r "5^^ ->' ■,^ '?>^ 'V^ - ^1 ^^ .0^^ ^o^ ^. ^^ ^^ .^' \ •I 1 <• 4 o \\\1 <^' >4v ^0• -o .0^ /'"^.'^JJ^ ^^ t-0^ ■> A> -^j, u/ R» Wr o> -S <.n v=s^ i f'l^^^' o i-^'^x G ,^ ;:> ^^> - ,0 V. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress L http://www.archive.org/details/europeannotesorwOOwhar EUROPEAN NOTES : OR, WHAT I SAW IN THE OLD WORLD, MORTON BRYAN *^WHARTON, D. D., LATE U. S. CONSUL IN GERMANY. b'/ y When thou haply seest Some rare, noteworthy object in thy travels, Make me partaker of thy happmess. — Shakespeaee. ILLUSTRATED.! )j^y ]^-' ^'" Vl'Afril'i^^ i^^^ ATLANTA, GEORGIA : JAMES P. HARRISON & CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, 1884. 51 ''^ iOV CONGRESS rASBlNGTON^ DEDICATION. TO my wife, my children, and my niece, companions in my travels, and also to rev, h, m. wharton, and j. wingfield nisbet, esq., (part op the time with us) these " european notes" are affectionately INSCRIBED. Copy Right Secured by M. B. WHARfON, 1884 All Rights Reserved. " LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. SPURGEON'S TABERNACLE. TOWER OF LONDON. COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. SCENE ON THE RHINE. "BINGEN ON THE RHINE." OBERSTEIN ON THE RHINE. COBURG CASTLE AND PART OF THE CITY. PORTRAIT OF MARTIN LUTHER. INTERIOR OF WARTBURG CASTLE. PALACE BRIDGE, AND PARK, BERLIN. STRASBURG CATHEDRAL. PARIS. CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS. ZURICH. SWISS SCENE. SCENE IN VIENNA. FLORENCE. THE PANTHEON, ROME. THE COLOSSEUM, ROME. ST. PETER'S, ROME. SCENE IN THE VATICAN, ROME. NAPLES. INTERIOR SCENE, POMPEII, HOUSE RESTORED- THE FORUM OF POMPEII. PISA. ST. MARKS, VENICE. EDINBURGH. HOLYROOD PALACE. GLASGOW. MELROSE ABBEY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE From Continent to Continent : Life on the Ocean wave, I First Glimpse of Europe, 7 CHAPTER II. Lights and Sights of London : Westminster Abbey 12 St. Paul's Cathedral 21 Some Notable Dissenting Churches 24 The Tower of London 30 Madame Tussaud's Gallery 36 A Tramp through London, 39 Parliament, 46 Whitehall, 48 British Museum, etc 49 Farewell to London, 52 CHAPTER III. By Rail and Sail to Sonneberg : From London to Cologne, 57 Sweet Scented Cologne, 60 The Rhine 63 Mayence, 74 Frankfort-on-the-Main, etc 78 Sonneberg 82 Coburg 85 The Duke of Meiningen 89 Fourth of July Celebration at Leipsic, 92 American Citizenship, 94 IX X CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER IV. The Ducal Family of Coburg 97, CHAPTER V. The Homes AND Haunts OF Luther 114 CHAPTER VI. Religious Aspects and Customs of Germany, . . . 137 CHAPTER VII. German Cities. Notes by the Way 1 54 Leipsic, . 1 56 Dresden 159 Berlin, 164 A Day in Potsdam, 172 Nuremberg 177 CHAPTER VIII. German Drinks. Beer, . . . , . . 182 Wine, •. , . . 185 Water, 186 CHAPTER IX. La Belle France. En route to Paris, . 190 The Famous French Capital, . . . • 193 The Champs Elysees, 199 A Day in Versailles, 20 1 CHAPTER X. Snow-Clad Switzerland. From Basle to Lucerne. 206 Swiss Industries, . 209 Farewell to Switzerland, 213 CHAPTER XI. A Ride through Austria. "Beautiful Blue Danube," . 217 Vienna, 221 Bohemia, 226 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XII. PAGE First View of Italy. Crossing the Alps, 232 From Verona to Florence, 237 Beautiful Florence, • . . 241 From Florence to Rome, . . , 246 CHAPTER XIII. Roaming through Rome. First Day in Rome, 250 Capitoline Hill 255 The Forum 259 A Cluster of Ancient Wonders, 263 Footprints of Paul, 270 A Visit to the Catacombs, 274 St. Peter's, 278 The Vatican 281 Here and There, 284 CHAPTER XIV. Southern Italy. Naples , 290 Pompeii 294 CHAPTER XV. Three Italian Cities. Peerless Pisa, ... 302 A Night in Padua, 304 Enchanting Venice, 307 CHAPTER XVI. The Netherlands. Brussels . 314 Field of Waterloo 316 Antwerp, Rotterdam, and the Hague, 321 CHAPTER XVII. From London to Edinburgh. Famous Midland Scenes, 326 The Wharton Family of Westmoreland, 330 Entering Scotland 334 xir CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. Edinburgh. Bird's-Eye View ,....,.. 33$ The Castle, . . , 337 Holyrood Palace , 339 Observations, 342 CHAPTER XTX. The Land of Burns Glasgow, Burns' House, CHAPTER XX. The Land of Scott Melrose Abbey, 350 Abbotsford, 351 CHAPTER XXI. Homeward Bound . 354 Reflections on Leaving Europe 354 Boarding the City of Berlin, 355 Old Ireland, 356 A Stormy Passage, 360 PREFACE. MY object in going abroad was two-fold, to regain my healtti, and view the wonders of the Old World. The Consulate was sought and accepted, not on account of any honor or great emolu- ment that it might confer, but simply as a means to the proposed end. The position, I thought, would give me many advantages over the ordinary tourist, and the compensation would aid me in carrying out my purposes, in all of which I was not disappointed. With grati- tude I can state that I was successful in my first design ; and as to the second, those may judge who read these " Notes" on "What I saw in the Old World." The book is published in response to requests that came from all parts of the country, and it has been hurriedly prepared in the midst of absorbing editorial and ministerial labors. This is my apology for any inaccuracies that may appear. The work will prove specially useful to three classes of persons, and these embrace all that it is possible for any book to reach in this country : 1. Those who have visited Europe will be refreshed, as they read of scenes and incidents with which they are familiar. 2. Those who intend to go will find the work an invaluable travel- ing companion, enabling them to see more with less trouble and out- lay than could otherwise possibly be done. 3. Those who cannot go will find a perusal of these " Notes" the next best thing to an actual visit, and almost equal to it ; for the plan of the work is simply to take my readers into my party, and conduct them as faithfully as I could to the scenes that so greatly interested me. I have not given authorities in the historical allusions, because their citation would too greatly encumber the pages, and because such facts are the common-places of literature. The labor of writing has been a " labor of love," for, having greatly enjoyed the visit myself, there has been a real pleasure in the endeavor to make others " partakers of my happiness." M. B. WHARTON. Atlanta, Ga., Oct. i, 1884. European Notes. CHAPTER L FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE. WHAT dread some people have of the water! I never knew that this species of hydrophobia existed to such an extent, until it was finally determined that I should visit Europe. Then my friends told their secret feelings and said many things to shake my deliberately formed purpose. " Ah ! I shall never go to Europe," said one ; " between me and that land there is a great gulf fixed so that I can never think of crossing." " If I could go by rail," said another, " I would try it, but not as you pro- pose," " Why," said I, " it is not more dangerous than railway travel." " Yes," said he, " but as the darkey says, * If you git blowed up on de kars you are dar, but if you git Slowed up on de ocean, whar is yer?'" "Look at the Cunard line," said I, "it has been running for forty years and has never lost a passenger." " Yes," said he, "but if I were to go that would be the time of the first disaster, and I the first man to go down, or may be 'up,' and down at the same time." Still another man who was noted for his recklessness in many things, said, " I am afraid of that pond. If I were told there were $i 5,000,000 which I could have by going for it, I would never attempt It." 2 EUROPEAN NOTES. I had gone too far to recede, however, and go I must. The great trouble was, as to the question, in which steamer to sail? Some were swifter, some considered safer, some cheaper, etc. "You let cheapness alone," said a friend, " and take the ship that will carry you over." The Cu- nard was my first choice, but the steamers on that line were all crowded. The Inman was equally as celebrated, and I am sure has as good accommodations, but a friend sug- gested that some years ago one of its vessels went afloat and has never been heard of since. The Guion was mentioned as number one, and so with the Anchor, and the White Star. The " American " was also popular, but considered too new. The French line and the German Lloyd were both proposed, but I wanted to hold on to English speaking people as long as possible. After some telegraphing I concluded to try the Inman, and engaged passage on the " City of Chester," sailing July i6t?i, i88i. Oh ! then the suggestions that were made by those who had been across as to clothing, remedies for sea-sickness, etc., but braving it all, we proceeded to New York a few days before sailing, our baggage being checked direct to the steamer. The evening before sailing we went down and took a look at the vessel. There she stood grand and beautiful ! We were welcomed on board and shown our rooms. I can never forget my feelings as I thought of confining ourselves to that small abode for a journey of three thousand miles upon the trackless ocean. Everything looked very comfortable ; the rooms were all nicely furnished, the saloon elegantly fitted up, and everything conspiring to the health, comfort and safety of the passengers. Next morning, at nine o'clock, we went on board, no more to tread America's soil for a long, long time. The deck was crowded already with passengers and their friends who had come to see them off. I was introduced to the captain and other officers, whom I found to be first-class oflficers and most intelligent and agreeable gentlemen. Some friends, stopping in New York, came on board to bid us adieu. After a few moments' rapid conversation, the deep-toned voice of one of the officers rang oat, " Visitors ashore." We began ta FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. 3 feel a little sad as hasty good-byes were spoken, friends departed, gangways were lifted, and we found ourselves " alone with the deep." Soon the parting whistle was given and the noble ship slowly, but surely, began to move out of the harbor. As we rounded the dock, the visitors were collected in an immense group on the front platform, and with handker- chiefs waving, bade us all a long adieu. The American flag and the harbor pilot were the lone tokens that we were not quite off from " friends and native land." After sailing about two hours, New York and Brooklyn and the adjacent heights gradually receded from our view, the pilot was lowered into a small boat, the American colors were taken down, the British colors went up, and we were fairly at sea. The day was bright, the scenery beautiful, the sea air bracing, but there were many sad hearts on board. As we gazed at the flag fluttering in the Jbreeze, we felt it was emblematic of our feelings. " As slow our ship her foamy track Against the wind was cleaving, Her trembling pennon still looked back To that dear land 'twas leaving. So loath we part from all we love, From all the links that bind us, So turn our hearts where'er we rove To those we've left behind us," We had been occupied a goo^d part of the time since leaving our moorings in writing letters to send back by the pilot, and now that he had gone, all walked over the decks, gazing on each new face of those now to become familiar as fellow travelers, with destinies mutually locked up in the fortunes of the " City of Chester." There were i6o cabin passengers, as many steerage, and the numer- ous crew, making a considej'able population for the little city which we had entered, and a city it was. The beaitti- ful steamers of the Mississippi have been styled "floating palaces," this was a floating city of such magnificence as those unaccustomed to modern steamships could neyer have dreamed of. We found the passengers intelligent and social ; the 4 EUROPEAN NOTES. officers polite and attentive ; the stewards respectful and obliging to the last degree. And now, as we inhabited this " City " for ten days, it may be interesting to know how we spent the time. Much of the time is spent in eating. We had breakfast at seven, lunch at one, dinner at six, and supper from nine until eleven, and such fare I have never seen even in the best hotels. The passengers are supplied with every- thing in the shape of flesh, fish and fowls, fruits, vegeta- bles, and ices. Those who are not seasick generally have good appetites and are ever ready for a good meal, while many are not able to eat at all. The first day or two out many complained of seasickness, but I have the gratifica- tion to state that I felt not the first symptoms from New York to Liverpool. And Mark Twain well observes, if anything is calculated to make a man vain it is to see everybody around him seasick and he not at all so. The weather was not, as a general thing, rough, and there were not many cases. While most of the time is spent in eating, still more is spent in sleeping, and more deli- cious repose we never enjoyed than when " rocked in the cradle of the deep." Many slept, not only through the night, but even all during the day. Much of the time was spent in conversation, and it is astonishing how much one can learn on board ship from experienced travelers who are ever communicative. The recitals of their ad- ventures excite all the interest and more than the fresh- ness of novel reading. Here were people belonging to all nationalities and speaking several languages, and on all subjects, nautical, philosophical, and geographical, they brought forth things new and old out of their treasuries. Here were ministers, lawyers, physicians, merchants, professors students, etc. Many, of course, spent most of their time reading, whether because it was more interesting, or because they fancied it made them look more so, I can not say. Promenades on deck occupied the attention of all at different hours of the day and night. Amusements, such as card playing, ring toss, and shuf^e deck, were indulged in by the majority. Singing and piano playing also served to vary some monotonous FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. 5 hours. " Taking the log " always created some excite- ment, and all watched the daily progress of the record, and knowing ones could always tell at just what time the ship would reach a certain degree. Many amused them- selves talking with the sailors, learning their nautical terms and hearing their strange tales of adventure, others visited the engine rooms and fire department, which, on so large a steamer, was so extensive and terrific as to sug- gest the idea of the Plutonian regions. The steamer's speed was generally fourteen knots an hour, or three hundred miles in twenty-four. When in mid ocean an en- tertainment was held in the saloon under the direction of the captain and purser for the benefit of the Seamen's Home in Liverpool. It consisted of readings, recitations and music. Several of us took part, and at the close, a hand- some collection was lifted. The elegant gentlemen's saloon was the scene of much smoking and joking, and also of an entertaining mock trial for breach of promise. Church of England services, conducted by the captain, were held on the second Sunday, and were very solemn and im- pressive. The first Sunday the fog was so dense that services were dispensed with. AH were deeply interested in the wonders of the deep. The vessel was followed till far out at sea by great flocks of sea-gulls, while innumerable smaller birds would remind us of the land by their merry chirpings, as they sat perched upon some crested wave instead of a waving tree. Vast schools of porpoises fol- lowed the vessel, illustrating, 1 imagine, the scene described in the Bible where the devils having gone into the swine, the whole herd plunged madly into the sea. Once or twice a huge whale could be seen lashing the sea into foam with its tail and spouting water high into the air. Once I caught a glimpse of a huge sea turtle, which seemed almost as large as a flat-bottomed boat, floating leisurely along in waters supposed to be five miles deep. Several times we passed magnificent steamers, and recip"^ rocal signals were given that at night were strikingly beautiful. Each line has the red, blue or green light, or a combination of the same, as a particular signal which is well understood by mariners. Sailing vessels in far 6 EUROPEAN NOTES. greater numbers were seen clinging to the waves, appar- ently motionless and sometimes in the distance present- ing the appearance of a candle fly on the wall, or huge mosquitoes reposing on the net after a night's "sailing" over the "deep" of somebody's slumbers. We had but two serious causes of anxiety: one was the icebergs, which we fortunately escaped ; the other was the fog, which af times was so dense that we really could not see our hands before us. The fearful tone of the fog horn I can never forget, but the noble Captain Watkins, at such a time, and often without sleep for forty eight hours, was always at his post on the bridge, watching with straining gaze amid cold and often rain, conscious of the precious cargo that had been committed to his charge. After being nine days out, the reappear- ance of the sea gulls, floating pieces of driftwood and tufts of grass reminded us that we were approaching the shore. Night came on, and in the distance we sighted the " cow and calf," two famous lighthouses on the Irish coast. As they were revolving lights, they reminded me of what Dickens said about a lighthouse on Cape Grenade in stormy weather, which, to the drifting mariner, appeared as a huge giant, with head of fire, rising up ever and anon, to see the progress of the storm, and then retiring to his couch again. These lighthouses were swept away during the storms and swelling seas of the succeeding November, and the keepers were compelled to remain on the bare rocks for many days in a state of starvation, and were with difificulty rescued. Next morning, on awaking and looking through the port hole, I discovered, to my infinite delight, the green shores of Ireland, and land never looked so charming to me before. We sailed along the coast for several hours, and at last called at Queens- town, the first time the panting ship had stopped to rest since leaving New York. Here, man)^ of the passengers diseinbarked to make the tour of Ireland and Scotland. Then, after inquiring about the wounded President and securing some newspapers, we proceeded to Liverpool. The most dangerous part of the voyage lies between Queenstown and Liverpool, and wrecks from storms and FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. 7 collisions frequently occur there, where the coasts are more rocky and the fogs denser and more frequent than anywhere else. We were favored with a clear day, with no fog to molest us, and our ride in view of Ireland and the Isle of Man on one side and Wales and England on the other, with innumerable gay ships and steamers all the time passing us, made this the most pleasant part of the entire passage. Toward night we entered the Mersey and steamed up to a world of glittering lights, which we knew to be Liv- erpool, a city of 600,000 busy inhabitants, and the great cotton market of the age. We were not permitted to land that night, but slept on the steamer, I say slept, but there was not much sleeping done. About midnight we were disturbed by the most unearthly noise — thump- ing, blowing, screaming, pufifing, rattling — enough to tear the nerves into "mortal flinders." I thought that our time had come, and that we had crossed three thousand miles of ocean to be drowned in the harbor of Liverpool. I dressed myself and went above, and found that they were simply, with the aid of derricks, unloading the ship's vast cargo. Our fears being allayed, we enjoyed a few hours' repose, and next morning, after a hearty breakfast on board, and mutual adieus and thanks expressed to the captain and others for special attentions, we left our ship and, embarking in a "tender," were taken ashore, where, according to custom, we entered the "Custom" House to undergo the delays (for they are not much else) of the formalities there observed. The presenting of my consu- lar passport saved me all annoyance, and securing a hack, we proceeded to our hotel. FIRST GLIMPSE OF EUROPE. Glimpses we had of the green shores of the Emerald Isle — so grateful to eyes that had, for ten long days, only rested on the unbroken scenery of broken waves ever restlessly and nervously chasing each other to some far distant shore ; glimpses we had also of the "Isle of Man,'' standing on the left like a grim sentinel of the sea ; and of the huge rock of Holyhead and other grey peaks of 8 EUROPEAN NOTES. Wales that lift their sombre forms sullenly to the sky, and saying to the maddening sea forever beating against them^ ^'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." And now we beheld what we had not seen before since we arrived at New York, a train of cars skirting along the shore, leaving a dense cloud of black smoke behind, reveal- ing, all at once, civilization, activity, and life again. But the real "first glimpse of Europe" which we enjoyed was from Liverpool to London Tourists very seldom stop long in Liverpool. They think there is not much there to see, and they are impatient to hurry on to the Metrop- olis. We formed no exception to the rule, but staid long enough to drive through the city, and afterwards strolled on foot to some of the principal objects of interest. Liverpool is unlike almost any other important city in Europe, in that it is new, and is particularly interesting to us, because it has increased to its present enormous population and prosperity chiefly as a result of American commerce. The only monarch America has ever known reigns supreme in this great market — Cotton is its King. In 1644 Prince Rupert called Liverpool "a mere crow's nest," and it was not until the close of the seventeenth century that it became a corporate town. In 1561 its population was 690 ; in 1861,462,749; in 1871, 500,000, now the population is 600,000. The rapidity of its pro- gress is one of the most remarkable instances of prosper- ity the world has ever known, and reminds one of some of our Western cities, such as Chicago, St. Louis, etc. It is stated that Liverpool has, for more than a century, invariably doubled its population, town and dock dues, imports and exports, customs receipts and payments, every sixteen years. We took a hasty view of some of the public buildings, such as the town hall, the exchange buildings, the custom-houses, St. George's Hall, the Wel- lington monument, and the world renowned dock-. There are over seventy places of worship in Liverpool connect- ed with the Church of England and nearly two hundred dissenting and Roman Catholic churches. We stopped FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. 9 at the elegant Northwestern Railway Hotel, and this leads me to remark that nearly all the first class railways have at their termini first class hotels, generally the best in the cities where they are located, for instance, this hotel in Liverpool, the Charing Cross in London, etc. The question now was, what route shall we take to Lon- don ? The Midland route is the favorite, and said to be the best, but we thought we found better accommodations on the Northwestern, and chose that which runs through the very heart and centre of England and gave us the opportunity of seeing much on the way. The ride of our party of seven that day — snugly ensconced in our reserved coupe, birds, as we were, just turned loose from one of the great cages of the sea, flying over the land, (and these English trains do '"fly,") catching glimpses of handsome farm houses, pretty villages, stately castles, waving harvests, and luxuriant forests, all joyous and happy — the ride that day I can never forget. It is impossible to speak of all the stations along our route, each one of which pos- sesses some interest to an American traveler seeking information of the Old World. Crewe is one of the lar- gest and most important, named in honor of Lord Crewe, whose seat, "Crewe Hall,'' is seen overtopping the woods to the left. Between Betley Road and Modeley we pass through Cheshire and Staffordshire, the latter being the seat of some of the most important manufactories in England. Soon we came in sight of Eccleshall, the seat of the bishops of Lichfield for five hundred years. It was here that Margaret of Anjou sought refuge after her flight from Blore Heath. We next came in sight of Staf- ford, a town of 16,000, the inhabitants being chiefly occu- pied in the manufacture of boots and shoes. In sight is an ancient castle, built by Elfleda, Alfred's daughter, in the year 913. I r-^gretted I could not look in and see some curiosities preserved there, such as the chairs of Queen Elizabeth, Charles II. 's bed, etc. In the town of Stafford, in 1593, was born the celebrated Izaak Walton, the father of angling. Next comes Wolver- hampton with 70,000 inhabitants, an important centre of the iron trade ; one million five hundred dozen locks alone being annually made here. 10 EUROPEAN NOTES. Coventry, which has 41,348 inhabitants, is filled with stately buildings of great antiquity, and is full of associa- tions of royal state and chivalry. It was here that an incident occurred "a thousand summers back" that is familiar to people all over the world. Lady Godiva, wife of the Saxon earl, Leofric, had often besought her lord to emancipate the burghers, but he always turned a deaf ear to her solicitations, until, wearied at last by her pertinac- ity, he told her he would grant her request ''if she would ride naked through the town." Leofric intended this to put an end to her solicitations, by imposing what he believed an impossible condition. Lady Godiva, howev- er, took him at his word, and carried out his infamous proposal to the full, thus winning her request. This forms the subject of one of Tennyson's best poems. The tailor, "low churl, compact of thankless earth,'' (the only one who dared gaze on the lady in her humiliation,) has been elevated to a bad eminence in the upper story of a house at the corner of Hertford street, where "Peeping Tom'' is still to be seen. Next came a town that I had heard of and read of all my life and which I was delight- ed to behold. It was Rugby, the seat of one of the most famous schools in England. It was founded by a London tradesman, Lawrence Sheriff, in 1567, who endowed it with property now worth $350,000. Many distinguished men have filled the chair of head master of the school, the most noted of whom was Dr. Arnold, widely known in America as well as in England. The head master is assisted by a dozen masters. A pension, varying from $500 to $[,500, is given by the governing board to retir- ing masters after ten years' service. There are sixty scholars upon the foundation who have the preference for the twenty-one exhibitions of the value of $300 per an- num for seven years. These exhibitions are available either at Oxford or Cambridge. Besides the foundation, the school educates two hundred and sixty boys who pay for their tuition. The building is extensive, the front being 220 feet long. Easter Wednesday is the great day at Rugby. Prize poems are recited in the great room. One of these, established by the Queen, is given in honor FROM CONTINENT TO CONTINENT. II of Dr. Arnold's memory. We now approach Wolverton, from which there is a branch road to Oiney, five miles distant, which place I regret I did not visit, as it contains the house where Cowper lived till 1786. Scott, the Com- mentator, and John Newton were formerly curates of the parish. The latter was associated with Cowper in the pro- duction of the well known Olney Hymns. Soon after leaving Wolverton, Bletchley is reached, from which sta- tion an extended view is obtained of the surrounding country, including Whaddon, Chase and Hall, where Arthur, Lord Grey, entertained Elizabeth. We now approach Berkhamstead, noted as the birth-place of Cow- per, whose father was rector. An Anglo Saxon castle stood here in the time of the Conquest, and in it William, the Conqueror, received a deputation of Saxon nobles after the battle of Hastings ; and among those who lived there were Edward, the Black Prince ; the Duchess of York, mother of Richard HI., and Chaucer, the poet, who was employed as a clerk. On the top of a hill near by, is a house built by Sir Edward Cary in the time of Queen Elizabeth, who granted him a lease of the "old castle at the rent of a red rose every midsummer day." We pass soon the remains of an old castle said to have been built by King John, and inhabited by Richard HI., who, to avenge himself upon an old widow there who called him "Hunchback," ordained that in this parish no widow should receive her "thirds." Passing some other small places, we come to a place ever memorable for its connec- tion with Lord Byron, namely, Harrow on the Hill. The school here was founded by John Lyon in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and is one of the finest in England. Visiting it many years after his student life, Byron said : "Again I beheld where for hours I had pondered, As reclining at eve on yon tombstone I lay, Or round the steep brow of the church yard I wandered, To catch the last glimpse of the sun's setting ray." We dash along and soon come in sight of the greatest city of the world. CHAPTER 11. LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. WESTMINSTER ABBEY. SPEAKING of the wonders of London, I will only allude to the wonders I saw. To speak profusely of these would require the dimensions of a volume ; to speak of all the wonders of that city would require the dimensions of a library. London is truly a gigantic, marvelous place. It has four millions of inhabitants. It covers an area of fifteen square miles. The annual rental of the Metropolis amounts to $125,000,000, and this does not include the extensive suburbs by which it is sur- rounded and which are so closely connected with it as to be almost a part of it. It is estimated that besides hotels and boarding-houses whose name is legion, there are 5,000 public houses and 2,000 beer houses, and their fronts would, if planted side by side, reach a distance of seven- ty-five miles. London has 3,000 bakers, 2,000 butchers, 3,000 grocers, 1,600 coffee rooms, 2,000 dairymen, 2,000 tobacconists, 350 photographic studios. There are 2,000 physicians, 4,000 shoe and bootmakers, and 3,000 tailors; of dressmakers there are 2,000, and houses of worship numbering 1,200, where these dresses may be exhibited. On landing at the N. VV. R. R. station, we proceeded , to Charing Cross Hotel, a favorite stopping place for Americans, which we found crowded to its utmost capacity. LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 1 3 Here I learned, what I afterwards acted upon in Europe, that in order to secure good quarters at the first-class hotels during the "season," it is always necessary to tele--^ graph in advance. We remained a few hours and took a view of the immediate neighborhood, which is one of the finest in London. There we beheld for the first time the beautiful Trafalgar Square, the finest open place in Lon-^- don. It is dedicated to Admiral Nelson and commemo- rates his death at the naval battle of Trafalgar, Oct. 22, 1805, gained by the English fleets over the combined armaments of France and Spain. In the centre of the square rises the massive granite column, one hundred and forty feet in height, to the memory of the hero, which is crowned with a statue of NelscKi. A statue of Sir Henry Havelock, the hero of Lucknow, (and by the way, an emi- nent Baptist,) stands on the east side of the Nelson column and a statue of Sir Charles Napier on the other side. The northeast corner of the square is occupied by an eques- trian statue of George IV. On the southeast of the square stands an equestrian statue of Charles I., remarka- ble for the vicissitudes it has undergone. It was cast in 1633. It was sold by Parliament to a brazier to be melted down, and he sold pretended fragments of it to friends and foes of the Stuarts. At the Restoration, however, the statue was produced uninjured, and re-erected. In Hartshorn Lane, an adjoining street, Ben Johnson, when a boy, once lived with his mother and her second hus- band, a bricklayer. Having viewed these objects, we proceeded to Westminster Palace Hotel, one of the finest caravansaries in London, where we secured excel- lent rooms and every other accommodation needed. We were charmed with our quarters, for right across the street stood Westminster Abbey, to the left the houses of Par- liament, not far ofT the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the London Bridge ; in our rear the beau- tiful Park and Palace of St, James. Indeed, we were to dwell for a time in the very centre of London's most renowned and interesting wonders. And now, reader, join our party and go with us as we visit, first, England's temple of fame, Westminster Abbey. 