ; but in comparison .with Switzerland or the Tyrol, it is itself but a level country. And yet its attraction is great ; and where, as at Wies- baden, art has done its utmost to enhance the charms of nature, the result is alto- gether beautiful. But, pleasant as were the days spent in this district, they had to yield in interest to a visit paid to Spires, or, as the Germans have it, Speyer, on the Rhine, a short distance above Mannheim. It is true that the little sleepy town retains but few memorials of its former renown, or of the contest which once raged around its walls. The cathedral, indeed, remains, magnificent after all the assaults and devasta- tions of which it has been the subject. It is, perhaps, the very finest specimen of Romanesque architecture in existence. But not for this, chiefly, is Spires famous. More suggestive to the thoughtful visitor, even than this stately temple, is a certain moldering wall, which is all that remains of the ancient Retscher, an imperial palace where many Diets were held, from one of which, in 1529, a Protest was issued against the decree of the majority. This assertion of religious liberty has given to the Church the appellation " Protestant"; by which, it may be supposed, the princi- ples of Scriptural belief will be known until the world shall understand that these principles are really " Catholic," as expressive of that harmony in faith wh-'ch makes I go FRANKFURT : STATUE OK GUTENBERG. FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. all Christians one. It is not good to rest In negatives ; and the word which Speyer has given us is valuable only as expressing the sterner aspect of that positive belief which we have learned from the Word of God. Against the error we " protest," FRANKFURT : JEWS QUARTER. because we believe that we have found the Truth, in Him who is " the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." One excursion only remains now to be briefly recorded, a much shorter and more leisurely one than those previously taken, but of interest not inferior to any, as it led me through what is pre-eminently the Land of Luther. We have seen already that all Germany bears the impress of his great character; and I had visited one and another spot connected more or less directly with the incidents of his life ; but it is when we reach the Thuringian Forest, Eisenach, Erfurt and its enchanting neighborhood, that we are at every step reminded of him. Almost every scene illustrates his biogra- 191 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. phy ; while his name lives in a thousand affectionate memories and popular tradi- tions. The ground has been so fully traversed by Dr. Stoughton in his Homes and Haunts of Luther that much may be omitted here which would but repeat the vivid descriptions of that charming work. I need but give a few general impressions of Jk -■■"J W«feK'' 1' ' ilifili te j'o^ id^^T^^. fV^ '^ ?A '■ML >■ W'-. r¥=r^,^jr; i-^. i-t-^"-s SPEYER : THE CATHEDRAL. the tour, connected as it was with other names which have a place in various ways in the annals of the people. No part of the Fatherland is in truth more distinctly German ; the villagers, especially in dress and manner, retaining the quaintness and simplicity of bygone generations. The route lies northward from Frankfurt, at first by rail, through a pleasant open country bounded by low hills, juntil at length a woodland region is entered, every slope being densely covered with trees, and we are on the northwestern edge of the great Thuringian Forest. Some days might well be spent in exploring the ig2 LUTHER IN THE WARTBURG CELL, FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. lovely valleys which here open up on all sides ; the undulating country sometimes resembling an immense park, while in other directions we reach wild romantic val- leys, pine-clad hills, and beetling cliffs, with castles and old ruins. The district con- tains many little towns and villages, at most of which the traveler may find homely, comfortable accommodation, always with a smiling welcome. Good roads traverse the forest in all directions ; but here, as elsewhere, the by-paths give access to the fairest scenes, and the pedestrian who is not ambitious to scale Alpine heights,-or to WILHELMSHOHE. "cover" fatiguing distances, can scarcely find a better place for a week's leisurely, delightful wandering than through the woods and by the streams of Thuringia. Our halting place was at Eisenach, a quiet, pretty town, in approaching which the Castle of the Wartburg, among the woods on a hill to the right, was pointed out by some of our fellow-passengers. From the station to the castle was but a short walk to the place so memorable in Luther's history. But I must not repeat the oft- told story; saying only that the castle, in extent and interest, surpassed all expecta- tion. Nor did the extensive restoration to which it has been subjected destroy the charm. A reverent spirit and fine artistic taste seem to have directed the whole pro- cess ; the ancient and the modern are intermingled with a rare judiciousness ; and of course Luther's chamber remains unaltered, with his table,' chair, footstool, and chest ; 1 As Dr. Stoughton observes, " The table at which Luther wrote has been carried away in chips, but in its place is found another, at which we are told he sat as a boy in his father's house." 195 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. portraits also and an autograph letter, with other relics ; and on the plaster of the wall a stain to show where he flung his inkstand at the Evil One. There has been much needless discussion as to the literal reality of this incident. Fact or no, it is equally a truth ; for what else was the work to which Luther devoted the best hours of his sojourn in this little room — the translation of the New Testament into the tongue of the people ? After this memorable visit, there was little to detain us in Eisenach itself — a ON THE HARZ MOUNTAINS : WINTER. clean, quiet German town in the midst of sheltering hills, and a tempting center for excursions into the nearer glens of the Thuringian Forest. But my way lay onward to Gotha and Erfurt, conveniently reached by railway from Eisenach. Both are ancient towns, and Erfurt, apart from its connection with Luther, has many points of remarkable interest in its broad streets and quaint old houses with richly carved fronts. Here was the Augustinian monastery, where the Thuringian miner's son spent his years of study, where he first studied the Scriptures, and where he learned from his friend Staupitz the great truth of justification through faith alone. The monastery exists no longer. Luther's cell has also gone, or cannot be identified in iq6 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. what remains of the old building ; but it is impossible to walk the streets or to enter the churches in which he must have bowed during many an hour of silent struggle, without thinking of him, and of the long mental conflict which here was silently wrought out to a victory whose fruits are seen wherever the modern world rejoices in truth, freedom, and progress. A short expedition to Weimar was chiefly noticeable for the more modern asso- ciations of what was once called the German Athens. Here is that remarkable twin statue of Goethe and Schiller to which reference is made in the preceding chapter. Here too lived Wieland and Herder, with other men of only inferior fame, who shared the munificent and discriminating patronage of the Grand Duke Karl August. The memorials of this bygone period of literary greatness are found everywhere in the city, in the Ducal Sckloss, the Public Library, and the open squares and Places. Schiller's house too is exhibited, with some interesting memorials of the poet. n< y ^-y MAGDEBURG : THE BREITEWEG. There are also in the library a black frock worn by Luther when a friar, the belt of Gustavus Adolphus pierced with the fatal bullet at Liitzen, and the court uniform of Goethe. Altogether, the lover of such curiosities may spend some pleasant hours at Weimar ; while the park on the banks of the Ilm, the little river that winds pleas- antly past the ^yestern suburb, is really exquisite in its beauty. Returning frorn Weimar to Erfurt, we took the rail for Nordhausen, for a hur- ried visit to the Harz Mountains. The town itself, is a busy, thriving place ; but there was time only to visit the church of St. Blasius, where in a picture by Cranach of the Funeral at Nain Luther and Melanchthon are introduced among the mourners ! Hence many routes lead to the Harz district, among which the traveler will choose, according to the time he has to spend in this part of the country. I preferred to alight at the romantic roadside station of Ellrich, thence proceeding up the valley of the Zorge, and onward over a wild moorland to Braunlage, whence the ascent of the famed Brocken, by way of Elend and Schierke, was easy enough though tedious. On the whole the Harz Mountains are a little disappointing. They owe their repu- tation in great measure to the fact of their being the only elevations worth speaking of over a vast plain, from which the range rises on all sides almost abruptl)^ The 197 FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. highest point, the summit of the Brocken, is but three thousand four hundred and seventeen feet above the sea level. Certainly, within the area of the district, fifty-six miles by eighteen, many of the most remarkable moun- tain phenomena may be seen. There are miniature torrents, small but dark pine forests, deep ravines among granite rocks, and wild stretches of morass and moor. To the inhabitants of the surrounding plain, these highlands and dells became a region of mystery, especially as the mineral treasures of the district led to the excavation of many a mine in its recesses ; and the stalactite caverns, occasionally broken open by the miners, disclosed their marvels. Here, too, gathered the mists and storms driven from the sea, and the snows of winter lay deep and long among the hills. It was the Wonderland of that great monotonous plain. Imagination peopled it with elves, fairies, witches, dwarfs keeping watch over untold treasures under- ground. The well-known Specter of the Brocken had not yet been scientifically explained according to the laws of optics, and i the apparition which is now an occasional