14 EUROPEAN NOTES. There it stands, right across the street, lifting its huge, sombre, Gothic proportions to the sky, weatherbeaten and covered with the moss of many centuries, but grand and beautiful still. The total length of the church is 513 feet ; length of the transept from north to south, 200 feet; breadth of the nave and aisles, 75 feet; height of church, 102 feet ; of tcwers, 225 feet, I always wondered why this building was called "Westminster Abbey,'' used as it has been for the construction of royal burial vaults and a long series of monuments to celebrated men. It was for the following reason : A church was erected on this spot in honor of St. Peter by the Anglo-Saxon King, Sebert, in 616. With the church was constructed a Bene- dictine Monastery, or "Minster," which, in reference to its position to the west of another Abbey, was called Westminster. The old church was destroyed by the Danes, and the regular establishment of the Abbey is at- tributed to Edward the Confessor, who built a church here in 1049, almost as large as the present one, which also being destroyed, the Abbey was rebuilt in the latter part of the thirteenth century by Henry III. and his son, Edward I., who left it substantially as it now stands. At the Reformation the Abbey, which had been richly en- dowed by former kings, shared the fate of other religious houses, the property was confiscated and the church con- verted into the cathedral of the bishopric. Without detaining the reader longer, we enter by the door of the north transept. As we gaze upon the mag- nificent interior of this superb structure, and see the long line of gorgeous tombs on either side, thinking who these "storied urns and animated busts " are designed to commemorate, while over all, through beautiful stained glass windows a "dim, religious light" is falling, we find ourselves " spellbound." But Washington Irving has better described this first impression than I can : " The space and gloom of this vast ediiice produce a profound and mysterious awe ; we step cautiously and softly about as if fearful of disturbing the hallowed silence of the tomb, while every footfall whispers along the walls and chatters among the sepulchres, making us more sensible LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 1 5 of the quiet we have interrupted. It seems as if the awful nature of the place presses down upon the soul and hushes the beholder into noiseless reverence. We feel that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of the great men of past tim^es, who have filled history with their deeds and the earth with their renown." It is impossible for me to speak of a tenth part of the illus- trious ones interred here, (and some who have monuments are not here interred,) but a few of the names that greatly impressed me I must give. The first name I read fills me with awe. It is William Pitt, Lord Chatham, the statesman who died in 1778, whose eloquent voice was so often raised in deprecation of England's conduct towards the American Colonies. Chatham is represented in an oratorical attitude with his right hand outstretched ; at his feet are sitting two female figures, Wisdom and Cour- age, in the centre, Britannia with a trident, to the right and left the earth and seas. Lord Mansfield's tomb is near by. Above is the Judge on the bench in his ofificial robes. Behind the bench is his motto, " Unicequs virtuti," with the ancient representation of death and youth bear- ing an extinguished torch. We pass by a dozen others and come to the tomb of Warren Hastings, Governor- General of India in 1818. And now we stand over the tomb of Richard Cobden, the politician and champion of free trade, in whose honor that great club is named whose labors are felt even in America in influencing our popular elections. Passing by two dozen splendid monuments, we come to the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton. The half re- cumbent figure of Newton reposes on a black sarcophagus beside which are two small genii unfolding a scroll ; below is a relief in marble indicating the labors of the deceased ; above is an allegorical figure of astronomy upon a large globe. How humble does one feel when gazing upon such a scene, especially as he remembers that the great Newton said in his last moments, " I know not what I may appear to others to have been, but to myself I seem as a little child amusing himself in finding now and then a smoother shell or prettier pebble than his fel- lows, while the great ocean of truth lies unexplored 1 6 EUROPEAN NOTE?. before me." Pasdng other illustrious names, we come to the grave of Charles James Fox. The figure of the de- ceased lies on a couch, and is supported by the arms of Liberty ; at his feet are Peace with an olive branch, and a liberated slave. Near by is the tomb of William Pitt, the Younger, the renowned statesman ; at the top stands the statue of Pitt, as chancellor of the exchequer, in the act of speaking; to the right is History listening to his words; on the left, Anarchy in chains. The proximity of the tombs of Fox and Pitt suggested Scott's well known lines : " Shed upon Fox's grave the tear, 'Twill trickle to his rival's bier." In the baptistery at the west end we see the tomb of William Wordsworth, the poet, forever dead to " The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood, And every loved spot that his infancy knew." Many other names we pass till we are arrested by the grave and bust of Dr. Isaac Watts, the famous divine and hymn writer. John Wesley's monument is in close companionship, the great founder of Methodism. We now turn to the right and enter the " Poet's Cor- ner," by far the most interesting collection I had yet seen. There, sleeping together as in a common bed, we find George Grote, the historian ; David Garrick, the actor ; Isaac Barrow, the theologian ; Joseph Addison, the author ; Lord Macaulay, the eloquent historian ; Thackeray, the novelist; Handel, the composer; Sir Archibald Campbell, the general ; John, Duke of Argyle ; Oliver Goldsmith, James Thomson, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Gray, Samuel Butler, Ben. Johnson, John Milton, and William Shakespea: e, the poets, a bright cluster of intellectual gems that seem to shine brighter than ever amid the darkness and sadness of their sepulchral home. Here, too, between the statues of Addison and Campbell, is the grave of Charles Dickens, a name better known and oftener read than nine-tenths of those I have mentioned. And as I gazed upon that slab, covering his lowly house, 1 could, in fancy, see LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. I7 perched upon its sides and corners (as I have seen the same figures pictured on the sides and corners of the Hds of his numerous books,) the familiar forms of David Cop- perfield, Martin Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, and the host of other characters that his genius introduced to the world, and which he was never ashamed to claim as his offspring. John Gay, the poet, has this inscription on his tomb, composed by himself: " Life is a jest and all things show it; 1 thought so once, but now I know it." We now repair to the chapels, the vaults of royalty, which, in so large and magnificent a church, may well be imagined as beautiful as they are interesting. The chapel of St. Benedict contains many names which, though illustrious, are not very familiar to us. In the chapel of St. Edmund among many others we find the tombs of Lady Jane Seymour, Lord John Russell, and Edward Bulwer Lytton. The chapel of St. Nicholas was also devoid of any peculiar interest. A flight of twelve black marble steps leads to the chapel of Henry VII., a superb structure erected in 1520 The roses in the decoration of the splendid gates refer to the marriage of Henry VII., founder of the Tudor family, with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., which united the houses of York and Lancaster and put an end to the wars of the roses. Washington Irving says of this chapel: "On entering, the eye is astonished by the pomp of architec- ture and the elaborate beauty of sculptural detail. Th'e very walls are wrought into universal ornament, encrusted with tracery and scooped into niches crowded with the statues of saints and martyrs. Stone seems by the cunning labor of the chisel to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb." So much for looking above ; look- ing behind and beneath, what do we see? A cluster of graves. and monuments more celebrated perhaps than any in the world, granting that those of our Saviour and the apostles are not known. First in the southeast part of 2 1 8 EUROPEAN NOTES. the chapel w-e behold the monument of Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, granddaughter of Heriry VII., niece of Henry VIII., sister of James V. of Scotland, grandmother of James VI. of Scotland. Next we gaze upon the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots, beheaded in 1587, representing a re- cumbent figure, under a canopy in a praying attitude. The remains of the queen are buried in a vault below the monument. This rostral column before us, with life-size figure, is the monument of George Monk, Duke of Albe- marle, the restorer of the Stuarts. In the vault in front of it are buried Charles II., William III., and Queen Mary, his wife. I always took a deep interest in the his- tory of this devoted royal pair, -in whose honor our Wil- liam and Mary College of Virginia, the alma mater of Jefferson and Randolph, was named, and gazed with more than usual reverence on their tombs. " They were lovely and beautiful in their lives and in their death they were not divided.'' Here, too, were buried Queen Anne and her consort, Prince George of Denmark. The nave of the chapel contains many distinguished monuments, chief among them, that of Henry VII., the king to whom this splendid chapel is dedicated, and his wife, Elizabeth, of York, who lies by his side. This monument occupies the centre of the eastern part of the chapel and is enclosed by a tasteful brass railing. On the double sarcophagus are the recumbent figures of the royal pair in their robes. James I., better known by the masses in America than any of the kings, (save perhaps George III., from whom we rescued our freedom,) on account of his so-called translation of the commonly received version of the Bible, is buried in the same vault with Henry VII, George II. and a number of members of the royal family are here buried without monuments. But the most interesting monument of all, not on account of its artistic merits, but because of the dust it encloses, was next to be seen, the monument of Queen Elizabeth, that wonderful woman whose reign was the brightest, the most golden of the long list of rulers, who had "the body of a weak and feeble woman, but the heart and soul of a king, and of a king of LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. I9 England, too," as she herself said in an address to her troops at the time of the Spanish Armada. When she -died it is said she exclaimed in terror, " My kingdom for one single hour of time," and here she has been lying for centuries; "time enough" to repent, surely, if her re- pentance could now avail anything. Here, too, are the monuments of some deeply interesting children; first, Mary, daughter of James I., who died in 1607, at the age of two years, in whose honor there is a small sarcophagus in the form of a cradle, containing a child, and secondly, Edward V., and his brother, the Duke of York, the sons •of Edward IV., murdered in the Tower, when children, by that miserable, mean, deformed piece of humanity, Rich- ard III. We visited the chapels of St. Paul and St. John, but saw nothing that specially interested us except the large marble monument of General Wolfe, who fell in 1759 at the capture of Quebec. He is represented sink- ing into the arms of a grenadier, while his right hand is pressed on his mortal wound. The soldier is pointing out to the dying man the Goddess of Fame hovering overhead. The chapel of Edward the Confessor, to which we ascended by a flight of steps, is worthy of especial notice. Here are rich monuments of Henry III., Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I., Edward HI,, Richard II., Edward I., and Edward the Confessor, which is still beautiful, though greatly marred by relic hunters. Here we beheld two interesting relics of the past, of a different kind from those we had been so long inspecting : First, the old coronation chair of the Scottish kings, and second, the new coronation chair made for Queen Mary, wife of William III. The former contains under the seat the famous stone of Scone, the emblem of the power ot the Scottish princes, and traditionally said to be that used by the patriarch Jacob as his pillow at Bethel. On the cor- onation day the chairs are covered with gold brocade and taken into the choir of the Abbey, where they are used by the anointed ones. The Jerusalem chamber, so-called from the tapestries or pictures of Jerusalem with which it is hung, contains frescoes of the death of Henry IV., and the coronation of Queen Victoria. It was the scene 20 EUROPEAN NOTES. of the death of Henry IV., to whom there had been a prophecy made that he should die in Jerusalem, and Shakespeare explains how the prophecy was fulfilled : King Henry — '"Doth any name particular belong Unto the lodging where I first did swoon ?" Warwick — "Yes, called Jerusalem, my noble Lord." King Henry — "Laud be to God ! Even there my life must end. It hath been prophesied to me many years, I should not die but in Jerusalem, Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land — But bear me to that chamber ; there I'll lie. In that Jerusalem shall Harry die." There was in that walled city of the dead a new made grave, covered with fresh wreaths and flowers, that awak- ened our profoundest interest. It was that of the great, the good, the generous Dean Stanley, who was buried the Sunday before we reached London. The conspicuous place he occupied in the chapel of Henry VII., the troops of visitors from the city, including deputations from day schools, Sunday-schools, orphan asylums, as well as the public honors paid to him, all showed that he was no ordinary man. We attended two religious services in Westminster. The first was at ten o'clock in the morning, and while disapproving the absurdity and semi-Roman Catholic character of much that was done, yet the service was most strange and interesting. The notes of that deep toned organ, the intoning of the majestic Liturgy, and the multitudinous voices of the choir of children, ming- ling and rolling through those mystic aisles, vaults and lofty arches and over innumerable gravestones covering the dust of the great of all ages, made an impression upon us such as no language can describe, but must be realized to be appreciated. But few persons were present at the day service, but on Sunday night the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, hundreds being unable to secure seats or standing room, as it had been announced that Canon Farrar (next to Spurgeon the most popular preacher in London) would preach. The preacher seems LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 21 to be in middle life, tall and spare, with blue eyes, light hair, fair complexion, and with a voice deep-toned and musical. His discourse was a commemorative address on the life and character of the recently deceased Dean Stan- ley, and was worthy of the place, the occasion, the preach- er, and the subject. There are several other places of interest in this imme- diate locality that it is impossible not to see when we see the Abbey ; such as the Westminster Column, the West- minster School, the Westminster Hospital, and the West- minster Palace Hotel (formerly a part of the palace), all together making this a locality of extraordinary beauty, and intensely interesting. But we have seen enough for one day, and pass out of the church, walk through the large churchyard, solidly and evenly paved with tombstones, (every inch of ground being utilized,) and into the busy streets, hoping that in the morning of the resurrection all who have been sleep- ing here, may awake to everlasting life, that none who have been so highly honored may awake to shame and everlasting contempt. ST. Paul's cathedral. During my pastorate of Walnut Street Baptist church in Louisville, one morning, Mr. Henry Watterson, editor of the Courier-Journal, had an article in that paper on the beauty of the neighborhood intersected by Fourth Avenue and Walnut Street, in which he said that he had seen "nothing handsomer than Drs. Wharton and Hop- son's churches this side of St. Paul's in London.'' But when one stands and gazes upon the magnificence of this world renowned cathedral, he wonders how such a com- parison could ever have been drawn. The Walnut Street church is beautiful, it is true, as beautiful as could be built for one hundred thousand dollars ; but St. Paul's Cathedral cost five millions of dollars. Walnut Street church was two years in building, as well as I remember — St. Paul's was thirty five years. Walnut Street is strictly Gothic, perhaps the finest specimen of Gothic architec- 22 EUROPEAN NOTES. ture in Louisville ; St. Paul's is not Gothic, but Corinthi- an, and the only cathedral in the United Kingdom that is not of the Gothic order of architecture. Walnut Street has a steeple one hundred and sixty feet high ; the exact height of St. Paul's is three hundred and fifty feet above the marble pavement, and three hundred and seventy feet from the level of the churchyard. Walnut Street can seat only about one thousand persons; on the 27th of February, 1872, when the Queen and the royal family attended a public thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales from an almost fatal illness^, twelve thou- sand persons occupied the cathedral. This splendid building is on a historic site, where, it is said, in Pagan times a temple of Diana stood ; where a church stood in Roman times, built by the Christians of that day ; whereon churches, more or less pretentious, have been erected, burnt and re erected no less than five times ; where, in the Middle Ages, sermons were preached, Papal bulls promulgated, heretics made to recant, witches to confess, and where the Pope's condemnation of Luther was proclaimed in the presence of Cardinal Wolsey; which was the scene of Wyckliffe's citation for heresy in 1337, and of the burning of Tyndale's New Testament in 1527 ; which was the burial place of a long list of illus- trious persons. This cathedral, the most prominent pub- lic building in London and the third largest church in the world, was designed by that worthy son of England, Sir Christopher Wren, who received during the whole period of service, from choice, only two hundred pounds, or one thousand dollars a year. Above the north door is a tablet to his memory with this noble inscription : "Reader, if you would seek his monument, look around." We in- spected the building carefully and found that, besides being the most prominent place of worship in London, it is also a second temple of fame, containing many richly wrought monuments of celebrated persons. The follow- ing is a list of the most prominent persons honored with tombs in this costly enclosure : Sir Joshua Reynolds, Nelson, Abercrombie, Howe, Rodney, Cornwallis, Bishop Heber, Picton, Ponsonby, Dean Milman, John Howard^ LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 23 Sir Astley Cooper, Lord Lyons, the Duke of Wellington and Sir John Moore. As in Westminster, all who have monuments are not here interred, though most of them are. This is especially true of the last named General, who fell at Corunna, the particulars of whose burial are familiar to every school-boy : "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the ramparts we hurried, Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried." We were deeply interested in the crypt where rest the ashes, in splendid marble sarcophagi, of Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Close by the gorgeous sarcophagus of Wellington is the funeral car in which he was borne to his last resting place. This car was made out of cannon which he had captured at Waterloo, and was drawn by twelve huge horses, (the guide called them elephants, and the English draft-horses are almost as large as elephants,) through the streets of London, followed by an immense procession. Nelson and Wellington, the one by sea and the other by land, are looked upon as the saviors of their country. As we stood by the sarcopha- gus of Wellington, having seen all, and about to retire, the guide said : "Now, 1 wish to ask a conundrum of the ladies: Why is St. Paul's Cathedral like a bird's nest ?'' We gave it up, for though the Bible says, "the sparrow hath found a house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord,'' yet we could not see the similitude here. "Be- cause," said he with a twinkle in his eye, (and he had doubtless told this joke a thousand times,) "it was built by a Wren.'' The whispering gallery is remarkable for a curious echo. A slight whisper is distinctly audible to an ear near the wall on the other side, a distance of one hundred and eight feet in a direct line, and one hundred and sixty feet round the semi-circle. While on this subject of whisper- ing galleries, let me say, that in nearly all the great build- ings they have a whispering gallery to show. There is one in the Pantheon at Paris almost exactly similar in its 24 EUROPEAN NOTES. effect to this. In the dining-room of King William's palace at Berlin, there is the finest whispering gallery I have seen. A sound from the lips, or clapping of the hands, can be distinctly heard repeating itself twenty-four times, reverberating through the halls and corridors of that immense building. We laughed — oh what a laugh was there ! "Laughed and the echoes huddling in affright, Like Odin's hounds went baying down the night." On Sunday we attended a service in St. Paul's, heard excellent music, and a mediocre sermon from Canon Gregory. A large audience was present. SOME NOTABLE DISSENTING CHURCHES. I have written extensively of the great central build- ings of the Established Church, but as yet have said nothing of others which, while not so gorgeous, to thou- sands of hearts are dearer than those stupendous piles "where marble saints are niched in cathedral walls, and through the long drawn aisles and fretted vaults the peal- ing anthem swells the note of praise." And what worries me is, that the descriptive books of London rarely ever mention these humbler sanctuaries, or if at all, it is a bare mention. Even Baedeker, now regarded as the world's standard, says: "It may not be invidious here to specify Dean Stanley, and Canon Farrar of Westminster Abbey, and Canon Liddon of St. Paul's Cathedral, as three of the most eminent preachers in London," while he makes no allusion whatever to Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, the greatest preacher in London or the world. But like most Ameri- can tourists, I concluded. to disregard Baedeker and go where it pleased me, and by no means to slight those "dissenting'' brethren who hold "the faith once delivered to the saints." Before giving an account of a pilgrimage to these shrines, I will state that there, are eight hundred churches of the Church of England in London, or its immediate vicinity. Of the Non-conformist churches, which amount to six hundred in all, two hundred and fif- ty are Independent, one hundred and thirty Baptis't, one hundred and sixty Wesleyan, and fifty Roman Catholic. LICxHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 25 One visit that I greatly enjoyed was to Wesley's Chap- el, a small, but neat building, situated at "Warwick Gar- den, Kensington.'' Here the great founder of Methodism preached for many years, uttered those truths which were destined to almost revolutionize Christendom, and deliv- ered those "discourses" that have been so often published and so often repeated by the admirers of the great author. I entered his pulpit, where he so often stood, his tall form erect, with long, white locks flowing over his shoulders, "his looks adorning the venerable place," and, as I gazed upon the then empty pews, I reflected seriously on his great career and dwelt upon the thought of what a mighty force he was in the world's progress. At my back was a tablet to his memory, stating how long he had been pas- tor of the church, and the fresh appearance of everything around me indicated that the whole was but the work of yesterday, but what mighty events have transpired since the voice of "tJie old man eloquent" was there heard. Then, Methodism had scarcely a name, and the name it had was given by its enemies. Wesley's austere habits at Oxford had caused the students and others to say, "a new society of Methodists has sprung up,'' in allusion to an ancient medical organization st) called. But what is Meth- odism now? In that city alone it has one hundred and sixty churches and its converts are numbered by hundreds of thousands in all lands. One is apt to imagine that such a man must have been not only an intellectual prodigy but a bustling agitator, when in truth he was quiet, - prudent, patient. Robert Hall described him as the "quiescence of turbulence — unmoved himself but moving everything around him.'' What struck me as peculiarly suggestive of the success of his great undertaking, was the fact that, though the sect was at first despised, now the Lord Mayor of London holds a pew here and is a member of this church. Going into the churchyard I beheld Wesley's grave, over which a suitable monument has been erected. As I stood there enjoying the solemn pleasure, I thought of many of my Methodist friends in America and wished they could have been by my side. I wanted a souvenir from the spot, but it was dif^cult to find. My 26 EUROPEAN NOTES. brother, likewise a minister, was with me, and the sexton, seeing our anxiety for some "relic from the tomb of Wes- ley," came up with an old broken chalk pipe and said : "This is a valuable relic. I was digging here the other day and way down in the ground close by the very grave I found it." "How much for it?" asked my brother, eager to secure the prize. "A shilling," was the reply, and no sooner said than the money was paid. I contented my- self with buying a