curiosity that tourists go to see and wait for, generally in vain, was something supernatural and dread. So a whole literature of wild, weird stories grew up around the Harz Mountains — legends narrated fearfully by dwellers in MAGDEBURG : OUR LADY S CLOISTER. MAGDEBURG : THE CATHEDRAL. the plain, while winter tempests howled distantly above. Nor was historical in- terest wanting. Here, according to tradition, were the fastnesses of the Cherusci, most powerful of the German tribes, and of their chieftain, the mighty Hermann, or Arminius, who successfully defied the Roman legions, and secured the inde- pendence of Germany beyond the Rhine. We can hardly wonder then that the FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. region has become invested with associations of marvel and poetry which a visit on a bright summer's day is apt to reduce to a level of very ordinary prose. Still, if the expectation has not been very highly raised, a few days may be spent pleasantly enough in exploring the deep glens, which after all are the chief beauty of the district, or in visiting the mines, especially in the Rammelsberg, near Goslar, a mountain actually honeycombed with shafts and galleries. The process of extracting the ore is very curious, immense fires of brushwood and timber being lighted in the part to be excavated, which is then closed. This being done before leaving work on Satur- day, the fires blaze fiercely all through Sunday, then die out, leaving the rock friable and ready for the Monday's workers. By another route, Nordhausen communicates with Cassel, the old capital of Hesse-Cassel, picturesquely situated on both sides of the river Fulda, a sleepy, antique-looking place with brand-new suburbs. Here the traveler not pressed for time may visit the museum and the picture gallery with its, perhaps unequaled, Rem- brandt collection. But he will probably elect to make his way to Wilhelmshohe, the old Electoral residence, with its grounds, avenues, and fountains, the Versailles or Schonbrunn of Northern Germany ; doubly memorable now from its connection with the fall of the French em- pire. It was here that Napoleon the Third spent the weary months that followed the catastrophe of Sedan in 1870 ; and here his abdication was completed. Singu- larly enough, the place was once, for a short time, known as " Napoleonshohe," when occupied by Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia ; and it is from its Napoleonic associations of a different kind that it will be best remembered. But now my time had become very limited, and before returning I was anxious to reach Magdeburg, just for a flying visit, if only for its connection with the Reformation and with Luther. It was in Magdeburg that he went to school, and in the streets of this city that he was accustomed to sing, receiving the bounty of the inhabitants in that very box, perhaps, which is kept with such religious care in the little room at the Wartburg. The inhabitants espoused the cause of the Reformation so early as 1524, and remained steadfast to it, through 199 MAGDEBURG : CATHEDRAL PULPIT. '^mm i^Sllfll!:; I'»i-||TII MAGDEBURG : INTERIOR OF CATHEDRAL. FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. «A ill is ■a- many calamities, for more than a century. It was a Magdeburg divine, Matthew Flacius, who initiated the most valuable series of books in existence for the elucida- tion of ecclesiastical history, the " Magdeburg Cen- turies," containing, in thirteen portly folios, the chief material for illustrating the Church's creed and life b>-^ J. , I iSi|i|| Jl from primitive ages down to the then modern era. The publication of the book was begun in 1560; it was completed in 1564. Those were quiet, studious times, in comparison with the days that followed ! In "^'^C^'iili' iMBi'' science, also, this city became famous. But in the early part of the succeeding century, all such pur- suits were rudely and cruelly interrupted. Nowhere did the Thirty Years' War bring deeper and sadder calamities than to this now Protestant and flourish- ("*.., '■Sfi'D' !HI ing city. Very pathetically, in the great Luther Monument at Worms, is Magdeburg represented as bowed and shrouded in sadness ; for after having successfully borne the brunt of one siege, it yielded — through treachery, as it was believed — to the relent- less Tilly in 1631, and was utterly destroyed, with the exception of one hundred and thirty-nine houses; thirty thousand inhabitants being " massacred by the imperial soldiery, without distinction of age or sex, and with such accompaniments of brutality that the name of the commander who permitted it was never afterward mentioned without a malediction. In the dispatch in which Tilly announced the cap- ture, he says, 'Since the destruction of Jerusalem and Troy such a victory has not been.' " Otto von iw Guericke, the inventer of the air-pump, and the origi- nator of the famous "Magdeburg experiment," illus- trating the pressure of the atmosphere by two tightly fitting brass hemispheres from which the interior air was exhausted, was at this time burgomaster of the city. At present, Magdeburg, as the capital of Prus- sian Saxony, and from its port on the Elbe, ranks