photograph of the honored man who was the leader of such a great religious movement, who for sixty-five years was a devoted minister of the Gospel, and whose last words were, "The best of all is, God is with us — God is with us." Another interesting visit I paid to Whitefield's Taber- nacle, "Tabernacle Row, Finsbury," classed in the London church directory among the Congregationalists or Inde- pendents, though I always regarded Whitefield as a Calvin- istic- Methodist. It was pleasant while viewing the scene of his labors, to recall the important services which he rendered to the cause of truth in America, where his elo- quent voice was so often uplifted before audiences of attentive thousands, and particularly to think of the Or- phan House which he established near Savannah, Georgia, constituting one of the ancient landmarks of that historic region, and so often visited by tourists while sojourning in the "Forest City." I visited, also, the church and grave of Rowland Hill, one of the most gifted, as well as eccentric preachers that ever lived, beneath whose irrepressible fund of humor there was always a believing heart, and the "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit." With all his bold utterances, one of his chief characteristics was humility, for it is said he exclaimed on one occasion when he saw a criminal going to his execution, "There goes Rowland Hill to the gallows without the grace of God." His grave is in a vestibule to itself and is covered by a ponderous and hand- some slab bearing an appropriate inscription. The church has been entirely remodeled and modernized, and is widely known as the church of Newman Hall, a celebrated preacher who visited America not many years ago. There LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 2/ is a very handsome commemorative tablet, with a gor- geous inscription, erected at the entrance in honor of Abraham Lincohi, President of the United States. Mr. Hall, who regards himself as a sort of apostle of freedom, collected the money for this object during his visit to America. But while commemoration of Lincoln's eman- cipation proclamation was the ostensible design, I imagine it was a device also by which to increase the fund for constructing his church. But by far my most interesting and important visit was to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, "Newington Butts, close to the Elephant and Castle,'' the scene of the labors of the world's greatest preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon. Leav- ing our hotel by Westminster Abbey, passing the Houses of Parliament, and crossing the beautiful Westminster Bridge, and Victoria and Albert Embankments, we took a tramway car, and after going about two miles, alighted at the Elephant and Castle, which, instead of a magnificent hotel that we expected to find it, was only a third-rate restaurant of a rather dingy and unprepossessing appear- ance. From here we had but a short walk to "Spurgeon's Tabernacle," which we found rapidly filling up with the Thursday night's congregation, for Mr. Spurgeon, to our infinite delight, we learned, was present and would preach. While Dr. Parker, Newman Hall, and other noted preach- ers were off, taking their rest, he, like a faithful soldier, was here at his post, though it was in midsummer. The building has an imposing exterior, but nothing like so impressive as the interior, which impresses the stranger with its exact adaptation to the purpose for which it was designed, namely, that of a vast audience chamber where hungry multitudes were to be fed with the pure bread of life. This is a building not to be described as possessing naves, transepts, vaults, chapels and crypts, but as con- structed in the simplest manner in the ordinary form of our churches in America, with three rows of galleries, however, extending all around the house. The pulpit, or stand, for there is no pulpit, is on a line with the first gallery, so that in this case the "sea of faces" below must be "upturned" indeed in order to see the preacher. It 28 EUROPEAN NOTES. ' being Thursday night, and many of the congregation being off at watering places, only four thousand per sons were present. There was no organ and no choir, but a precentor led the singing, which was performed b}^ the entire congregation. Soon Mr. Spurgeon walked in from a room back of the speakc's stand, recognized at once from his many likenesses. H-^ seemed the very picture of health, with stalwart for»a, rnddy cheeks, laughing blue eyes, but as is well known, hi^ health has not been good of late. All eyes were upon him. His reading of the hymn, pas- sage from the Scriptures, on which he commented as he proceeded, and his fervent prayer, all came fully up to our expecta^ i^s, and were an earnest of what was in store in the sermon. His text was, "I will pray the Lord ^ that he rain no more rain upon you," and for one hour he held that audience spell-bound with a plain, practical, earnest, thrilling appeal to their hearts and consciences. We were gratified, charmed, delighted, and felt that he was fully up to his reputation and deserved all that had been said in his favor. At the close of the services we sought an interview, sending in our cards by one of the deacons. He received us most cordially, fatigued and perspiring from the effects of the sermon as he was, introduced us to his brother, and asked us many questions about ourselves and Ameri- ca, that land which he says "lies so near his heart and which God has so greatly blessed." He invited us cordi- ally to attend on the following Sunday when his whole congregation would be present. That service, that ser- mon, that interview constituted one of the richest experi- ences of my life. Next Sunday was ushered in overcast with clouds and soon the rain began to pour down. But it was our only Sunday in London, and Spurgeon we must hear again. By an arrangement made the day before our seats had been secured, and taking a carriage, we were soon at the door of the Tabernacle and in our places. As we entered we beheld people coming through the rain from every direction, the whole region seeming black with u mbrellas. All, of course, could not come, but the con- LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 29 gregation that rainy morning amounted to six thousand persons. The singing was unusually fine, the prayer strik- ingly impressive, the comments on the chapter a model of exposition, and the sermon a masterly effort on the Preaching of the Cross. The sermon lasted for an hour again, and from the beginning to the close there was not the slightest flagging of attention. A hundred and one writers have told what, in their opinion, is the secret of Spurgeon's great power, and I suppose I am entitled to an opinion, too, and I say it is — Spurgeon. It is himself and not another that preaches. It is that heart, that mind, that spirit, that conception of truth and duty, that intense love for the Saviour and for sinners, that intuitive knowledge of the responsive chords of the human heart, all that and more, that constitute the individuality called C. H. Spurgeon, this it is, these it is, he it is that moves an audience as nobody else can. His power can not be analyzed, cannot be imitated. On reaching Coburg I wrote to him and requested a copy of the sermon which I had heard with so much pleasure. It came promptly by the next mail, and as I read it now, it is a pleasure forme to connect each word with the preach- er's looks, gestures, articulations, and the very intonations of his voice are remembered, so impressed was I with his utterances that day. Having heard Spurgeon I feel more than ever the truth of the couplet : "There's a charm in delivery, a magical art, Which speaks like a kiss from the lip to the heart." On the previous Saturday I visited his Pastors' College, a neat and commodious building only a few steps from the rear of his church. In the chapel there is a magnifi- cent marble bust of Spurgeon, presented to the College by a member of Parliament. The different lecture rooms were well arranged, and the College was in successful operation. It has turned out hundreds of ministers who are preaching the Gospel in every land ; and it is even a question whether the great preacher does greater good by his church or his college. 30 EUROPEAN NOTES. THE TOWER OF LONDON. The Tower, "England's gloomy State Prison," possesses a thrilling interest for all visitors to London, chiefly on three accounts : ist. Because of its great antiquity ; 2d. Because of the celebrated prisoners who have suffered, and in many instances, horribly perished there ; and 3d. Because of the interesting curiosities there exhibited. First, it is over eight hundred years old, having been built by William, the Conqueror, in 1078, on the site of an old Roman fortress. It is located on the bank of the Thames, and covers thirteen acres. It is called the "Tower," but I think it should more properly be called the "Towers," as there are many towers built to strengthen the double thirteen feet thick walls, the whole ground plan being in the shape of an irregular pentagon. Only the White Tower remains of all the massive, original building with which the Norman conqueror overawed the people of London and England. It was subsequently extended and improved by William Rufus, Henry I., Henry III., James I., Charles II., and William III. There are four entrances to the Tower. The Traitors' gate, at the end of a sort of canal, which ran from the river into the fortress, so call- ed because state prisoners used to be conducted by water after their trial at Westminster, for safe keeping in the Tower. The Iron Gate, Water Gate and Lion Gate, so named because the lions of the zoological gardens were formerly kept there. It is through this gate that visitors are usually admitted, and it was through this that we passed to behold these former abodes of wretchedness, whose sickening history is a commentary on the depravity of human nature. If these old, old stones, gates, walls and towers could speak, "they could a tale unfold," whose- "lightest words would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy blood, make thy two eyes to start from their spheres, and each particular hair to stand on end, like quills on the fretful porcupine." This brings me to notice, secondly, the celebrated prisoners who have suffered and often per- ished there. Nearly every tower is connected with some horrible association of blood, viz. : The Bowyer Tower, in which LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 3 1 George, Duke of Clarence, was drowned, by order of his brother, in a butt of Malmsey wine ; the Brick Tower, in which the accomplished, but unfortunate. Lady Jane Grey was confined ; Beauchamp Tower, into which Anne Bol- eyn was thrown when she had incurred the displeasure of that wretch who must, as Dickens says, ever remain a blot of blood and grease on the escutcheon of England, Henry VIII., who, when his innocent wife's head was severed from her body by his order, called his dogs and went out hunting as a recreation. There, Lord Dudley, the husband of Lady Jane Grey, was also confined, with his father and mother. In the Bell Tower, the Princess Elizabeth was confined by her sister. Queen Mary. In Wakefield Tow- er, Henry VI. was murdered. In the Bloody Tower, the sons of Edward IV. were murdered by order of their uncle, Richard III., that wretch who was "deformed, un- finished, sent before his time into this breathing world, half made up, and that so lamely and unfashionable that the dogs barked at him" as he passed them. In close proximity is the dungeon where that good man, Sir Wal- ter Raleigh, was confined, his autograph being still on the wall. It is said, that just before his decapitation he ate a hearty breakfast, and smoked his pipe, of which he was very fond, and then stretching his neck over the block, he ordered the executioner to strike. "Is your head lying right?'' asked the man. "Ah,'' said Raleigh, "it makes but little difference how the head lies so the heart is right." In the White Tower, Richard II. abdicated in favor of Henry of Bolingbroke, in 1399, ^"^ ^^ was here that Prince James, of Scotland, was imprisoned in 1405. Here, too, in a dark and forbidding dungeon, the hero of Scotland, Sir William Wallace, was confined, one of the noblest patriots the world has ever known, whose end was, perhaps, the saddest the recoids of even the Tower contain. Scotland, overrun by the English and forsaken by traitor sons, found alone in the faithful Wallace a defend- er. He rallied the scattered patriots, and after success on many a hard fought field, re-established the independence of his country. At last, he was basely betrayed by some of his own people, bound in irons, and sent to the Tower, 32 EUROPEAN NOTES. where he was closely kept till the time of his trial in Westminster Hall. His freedom was offered on one con- dition, that he would betray Bruce and submit to Edward, or in the event of his declining, the most horrible of deaths awaited him. He chose the latter, for it was im- possible for so honest, honorable and brave a nature to do otherwise. He was then ruthlessly taken out of the Tow- er by the Traitors' Gate, and hung, after which he was drawn and quartered, and the several portions of his body hung up on London Bridge as a warning to all who would dare defy the power of Edward. But his spirit still lived in the royal heart of Bruce, his idol and his friend, and at the battle of Bannockburn his name was rescued from obloquy, his principles triumphed, the power of England was broken, Bruce, the object of his prayers and labors, was restored to the throne, and the red lion, finding in the Highlands an uncongenial clime, was sent growling back to live among the white cliffs of Albion. No wonder that the patriot bard. Burns, in invoking a blessing for his beloved country, remembered the name of that country's greatest benefactor : "O thou that poured the patriotic tide That flowed through Wallace's undaunted heart !" Many other celebrated persons were for a longer or short- er time confined in the Tower: John Baliol, king of Scot- land ; David Bruce, king of Scotland ; John, king of France ; Duke of Orleans, father of Louis XH. of France ; Lord Cobham, the most distinguished of the Lollards, burned as a heretic at St. Giles in the fields ; Ann Askew, tortured in the Tower and burned in Smithfield as a her- etic; Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Thomas Wyatt, beheaded on Tower Hill ; Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron; Earl of Stratford, beheaded in 1683 ; Lord Chan- cellor Jeffreys, Duke of Marlborough, and others. Talk we of the "dark and bloody ground ?'' It is not Kentucky. It is not St. Domingo. It is the Tower of London. And all the waters that lave England's shores^ poured in through the "water gate," could never wash those stains out. They would "rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 33 I come in the third place to speak of the curiosities exhibited at the Tower. The most extensive of these we witnessed first in the Horse Armory, a gallery 150 feet in length, containing numerous trophies on the walls. The centre of the gallery is occupied by 22 equestrian figures in full armor equipment, affording a faithful and interest- ing picture in chronological order of English war array from the time of Edward I. to James II., enabling the visitor also to picture to his imagination the knights errant and tournaments of the age of chivalry. Here we viewed a strange and interesting wardrobe — a suit of armor dating from the time of Edward I., 1272, a suit of the time of Henry VI., tournament suit of the time of Edward IV., a knight's suit of the time of Richard III., a suit of Burgundian armor of the time of Henry VII., a suit of richly ornamented armor actually worn by Henry VIII., a suit worn by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen Elizabeth, the armor bearing his initials and, crest ; a magnificent suit of Ger- man workmanship, presented by the Emperor Maximilian to Henry VIII. on the occasion of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon ; a suit of armor worn by Charles I. ; a suit richly inlaid with gold belonging to Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. ; a suit of George Monk, restorer of the Stuarts. The last mounted figure wears a light suit of armor that belonged to James II., after whose time armor was scarcely worn. Interspersed among the armor are numerous weapons of the periods represented, instruments of torture, thumb screws, stocks, the head piece with rams' horns of the court-fool of Hen- ry VIII. Near the middle is the veritable block on which Lord Lovat, the last person beheaded in England, suffer- ed the penalty of high treason, and a little further on is a beheading axe said to be that with which the Earl of Sus- sex was decapitated. At the foot of the staircase is a case containing the cloak on which Gen. Wolfe died before Quebec. To the right are two drums captured at the battle of Blenheim, and many other curiosities deeply interesting, but too tedious to mention. In the Wakefield tower we beheld a dazzling array of 3 34 EUROPEAN NOTES. curiosities, which are celebrated the world over. It con- sisted of nothing less than the Regalia, or Crown Jewels, whose splendor and value convey a striking idea of the pomp and pride of royalty. First, we beheld St. Edward's crown, executed for the coronation of Charles II., and used at all subsequent coronations. This was the crown stolen in 167 1 by Col. Blood and his associates, who gag- ged and overpowered the keeper, but the bold robbers did not succeed in escaping with their booty. Here, too, is Queen Victoria's crown, made in 1838, a master piece of the goldsmith's art. It is adorned with no fewer than 2,788 diamonds, the large ruby in front said to have been given to the Black Prince in 1367 by Don Pedro, of Cas- tile, and was worn by Henry V. on his helmet at the battle of Agincourt. It also contains a very large sap- phire. The Prince of Wales' crown is of pure gold and gorgeous in the extreme. The Queen Consort's crown is of pure gold set with most splendid jewels. The Queen's crown, embellished with diamonds and pearls, was made for Madame d'Este, wife of James II. St Edward's stafT, made of gold, is four and one half feet long, and weighing ninety pounds. The orb at the top is said to contain a piece of the true cross. The royal sceptre, with the cross two feet nine inches long, is richly adorned with precious stones. The sceptre of the dove or rod of equity, having above the orb a dove with outstretched wings, is a mar- velous piece of workmanship. Queen Victoria's sceptre and the sceptre of Queen Mary, wife of William III., are models of unique and artistic beauty. The Kohinoor imi- tation (mountain of light) one of the largest diamonds in the world, weighing 162 carats, was a curiosity worth seeing, for the original is at Windsor Castle. The salt cellar of slate, in the form of the White Tow- er, is a curious and costly piece of workmanship. The silver baptismal font of the royal children is also shown, and the gold basin used in the distribution of the Queen's alms. The total value of this regalia is $15,000,000. But to me by far the most interesting curiosities exhibited were of a different kind. First, we were shown under a staircase in the wall of LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 35 the White Tower, the very spot where the bones of the two young princes, murdered by their uncle, were found. That was one of the saddest, most revolting incidents in the whole history of the world. Children are naturally timid, and then to be shut up for weary months amid the darkness, damps, and gloom of that miserab'e place, at last by a ruffian employed by their own uncle, to be smothered in bed, with no one near to speak a kind wor^ or render any assistance, is too terrible to think of; and all this to gratify the ambition of a mean wretch, who, had he lived in the time of our Saviour and it had suited his purpose, would doubtless have played the part of Ju- das Iscariot. Secondly, we had pointed out to u& Tower Hill hard by the prison, where formerly stood the scaffold for the exe- cution of traitors. The execution took place in the Tower itself, only in the case of Anne Boleyn, Catherine How- ard, Lady Jane Grey and Devereaux, Earl of Essex ; in all other instances, the prisoners were beheaded at this place of execution. That ground on which we gazed was indeed a dark and bloody ground, "soaked again and again with the best blood of England." The place has some other interesting associations. Here William Penn, the great American pioneer, was born, and here Otway, a dramatic poet, second only to Shakespeare, languished out a miser- able existence, at last almost dying of starvation ; here, too, the wife of Sir Walter Raleigh lodged, while her husband languished in the tower. Lastly, we saw the little burial ground adjoining the chapel of St. Peter ad vi7icula where the unfortunate vic- tims of the Tower were interred. Ad Vinada is a very good name for a church erected here, but Aceldama, "the field of blood," or Golgotha, "the place of skulls," it struck me, would be better. Macaulay, in speaking of it says ; "In truth, there is no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery. Death is there associated, not as in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's, with genius and virtue, with public veneration and with imperishable renown, not as in our humblest churches and churchyards, with every- thing that is endearing in social and domestic characters ; 36 EUROPEAN NOTES. but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with the savage triumph of implacable enemies, with the inconstancy, the ingratitude, the cow- ardice of friends, with all the miseries of fall<=^n greatness, and of blighted fame." Here were interred Sir Thomas More, Queen Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, Queen Catherine Howard, Lord Admiral Seymour, Lord Somerset, the Protector, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Dudley, Robert Dever- eaux. Earl of Sussex, all of whom were beheaded ; Sir Thomas Overbury, poisoned in the Tower, Sir John El- iot, who died as a prisoner in the Tower, James Fitzroy, Duke of Monmouth, Simon, Lord Lovat, both beheaded. Truly then there is no sadder spot than this, none around which so many painful memories cluster. Gray's admira- ble and beautiful elegy, "written in a country churchyard," would not be appropriate here, "In this neglected spot (indeed) was laid Some hearts once pregnant with celestial fire, Hands which the rod of empire had swayed And waked to ecstasy the living lyre." Though condemned by their fellows, let us hope that they were acquitted by their God, at whose awful bar their cases have long since undergone an impartial review, and here Grey is appropriate : "Yet seek we not their merits to disclose Nor draw their frailties from their dread abode, Where they alike in trembling hope repose, The bosom of their Father and their God." MADAME TUSSAUD'S GALLERY. We had heard much of this place, particularly of the "Chamber of Horrors," and no visitor to London feels that he has completely done the city until he has caught a glimpse of the wonders of this strange and unique col- lection. We were led there, prompted by something of that curiosity which makes men gather in court rooms when criminals are tried, read "blood and murder" stories, LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 37 or gaze on scenes in which the law wreaks its vengeance on the condemned. We were disappointed in finding the greater part of the immense building taken up with wax figures of celebrated personages, not only of England but of the whole world. Here we beheld the royal family attired in costumes as costly and elegant as those they really wear ; distinguished members of Parliament, and the great historical, military, literary and clerical charac- ters of the country. Here, too, was a room devoted to the kings, dressed just as they were when they "strutted and fretted their little hour upon the stage." America is well represented. One of the first who greets us is George Washington, looking as natural and life-like as Houdon's statue. Here, too, we found Presidents Lin- coln and Garfield, and other distinguished men of America, France was represented by some of her later emperors and empresses, with their children, and a few eminent statesmen. The Prince Imperial had especially a distin- guished place in these groups. There were representa» tives also from Turkey, Persia, Egypt, and "the Isles of the Sea." Now, I have always been prejudiced against wax figures, and always feel on visiting exhibitions of them that I have been 'sold," but it must be confessed that Madame Tussaud's is the finest collection in the world, and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The figures in the "Chamber of Horrors" are simply horrible in the extreme. They consist of the great criminals of all countries who have achieved a world-wide notoriety for their awful and revolting deeds of crime.. And they are said to be exactly like those whom they are designed to represent. Here are to be seen the assassins of emperors, kings and presidents, prominent among whom stands the repulsive figure of Guiteau, the murderer of President Garfield. To give an idea as to how true these figures all are to nature, when we entered the ante-room I inquired for the doorkeeper. "There he stands," said my little son, pointing to a figure standing at the door, clad in an elegant black sjit, with hair neatly combed. It turned out to be the wax figure of Charles Dickens. In a room adjoining the "Chamber of Horrors," there is a darker 38 EUROPEAN NOTES. and more horrible chamber yet, containing the gallows on which many notorious persons were hung, with their fig ures all standing by it. Here, too, was a model of the guillotine from the original drawings of M. Sansom, of Paris ; and in consequence of his invention, the family of Sansom were the hereditary executioners for many gener- ations. Here, too, is a model of the Bastile, or old State prison in Paris, whose ruins I visited during my sojourn in the French capital. In this dark room I beheld one of the most celebrated relics in the world, the original knife, and Larette, the identical instrument that decapitated twenty-two thousand people, among whom were Louis XVL, Marie Antoinette, Madame Elizabeth, the Duke of Orleans, Robespierre, and others who constituted the best blood of France. While the guillotine was invented by M. Sansom, Guillotin, a French physician, brought it into use by mechanical improvements, and it received his name only adding the final e. Leaving the "Chamber of Horrors," we dwelt with greater interest on a room con- taining relics of the great Napoleon. Here is the cele- brated carriage in which he was taken at Waterloo, and also the military carriage used by Napoleon HL in the Franco-Prussian war, and in which he was driven a prisoner of war to Germany. The following articles are also here shown: Napoleon's whip; camp bedstead, used by him during his seven years' imprisonment at St. Helena, with the mattress and pillow on which he died ; coronation robe of Napoleon ; robe of the Empress Josephii:ie ; three original eagles taken at the battle of Waterloo ; favorite garden chair, used by Napoleon at St. Helena; travelling case, in which was carried Napoleon's mattress and pillow ; State carriage of the Emperor, built for his coronation as King of Italy; sword, used by Napoleon during his cam- paign in Egypt ; gold watch, presented by Napoleon to his valet; a cameo ring, presented by Napoleon to Prince Lucien ; a diamond, found in the carriage when it was captured ; tooth brush from Napoleon's dressing case ; necktie used by Napoleon at St. Helena ; counterpane, used on the camp bed on which Napoleon died, stained tvitii his blood ; coffee cup, snuff box, spoon, all used by LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 39 him, and a tooth of Napoleon, who, it is said, was a victim to what Burns calls that "hell of all diseases;" complete suit of clothes, worn by the Emperor at St. Helena ; the celebrated atlas, used by Napoleon, in which are plans of several battles drawn with his own hand ; and a piece of the celebrated willow tree under which he used to sit, and where he was afterwards buried. As we gazed on these interesting relics, we really felt as if we were in the pre- sence of '' the world's great general,'' who sprang from bondage, and left behind him a name which eclipsed even the glory of Alexander and Caesar: "Yet, spirit immortal, where now are thy legions, That fought but to conquer when thou led'st them on ? Alas ! they have perished in far hilly regions. And all save the fame of their triumphs is gone." On entering, I asked one of the managers if Madame Tussaud was then present, as I wished to see the originator and proprietor of so costly and interesting a collection. " No, sir," said he, " Madame Tussaud has been dead for fifty years." The establishment is now conducted by her sons, men well advanced in life. A TRAMP THROUGH LONDON. "Why are you waiting so long ?" said a gentleman from the South to a friend who was visiting New York with him, who proposed to go out shopping, and whom he beheld patiently standing "on the steps of the Astor." "I am waiting for the procession to pass^'' said this friend. And really Broadway is a crowded, rushing, roaming, be- dering thoroughfare, "I stood on the steps of the Astor, And gazed at the living tide," said Saxe in one of his poems. How like a sea of living beings it is, ever floating along and beating against its high, brick-bound shores. But, reader, will you believe me when I tell you that even Broadway is tame compared with some of the busy thoroughfares of London ? Gaze out on Fleet, Piccadilly, Cheapside or Regent, and there 40 EUROPEAN NOTES. you behold a procession indeed, only it is a procession going both ways at the same time, and a very disorderly procession at that, for you are one moment almost hustled and jostled off the sidewalks, and the next run over by a thousand and one vehicles ever dashing along, when they are not in collision or fast locked up, as they pursue each other in quick and never-ending succession ;. and then the cracking of whips, the yells and oaths of the coachmen, added to the rattling of wheels, the patter of feet, and innumerable other street noises, make you feel that you have reached Bedlam at last, and stopped in its centre of business, which, indeed, you have. Yet visit these renowned streets, and examine some of the most wonderful stores we must ; so we elbowed our way along as best we could, running for dear life across the crossings, occasionally aided by a policeman, now entering a carriage, and now a tramway car, and now mounted on the top of one of the numerous large omni- buses always plying the streets of London. In this way we went repeatedly from one end to the other of Pall Mall, Piccadilly, Fleet street, the Strand, Thames street, Regent, Cheapside, Oxford, Hampstead, Holborn, through Bishopsgate street over London Bridge into Southwark, along by the beautiful embankments of the Thames, in every direction, and through the various parks whose names are as familiar as household words in America. With an experienced guide seated by our side, all the principal streets and buildings were pointed out, and when we got through with those repeated tramps, we felt that we had a pretty good idea of London. The leading objects of interest we, of course, stopped to inspect. Prominent among these was London Bridge, one of the largest granite bridges in the world, finished in 1831 at a cost of $10,000,000. It consists of five arch- es, is 928 feet in length and 54 in width. It is said that one hundred thousand persons and twenty th(,)usand vehicles pass over it every day. From the Bridge we had a beautiful prospect of the docks and shipping of the Thames, St. Paul's cathedral and other notable build- ings. Near the Bridge is the tall tower built in com- LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 4I memoration of the great fire of 1666, which destroyed the greater part of London. This tower is 292 feet in height, and Pope's well known couplet in regard to it is very appropriate : "Where London's column, pointing to the skies. Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies ;" for an ancient inscription on the column attributes the fire to "ye Popish faction," when that was in truth not the cause of it. Not far from the column, the male portion of our party visited the notorious Billingsgate street, the great fish market of London, a street so narrow, so dirty, so crowded with the lowest characters in the world, so reeking with the smell of fish, and vocal with the oaths of the abandoned creatures that traffic here, that we were glad to get away from it, impressed, however, with the true and lawful origin of that word which is at once the most suggestive and impressive to describe a certain class of English invective — namely. Billingsgate. It is said that this street derived its name from one Belin, an ancient king of the Britons. Another place that interested us was Newgate prison^ the principal prison of London, now used for felons alone^ but formerly for debtors also. The public place of exe- cution, which was formerly at Tyburn, near Hyde Park, was afterwards in front of this prison. Among the cele- brated and notorious prisoners once confined in Newgate, were Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe ; Wil- liam Penn, the founder of Peimsylvania ; and Jack Shep- pard, the notorious highwayman whose romantic history has so often interested the depraved taste of English and American youth. Not far from this prison is an alley opening into Newgate street, in which is the figure of a boy, sitting upon a "panier,'' with the inscription — "When ye have sought the city round, Yet still this is the highest ground." A little to the west of Newgate is the Holborn viaduct, finished in 1869, and suggestive, as is also the street 42 EUROPEAN NOTES. "Holborn," of the cockney origin of its name. The creek rising on Holborn hill was originally called "Old Bourne," because, we suppose, it was an old boundary. Then the cockney, in pronouncing it, called it "Hole- bourne," which was afterwards spelled Holborn. At the eastern extremity stands St. Sepulchre's church, where a knell is tolled every time a prisoner is executed at New- gate. At one time a bouquet was presented at this church to every criminal on his way to his execution. In the choir lie the remains of Captain John Smith, of Virginian and Pocahontas memory, "sometime governor of Virginia and admiral of New England." The first line of his epi- taph, which can scarcely be read, is, "Here lies one con- quered that hath conquered kings." We visited the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, who entertains more people and gives more elegant dinners than many kings ; the Royal Ex- change, where the celebrated Lloyds, the masters of steamship navigation, have their splendid apartments ; in front of which there is a magnificent statue of the Duke of Wellington, and near by, one of George Peabody, the American philanthropist. Mr. Peabody was an American merchant who spent much of his time in London, and besides his munificent donations in his own country, gave upwards of two million, five hundred thousand dollars for the erection of suitable dwellings for the working classes of London. The number of persons accommo- dated in the Peabody buildings is about nine thousand, each family paying a weekly rent of a little over a dollar, which includes the use pf bath and wash-houses. Trus- tees manage the fund in London the same as in America, and it now amounts to considerably over three millions of dollars. Mr. Peabody declined a baronetcy offered by the Queen, but accepted a miniature portrait of Her Majesty ; so says my informant. While on the subject of money I may as well mention that I visited the peculiar home and dwelling-place of gold — the Bank of England, a strong looking building with no windows in the outer walls, and covering four acres. This bank, I was surprised to learn, is a joint stock LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON, 43 bank, starting originally with 1,100,000 dollars capital, but now having between fifteen and twenty millions. It employs nine hundred persons and pays largely over a million of dollars in salaries. I called it the home of gold ; the vaults never contain less than eighty or a hun- dred millions of dollars in gold and silver, and there are one hundred millions of dollars of the bank's paper mon- ey in circulation. The bank receives one million dollars a year for managing the national debt, which is over a billion of dollars, and may be indefinitely increased by the wars in Egypt. London has an advantage over New York in having a beautiful river run through its centre, spanned by beauti- ful and artistic bridges, and adorned with embankments, such as the Victoria and Albert, which constitute the most delightful of drives and promenades. On one of these stands Cleopatra's needle, sister monolith to those in Central Park, New York, Alexandria, Paris and Rome. These monoliths were originally brought from Heliopolis, which, as we are informed by the Flaminian obelisk at Rome, contained many obelisks. The Albert Memorial, erected in memory of the Prince Consort, Queen Victoria's devoted husband, is one of the most beautiful monuments, perhaps, in the whole world. It is 175 feet high, ornamented with numerous small statues, with allegorical representations of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. It cost six hundred thousand dol- lars, and bears this inscription : "Queen Victoria and her people, to the memory of Albert, Prince Consort, as a tribute of their gratitude for a life devoted to the public good." Queen Victoria's city residence, Buckingham Palace, we could not enter, but had a good external-view together with the gardens. Permission is only given to visit the picture galleries. The Queen's rooms are on the north side and are represented as being superbly furnish- ed, but she spends most of her time at Windsor, fifteen miles from London, and in summer at Osborne and Bal- moral. It was interesting to gaze on this old building and to reflect that here lived the "Duke of Buckingharn," and that it was subsequently purchased and occupied by 44 EUROPEAN NOTES. George III., Queen Victoria's grandfather, whom our forefathers "heard of" if they did not personally know him, and who in turn heard of our forefathers. While they could boast no Buckingham Palace for royal banqueting, they had at least a Faneuil Hall, the saloon of a "Tea Party," whose memory is still fragrant in the minds of all true Americans, and destined to outlive the centuries ! We had in our party a culti\^ated young lawyer, who manifested a strong desire to see the Temple and its sur- roundings, so we went there — the most interesting place in London to lawyers. An additional incentive was the fact that I was a Knight Templar, which order, founded at Jerusalem in the twelfth century under Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, to protect the Holy Sepulchre and poor pilgrims resorting thither, had here a large and flourishing lodge, which gave the name to the locality borne through so many centuries. In 1346 it was leased to the students of common law, and from that time the group of build- ings extending down to the Thames has continued as a law school. It is divided into the Inner and Middle Temples, and the revenue received amounts to about two hundred thousand dollars a year. Oliver Goldsmith was buried here in the churchyard of the Temple church. In the Temple gardens, adjacent to the Thames, were pluck- ed the white and red roses which were assumed as the distinctive badges of the houses of York and Lancaster in the bloody contest known in history as the "Wars of the Roses." At least, we have Shakespeare's authority for this statement in Henry VI., Part First, Act 2 : Plantagenet : Great lords and gentlemen, what means this silence ? Dare no man answer in a case of truth ? Suffolk : Within the Temple hall we were too loud ; The garden here is more convenient. Plantagenet : Since you are tongue tied, and so loath to speak, In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts ; Let him that is a true born gentleman, And stands upon the honor of his birth, If he suppose that I have pleaded truth. From off this briar pluck a white rose with me. Somerset ; Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 45 But dare maintain the party of the truth, Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. Warwick : This brawl to-day, •Grown to this faction in the Temple garden, Shall send, between the red rose and the white, A thousand souls to death and endless night. In the hall of the Middle Temple Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was acted in the poet's lifetime. In Middle Tem- ple Lane, No. 2, Brick Court, Oliver Goldsmith lived and died ; Blackstone, the great commentator on English law, lived in the rooms below him ; Dr. Johnson occupied rooms in Inner Temple Lane ; Lord Bacon was a member of Gray's Inn, near by, and with his own hand planted a number of trees now seen in the garden. The Old Tem- ple Bar, where the heads of criminals were formerly exposed, has been torn down, though we stood on the very spot where it was erected. And we were here in close proximity to the "Devil's Tavern," where the Apol- lo Club, of which Dr. Johnson and his contemporaries were members, regularly met. It was indeed a historic and interesting spot, and while most of the ancient houses have disappeared, and the whole locality is being remodelled, yet I could now and then see a house which my imagination pictured as the one where Goldsmith boarded, where his landlady, with patience exhausted at his long neglected payment, is about to have him thrown into prison, while Dr. Johnson comes in at the critical moment and reads, in the presence of the enraged hostess and dejected and impecunious author, the manuscript pages of the "Vicar of Wakefield," which was destined not merely to keep him from prison, but to delight the whole world with its homely but deeply interesting sketch- es of English life. The poet lived surrounded by clouds, darkness and penury, but let us hope that his high intel- lectual nature and exalted talents proved a source of •enjoyment to him of which the common world was neither capable nor conscious. Let us hope that he was in reality, though not so intended, the antetype of his own beautiful figure in the "Deserted Village : " 46 EUROPEAN NOTES, "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form. Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head." PARLIAMENT. The Parliament buildings, situated on the bank of the Thames, within a stone's throw of Westminster Abbey^ and covering an area of eight acres, present a strikingly beautiful appearance. I can not say that the building, as a whole, is as beautiful as our Capitol at Washington, which Talmage well describes as a "dream of architectu- ral beauty," but it is worthy of the great country it adorns, and arrayed with all the magnificence and taste that boundless wealth and mechanical skill could supply. The buildings, with the exception of Westminster Hall which forms a part of them, are comparatively new, having been erected since 1840. Up to i860 ten millions of dollars had been expended upon them, and the entire cost so far is said to be fifteen million dollars. It con- tains eleven courts, one hundred staircases and eleven hundred apartments. The clock tower is 318 feet high, the middle tower 300, and the Victoria tower, through which the Queen enters on opening and closing Parlia- ment, is 340 feet high. The large clock has foui dials twenty-three feet in diameter, and each dial has a minute hand sixteen feet long whose point describes a circum- ference of seventy-two feet every hour. It takes five hours to wind up the striking parts. The great bell, known as " Big Ben," weighs thirteen tons, and there are attached four beautiful chime bells. The Houses of Parliament were in session when I was there, and having but recently left the Capitol at Wash- ington where Congress was in session, I was intending to compare the performances of the two great bodies. And having heard Senators B. H. Hill, Conkling and others, not omitting our peerless Senator Brown, in their best efforts, the comparison was by no means unfavorable to our country. 1 hey were occupied at the time with the case of a Mr. Bradlaugh, an Infidel member who had LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 47 given much trouble and was at last unseated. The halls and corridors were densely crowded, and I was glad to make my escape to view the rich frescoes and statues with which the buildings are ornamented. I entered through the celebrated Westminster Hall, which is only used now as a vestibule to the stupendous pile, but which has a more interesting history than all the other buildings combined. This Hall is part of the ancient palace of Westminster, founded by the Anglo Saxon kings and occupied by their successors down to the time of Henry VHI. In it was held the Parliament which de- clared Edward H. to have forfeited the crown. Here Richard H. was deposed. In this Hall were held the cor- onation festivities of all the kings down to George IV. Edward III. here entertained the prisoners, King David of Scotland, and King John of France. Here Charles I. underwent his trial and was condemned to death ; here Oliver Cromwell, wearing the royal purple lined with ermine, and holding a golden sceptre, was saluted as Lord Protector. Within eight years afterward the Protector's body was dragged from its grave in Westminster Abbey and thrust into a pit at Tyburn, while his head was ex- posed on the pinnacle of this same Westminster Hall, where it remained for thirty years. At length it was blown down in a storm. After some years, the family of the sentry who picked it up sold it to a descendant of Cromwell, and it passed finally into the possession of Dr. Wilkinson, one of whose descendants, living at Seven Oaks, is said to now possess it. Many other celebrated persons were condemned to death in this Hall, which, more than almost any building I had visited, caused me to linger with the deepest interest. The brave champion of Scotland, Sir William Wallace, was here " tried " and condemned, though that trial was mere mockery. Most of those who were imprisoned in the Tower had their so- called trials in this Hall. Here, too, was tried Lord Byron, grand uncle of the poet, for killing Mr. Chaworth in a duel; and here Warren Hastings was acquitted after a trial lasting seven years. The last public festival held in the Hall was the coronation of George IV., " when the 48 EUROPEAN NOTES. King's champion, in full armor, rode into the Hall, and, according to an ancient custom, threw his gauntlet on the floor, challenging to mortal combat any one who might dispute the title of the sovereign." WHITEHALL. Not far from the Parliament buildings, on Whitehall street, running to Trafalgar Square, stands the Banquet- ing Hall, all that remains of the ancient palace of White- hall, formerly known as York House, because the Archbishops of York lived there, but after the downfall of Wolsey, called Whitehall, as we read in Shakespeare's Henry VHI.: " Sir, you Must no more call it York Place, that is past, For since the Cardinal fell, that title's lost ; 'Tis now the King's and called — Whitehall." Like Westminster Hall, this spot is connected with some of the most important and tragic incidents in English his- tory. It was here that Henry VHI. became enamored of Anne Boleyn, at a ball given in honor of that King; and here he died. It was from this place that Elizabeth was carried a prisoner to the Tower, and to it she returned as Queen of England. It was here that Cardinal Wolsey revelled, flourished, and was at last disgraced ; and as I gazed upon the building, a solemn, earnest, strange voice seemed to issue from its ancient recesses, saying, " Oh ! Cromwell, had I but served my God as I have my king and country, he would not now leave me desolate." Here, too, was a lesson for all who love the praise of men more than the praise of God : " Why was my choice ambition ? By that sin fell the angels. How then can man, the image of his Maker, hope to win by it? Let all the ends thou aimest, at be thy country's, thy God's and truth's, and then, O ! Cromwell, if thou fallest, thou fallest a blessed mar- tyr." From an opening in the wall, between two windows in the front of this same Banqueting Hall, Charles I. was led out to his execution in the street immediately oppo- site. Here Oliver Cromwell lived with his secretary, John LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 49 Milton, and here he died. Some of the most profligate of England's courts, notably that of Charles II., were held here, and, in imagination, we could see the gay, giddy, guilty forms of kings, queens, and courtiers, as with un- bridled appetite and lust, they moved to and fro in the gorgeous chambers and made it resound with their God-. defying revelries. But the finger of God has long since- inscribed " Tekel " on those palace walls. The guilty Bel- shazzars,'with their lords, their wivesand their concubines,' have passed away; and that Banqueting Hall stands as. a monument of the barbarous and wicked age in which it was erected ; and as a grim sentinel, warning all subse- quent monarchs of those rocks of crime on which the Ship, of State is so often wrecked and destroyed. BRITISH MUSEUM, ETC. We visited the celebrated British Museum, but can give only a meagre account of the objects that most interested us. To write it up properly would take a month, a year, a life-time. It is perhaps the most extensive and wonder- ful collection of curiosities on the face of the globe. In Europe every town and city has its museum, and some of these, notably in Paris, Rome and Naples, may excel this one in certain specialties — Rome in sculptures, for exam- ple ; but taking the British Museum for all in all, the extent, variety, rareness, antiquity and costliness of its treasures, it surpasses them all. The contents are arranged in eight sections, as follows: Printed books, manuscripts, prints and drawings, Oriental antiquities, British and mediaeval antiquities, Greek and Roman antiquities, coins and medals, and zoology. In 1880, about 800,000 persons visited the Museum, unlike many smaller institutions of the kind, no price being charged for admission. The first thing that engaged my attention was the autographs and manuscripts of celebrated men, including Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, Archbishop Cranmer, Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, John Knox, Sir Walter Ral- eigh, Francis Bacon, William Penn, Sir Isaac Newton, Michael Angelo, Albert Durer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Gal- 4 5© EUROPEAN NOTES. ileo, Descartes, Racine, Voltaire, Swift, Addison, Dryden, Hogarth, Pitt, Burke, Fox, Washington, Franklin, Byron, Wellington, Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Edward VI., Lady Jane Grey, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Mary, Queen of Scots; James I , Oliver Cromwell, Charles II., James IL, William III., Queen Anne, James Stuart, the Pretender ; George I., George II., George III., Catherine de Medici, Henry IV., Gustavus Adolphus, Louis XIV., Peter the Great, Charles XII., Frederick the Great, Napo- leon I. There were autograph letters of Jeremy Taylor, Gray, (the original elegy written in a country churchyard), Sydney Smith, Shelly, Goethe, Handel, Bulwer Lytton, Dickens, (said to be the last letter he wrote,) autobiogra- phy of Robert Burns in his own handwriting, original manuscript of Walter Scott's Kenilworth, letters of Sterne, Locke, Rousseau, Pope, Milton, Samuel Johnson, Ben Johnson, and the original will of William SJiakespeare in his own hand. There, too, we saw the prayer book of Lady Jane Grey, a book of prayer? copied out by Queen Elizabeth, the will of Maiy, Queen of Scots, in her own hand ; original manuscripts of Charles I., James I. and Frederick the Great, autograph of Edmund Spenser, list of troops, drawn up by the Duke of Wellington just before the battle of Waterloo, deed of sale of "Paradise Lost" with Milton's own signature. Here, too, is exhib- ited a volume of the Codex Alexandrinus and a Syrian manuscript of Genesis and Exodus from the Nitrian desert, Egypt, written at Amid in the year 464, and is believed to be the oldest dated manuscript of any portion of the Bible now extant. Through a door we passed into the King's library which contains 80,000 choice volumes, only a few of which we inspected, such as were very rare or very curious ; among them Luther's Wittenberg Bible, dated 1541, with his autograph in it; Queen Elizabeth's prayer book, the first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, first edition of Shakespeare's works, first edition of Milton's works. We passed through the sculpture gallery, but who could undertake to describe it? The Elgin room contains sculptures executed by Phidias to LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 5 1 adorn the Parthenon at Athens. They cost three hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. They were carved out in the golden age of Hellene art, four hundred and forty years before Christ. In the Assyrian gallery I found some "blue stocking" American ladies busily engaged copying the remains that were dug up at Nineveh, and other Eastern places. The Egyptian antiquities fill three immense halls on the ground floor and two in the upper story, and embrace a period from three thousand years before Christ. But just as I wearied looking at this mas- ter collection, I weary writing of it, afid change the sub- ject. ' The National Gallery, which is eagerly sought by tour- ists, I did not visit, as I knew I would soon find much better on the Continent, although this contains many masterpieces and is destined to be one of the finest in the world. As a suitable recreation after a protratted stay at the Museum, we drove out to Regent's Park, which con- tains about five hundred acres, and the celebrated Zoolog- ical gardens which occupy the Northern part of this Park. These gardens are said to be the largest and most interest- ing in the world. As all zoological gardens are alike, only some contain greater numbers and varieties than others, I will not attempt a description, but will just say that all the animals that entered Noah's ark must certainly be represented here. "Jumbo," the great elephant, about which so much has been said and written in New York, was there in all his glory, and little children were making excursions on his back. In a few weeks afterwards he was shipped to New York to P. T. Barnum, who there exhib- ited him to the delight of thousands. These were the only gardens where I saw real, live Hippopotami, and a sight of these alone well repaid us for our visit, to say nothing of the diversions of the Park. Every one who visits London wishes to see the Crystal Palace, and so we devoted one day to an excursion there, the buildings being located at Sydenham, fifteen miles from town. The buildings are immense, and built entirely of iron and glass, and, as is well known, were used for the great International World's Exposition. All the depart. 52 EUROPEAN NOTES. ments seem to be kept up as at the time of the exhibition, and in addition, there are theatrical exhibitions,and musical concerts almost every day. But those who attended our Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, will find nothing here particularly to interest them, and with the exception of the country air, and suburban sights that we witnessed on our way there and back, the trip was not specially enjoyable. Though London is so immense, we can go from place to place with but little inconvenience, as "rapid transit" is here carried to utmost perfection. Cabs, hackney coaches, omnibuses, tramways, and over and underground railways, and steamboats, afTord all the accommodation the countless thousands of the Metropolis require; under- ground railways, in particular, being generally used, taking the place of the elevated trains that go whizzing above you in the streets of New York. After being busily engaged in sight-seeing each day, what a pleasure it was to get back in the evening to our comfortable hotel, with grand old Westminster towering in front, the beautiful houses of Parliament on our left, and the historic Thames rolling in silver at our feet. But better still, with appe- tites sharpened by exercise, to sit down to a magnificent English table d'hote, and later in the evening, to retire to rest in a house called a "Palace" to dream (and it was not all a dream) that we "dwelt in marble halls." FAREWELL TO LONDON. Before bidding farewell to this great city, some general observations may not be out of place. First, many indeed, nearly all travelers have their preference among the great capitals of the Old World. Americans generally prefer Paris, and the crowds who go there, and linger in its spa- cious hotels, and on its magnificent Boulevards, plainly show this. Others like Vienna best. Indeed, for centu- ries, the Viennese had a saying, "There is but one imperial city and that is Vienna." "Es giebt nur ein Kaiser stadt. Es giebt nur ein Wein." LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 53 Others have a preference for Berlin, with its peerless "Unter den Linden," marble bridges, grand palaces, and world renowned galleries and University. An interest, of course, hangs around the "Eternal City" which belongs to no other place, on account of its great antiquity, incom- parable churches, and wonderful art treasures. But tak- ing it for all in all, I say, give me London — great, historic, English London, with its four millions of people, busy thoroughfares, and stately temples. I like the people of London. The men are large, fine looking and industrious, and I like the ladies of London, for they are modest, ele- gant, and in many instances strikingly beautiful. Queen Victoria, the beloved, and in some instances, almost idol- ized, reigning sovereign, has set a noble example to her countrywomen, so far as all the gentle virtues of the sex are concerned particularly in her devotion to her worthy consort while he was living, and now to his memory, that he is no more. Living, as I did at Coburg, where she married, and where her husband's family now reside, and having enjoyed the acquaintance and hospitality of Ernest, Prince Albert's brother, the reigning Duke of Coburg- Gotha, and having seen much during the past summer of the Duke of Edinburgh and family, who spent several months at Coburg, i am prepared to say that the noble character of the Queen has been impressed upon all with whom she is allied "by ties of flesh and blood," and future generations will rise up and call her blessed, as they think upon her devotion to her family's and her country's inter- est. Much has been said about American hotels as being the finest in the world. They may be as good, but I have seen nothing superior to the Grand and Royal Hotels, Westminster Palace, and Charing Cross. You seek in vain for better beef, mutton, and poultry than you find on the London tables, and this is written by one who lux- uriated for three years on the world-renowned products of Kentuckygrass. I am sorry to say that there is a vast deal of drinking done in London. Bar rooms are about as plentiful there as in New York. Multitudes are satisfied with ale, por- 54 EUROPEAN NOTES. ter and " 'alf and 'alf,'' but too many go farther and sub- mit to the sway of John Barleycorn. On the Continent^ as we shall see, the people deluge themselves with beer and wine, but they don't become intoxicated. On the contrary, the love for these light drinks seems to take away the thirst for distilled liquors. In London I saw what I have seen no where else in the world — men and women (of the lower classes, of course,) crowding into the drinking saloons together and carousing in view of persons passing along the streets. The animals of London, horses, cows, and dogs, are simply wonderful. One English dray horse "would make as much" and draw as much as four American horses. I have seen the big horses of the West, but I have never seen anything that at all compared to these equine ele- phants of London. And dogs, ah ! I see now where Cowper got his idea of "Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree." The English greyhounds, beagles, setters, bulldogs, and mastiffs are celebrated the world over. But it is to the English cow that I would call special attention. Every- body that knows me knows that 1 love milk. It is in an especial sense "the beverage that refreshes but not inebri- ates.'' One reason why I love Burns so well is, because he has immortalized the cow in his Cotter's Saturday Night. "The milk his only hawkee does afford." Well, then, imagine the delight with which I gazed on these thoroughbred, red, English Durhams, and mouse- colored, English Jerseys. The Bible tells us that "a cup of cold water shall not be without its reward." How many cups of milk have been given me by kind friends during my travels in Georgia, and how many blessings have I invoked on their heads for it ! A blessing now on London, and the good hotel keepers, and the good cows that there ministered to my happiness! London is full of amusements. And while I did not go in, it was a pleasure to pass by Drury Lane, Covent Garden, LIGHTS AND SIGHTS OF LONDON. 