as one of the most important cities in Germany. There is much in it, apart from its historical associations, V iiii Si< ' A .W^ to interest the traveler. Especially noteworthy, in the cathedral, are the tombs of the Emperor Otho I, and of his Queen Editha, granddaughter to our own King Alfred ; also a fine pulpit of alabaster, and especially a monument to the Archbishop Ernest, wrought in bronze by Vischer of Nuremberg, so much of whose work we had seen in his own city. The Rathhaus is also interesting, with a monument in front to the Emperor Otho. But perhaps the most significant thing in all Magdeburg is an i»« « a w a o < FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. inscription in front of the house No. 164 in the Breiteweg, or Broadway, the resid- ence of the betrayer of the city to Tilly : '< Remember the ioth May, 1631." Such days, indeed, must never fade from the memory of men ; not that thoughts of vengeance may be cherished, but that due warning may be taken against the in- fluences that drew the sword and let loose the furies of religious rancor in that most bitter war. And now my journey was well-nigh done, with the sense of much unvisited, yet with a wealth of pleasant memories and happy associations with the great Father- land. A rapid express journey led to Dusseldorf, where I could not linger ; and my last halt was made at Aix-la-Chapelle, chiefly to see the cathedral erected by Charle- magne—most striking from the way in which the richest and lightest of fourteenth- century Gothic is grafted upon the somber architecture of the ninth. The nave is a lofty building, octagonal within, though the exterior has double the number of sides. It formed, in fact, the " chapelle " after which this town of waters was named, and was built upon the model of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. A gallery is car- ried round the octagon, faced with circular arches, sustained by por- phyry pillars brought from the Exarchs' Palace at Ravenna. Some of these columns, as erected here by Charlemagne, have been removed, and are replaced by modern pillars of similar form. In the side of the gallery facing the choir is Charlemagne's throne, prepared not for the living, but for the dead emperor. Here in his tomb, when opened by the Emperor Otho III, the monarch was found seated " as one alive, bearing the scepter in his hand, and on his knees a copy of the Gospels. On his ileshless brow was the crown, the imperial mantle covered his shoulders, the sword Joyeuse was by his side, and the pilgrim's pouch, which he had borne always while living, was still fastened to his girdle." The empty throne still remains, and it is not difficult to the imagination to fill it with the form of buried majesty. Descending again to the nave the attention is struck by the two words Carolo Magno, engraved on a marble slab in the center, just under the cupola which sur- mounts the building. Over the slab hangs a large circular brass chandelier, the gift of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The whole effect of the somewhat gloomy building is remarkably impressive ; but the choir, with its brilliancy of modern painted glass, tends to a revulsion of feeling. The two are ill-matched, nor does the skill with which the exterior parts of the Dom are fitted together quite remove the incongruity. One other picture from Aix-la-Chapelle, and I have done. It was yet early MAGDEBURG: RATHHAUS AND MONUMENT TO OTHO I. FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. morning when I visited the cathedral ; and on leaving it, after noticing the few invalids and others who were making for the medicinal springs, or seated under the portico of the handsome bath-house, or strolling in the gardens, my attention was caught by a number of children in the streets, evidently on their way to school, with. AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CATHEDRAL : THRONE OF CHARLEMAGNE. their little book-knapsacks, German-fashion, upon their backs. A number of these boys and girls were entering a large church ; I followed them, and found myself in presence of a crowd of young folks, w4io almost filled the nave, meekly kneeling, boys on one side, girls on the other. Some hundreds of them were reciting a prayer withgreat apparent reverence ; they afterward joined in a hymn, the music of which was bright and joyous, as children's praises ought to be. No teacher or pastor seemed to be with them, they needed no keeping in order ; but when the little ser- FRANKFURT, AND LUTHER'S COUNTRY. vice was over, they gayly set out for their different schools. What it meant I did not fully understand ; it was on a week day, the calendar indicated no Church festival ; it seemed a spontaneous beginning of ordinary daily work. There was something in this, I am not ashamed to say, more touching than the memories awakened in that stately cathedral. One deplored the narrow and imperfect form of religion in which these children were only too probably being nurtured, and yet it was good to see such indication that young Germany was learning, in any measure, to sanctify com- mon tasks and ordinary life by praise and prayer. F * 1%, HALLE : THE MARKET-PLACE. **t<