55 Haymarket, the Prince of Wales Theatre, etc., that are associated with the great names of McCready, Garrick and our own Booths and Forrest. Wagner was there with his opera, and soon after he played near me at Beyreut, but I did not see him. Kings, princes, potentates, all thronged to see his wonderful pieces performed. I say performed, for it is a well known fact that Wagner made the musical subordinate to the dramatic in his perform- ances. But these products of his genius will no more be sung and played in his presence. Full of years and honors, he died during the past few days. Let us hope that he who was such a master of the secret springs and symphonies of the human heart, is now sweeping chords that give forth more than even his earthly melody in another and brighter world among " the choirs of the angels." In the suburbs of London, I passed over the very ground where the notorious Dick Turpin used to live and perpetrated those highway robberies that have created so thrilling an interest, in their recital, in the breasts of wayward young readers. And what were all his ill gotten gains worth ? " Forty pounds when he did die He left Jack Ketch for a legacy." In London the work of feeing begins in earnest. You must pay a man a fee for everything. There is no getting round it. And a man is foolish who thinks he can cheek his way through without these annoying expenditures. He will lose far more by the operation than these fees amount to. I was amused at my brother. He filled his pockets with pennies, and as he walked along the streets I could hear him say, " Mr., will you tell me what build- ing that is?" at the same time dropping a couple of pennies into the man's hand. A few steps further, " Is that Buckingham Palace?" he asked of the guard, jingle went the pennies again, and so on. But this feeing busi- ness soon becomes almost intolerable. You can generally tell what it costs to get into a hotel, museum, or picture gallery, for example, but there is no telling what it costs *' to get out. $6 EUROPEAN NOTES. And now, farewell to the " Lights of London town," for the present. As we think of going into strange lands, and among peoples of unknown tongues, we feel lonely and almost homesick. But go I must, and now wend my way to Victoria Station of the London, Chatham & Dover Railroad. CHAPTER III. BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. FROM LONDON TO COLOGNE. The ride from London to Cologne was anything but pleasant, though we passed many interesting towns and cities, and some picturesque scenery on the route. We went by the London, Chatham & Dover railway. The first important place we reached was Rochester, with a population of 19.000. The view from the bridge, of its fine old Norman castle, with the river laving the base of the tower, is charming. Next we came to the great naval station of Chatham, which, though a mere hamlet until the dockyard was established there, now has a population of 45,000. Rolling along we soon came to Canterbury, the seat of the primacy of England, with a population of 21,000. The city contains many important buildings, the chief of which is the renowned cathedral, built in the form of a double cross, having two transepts, with two steeples at the west end, the outer walls of which are richly em- bellished with statues of sovereigns and archbishops. I regretted exceedingly that I could not go in and inspect the edifice, as it contains the tombs of many kings, and princes, martyrs, and bishops ; among them, that of Thomas a'Becket. It is said that the pavement in front of Becket's chapel is worn away by the knees of the count- less thousands of pilgrims who, in ages gone by, sought to obtain the martyr's intercession for the forgiveness of their sins, just as St. Peter's bronze toe has been kissed off in St. Peter's at Rome. Dover was soon reached, a 58 EUROPEAN NOTES. town of 30,000, chiefly remarkable for its old castle, and as the principal port of England for vessels plying to and from the French coast. There we had a fine view of the "white clifts of Albion," among them "Shakespeare's cliff/' so named from the celebrated speech of Edgar in King Lear. The old castle here covers an area of about thirty acres, and has in its old walls workmanship of the succes- sive nations that overran and conquered the country, Ro- man, Saxon, and Norman. Here is kept " Queen Eliza- beth's pocket pistol," a piece of Dutch ordnance twenty- four feet long. It at one time bore the lines : " Polish me bright and keep me clean, I'll send a ball to Calais green." The English Channel is here twenty-one miles broad, and we crossed it in one hour and twenty minutes, for a wonder none of us being seasick during the passage. It is usually the worst part of the sea for tourists, many crossing the ocean without nausea to be wretchedly af- flicted in one of the smajl boats on this boisterous " chop sea." At Calais our real trouble began, for there we were met by noisy Frenchmen not one of whom could speak a word of English. Is it not strange that there, in a little over an hour from England, with innumerable boats cross- ing and recrossing all the while, there should be less knowledge of English than at any other place we visited on the Continent? The conductor on the train that we boarded was a rough, unaccommodating fellovv whom we could not understand, and who could not understand us. I bought tickets in London direct to Cologne, and was assured there would be no change of cars after leaving Calais, but it seems to me we had to change that day no less than six times. Going from one car to another at one of the stations, I found an old gentleman and his wife seated in the coupe. "Do you speak English?" said L "Yes," said he, "the trouble is, I can't speak anything else." " Good," said I, " I am glad to see you, for we have had a hard time with these babbling (I might have said Babeling) Frenchmen." "Well," said he, "they have given me and my wife the very d — 1." It was interesting, FROM LONDON TO COLOGNE. 59 though, to travel through the Netherlands, and a feeling of relief came over me as the beautiful city of Brussels appeared. I saw from the station, where there was a brief delay, that this famous place, with its stately houses, mag- nificent streets, and enchanting parks, deserved all the praise that had been bestowed upon it ; but as we visited it many months afterwards, I will reserve a more special notice till another time. We caught a bare glimpse of the location of the battle of Waterloo, twelve miles distant. Many small manufacturing towns were passed before we came to Liege, a town with 120,000 inhabitants. Just be- yond Liege we found the Meuse spanned by a magnificent bridge. A little further we came to Vervier, with 40,000 inhabitants, where 350,000 pieces of cloth, worth seven- teen million dollars, are manufactured annually. On an eminence, near Station Dolhaim, stands the ancient castle of Limburg, the sole remnant of the once flourishing cap- ital of the Duchy of that name, destroyed by Louis XIV. The castle was the family seat of the powerful ducal family of Limburg, to which the emperors, Henry VIL, Charles IV., and Sigismond, belonged. The next impor- tant place we reached was Aix La Chapelie, but if we had not been looking out for it, we should not have known it^ for the conductor called out " Aachan," the German name by which it is known. This ancient city, with 80,000 in- habitants, was the favorite residence of the great Charle- magne, who died here in 814. This city has frequently been the scene of imperial diets, ecclesiastical convoca- tions, congresses and treaties. One could spend a week here to great profit, but we were compelled to go on. At Aix La Chapelie we met with better cars, and more accommodating conductors, and more English speaking people, if we can so dignify those whose Teutonic mouths attempt to grind out a few English sentences. But soon night began to set in and the rain to fall, and lolling upon our luxuriantly-cushioned seats, after the excitement of the day, we might have fallen into a for- getful repose, but soon a world of lights twinkled before our vision, a magnificent river was crossed, and a splendid 6o EUROPEAN NOTES. city was sleeping before us. That river was the Rhine, and that city, SWEET SCENTED COLOGNE. Sweet scented Cologne ! there you find it — in bottles, not in the narrow streets, quaint, old houses, or even gor- geous palaces of that picturesque place. Cologne is called the city of "seventy distinct smells," and really, it is no mis- nomer. Go along one street and you will imagine that all the gas pipes have exploded ; turn into another, and you will think you are not far from the slaughter house ; go into another, and you are transported back to a Louis- ville soap factory ; take another direction, and you are stifled by the odors of a Baltimore guano warehouse ; take another course, and the "vapors of a dungeon" salute you ; yet another, and the breezes are wafted to you from a Cincinnati hog pen ; yet one more, and you think you have reached some huge nest of unclean birds. To sum it all up, as Shakespeare would say, "The place is rank and smells to heaven," and yet this place is called Cologne, a ''Incus a non hicendo"' certainly. I do not wonder that the most celebrated perfumery in the world is made here. It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and if there is a place in the world whose bad odors should be counteracted by sweet smells, that place is Co- logne. The Cologne water made here has justly a world- wide celebrity. It is for sale in all the shops, and we laid in a good supply. Through all these smells we passed to a most elegant hotel, the hotel Disch, where comfortable rooms, clean beds (with feather beds to cover with, the first we had seen but not the last), and an excellent hot supper awaited us. Next day we did the city thor- oughly, visiting all the beautiful shops, some of the parks and gardens, the magnificent museum and picture gallery, and above all the stately, grand, incomparable cathedral. This cathedral, the most magnificent Gothic edifice in the world, situated on the banks of the Rhine, justly excites the admiration of every beholder. We viewed it exter- nally and internally to our entire satisfaction, and as- cended to the top of the tower whence a splendid view is COLOGNK CATHKDUAL. FROM LONDON TO COLOGNE. 6l obtained. The total length of the building is 442 feet ; breadth, 201 feet; height of the roof, 201 feet ; height of the central tower, 375 feet. The building was begun over five hundred years ago, and has cost an amazing amount of money. Between the years 1840 and 1876 three mill- ion five hundred thousand dollars have been expended. It is a perfect marvel of beauty, and a whole day cannot be better spent than in examining the interesting details, as well as the treasures of art that everywhere adorn it. What one most admires as he gazes upon that superb pile, one of the most beautiful churches in the world, is the genius of the man who designed it. Most people have very crude ideas on the subject of architecture. They think that it takes a preacher to preach a sermon ; a lawyer to plead a case ; a physician to heal a patient ; a farmer to make a crop, but anybody can design a house. There could not possibly be a greater mistake, as the poor results of amateur architectural attempts always show. Architecture is an art, yea, a science, which few men un- derstand. Now, what Robert Hall was as a preacher, or Daniel Webster as a lawyer, the designer of the Cologne cathedral was as an architect. A legend is told of the way in which he accomplished his work. Conrad of Hoch- steden, archbishop of Cologne, who conceived the idea of building the finest church in Christendom, and had bound- less wealth at his disposal, selected a celebrated architect of Cologne, and gave him a year to draw his plans in. The architect felt highly complimented, and devoted all his time, and his best thoughts to the work. At last, he found all his best efforts fall far short of the subject ; and wandered into the Seven Mountains like a madman. Only three days were left in which to complete his plans. While out in the forest a violent storm arose, accompa- nied with thunder and lightning. A stranger appeared and gave him an intoxicating beverage to drink, which in- flamed his zeal, and brightened his wits. He then showed him the plan for the cathedral, which he said should be his on condition that he would sell himself to him and sign the contract with his blood. He accepted, and the stranger revealing himself as the devil, left him. He 62 EUROPEAN NOTES. bore the plan to the archbishop, and it was accepted, and it is that of the present grand structure. But the archi- tect became gloomy and despondent. Prayers and pen- ance were freely offered to secure pardon, which was, at last, granted him, but he died before completing the build- ing, and the evil influences of the devil have often mani- 'fested themselves since in the dissensions of the people. And here I will say that many of the figures sculptuied on the walls and " flying buttresses,'' look like pictures I have seen of "old Nick.'' While Cologne is not a sweet smelling place, it is cer- tainly beautiful and full of strange interest to tourists who crowd its magnificent hotels, and seem never to weary of traversing its narrow streets, gazing into its shop windows, and thronging its chief places of recreation and amuse- ment. A favorite place of resort is the church of St. Ur- sula, which contains a monument, erected in 1658 to St. Ursula, an English princess, who, according to the legend, when on her return from a pilgrimage to Rome, was bar- barously murdered at Cologne with her eleven thousand virgin attendants. The figure of the princess is in alabas- ter with a dove at her feet, and the bones of the virgin martyrs are preserved in cases, placed round the church. On the north side of the New Market, two horses' heads, carved in stone, may be seen, on a conspicuous house, which are said to commemorate an incident related of Ri' hmodis, wife of the Knight of Mengis. When the plague visited Cologne in 1357, she was attacked by the malady, and falling into a death-like swoon, was buried in the church of the Apostles nearby. Awakened from her trance by a thievish grave-digger in his attempts to steal her ring, she returned to the house of her husband, who imagining that he had beheld an apparition, declared he would sooner believe that his horses could ascend to the loft of his house. Scarcely had he uttered these words before his horses did ascend, and thrust their heads out of the window of the upper story. The lady recovered, and enjoyed many years of happiness afterwards, and the horses' heads have been kept there ever since in memory of the strange circumstance. So runs the legend, and all FROM LONDON TO COLOGNE. 6^ who wish to believe it may do so, hut " seeing (the horses' heads) is'' not •' beHeving," so far as this writer is con- cerned. THE RHINE. I am going to attempt now what I have never done before, and that is, to describe a river on paper, and that the most celebrated river in the world. When I was a school-boy, engaged in the study of geography, the ques- tion was asked me by my teachers in regard to the various rivers laid down on the map, until it became like an old song, " Where does such a river rise, in what direction does it run, and where does it enripty?" This same old question I will answer now in regard to the Rhine by way of refreshing the minds_ of my readers. The Rhine rises in the Swiss canton of Grisons, emanating from two small lakes in the Lepantine Alps, flows a circuitous course of nearly eight hundred miles in a general westerly and northern direction, and empties by a delta of six mouths into the North Sea. It is divided into the upper, middle and lower Rhine ; the first embracing that part which runs along the western boundary of Switzerland ; the second that which lies between Basle and Cologne, and the third that which lies between Cologne and the sea. I have had several glimpses of the upper portion, particularly at Con- stance and Basle, the scenery along which is stupendous and grand beyond description, the fault, so far as the effect on the river is concerned, being that there is too much grand mountain scenery for the insignificant stream there to show-off to advantage Some glimpses, too, I have caught of the lower portion where the difficulty presents itself of too much river for the scenery, the country being low, flat, and comparatively uninviting. The middle por- tion, at least, that portion which lies between Cologne and Mayence, where the river flows in all its glory, and where the surrounding scenery vies with the river in en- rapturing beauty and grandeur, I had the pleasure of twice viewing to my heart's content, both going to and coming from my post of duty at Sonneberg. My friend, Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, told me, and he has 64 EUROPEAN NOTES. been to Europe a dozen times, that the most interesting portion lay between Bonn and Coblenz. I concluded, however, to take in more of it, and boarded a steamer at Cologne whose destination was Mayence, one hundred and eighty miles distant. And here I will remark that one hundred steamers ply regularly between these places, and during the season are crowded with tourists from all parts of the world, particularly from England and Amer- ica, eager to catch glimpses of the thrilling and enchanting scenery strewn all along its banks. The vessel that we boarded was the "Deutscher Kaiser,'^ (German Emperor,) and was the finest of the line. Be- sides my own family and party, 1 had about a hundred other gay, happy companions, nearly every one with a field glass, the motto of all being, who could "best see and best agree.'' The vessel was supplied with an elegant cuisine, attentive waiters, and luxurious rooms. But we had but little use for rooms, for the day was fine and, of course, we all remained on deck through the whole of the voyage. When about a mile from Cologne, I turned to take a parting look at the city. What a scene fell upon my vision ! It was as if some mighty, some celestial artist had painted it "life size" upon the sky, and a fiood of light from the sun on that July morning falling upon its stately build- ings, majestic bridges, and lofty spires, notably that of the gorgeous cathedral, made it appear, indeed like our conception of "Jerusalem, the golden." It was no longer the city of "seventy distinct smells," but of a thousand be- witching beauties. I turned quickly around, for other things were to be seen now, and I noticed first the highly cultivated German farms on either side. Every foot of ground Is utilized, and the whole looks like a great, regu- larly laid off, carefully cultivated garden. Here the Teu- ton has worked for long centuries and reaped the rewards of his labors. On these sunny banks he has laid him down to rest in luxurious ease. In many of the beer saloons in Germany may be found this legend framed and hanging on the wall : Es wohnten die alten Deutschen Au beiden ufern des Rheins Sie lagen auf barenhauten ^1 mMi^£ BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 65 Und trauken immer noch eins, Und das war ihre einsige tugend Und daren hatten Sie recht Den Iceiner starb in die ingend Und der bis ihns alter gizecht. The translation of this is : "It is the custom of the old Germans to He down on bear skins, on both banks of the Rhine, and ever drink one or more glasses (of lager beer). In that they are very sensible, and therein they are right, for he who drinks till he is old will never die when he is young.'' Here, too, on these banks, I thought, how often have contending armies met in deadly struggle ! The hosts of Julius Csesar and other Roman leaders have struggled here with the "barbarians of the North" for the mastery of empire, until this river has been swollen with their blood. The legions of France, particularly under the great Napo- leon, have crossed and recrossed this stream, with emotions varied by the successes or reverses they had experienced while contending with the warlike sons of the Fatherland. Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Wellington, and a thou- sand other names, illustrious in historj^ have encamped upon these very banks and gazed upon these very waters. And yet the stream flows on as if nothing strange or start- ling had happened, itself the dividing line of empire, and the Rubicon of nations. Indulging these feelings the time passed rapidly, and in the course of two hours we found ourselves nearing the city of Bonn, where the real beauties of the Rhine begin to present themselves. Bonn, the seat of a great university, is on the west bank, twenty- five miles from Cologne. The University buildings in the midst of a grove; handsome residences on the hills above the river; the grounds of the "aete zoll," and the lofty tower of the monastery give the town a very attractive appearance, as seen from the steamer. It is a favorite res- idence for English and other visitors, and many joined us at this point. We caught a glimpse of the Roman Cas- trum, or Camp, at the north end of the town, which gave the name to the place founded by Drusus. They called it Castra Bonnensia, or Bonna, hence Bonn. After leaving Bonn we entered, as I have already intimated, on the 5 66 EUROPEAN NOTES. most famous and picturesque part of the river. Passing the villages of Obercassel, Plittersdorf, etc., we beheld on the right the ruined castle of Godesberg. We are already in sight of the Seven Mountains, on each of which are located castles of greater or less note, and all associated with ex- citing legends. Konigswinter is the handsome little town where visitors get off to visit the Mountains. Chief among them is the Drachenfels, (or Dragon's rock,) the slopes of which are covered with vineyards, the wine from which is called Drachenblut, or dragon's blood. The half ruined castle so distinctly visible from the river, was oc- cupied by the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus, during the Thirty Years' War, but was besieged and taken from them by Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, who completed its destruction. The cavern among the vineyards, about midway between the river and the castle, and plainly visible from the steamer, is said to have once housed the dragon slain by Siegfried, who, having bathed himself in its blood, became invulnerable. As I gazed upon that lofty peak, crowned with that venerable and historic pile, and upon the surrounding enchanting scenery, I thought of the many who, from all parts of the world, had enjoyed the same pleasure. Prominent among these was Lord Byron, the world's great but eccentric genius, who, charmed by its beauties, stopped to pour forth on it one of his sweet- est effusions : "The castled crag of Drachenfels Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine, Whose breast of waters broadly swells Between the banks which bear the vine ; And hills all rich with blossomed trees, And fields which promise corn and wine, And scattered cities crowning these, Whose far white walls along them shine, Have strewed a scene which I should see With double joy, wert thou with me." Our noble vessel', with its merry and happy throng, steamed on " between the banks that bear the vine." The valleys of the Rhine and its tributaries constitute the peculiar home of grape culture. Vineyards are every- where to be seen, clothing the bottom lands, clambering BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 67 up the mountain sides, and terraced upon stony preci- pices. It is needless to remark that the finest wines in the world are here produced, consumed in inordinate quantities by the population, and shipped to all parts of the world. No dinner, no breakfast is complete without wines, and they are so cheap as to come within the reach of all. Some of the brands have become so famous, that the prices are very high even here where they are made, but connoisseurs can procure as good often at one-tenth of the cost. We gazed upon the magnificent vineyards of Rudesheim and Johannisberg higher up the river, and caught a glimpse of some of the rich fields of the valley of the Ahr, which river flows into the Rhine One thing that interested me, was the different beauti- ful colors of the beverage as here presented. "Look -not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup." We saw here what that means, and the beauti- ful and attractive color is produced by letting the juice remain with the hulls a long time befqre it is drawn off.- The white wines are made by drawing off the juice as soon as the grapes are pressed, and before fermentation sets in. The finest of these are made on the Moselle^ another tributary of the Rhine, and I noticed that the Germans generally prefer these to the finest clarets, or red wines. Vines have been grown, and wines made here for so many centuries that it is not remarkable that we of the New World can not successfully compete with this industry. The time will come, however, when Cali- fornia wines will be equally as celebrated. Indeed, it is said to be a fact, that wines are largely shipped now from the United States to Germany and France, and doctored, or mixed with the rich products of these countries, and re-shipped to the United States at enormous profits Our consuls at Bordeaux, and other places where wine forms the chief article of export, have written the subject up, giving all the information they could get, and the best results are anticipated here from the truth thus given. I will not detain the reader by describing beautiful vil- lages built to the water's edge, with their quaint houses, handsome churches and splendid residences; nor by dwell- 68 EUROPEAN NOTES. ing upon lofty peaks that are crowned by castle ruins, each one of which has an intensely interesting history, but will stop with the boat to view the town of Neuwied, which is inhabited by a celebrated colony of Moravian Brethren. There they are busy at work at their trades, chiefly stove and glove making, attired in their singular costumes, and anxious to exhibit the specimens of their handicraft to all comers. These Moravians, as is well known, are the so- ealled Quakers of Germany, and trace their origin to the followers of John Huss, who were expelled by persecution from Bohemia and Moravia, in the beginning of the eigh- teenth century. A small company, consisting of only ten persons, received permission from Count Zinzendorf to settle on his estate of Bertholsdorf in Saxony. To this settlement they gave the name Herrnhut, whence they are commonly known in Germany as Herrnhuters. The colony has greatly increased by the addition of Bohemian refugees and other Christians, who were attracted by the faith and piety of the members, Count Zinzendorf joined the little band, devoted his whole estate to the propaga- tion of Christianity, and entered the work of the ministry. The colony at this place came from Saxony, and have greatly increased in numbers and influence. The mem- bers of the Society are scattered all over Europe and America, but they prefer to live in colonies, and in these they carry out some strange customs. The chief of these is the division into separate detachments, of children, youths, maidens, unmarried brethren, unmarried sisters, widowers, and widows, each having a separate leader or pastor. Unmarried brethren, unmarried sisters, widowers, and widows reside in separate houses ; married couples in houses of their own. The Moravians are great missionaries. The prosperity of their Societies has been largely due to their missionary enterprises. Their first mission was planted on the Island of St. Thomas, West Indies, in 1732, the missionaries who went there expressing their willingness to become slaves, if necessary, to carry out their ends. The mission to ' Greenland, as is well known, has been eminently success- : ful, and has made that barren region a Christian country; BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 69 They heeded the cry, "from Greenland's icy mountains," and claim there, and at their other stations, one hundred thousand converts from heathenism. Their religious servi- ces, like those of the Quakers in this country, are very simple and consist of daily meetings for prayer and praise, in- strumental music being admitted, and they also practice the washing of feet on communion days. It is a well known fact that the Moravians are not very scrupulous as to the methods of raising money for the furtherance of their mission works. What would you think of the Bap- tist denomination, for example, if it should establish and run an immense beer brewery, the proceeds of which should go to the support of our Home and Foreign Mis- sions? Yet, the Moravians have one, operated on a most gigantic scale, with apartments for the sale of beer at re- tail, and where, it may be supposed, the brethren and sis- ters (at separate tables, of course) meet and regale them- selves with the delicious beverage. It must be said in their defence, however, that beer drinking in Germany is regarded as an innocent, and in the absence of wholesome water, a necessary custom. At different landings on the river the boat would stop when a few would get off, and a great many more would get on board — tourists who had been stopping at these points for the purposes of rest and exploration, and now anxious to go further and witness the still grander beau- ties of this enchanting region. Meals are served on deck a la carte, and in the saloon an elaborate table d' hote is provided at the dinner hour, for those whose appetites prove superior to the passion for seeing. We finish dinner in time to come out and gaze upon the Roland Arch, the last relic of the castle of Rolandseck, perched upon a huge rock three hundred and fifty feet above, and concerning which there is a deeply interesting legend. To sum it up : the brave knight, Roland, searching for adventure, found himself the guest of Count Heirbert, lord of the Seven Mountains, at his castle. His beautiful daughter, Hildegunde, welcomed the stranger with bread, wine and fish. The knight fell in love with her, and they ^0 EUROPEAN NOTES. were soon engaged. He soon left her, being summoned by Charlemagne to the Crusades. The girl heard he was dead, betook herself " to a nunnery," and was lost to him. He returned, being only wounded instead of dead, but not to find his dear Hildegunde. So, in despair, he built this castle in sight of the nunnery, and there lived in solitude, catching a glimpse occasionally of- the fair form of the nun as she went to and from her devotions in the little chapel. At last he missed her, and soon the funeral knell and pro- cession told him but too plainly that she was lost to him now forever. From that moment he never spoke again, but died of a broken heart, his body being found lifeless, his "glassy eye" turned toward the little chapel. An- other case of " Villikens and his Dinah," truly, only there was no " cold p'ison " in this instance. Oh, these legends! why is it that mountainous districts are ever rite with them? Here, in our own North Georgia, we have the legends of Toccoa, Tallulah and Nacoochee. Whence did they originate? " Would you ask me, whence these legends ? Whence these legends and traditions ? I would answer, I would tell you," I don't know. One could write volumes on the Rhine, but I will con- clude my notes on the subject by noticing the chief objects between Coblentz and Mayence. Coblentz ! Who has not heard of that place, and at its mention, what memories rise of the Franco-Prussian war? For this was the most important base of operations the Germans had during that memorable period. The fortress that here " frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine," is the most commanding, the most extensive, and the most impregnable in Germany. Indeed, this fortress of Ehren- breitstein is sometimes called the Gibraltar of the Rhine. It is situated on a rock about four hundred feet above the Rhine, and nearly six hundred feet above the sea. It is entirely inaccessible on three sides. The massive fortifi- cations are considered a marvel of military engineering. The view from here is splendid, embracing the fertile val- BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. /I ley of the Rhine, the numerous volcanic peaks of Maifeld and Eifel, a semi-circle of picturesque hills, two of them crowned with the castles of Stolzenfels and Lahneck; the plateau where 10,000 French prisoners were confined during the war of 1870, and the cemetery where multitudes of them were buried. On the right stands the triangular town of Coblentz. Few towns on the river can vie with it in beauty of situation. It stands at the junction of two of the most picturesque rivers in Europe, and is the central point of the finest scenery on the Rhine. Beyond the Moselle bridge stands the monument of the French general, Marceau, who fell at Altenkirchen (old churches) in 1796. He was first buried a little distance off, and had a simple, pyramidal stone above his grave. Byron visited the spot before his body was removed, and wrote his familiar lines : " By Coblentz on a gentle rise of ground, There is a small and simple pyramid, Crowning the summit of the verdant mound ; Beneath its base are hero's ashes hid, Our enemy, but let not that forbid Honor to Marceau," etc. Leaving Coblentz, all on board are ecstatic with the grand and enchanting scenery. Peak rises upon peak, crowned with castle upon castle, around which hangs legend upon legend. The ladies were much interested in the legend of Sterrenberg and Liebenstein, called the Brothers, which, in substance, is the following : Two brothers fell in love with their foster sister, the beautiful Hildegarde. One went to the wars, generously yielding the maiden to the other. The father, who lived at Liebenstein, built Sterrenberg for the happy pair, but died before their marriage. The brother, grown tired of his love, went to the wars also. Hildegarde retired to a con- vent. The first brother returns married, and when he finds how the other has treated the foster sister, he challenges him to mortal combat. Hildegarde rushes between them, and saves their lives. The brothers become friends, and live together at Liebenstein, the wife of the first having proved faithless and deserted him, while poor Hildegarde 72 EUROPEAN NOTES. returns to the convent. And what does all this amount to ? I do wish they would get up a little variety in their legends. Two more castles bear the suggestive names of Cat and Mouse, the Mouse being commanded by the Cat. After leaving the beautiful village of St, Goar, we come to the imposing rocks of the Lurlei, four hundred and fifty feet above the Rhine, which Mark Twain and others have immortalized, after poets and painters had immor- talized themselves by treating of them. Heine's beauti- ful ballad is still very popular. According to Marner, a poet of the thirteenth century, the Nieblungen treasure is hidden beneath the rocks of Lurlei. To the traveler descending the river, the edge of the rocks presents the appearance of a human profile, supposed toi^emble that of Napoleon I. Some of my readers mav^ot have heard of the Lorelei, and so I give the substance of it here. There was a water nymph named Lore, who resided at Ley, a rock on the Rhine, and so she was called Loreley. To all the sailors on the river she appeared on the top of this rock as a most lovely and beautiful figure. Her long hair waved over her shoulders, and who ever saw her once, never forgot the glance of her eyes. She gave happiness to all the good, and misery to all the bad of the country. Many who rowed to the foot of the rock and endeavored to mock her power, were seized by the raging waves, and drawn into the abyss. The same fate awaited a young man who fell in love with her, lost his senses, and was drawn into the abyss. The father of the young man came and inquired of the Lurlei where his son was? She replied : " There below in the wild waves' womb. In the water clear, you'll find his tomb. Thither my darling love I led, Way down in crystal depths to wed." So saying, she "leaped in,'' and has never been seen since, but she is heard every day, her sweet voice coming up from the crystal castle, reminding all of the fate of the poor young man. Since that event the rock yields a beautiful echo, which is admired and praised as the gift BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 73 of the fairy. But that voice is the echo, and that echo was there before the fooHsh story originated. But we are Hearing a place of great interest now, a place that I was really more anxious to see than any other on the river, and that was "Bingen, fair Bingen on the Rhine.'' What a power there is in song ! Some one has said: "Let me write a nation's ballads and I care not who makes its laws." That familiar poem, "Bingen," has touched many a tender chord in the hearts of the people of this country, and awakened more interest than "acts of assemblies.'' Just before getting to the town, we passed the Mouse tower, situated in the middle of the river, and which is said to derive its name from the legend of the cruel Archbishop of Mayence, who having caused poor people whom he compared to n'ice, to be burned alive during a famine, he was immediately attacked by mice, which tormented him day and night. He then took ref- uge on this little island, but he was followed by the mice, and soon devoured alive. Good for him ! I should like to have a trained army of these avengers to turn loose on such fellows as Dukes, and other revolting criminals of the times. And now we are at Bingen, and the tcene I can never forget. The beautiful town of six thousand souls is on our right hand, situated on a series of "vine clad hills,'' that slope down to the water's edge. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and a quiet restfulness stole over us, "as if the balmy evening time softened our spirits." On looking up I discerned an object that gave a finishing touch to the picture. It was the "pale moon" that "seemed to shine" for our especial benefit, just that we might realize in all its fullness and vividness the pic- ture drawn in the incomparable lines of "Bingen on the Rhine." There was one other object that gave interest to the scenery. As the boat stood there discharging and re- ceiving freight, I cast my eyes on the shore, and saw "another, not a sister," who, judging by her fair form, and the "merriment that sparkled in her eye," might have been a worthy descendant of the lovely girl that had won upon the heart of that "soldier of the legion." I got ofT here for a few minutes, just to say that I did so. After 74 EUROPEAN NOTES. leaving Bingen, the river expands, and we enter the cele. brated Rheingau, which was once in all probability a lake. Along through this region the finest wines in the world are made. Rudesheimer and Schloss Johannisberg ! Ah! these are the wines, doubtless, that Mr. Vanderbilt had on his tables at that recent grand display in New York, which may be called at once the climax of pride and the height of folly. Night now sets in and we are fatigued. Instead of straining our vision in catching night glimpses of the remaining scenery, we loll upon our easy chairs, muse over the experiences of the day, and speculate on what awaits us. We move along "chewing the cud of sweet and bit- ter fancies'' when we are suddenly roused from our rev- ery by along, ear-piercing blast of the whistle. It is the signal for disembarkation at Mayence. MAYENCE. Mayence, with about 50,000 inhabitants, is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Rhine, as already stated, one hundred and eighty miles from Cologne, and is the point at which tourists generally leave the Rhine, whether their destination be Berlin, Vienna, Paris or Italy. We landed on a broad, long and attractive quay, which affords the principal drive and promenade for the citizens. The elegant hotels, erected for the special accommodation of the thousands of visitors who throng this region during the summer, are located on this quay, fronting on the Rhine. They are all so good that it is difficult which one to select, but as we had a card of introduction from the proprietor of Hotel Dirch, Cologne, to the proprietor of the "Rheinischer Hof," we proceeded at once to this spa- cious house, where a cordial reception awaited us. These hotels all have their names inscribed in large, showy let- ters in three languages. Our hotel, for example, had on one side, "Hotel du Rhine ;" on the other "Rhine Hotel," and in the middle, "Rheinischer Hof." The word Hof, which means a court, is generally used for the fine hotels ; for the reason, I suppose, that it smacks of royalty, and for the further reason, that each one has a beautiful court in the centre of the building, often ornamented with the rarest and most inviting flowers. BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 75 As we had been to supper, and it was now ten o'clock at night, we proceeded at once to our rooms, and as they are a fair specimen of what we met with at all the first class German hotels I will describe them. They are usu- ally frescoed on the ceiling, with a border with some pretty design in the centre, while the walls are papered. The floors are uncarpeted, or if carpeted at all, with a piece covering only about two-thirds of the floor. In one corner stands a stove, made of porcelain, pure white, about eight feet tall, three feet in dia.neter, and which looks very much like a tombstone. The furniture consists of a bureau, table, chairs, an elegant sofa, and two single beds. Germans never "sleep together,'' and the single beds are so small, and the covering so narrow, that it is difficult to "turn over" without exposing to the night air some part of your person. As I lay down I thought of the text in the Bible which says: "My bed is so short that I cannot stretch in)'self in it, and the covering so narrow that I can not wrap myself in it," or words to that effect. On top there is a feather bed, with which you are to cover yourself. It is filled with down, and is soft and pleasant to the touch, and may be flattened and elongated almost to your liking. When you first lay it over your person, it feels cool and refreshing, but soon becomes intolerably hot, unless it is winter. Imagine our sleeping under these beds in July ! But the room is scrupulously clean, while the bed linen, towels, etc., are simply immaculate. The floors are waxed, and everything brushed until not a fly will risk its life by attempting to stand on it. Though these houses, some of them, are centuries old, of rats "not a sound is heard," and as to bedbugs, I did not see one in Germany. The lights are invariably two long candles, which you pay for, but are at liberty to take with you. So with the soap. Mark Twain says he soon carried can- dles enough away from hotels to fill his trunks. As we were fatigued from the tour of the Rhine, we soon fell asleep, nor awoke until the bright sunlight was streaming in through the windows, through which we saw again, on rising from our "downy beds," that lovely scene, "the blue Rhine sweeping along.'' We go down to break- •J^ EUROPEAN NOTES. fast to order what we wish, and pay for what we get. The ordinary German breakfast is bread, butter and coffee* Some few add a soft boiled ^%^. We ordered in addition beefsteak, of course, which the polite waiters speaking English, called "an English breakfast." We wait awhile and it comes in smoking hot, and elegantly served in the finest of china and purest of silver. Before leaving America, my friend, Col. Montgomery, United States consul at Leipsic, wrote me that I would often sigh for American cooking. I did not find it so. Better cooking, and better things cooked, I never saw. The coffee is strong, hot and fragrant ; the breads, always cold, are white and perfect, while the meats show plainly that they were prepared by a master hand. The steaks are cut thick and round, and look like a large muffin. They are juicy, well seasoned, and so tender that they almost "melt in your mouth." So much for the breakfast. While on the subject, I will say that the dinner is invariably a table d'hote^ which lasts about an hour and a half, is served in courses, every dish, however simple, being served on a separate plate, and the articles come in about the follow- ing order: soup; fish ; roast beef and potatoes; mutton; game ; one vegetable, such as asparagus or cauliflower ; '• comforts," (preserves in small plates, of which all are very fond); venison or turkey; ice cream or pastries; fruits and nuts, and lastly, and always, butter and cheese, after which comes a cup of coffee. Then candles are lighted, and cigars are handed around, which the gentle- men take, and smoke at tlie table and in presence of the ladies, unless they choose to retire, until the whole room is in a cloud of smoke. Each guest has his bottle of red or white wine by his plate, a pint being a small allowance for one man, and often for one lady, in going through with the meal. This table d'hote, in small places, is gene- rally served at one o^clock, in large cities, at six in the afternoon. Many do not eat any supper, but if they do, it is the same as the breakfast. The Germans love to eat, drink, and smoke, as I shall have occasion often to remark, and can do more of it, I will guarantee, than any nation on the face of the earth. BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG* "JJ But now for a stroll over Mayence, a city founded many years before the Christian era by Drusus, who was sent from Rome as governor and general for the colony. The streets are long and narrow, and the houses antiquated. The principal objects of interest are: first, the cathedral, which we inspected thoroughly, erected in 900, but being burned, was rebuilt in 1100, speaking in round numbers. It contains many fine statues, tombs and paintings. The museum is filled with Roman antiquities, collected to- gether and exhibited as the relics of that ancient and mighty people. Some of the fortifications and aqueducts built by Drusus still remain. We visited the shops, parks and gardens, and also the market, where we saw quite a number of peasants in their strange costumes, engaged in selling the products of their poultry yards and market gardens. To me, by far the most interesting object was the statue of Gutenberg, the inventor of printing. This statue was designed by the celebrated Thorwaldsen, exe- cuted at Paris, and erected in 1837. John Gutenberg was born in Mayence about the close of the fourteenth centu- ry, at number 23 Emerans street, as we learn from an inscription over the door. There is a saloon called the '' Civil Casino," with an inscription which tells it once be- longed to Gutenberg's mother. The garden contains a small statue of the inventor, erected in 1824. Gutenberg's first printing of^ce is in the Franciscan street. As I saw these things, and stood in front of his splendid statue, I meditated on the mighty results which have arisen from his great invention. It has already made the pen might- ier than the sword. Thinking of his humble beginning, my mind turned to the mighty newspapers in our land, the great streams that have flowed from this powerful little fountain. Think of his little hand press in that Franciscan street, and compare it with some of the pon- derous machines in the Franklin Printing House, Atlanta. Nay, think of Franklin himself as the disciple, in one sense, of Gutenberg. His name has shed a lustre on May- ence that must make it an object of interest to travelers from all parts of the world. Few there are who will not join in the wish of the poet who said : 78 EUROPEAN NOTES. " M lyence, fair city, far may thy plaudits fly. For with the press thy name can never die. Still may thy guardian battlements withstand The ruthless shock, of war's destructive hand, Where Gutenberg with toil incessant wrought, . The imitative lines of written thought, And as his art a nobler effort made, The swifter lever his commands obeyed," But was he really the inventor of printing? Although the Germans are justly proud of Gutenberg, as an inde- pendent inventor of the great art about the year, 1440, it is well known that the Dutch clainn for their countryman, Lawrence Coster, the honor of the invention at a still ear- lier period, namely, in 1423. The story which has gone the rounds in former times, that Gutenberg learned the art from an assistant of Coster, is entirely without found- ation. The best judges and critics think that the honor of discovering the art of printing is due equally to both, while Gutenberg seems to have been much more success- ful in practicing the art than his Dutch rival. Whether Gutenberg or Coster was it that made the discovery, it marked an era in the history of the world. If you would know what it has done, and what it is worth, think what the world would be without it ! Destroy all the books and newspapers, burn up all the presses, and interdict their use in the future, what would be the character of the next generation ? Our own land has shared largely, most largely, because of freedom, in the blessing, and our own land should be the first to honor the memory of Gut- enberg and Coster. I close this reference with one of the best wishes I can make for my country: "Here may the press the people's rights maintain, Unawed by power and unbribed by gain." FRANKFORT-ON-TIIE-MAIN, ETC. Having visited all the objects of interest about May- ence, we concluded to go on to the former capital of Ger- many, Frankfort -on-the-Main, (pronounced in German Mine,) which was distant about fifteen miles, and we made the trip by rail in three-quarters of an hour. The city lies in a spacious plain, and is surrounded by beautiful mountains. It contains about 120,000 inhabitants, dates BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 79 from the time of Charlemagne; and was, until recently, one of the free towns of the German Confederation, which bore the name of the Hanseatic League. At present, only Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck belong to that League. It is called Frankfort-on-the Main from the river on which it is situated, in contradistinction from Frank- fort-on-the Oder, another German city. In a commercial, and especially financial, point of view, Frankfort is one of the most important cities in Germany. It is indeed a great financial centre, where one of the most distinguished of the Rothschilds lives, and reigns supreme. Having business with his bank, we called on him, and had the pleasure of seeing this great financial wonder of the world. He is a large, heavily built, corpu- lent man, with jet black hair and eyes, and brunette com- plexion. He wears side whiskers, appeared to be about fifty-five, and wore the appearance of a man who was con- scious that he owned the lever, that with the mere pressure of his hand could shake, if not overturn, governments. And still there is no one member of the Rothschild family who is as rich as Wm. H. Vanderbilt, of New York. Baron Rothschild is, of course, a Jew, and while the Jews are despised and persecuted in Russia, and hated and ostracised in Germany, such is the power of this money king, that he is honored and respected, or rather, feared by all. During our stay in Frankfort, we were the guests of the celebrated Frankfort Hotel, (Frankfurter Hof,) which for size, elegance, and all the comforts and conveniences of a great caravansary, is unsurpassed on the Continent. We took a walk over the city, and discovered that while there are three or four beautiful streets, such as Teil, New Main, King, etc., the old part of the town consists of nar- row and unattractive streets, from which unpleasant odors are ever arising, resembling those of Cologne (I mean the city). In one of our strolls along these filthy thorough- fares we lost our reckoning, and as it was late at night, and the sidewalks were filled with noisy beer-guzzlers, and offensive people generally, we became a little uneasy. We wandered as far as the banks of Main, which enabled 80 EUROPEAN NOTES. US to direct our steps in the right direction, and we were glad enough to get back to our hotel. The town is sur- rounded by public grounds that are very beautiful, and in the midst of lovely little parks some stately residences have been erected. One of the most interesting objects that I witnessed at Frankfort, was the celebrated panorama of the battle of Sedan, It was certainly the next best thing to seeing the battle itself. This panorama has a spiral temple built for its exhibition, covering nearly an acre of ground, and the scenery is so arranged that you cannot tell where the natural ends, and the artificial begins. Real houses, wagons, balls, cannon, trees, etc., are spread around, just as the artist imagined them to have stood during the bat- tle, and the eye passes from these to the scenes on the canvas without perceiving the transition. King William, Moltke, Bismarck, and renowned generals and dukes were plainly visible, together with the Crown Prince ; and on the other hand, we could see Louis Napoleon and his generals, and the great armies of both in mutual com- bat. Dead horses, dead soldiers, burning houses, bursting shells, the smoke of battle, and all the accompaniments of a deadly struggle were as plainly visible, and as appa- rently real, as if we had been an eye witness in a good po- sition, of that great and final struggle of the Franco- Prussian war. Another panorama, similar in size and character, but of the battle of Gravilotte, I saw in Ber- lin, and one of the siege of Paris, I viewed in the French capital ; and I do not hesitate to say that they are simply wonderful, and better than anything that comes from pen, or brush, or chisel, in conveying a correct idea of the real nature and horrors of war. They are at the same time an admirable way to commemorate the brave actors in such fearful scenes. Frankfort has its galleries, fine chiseled monuments, libraries, opera houses, palm and zoological gardens, but as I shall have occasion to allude to these things as seen on a far grander scale, I will not describe them here. As our Consul General lived at Frankfort, I had occa- sion to visit this place again, and to have frequent com- OBERSTEIN ON THE IIHINE. BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 8 1 munication with it, and I must say that I like it. But the twenty five days allowed in making my transit are rapidly passing, and I must hasten to my post of duty at Sonne- berg. There were two routes, one by Eisenach, running northeast, and the other by Bamberg, running east, while my objective point lay on the Werra road, which connects these two lines. Leaving Frankfort by the Bamberg route early in the morning, during fine weather, we had a splen- did opportunity to view the best farming district of Ger- many, where vast tracts of land were so neatly fenced and so artistically cultivated, that they looked like endless chains of luxuriant kitchen gardens. We soon came to Wurzberg, which is a great railroad centre, of about forty thousand, with a fine University, many elegant residences, and superb stores. The passenger depot, or "Bahnhof," is like a palace for costliness and magnificence, x^t every station there are beer saloons ; every town is full of them, but the one at Wurzberg is a marvel. Thousands crowd the place all the time, some to go in one direction, some in another. . If you want to go to Berlin, Vienna, Rome, Paris, London, or anywhere else on earth, first go to Wurzberg. Having spent an hour or two very pleasantly at Wurz- berg, we proceeded on our journey, and soon came to Bamberg, a fine place of thirty thousand. Another fine depot and beer saloon, or restaurant, are here, where everything to eat and drink can be had in abundance, and at a trifling cost. Here we take the train for Coberg, and reach there at two o'clock, beholding for the first time this far-famed seat of the ducal family of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, out of which came the husbands of Princess Charlotte of Wales, and Queen Victoria. A glimpse shows us that, with its girdle of grand villas, and castled hills and heaven pointing spires, it is a grand and beautiful city. But as it will soon have in these notes a full de- scription, I pass on to take the cars for Sonneberg, twelve miles distant. We go through a country carpeted with green, bordered with handsome stone fences, intersected by roads that are as white as the driven snow and hard as adamant, a country ornamented with blooming flowers, 6 82 EUROPEAN NOTES. in the midst of which scene beautiful residences, lofty towers, frowning castles, enchanting palaces, and smiling villages meet our vision at every turn. The whistle blows, the train stops, and on the outside of a capacious and at- tractive passenger depot, just beneath a huge clock, we read in bold characters the name of SONNEBERG. SONNEBERG. Having alighted irom the train, the city of Sonneberg, containing twelve thousand inhabitants, was spread out before us, nestled among towering hills, belonging to the initial chain of the Thuringian mountains, and piesentinga most picturesque appearance. It resembles some of the places 1 afterwards saw in Switzerland, and, indeed, far famed Thuringia is called the Switzerland of Germany. But it may be asked, why should a United States con- sulate be located here ? To this I reply, that Sonneberg is the entrepot of Thuringia, a mountainous district compris- ing eight duchies and principalities, in all of which are extensive manufactories, producing goods that are annu- ally shipped to the United States. All this region is em- braced in the Sonneberg Consular District, which makes it one of the most important in the German Empire. The consular seat was located at Sonneberg, because that is a great German-American manufacturing place, containing about one hundred and fifty factories, and is the most convenient place for manufacturers, all over the district, to come to, to have their invoices legalized. There are several large cities in the district, among them Coburg, Meiningen, Eisenach, Gotha. Erfurt, Weimar, etc., but Sonneberg is the most thrifty and numerous in factories, and nearer than any to the great railway lines running to the sea. To show the extent of the commerce between this district and the United States, I will state that during the year ending September 30, 1882, over two millions of dollars' worth of goods were exported through the Sonne- berg consulate to the United States. These goods con- sisted chiefly of toys and china goods, but also embraced hardware, guns, smokers' articles, paints, drugs, and min- eral waters, Kissingen and Friederich's hall being in the BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBEKG. 83 district. Invoices of these goods were brought daily to the consulate for certification, to the nunnber of from twenty to forty. Without the consular seal and signa- ture, they could not be admitted into American ports. But this constitutes only one of the duties of a consul. In addition, he has to give protection, when needed, to American citizens in his district, procure for them their passports, and often entertain them at his home. It is his duty to look after and take charge of the estates of Amer- ican citizens who die abroad ; and, also, to look after lega- cies, or other claims which Americans may wish to put into the consul's hands. Then comes notarial work, such as is performed by a notary public in this country, and, lastly, legalizing marriages — no marriage of an American citizen abroad being valid in the United States courts, unless performed in the presence of the consul. The most laborious work of all was the preparation of a monthly report on common or other matters of interest to our government, for publication by the State depart- ment at Washington. These reports were sometimes of the most difficult nature, and had to be prepared with the greatest care so as to meet the approbation of the Secre- tary of State, by whose order they were made, under act of Congress. And here I will remark that these "Consular Reports" are filled with the most valuable information, especially on all subjects o( commerce. They also contain important papers on other subjects of interest to the gen- eral reader. To attend to all these duties at this inland consulate, there were a consul, vice-consul and secretary. At large seaport consulates the duties are much heavier. The vice consul at Sonneberg, Mr. George Ortelli, was a most accomplished man, who had been eight years in London, and could speak English as well as German. He, with the aid of the German secretary, could often attend to most of the work, and give me fine opportunities to travel. While the office was located at Sonneberg, there was a branch office at Coburg, where my predecessor lived for twelve years, and where the Secretary of State told me I §4 EUROPEAN NOTES. could reside also, and be required to go to Sonnebergonly once or twice a week. Sonneberg did not please us at first. What with the smoke of the factories, the filthy streets, and crowds of peasants connected with the factories, and thronging the streets with huge baskets of toys on their backs, the out- look did not seem in the least attractive. The 'Consulate' I found to be quite a nice building, containing three elegant rooms for ofifices, with the United States coat of arms displayed in conspicuous colors, both on the outside and inside of the house, while overall waved the stars and stripes, "emblem of fair freedom land." I went through tise "formalities on arrival at post," and was regularly in- stalled. These formalities are beautiful and pleasant. The Secretary of State, United States Minister at Berlin, Consul General at Frankfort, and all the American con- suls in Germany must be written to and replies received. Many of these replies, especially from the consular corps, warmly congratulated the new consul on his safe arrival and entrance on his duties. Before these formalities are observed, however, the consul must receive an exeqtiatur from Emperor William empowering him to act. This I found awaiting me on my arrival, so that I had no trouble. The next thing to do is to call in person on the officers of the government where the consulate is located, embracing the Dukes and their Ministers of State. After this, calls must be made on consuls and diplomatic representatives of other countries stationed there. All this work, from its very novelty, afforded me quite a pleasure, and more will be said of this hereafter. Our quarters at Sonneberg were at Krug's Hotel, one of the best hotels I met with during my whole stay in Europe. It is kept by Frau Krug, and the English for Krug is Jug — one would think a good name for some hotels, but there was no bar kept here, and everything was of the best and nicest kind. Fine rooms, fine beds, and fine fare are the specialties of Krug's. Frau Krug's husband, Herr Krug, which in English is Mr. Jug, killed bjmself drinking, so that he bore a most appropriate name. Sonneberg, I have said, is a picturesque place. There BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. S$ are several buildings there of peculiar interest. One is an old castle, two hundred and fifty years old. Another is. the magnificent Gothic church, with stained glass win- dows, another, the splendid new postofifice, the shooting house, the club houses, and especially the old Luther house, where Luther once dwelt, and where many relics of the great reformer are shown. We took a walk through the town, strolled through the cemetery, attended church where we heard a sermon^ hardly one word of which we could understand, and re- turned to compare notes as to how we liked the situation, COBURG. Having settled regularly upon my work as United States consul at Sonneberg, and spent a few days in view- ing the town and its surroundings, we proceeded to Co- burg. We remained in Sonneberg long enough to find that all we had heard as to cheap living in Germany, as far as first-class accommodations are concerned, was un- true; and we thought, if it was no better in Coburg, with. the style in which I was compelled to live as a represent- ative of the "best government the world ever saw,'' and the amount of salary attached to the consulate, that the prospect of making both ends meet was gloomy indeed. At Coburg, however, we were agreeably surprised to find house rent, and the prices of articles for home consump- tion, much cheaper than in Sonneberg. A noble lady,, who had an elegant "villa," and who wished to travel, rent- ed me her house, furniture and magnificent grounds, at a comparatively low figure, and we set up housekeeping. Coburg is a lovely city of about twenty thousand inhab- itants, and noted for its legendary history, its fine old cas- tle, its splendid palaces, its renowned gymnasium, and its elegant private residences. The place is one of special interest to English people and their American cousins, because it is the home of that celebrated ducal family, the Saxe Coburg and Gotha, from which have sprung nearly all the crowned heads who now sit upon the thrones of the world, chief of whom is Queen Victoria, "a slight bruise on whose knee" is sufificient to keep busy the telegraphic 8® EUROPEAN NOTES. wires of the world, to call forth long editorials from the most cultured writers, to evoke earnest prayers from myriad pulpits, and cause hundreds of millions of people to pause in most anxious solicitude. I have already said that the Secretary of State permit- ted my predecessor to establish a branch of^ce, and to reside here, and he gave me the same privilege. The former consul was Mr. Henry J. Winser, of New Jersey, and though I did not know him personally, an examination of the perfect manner in which he kept his books, composed his reports, and attended to all his duties, showed that he was a first-class officer in every particular ; and the way in which he conducted himself in society, as attested by the high encomiums of the best people in the district, plainly indicated that he was a first-class Christian gentleman. I have no idea that there was a better con- sul in all Europe. I had learned much of Coburg through Dr. Bozeman, of Macon, Ga., who spent about two years in that city, and in Mr. Winser's family, and I was prepared for the pleasant social reception which we received. I had letters of introduction from Dr. Bozeman's family to the family of General Cordeman, an old and distinguished Franco- Prussian war officer, who was one of the leaders of society there. From the first to the last, he, his wife and three accomplished daughters were our fast friends, and did us many acts of kindness, for which I shall be ever grateful. The General, who had been commandant at Nancy during the war referred to, was now a retired officer, and devoted his time to his friends, and to fishing, of which sport he was very fond. They all spoke English with nearly as much facility as German, and it may be imagined how useful they were to us at a time when we were almost entirely ignorant of the German language. Another family whose acquaintance, friendship and kindly attentions were of incalculable value, was that of Mr. Charles Stewart Scott, British c/iarge d'affaires 2X Co- burg, sent there more as a compliment to Duke Ernest, the brother of Prince Albert, than anything else. He had ample time at his disposal to assist a new consul in BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 8/ mastering those social forms, which are regarded of such vital importance in a community where position and style are everything. Mr. Scott was an experienced Secretary of Legation, and had but recently been promoted to his present position, was highly cultivated, and of most so- ciable and agreeable manners, while his beautiful and ac- complished wife was one of the real attractions of Coburg society. One family after another was added to our cir- cle, or rather, we were admitted into one family after an- other, until we found ourselves in the midst of as large, and refined, and interesting a community of friends as can be found in a city of the same size anywhere in the world. "As elegant as a Coburger" is an expression often em- ployed by the elite in our country, and is a distinction that those who have an ambition for such things might well covet. As an illustration of what I say, I will mention here some of the families composing this upper crust of Coburg society, to which my consular commission gave me a XQZ.^y entree, and which added not a little to our enjoy- ment in that far off, foreign land, viz : Baron Stockmar, son of the celebrated Baron Stockmar, who was for many years the private counsellor of Princess Charlotte of Wales, and her husband, Leopold, afterwards King of the Belgians; and also foster father of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, considered by many as the real "power be- hind the throne" of England for a long period of years. His monument, erected by order and at the expense of three sovereigns, stands in the Coburg cemetery. The son of whom I speak now, had both a city and a country estate, his city residence being fitted up in the grandest style, and the scene of frequent elegant, social entertain- ments. Baron Imhof, though an old bachelor, was a prom- inent leader in social matters, and withal a most genial and agreeable man. He owns, in the vicinity of Coburg, the beautiful castle of Hohenstein, (Highstone,) built by his ancestors, but renovated and improved by himself, and which is daily visited by tourists on account of the beauty and grandeur of the place. He is popular with the ladies, and has been so for many years, and is always seen at the parties, in the club houses, on the public drives, or on the 88 EUROPEAN NOTES. ice pond, skating being one of the most popular amuse- ments in that cold region. Count Ordenberg was, perhaps, the most distinguished by blood, being one of the "medi- ated" counts of Germany, who are permitted to marry even the daughter of an emperor. I never fancied him much. With all his high blood, and other advantages, he was unpopular on account of his snobbish ways. Baron Lowenfels was the former chief marshal of the ducal court, a near relative of Prince Albert, at whose marriage he was present, and one of the most perfect gentlemen I ever met. His wife, called "Excellenz," a title nearly equivalent to that of Baroness, was a charming old lady. Baroness Von Konigseck, a near relative to the duke and wife of the Cavalier of the Duke of Edinburgh, v/as one of the handsomest, noblest, and most agreeable ladies it has ever been my privilege to see. Her children were equally lovely. Her little girl of four years could speak English fluently. All of these noble ladies, and most of the gentlemen speak English well, and French with still greater facility. Baroness Von Grunhof, widow of the Duke of Wurtemburg, who owned a beautiful residence, almost a palace, was accomplished and lovely, and her grown daughter, who, it was reported, was soon to marry the son of the German minister to Italy, was one of the most highly cultured and charming of young ladies. Baron Waggenheim, the present chief marshal of the Duke, belongs to a family whose ancestry dates back more than six hundred years, many of whom are highly distin- guished. Baron Roppert, the chief ducal master of the horse, is splendid looking, elegant in his manners, and the very man to take the lead on State occasions. President Ewald, president of the ducal estates, was a thoroughly wise, intelligent, faithful public officer, and a warm hearted gentleman and friend. He was the most intimate friend my predecessor had, and he and his large and interesting family showed us every kindness and attention. Privy Counsellor Rose was also one of the most sociable and agreeable of men. He had the misfortune to lose his wife during our stay, which excluded him from social enjoy- ments, in which he always took great interest. Among BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 89 our intimate friends was the family of Herr Von Brodo- retti, formerly a State ofificer, but now retired. It would be difficult to find a more accomplished family in the world. Their little children could speak several lan- guages. Baron Lizkowski. a Prussian nobleman, with his wife and daughter, " Elsbeth," endeared themselves to us as none else did, or could, and memory will ever linger with delight on the happy experiences which marked our intercourse with this truly noble household. Another family in which we took deep interest, and with whom we were very intimate, was that of Mr. Oscar Strasberger, a merchant prince, who has two immense exporting establishments, one in Coburg, and one in New York. His residence in Coburg is superb, fronting on the incom- parable "Hofgarten," and his store in New York, on Broad- way, is one of the largest and finest in that city. Mr. Strasberger spends about half his time in New York, and his wife often accompanies him. Another friend, was Mr, Rudolph Epner, likewise a merchant prince, worth mil- lions of dollars, and living in a palace almost as fine as the duke's. His entertainments are on a royal scale, and many think, quite equal to those of his Highness. Still another frie-nd was Mr. Forkel, a celebrated lawyer, as may be known from the fact, that he has been for many years Queen's Counsellor, as well as counsellor for the dukes and princes of Coburg. And really, these are not all whose contributions to social life have rendered Coburg such a famous place. For after the F"ranco-Prussian war, many celebrated generals, wishing to retire from service, fixed upon Coburg for their abode, and erected eJegant villas on the sites of the old fortifications. Last, and greatest of all, the fountain from which all these streams have sprung, and at the same time, the reservoir towards which they all, as they increase in power and influence, flow, is the DucAL Family of Coburg, an account of which I will give in a separate chapter. THE DTjKE of MEININGEN. Republican as we Americans are, we all like to have a touch and a taste of royalty. Where was a man ever 90 EUROPEAN NOTES. more honored than the Prince of Wales when he visited the United States many years ago ? I was a student then in Richmond College, and I well remember the excite- ment occasioned in that capital city by this youth of 19 years. ''The learned decked their halls to greet him, the lowly walked out to look upon him — a congregated nation gathered around him,'' These words taken from the in- comparable eulogy on LaFayette when he came to Amer- ica after fifty years absence, are even more appropriate to the Prince of Wales when he came on a sight-seeing ex- pedition, the great grandson, as he was, of George the 3d, whose power LaFayette did so much to destroy. Look, too, at the Grand Duke Alexis. What a fuss was made over him! How he was feted and feasted, and what efforts were made to amuse his Highness in hunting and other sports of the great West ! While I write, his sister, the Duchess of Edinburgh, is almost within a stone's throw of me, for she is spending the summer here at Coburg, of which duchy her husband. Queen Victoria's second son, is the future ruler, and not half the fuss is made over this duchess here as was made over her brother in America. This lady, with her sweet children, the princes and prin- cesses, is frequently seen on the streets shopping, bows pleasantly to every one passing, cuts at the dogs as they bark at her vehicle driving along the streets, which she does herself in a one-horse carriage, often without a foot- man. Yes, this duchess is about as fine a specimen of the lady and woman as royalty affords. The daughter of the assassinated Czar and daughterin law of England's queen is here one of a hundred, or I might say, thousand, and creates but little excitement. But should she visit America, what a flutter, what a demonstration there would be! And I confess I possess this sd^nx^ penchant for roy- alty and have had it in some sense gratified. But I purposed to write about the duke of Mein- ingen. Sonneberg, being the largest town in his duchy, and one of the most important export places in Europe, is a great favorite with the duke ; and as the exports are chiefly with America, he always shows marked attention to the American Consul here. In looking over the records BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 9I of the office, I find that in former years his father, when he was duke, made an annual visit to Sonneberg of several days' duration, and always during the time was the guest of the American Consul, who at that time resided at Sonneberg. This fact was of so much importance that the consul communicated it to his government. I had not been in Germany long when, having sent hi? High- ness my card, I received in response a cordial invitation to a dinner at his splendid palace in Meiningen City, and in this invitation he included my whole family. When we reached the city we found we were met by the splendid equipage of the duke, whose wish it was that we should proceed at once to the palace, but as our toilets were not in order, we proceeded first to the hotel. Soon a foot- man came, saying we were all, the children included, ex- pected at the palace at two o'clock. Promptly we were roll- ed around through beds of flowers and showy avenues of trees, to the "portcullis" of the great schloss, where we were met by liveried servants, who escorted us to other liveried servants, who conducted us to the cloak room and then into the reception room, where their highnesses soon joined us, elegantly attired and with manners as easy, familiar and assuring as if they had been in every sense our well known friends. Two other guests were present, Dr. Johannes Brahms, the eminent Vienna com- poser, who was at that time performing at the duke's thea- tre, and a student of music, a particular friend of the family. In half an hour dinner was announced, when the duke, taking Mrs. Wharton on his arm, and I the "duchess" on mine. Dr. Brahms escorting my daughter, the student my niece, and my little son going alone, we proceeded to the dining-room, where we enjoyed for two hours, without doubt, the finest dinner I have ever seen. The service was as rich as the goldsmith's art could make it, the flow- ers that decorated the tables as lovely as nature and art combined could render them, and the fourteen courses and the fourteen different kinds of wines, and unique German "favors'' dispensed at the close, and the delightful humor that prevailed, all made the occasion exceedingly inter- esting. Soon after dinner, as it was growing late, we re- 92 EUROPEAN NOTES. tired, after accepting an invitation from his Highness to be present at Dr. Brahm's concert that night. The duke of Meiningen is a cousin of Queen Victoria, a cousin also of the duke of Coburg, the son-in-law of the king of Prus sia on account of his first wife, his second wife being a niece of Queen Victoria. His present wife was an actress, and won the duke by her beauty and fascinating manners. If not by blood, she is by nature, a duchess. Before mar- rying her, the duke bestowed upon her the Castle Held- burg with the title of baroness. She is a sweet and fas- cinating woman and very popular throughout the duchy. A son of the duke of Meiningen married the daughter of the Crown Prince of Germany, and hence a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Unlike many dukes, the duke of Meiningen is a devoted husband, a wise and good ruler, neither proud nor conceited, though one of the handsom- est of men and possessing the best blood of Europe in his veins. He is the owner of several castles and has an in- come of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars per annum. FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION AT LEIPSIC. For many years, it has been the custom of Americans resident and traveling abroad to hold, under the auspices of the diplomatic and consular corps, celebrations of American Independence on the 4th of July. Soon after my appointment, I received a letter from Hon. J. E. Montgomery, U. S. Consul at Leipsic, urging me to sail in time to attend the annual celebration to be held there July 4, 1881. This I could nor do, as we only left New York July i6th, and did not reach my post till August 6th. In 1882, however, I received the following letter which came in time for my acceptance : "Leipsic, May ii, 1882. ''Hon. M. B. Wharton, U. S. Consul : My Dear Sir : — We have commenced our preparations here for a grand banquet on the 4th of July, to commem- orate our io6th anniversary. We wish to make it general for Germany, and I am to invite all the consuls to co- BY RAIL AND SAIL T(J SONNEBERG. 93 operate. Berlin consents, as usual. It has been the custom for several years past. I hope you will take charge of the matter for your district, and that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you and Mrs. Wharton. Many ladies will be present, and I hope we shall have a grand meeting of our countrymen and countrywomen. I will soon send you some circulars. I hope the occasion will enable me to make your personal acquaintance. In haste, very truly your colleague, J. E. Montgomery, U. S. Consul." Having accepted this invitation, Col. Montgomery again wrote me, stating I had been booked for an after dinner speech on the subject of "American Citizenship !'' Reach- ing Leipsic the morning of the 4th, I spent the day view- ing the city, though I had been there twice before. There is always something interesting in that city to see, its busy streets, its magnificent stores, its incomparable Uni- versity, its grand museum and picture galleries, its con- servatory of music, its old and historic churches, its quaint legendary buildings, its monuments, and its battle scenes. At six o'clock, dressed in "evening costume," (for here in Germany the utmost punctiliousness is observed,) we pro- ceeded to the large Merchant's Hall (Kaufmannischer Verein), which we found beautifully festooned and deco- rated with American flags and evergreens, and where guests were rapidly assembling from all portions of Europe and the United States. After so long a residence among foreigners, what a pleasure it was to see them, and hear them, for I confess that one articulation of English is worth to me whole volumes of "the sweet German accent." Besides the numerous Americans present, there were many distinguished invited guests, among them Dr. Luth- hardt, the distinguished president of the Leipsic Univer- sity, which has 160 professors and 3,000 students, a man whose fame as a scholar fills both continents ; also the director of the great Conservatory of Music in Leipsic, the mayor of Leipsic, distinguished representatives of the press, and many eminent ministers, both German and American. A magnificent band was in attendance, which 94 EUROPEAN NOTES. discoursed the most thrilling and charming music. The dinner was superb, consisting of fifteen courses, and every- thing that the best market in Europe could afford. A national air was played while each course was being served, and it was really an aid to appetite and digestion to hear "Hail Columbia," "Star Spangled Banner," "Yan- kee Doodle,'' "Marseillais,'' "God save the Queen," etc., discoursed by one of the finest bands in the world. Those who drank wine had all that heart could wish, for Bor- deaux, Moselle and Champagne flowed without stint. Those who did not drink wine substituted the finest of mineral water, and with that drank to the honor of "the best government the world ever saw." At the close of the banquet toasts were introduced in a fine speech by Col. Montgomery, and he was followed by the speakers in order, amid the uproarious hilarity of the vast crowd and the most delicious strains of music. The consular corps was represented in the speaking by Col. Montgomery, Master of Ceremonies, Hon. Mr. Brewer, Consul General of Berlin, and the consul of Sonneberg. The following was my speech on the occasion, as well as I can reproduce it : AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. Mr. President : — It was the proudest boast of ancient times to be called a citizen of Rome. It was no mean dis- tinction, for it was a time when the Roman eagles had flown to the uttermost parts of the earth. Gaul and Germany had been rendered tributary, Britain had suc- cumbed, the East was prostrate before the imperial arms, and all the waters that flowed into the Adriatic Sea were rolling along the sounds of victory. But the proudest boast that man can make to day is that he is an American citizen — a citizen of that empire of the West where our proud bird, the American eagle, arches its neck and extends its wings over fifty millions of united freemen ! All that is sweet in liberty, dear in fraternity and hallowed in religion, is enshrined, is crystalized in our free consti- tution. Who can tell the privileges conferred by Ameri- can citizenship? There "honor and shame from no BY RAIL AND SAIL TO SONNEBERG. 95 condition rise," but the shepherd's crook is of equal importance with the sceptre ; there every man can sit under his own vine and fig tree and worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, with none to molest him or make him afraid ; there every citizen is a sovereign, and every cottage a castle whose threshold is sacred against intrusion. The ancient Roman said, "Where liberty dwells, there is my country.'' With equal pride we can say, Wherever our government dwells, there is liberty. In this respect we illustrate the ideas of an old lady in North Carolina in regard to State lines. She lived not far from the line which divided that State from Virginia, It was determined by the Legislature that the line should be changed so as to bring the section where she lived into Virginia. "I am so glad," she said, "they are going to change the State line, for I always heard it was unhealthy in North Carolina." Changing the lines of our govern- ment so as to take in other sections does make a difference with these sections, for they breathe at once the pure, free air of liberty, and awake to a new birth, a new life, a new destiny. "The moment I touch American soil,'' said Mr. Webster, "from whatever direction I come, I seem to breathe freer and deeper." Other nations have recognized this truth, and how they have come to us! Look at Castle Garden. Look at the steamers ever crowded with immigrants! Look at our consular reports ! And America extends citizenship and a home to all worthy comers who will accept of it. Under our free institutions what has not been accomplished ! Forests have been leveled, magnificent cities have been upreared ; the land has been checkered by incomparable railroads ; palaces float upon every river ; yea, the earth has yielded her increase, and the waves, and the wind, and the lightning have been made to do the bidding of the enterprising American citizen. Innumerable factories smoke from every hill-top and valley, the hum of whose machinery is second only to the "music of the spheres," and whose admirable products are (shall I say largely by consular influence?) finding their way to all the markets of the world. 96 EUROPEAN NOTES. I close as I began, with the declaration that I am proud that I am an American citizen — proud, perhaps, as another American who came over some time ago, whom I will tell you of and then take my seat. His friends concluded that he was a little green and that travel would help him, so they brought him to Europe. They showed him the Rhine and afterwards the "beautiful blue Danube.'' "Why,'' said he, "there are the Hudson, the St. Johns — either can beat them ; and then there is the Mississippi, the 'father of all the waters.' Hurrah for America! always ahead." They showed him the magnificent mountains of Switzer- land. "Why, they aint a circumstance to Mt. Washing- ton," said he, "hurrah for America!" They showed him Lucerne and Geneva lakes. "Nothing to Superior and Erie,'' said he ; "hurrah for America ! always ahead." They carried him to Venice and showed him the Bridge of Sighs. "Why, this is not equal to a million of our bridg- es," said he. "Look at the bridge at St. Louis — that is a bridge of size I — hurrah for America !'' They carried him to Vesuvius and showed him the awful crater. He reflected a moment and said, "Well, we may not have a mountain like this, but I'll tell you, we've got a little waterfall over there called Niagara, that can put this thing out in five minutes." They took him to Rome and showed him the catacombs, and by this time he had drank too much of the ardent, and fell asleep in those dark subterranean passages. He awoke next morning, and feeling around, got hold of some of the bones of the martyrs, and exclaimed, "Well, at last ! the morning of resurrection, and I am the first man on the ground. Hur- rah for America — always ahead !'' The entertainment lasted from 6 to 12 o'clock, when, after exchanging greetings and brief conversations with American men and women, "And pledging oft to meet again, We tore ourselves asunder." It was an occasion long to be remembered. I, I CHAPTER IV. THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. When, in 1839, it was announced that Queen Victoria was going to marry Prince Albert, of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, the greater part of England, and the whole world, held up its hands in amazement that she was to make such a sacrifice of herself. They said she was going to marry "beneath her;" that her af^anced was " poor," a "petty German prince," the son of a "petty German duke," etc. There is no denying the fact, and it should be spoken to the eternal praise of Victoria, that her marriage to Albert was a love match, a thing that very rarely happens among the royalty. She had offers from several crowned heads, a particularly persistent one being the Crown Prince Frede- rick of Germany, but she declined them all for her own loved Albert, who was, indeed, if not a great ruler, yet "a king among men." That was a fortunate moment for the young Queen when, taking a morning ride with Albert, who was on a visit to her at Clermont, she reined up her horse, and tenderly and lovingly (according to the eti- quette in such cases) proposed to take him as her Consort. And it was a fortunate one for Albert, too, for she was both the mightiest ruler of earth and at the same time a "queen among wpmen." But nothing could be more senseless, absurd and ridiculous than the twaddle heard at the time, that Albert was not the Queen's equal, that he was a poor, petty German prince, etc., when he was really one of the first, most accomplished, and most sought after by aspiring princesses of all the royal blood of Europe. That the queen did not marry beneath her is evidenced by the fact that she married her own first cousin, Albert's father and her mother being brother and 98 EUROPEAN NOTES. sister. Indeed, she was related to Albert by her father's as well as her mother's side. Her father was the Duke of Kent, the son of George III., of American revolutionary memory, and the mother of George III. was the Princess Augusta of Coburg, the great aunt of Prince Albert. The truth is, the Coburg family, into which Queen Victoria married, is one of the most celebrated in history, and con- nected with nearly all the thrones of Europe. It is impossible to read a history of Europe without reading the biography of some distinguished member of this family. Some of them have been distinguished as statesmen, some as warriors, and nearly all as rulers. I have the family tree, an exact copy of that in possession of the Coburg house, as the Duchess of Coburg herself told me, and I find that it dates back i,ooo years, and num- bers among its members such names as Louis, the Beard- ed, son of Charles; Duke of Lorraine, grandson of Louis XIV. of France, who obtained from his relative, the Em- peror Conrad II., the greater part of Thuringia ; Louis II., who built the Wartburg, and also Reinhardtsbrun, one of the finest seats of the dukes; Louis VI., who married the daughter of the King of Hungary in 1227 at Otranto on his way to the Holy Land ; Friedrich IV., the first Elector of Saxony ; Friedrich the Wise, the protector of Luther, who did more for the Reformation than any other man, Luther excepted, without whose aid Luther never could have succeeded, humanly speaking; John Ernest, who built the castle of Ehrenberg ; Ernest, the Pious, one of the mightiest men of his time, the bulwark of the Re- formation, of whom there are no less that thirty biogra- phies written. He was the real founder of the Gotha line, from which Albert and Victoria are equally the sixth in descent. Bernhardt, the great general of the Swedes ; Augusta, mother of George III. ; Friedrich Josias, Field Marshal of the Empire, an honor never conferred before, and but once since ; Ernest Augustus, who marriedAme- lia, the Princess of Brunswick, who was the v/ealthy and benevolent patron of Schiller and Goethe; Adelaide, who married Wilhelm IV. of Prussia ; Charles Friedrich, who married Paulowena, daughter of Paul, Emperor of Russia ; THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. 99 Theresa, Queen of Bavaria ; Johanna, who married Con- stantine, Grand Duke of Russia; Ferdinand, Field Mar- shal in Austria, who married Antoinette, daughter of Francis Joseph, the father of the present Emperor of Aus- tria ; Victoria, who married in 1818, the son of George III. ; Leopold, who married the Princess Charlotte of Wales, afterwards King of Belgium, in 1834, he married Louisa, daughter of Louis Phillippe, King of France ; Ferdinand married in 1836, Donna Maria de Gloria, Queen of Portugal. From this hasty selection, which I have taken almost at random, from the long list of distin- guished members of this family, you have seen that this is not only a most celebrated family, but connected with nearly all the crowns of Europe. Take England first, as the one we are most interested in, because it is our mother country. Augusta of Coburg was the mother of George IIL; Leopold of Coburg mar- ried the Princess Charlotte of Wales, the daughter of George IH.; Victoria of Coburg married the Duke of Kent,, the son of George IIL; Albert, Prince of Coburg, married Victoria, the daughter of Victoria, Duchess of Kent, Next, take Germany. Adelaide married King William IV., of Prussia, brother of the present Emperor William ;.'^ Victoria, daughter of Albert, married the son of Emperor William, the Crown Prince of Germany, and will, on King William's death, be Empress of Germany. The present Duke of Coburg married the sister of the Grand Duke of Baden, who married the only daughter of King William. Take next Belgium, which lies between England and Ger- many. Leopold, after the death of Charlotte of Wales,. became King of Belgium, and his son is now king. Take France. Leopold's second wife was the daughter of Louis Phillippe, King of France, and Victoria was betrothed to his second son. Take Austria. Ferdinand, who held the distinguished position of Field Marshal of Austria, married the daughter of Francis Joseph, the sister of the present Emperor of Austria. Take Russia. Juliana married Constantine, the brother of Alexander, the Emperor of all the Russias, and Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, son of Albert, has now as his wife the daughter of Alexander, the Em- lOO EUROPEAN NOTES. peror who was slain by the Nihilists. Theresa married the King of Bavaria. Take Sweden. While I was in Coburg, the niece of the Duke and Duchess and granddaughter of King William, married the Crown Prince of Sweden. Take Portugal. Ferdinand, in 1836, married Donna Ma- ria, Queen of Portugal, so the Coburg house is also upon that throne, and the Queen became the mother of Don Pedro, the present Emperor of Brazil, so that this renowned Coburg house of " petty German princes, "after compassing all the thrones of Europe, crossed the seas, and ascended the only throne that the vast continent of America could offer. Notwithstanding all this, it must be confessed that Saxc-Coburg Gotha is not much larger than one of our counties. I said to the duke on a cert 'in occasion: "You certainly have a most attractive and beautiful duchy." "Yes, "said he, "but it is very small, very small." But while it is small, it has been richer in magnificent princes than any other spot of equal size in the whole world. France and Spain have both sought frequently to form alliances with this house, but their offers were declined, because they were Roman Catholics in their religion, and this family has been for centuries the unswerving advocate of Protes- tantism. One member of the family protected Luther, another signed the Augsburg Confession, another, Ernest, the Pious, instrumentaliy saved the cause from ruin in 1600. But why, it may be asked, have these princes and princesses been so sought after ? First, they have ever been magnificent specimens of manhood and womanhood. Whethei the soil and climate of the beautiful Thuringia Mountains, where they have lived for centuries, have tended to produce such physical and intellectual develop- ment, I cannot say, but certain it is, they possess it in a high degree. The magnificent family pictures, by eminent masters, to be seen in Coburg, all evidence this. Second, I think their Protestantism had something to do with their development. Had they been fettered by Pa[)al supersti tion, both minds and bodies would have been dwarfed ; but imbibing the free principles of Martin Luther, they grew and expanded under them like plants exposed to the warm, genial sun. Third, another thing that made them THE DUCAL FAMILY OF CDBURG. I©t what they were, was their thorough training, first, in the Gymnasium, then in the University, then under careful and painstaking guides, and traveling extensively. They were trained to be rulers among men. The fourth thing that caused them to be sought after, was the careful man- ner in which they preserved in all their matrimonial alliances the purity and excellence of their blood. But the "censurers" not only represented Albert as a petty German Prince, but they also said that he was 3.poor Prince. The best answer I can give to this, is to describe from actual observation a real petty German prince as I found one at Coburg, Germany, in the person of Ernest, the elder bpt)ther, the reigning duke of SaxeCoburg Gotha, and the inheritor of the ducal estates. The duke is now a little over sixty years of age, tall, square built, ele- gantly proportioned, in a word, a fine specimen of a man. Being but a year or two older than Albert, the two prin- ces were educated together; first, in the Gymnasium at Coburg, then in the University at Bonn. Endowed by nature with a strong and brilliant mind, he has improved it by study and travel until he is, in the highest sense of the word, accomplished. He speaks several languages fluently and is peculiarly facile in English and French, and, of course, in his own elegant German. His wife, the reigning duchess, one of the purest and best ladies, as I have said, I ever saw, is a sister of the Grand Duke of Baden, the son in-law of Emperor William. The duke resides half the year at Gotha, a town of 22,000, and half the year at Coburg, a town of 20,000. Gotha and Coburg being the capitals of the respective duchies that are unit- ed under one government, though the two duchies are separated by Meiningen. Of course, my observation of the duke has been principally in Coburg, though 1 have visited Gotha. In this little city of Coburg, situated on the border of the Thuringian Mountains, the duke has no less than four palaces, and one magnificent castle. His chief residence is the large, modern villa or small palace in the "Hof Garten," which park is one of the finest in Europe. It is beautifully terraced and walled up on some of its sides with the most ponderous and artistic 102 EUROPEAN NOTES. masonry. It is laid off in graded walks, and shaded by magnificent trees, set out in rows, the growth of centuries. It contains also much choice shrubbery and is ornamented at different parts with statues and chapels, one of them being the costly mausoleum of two members of the ducal family. Between the walks, to which the pedestrian is strictly confined, are lawns of the greenest and most in- viting grass, with ever and anon a bed of charming flowers. On this, the "Hof Garten" palace fronts. The building itself is in the modern style, with many bay win- dows, conservatories and verandas, the whole being surmounted by several unique towers. The residence is furnished in the most superb style, with th^ most costly paintings decorating the walls. On the left is the ducal flower garden under cover, composed of the most choice, expensive and beautiful indigenous and exotic varieties. The second palace, called the Residence Schloss, is the celebrated Ehrenburg, situated in the heart of the city, which has been occupied by the dukes from the time of John Ernest down to the time of the present reigning duke. It was originally built for a monastery, but at great expense it has been remodeled and enlarged until it is justly regarded one of the finest palaces in Europe. It is situated in the middle of a beautiful garden, with lovely walks and flowers, in one part of which stands a splendid statue, erected by the present duke to the memory of his father; while near by is a fine, large statue of Prince Al- bert, unveiled in the presence of Victoria, in 1865. This palace is three stories high, with a court in the centre, and contains one hundred rooms, all of which, from top to bottom, are furnished in the miost royal style. The walls are painted in the highest style of the art, some of the ceilings containing the master-pieces of Rubens, and others being wrought into the most beautiful bas-reliefs. In the different corners stand statues, or busts, out of purest Pa- rian marble, and by the greatest masters, of different members of the ducal family, including, of course, those of Victoria and Albert and their children. The walls are hung with paintings by the best ancient and modern masters, consisting either of family portraits or scenes THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. IO3 and incidents in tKe lives of the Coburg family. The floors are all inlaid with the most costly and beautiful woods, and waxed until it is difficult for the unpracticed to maintain an erect posture upon them. While it would be useless to attempt to describe all the apartments in this monster edifice, some of the rooms are worthy of special mention. The reception room at the head of the gilded stairway, with ascent so gradual as not to be perceptible, has a huge mirror covering nearly the whole of one side, and the largest and finest Reforma- tion painting I have seen, containing life-size figures of Luther and his brother reformers. The duke's audience room is a marvel of beauty and elegance, the furniture being of the richest damask and gold, the niches ornament, ed with marble busts, and on the walls magnificent paint- ings of the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany, neph. ew and niece of the duke, and also, a large full length mil- itary equestrian picture of the duke as he appeared in one of the battles of the Franco-Prussian war. There are, in this room, some valuable vases of eminent size and artistic designs of great beauty. The drawing-room, as might be supposed, is furnished in the grandest style, the ceilings being decorated with paintings by Rubens. The dining saloon is of immense size, with paintings, and bas-reliefs well calculated to stimulate one's appetite, and will seat comfortably three hundred persons. It was in this room, in 1839, ^hat the proposed marriage of Albert with Victo- ria was, according to royal custom, formally announced in the presence of most of the crowned heads of Europe. On that occasion, at the request of the prince, the palace was thrown open to the public, and the people invited to come in and gaze on the august ceremonies. The ball room is about the size of an ordinary theatre, with appro- priate decorations, prominent among which are about one hundred caryatids as light bearers. In one corner of the immense hall stands a great musical clock, which for cent- uries has been regaling the ear of royalty with its bewitch- ing tones, and performs as perfectly to-day as it did three hundred years ago. Under the inspiration of the music, the weird appearance of the fun-provoking statues and bas- 104 EUROPEAN NOTES. reliefs, the smiling faces of beauty that look down from the canvas, the luxurious folds of the royal tapestry that everywhere gracefully adorns windows and recesses, and the marvelously inlaid and waxed floors, one can gain an idea of the pleasures of royalty not everywhere to be found; for, through long centuries, kings and queens, dukes and duchesses, barons and baronesses, have moved over this floor in the giddy excitement of the dance, lost to every- thing but the intoxication of the present moment. Near this ball room is a magnificent suite of rooms, known as Queen Victoria's apartments, because on her repeated visits to Coburg, with one exception, she has always occupied them. They are furnished in a style that would not suffer even in comparison with Windsor. It could but interest an American to be told : "This is the furniture used by the Queen, this the bed in which she slept, this the bowl and pitcher she used, this her writing desk, with her writing materials just as she left them.'' The duke has an ofUce in one wing, and the duchess one near by, all furnished in the most appropriate manner. While he is the owner of this magnificent palace with its furniture, its paintings, its plate, he makes no use of it, except to give audience to distinguished persons, attend to a few duties occasionally in his office, and to give an annual ball or concert to the titled people of his duchy. I had the honor of attending one of these, in company with my wife, which for the very novelty, was intensely interesting. When our -invitation came it was on a printed card, which prescribed our costumes and equipage, with all the particulars of the entrance into the great palace. Promptly at eight o'clock we landed at the palace door, where we were met by liveried attendants and escorted to the reception or cloak room. From this place we were ushered into the grand ducal apartments, which I have already described as his audience-room and drawing rooms. Being five minutes late, the guests were nearly all assem- bled, and those we did not know we were presented to. There were barons, counts, and every form of German nobility with the foreign representatives of other govern- ments, to the number of about one hundred persons. In THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. 10$ a few moments a double line was apparently involuntarily- formed, and the duke, with the duchess on his arm, entered and passed nearly the whole length of this avenue, bowing to the right and left. All then mingled together freely, the duke and duchess making it a point to converse with each one of their guests. As I was standing near their highnesses when the entrance ceremony was over, I was the first one to be approached and addressed, for which kindness I felt especially grateful. In the course of an hour supper was served, the ladies sitting, the gen- tlemen standing. Formerly it had been the custom for all to sup in the great dining saloon, but a contention arising among the nobility as to who should go in first in the order of precedence, the duke had arranged that supper should be handed. The duke was dressed in the full uniform he wore during the war of '70, and the duch- ess wore the most bewildering costume of silks that glittered all over with diamonds. Indeed, the world seldom witnesses such toilets as I saw there that night. No lady was permitted to be present who did not wear silk, velvet or satin, and the gentlemen were compelled to appear, if not officers in uniform, in black dress suits of the most fashionable cut, with white kid gloves, vests and cravats. Soon after supper, the guests were ushered into a large saloon, where the duke had assembled some of the finest performers of Europe, consisting of violinists, pianists and solo singers, and we were regaled by the finest music I ever heard. One of the performers was a prima donna who was about to sail for America to make her appearance in New York, and I heard that the duke paid her $500 to perform that night. Between the pieces, the guests min- gled together in free conversation and it was during one of these intervals I had a most delightful conversation with the duchess, who gave me an invitation to her palace, Callenberg, of which I shall presently speak. About twelve o'clock, after an evening of rich enjoyment, their highnesses, amid the absorbed attention and profound silence of the guests, made their bows and retired, when we, too, re-entered our carriage and returned home. So much for Ehrenburg. I06 EUROPEAN NOTES. Callenberg, another estate of the duke, is a suburban palace where the duchess resides most of the time, es- pecially when the duke is absent on his hunting or travel- ing excursions. It is situated on one of the highest hills around Coburg, and can be seen from almost any point of view, with its lofty turrets and glittering banners. It is without doubt one of the finest ducal residences in Germany, possessing in a peculiar degree an air of com- fort and magnificence. It is furnished in accordance with the most refined taste, with unlimited means at its dispo- sal. While not as large as Ehrenburg, it is more modern, and for the quiet tastes of the duchess, more desirable. In connection with Callenberg, the duke has two large and beautiful model farms, that are as well kept as a gar- den, and produce abundant supplies of every kind for the ducal table, and thousands of dollars' worth of products besides, that are thrown upon the market. Such horses, such cows, such hogs, such milk, such butter (and the milk and butter used on my table came from there), I have never seen. Not far from the palace is the Fasanerie, or zoological garden, which is certainly a marvelous collec- tion of birds and many animals. The duke is much attached to Callenberg, and has some valuable hunting grounds near by. Another palace of the duke, situated in the suburbs about two miles distant, is Rosenau. This is more properly called a chateau, situated, as its name implies, in the midst of a meadow of roses. The walks and flower beds are as pretty as those of Versailles. It was the sum- mer residence of the duke's father, and the birth place of Prince Albert, August 26, 1819, and, as might be imagined, it is large, elegant, beautiful and tastefully fitted up. In 1845, Queen Victoria spent two weeks in this house, on her visit to Coburg. ' We were shown the apartments she occupied, all furnished just as she left them. We were shown the family pictures, household articles, heirlooms, etc., and also the font in which Albert was baptized, and his writing-desk, with his portfolio and pens, and scraps of paper on which he had written. Rosenau is a lovely place, but though thoroughly furnished and kept in first- class condition at an enormous expense, is never occupied THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. IO7 except on some grand occasion when its accommodations are needed ; as, for instance, on the occasion of the recent visit of the Duke of Edinburgh to Coburg. Leaving the palace, I now come to speak briefly of Co- burg Castle, also the property of the duke. This castle is situated at the end of the " Hof Garten," in an opposite direction from the residence palace which I first described, on a commanding hill 557 feet above the town and 1638 feet above the sea level. The views from this castle are among the most extensive and picturesque in Germany. This castle, one of the largest, strongest and most com- plete in Europe, was the residence of the Saxon dukes until John Ernest transferred his seat to Ehrenburg in 1549. At the time of the Diet at Augsburg, Luther resided here for three months, translated the prophets and psalms, and wrote 119 letters. In 1632, the fortress was occupied by the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus, and besieged in vain by Wallenstein. It is a late Gothic struc- ture of the close of the 1 5th century, and has been, by the present duke, restored and fitted up as a museum. The wall of the staircase is adorned with frescoes by Schneider and Rothbard, representing the nuptials of Duke John Casimer with the Princess Anna of Saxony, 1585. We next enter the carriage room, containing curious and costly old state coaches, sleighs, saddles, harness, etc. The vestibule of the armory contains a piece by Schneider representing two bears breaking into the ducal dining hall, a ducal guest endeavoring to shoot the animals, but a princess appeases them by offering them something to eat. The scene is said to have actually occurred, and in com- memoration of it bears have been kept in a den near by ever since. Luther's room remains unchanged, and contains his bed, chair, relivS of the time in which he lived, and a complete collection of his writings. The spacious armory contains a large iron stove cast in 1430, adorned with coats of arms and figures of saints, also collections of armor, shields, helmets, coats of mail, etc., among which I noticed the weapons of the Anabaptists, used in the great peasant war. The walls of the upper room are adorned with full- length portraits of Tilly, Gustavus Adolphus, Wallenstein I08 EUROPEAN NOTES, and John Casimer. Therosetteroom, the ceiling of which is adorned with 365 rosettes of different forms, with por- traits of the landgraves of Thuringia, contains a number of beautiful goblets of ancient times, among them one presented by Gustavus Adolphus. The " Betsaal " con- tains sculptures in wood from the life of the Virgin, a Bi- ble by Hans Luft, printed in 1550, another printed at Frankfurt in 1572, and a parchment MS. of the nth cen- tury, with finely carved ivory binding. The Reformation room contains a painting of the Diet of Augsburg, portraits of Luther, his wife, Melancthon, and other eminent re- formers. On a column are the arms of the sixteen German towns that first embraced the Reformed faith. The Horn room, a masterpiece of the Renaissance period, is adorned with Mosaics in wood, representing hunting scenes during the reign of John Casimer, executed in 1600. The south- west wing contains the valuable natural history cabinet founded by Prince Albert and the reigning duke of Coburg, and comprising a complete collection of the birds of Europe. The north wing contains a collection of en- gravings and drawings, including some fine early German specimens, said to be the best collection in Europe. Lu- ther's cannon, which is preserved here, cast in Frankfurt in 1570, is artistically adorned with reliefs in allusion to the theological controversies of the day. After what I have said, and when it is remembered that all these palaces with their vast treasuries are the property of the duke, you are ready to think that such a ''petty German prince" is not a very small character. What will you think then when I say that these do not embrace one- half of his possessions? Coburg is only one-half of his duchy, Gotha being the other, where he resides half his time in as much style and with as brilliant surroundings as in Coburg. The ducal palace at Gotha is quite equal to the Ehrenburg, and adorned with more celebrated paintings. In addition there is the old palace of Friedenstein, the largest in Germany, which has been the residence of the Saxon dukes for centuries past. The situation commanding the finest view of the Thuringia mountains, has been com- THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. IO9 pared to Windsor Castle. The magnificent scientific and literary collections of this palace owe their existence to Ernest the Pious, in 1600, whose successors, by continued augmentations, have rendered them such as few great States can boast. The library numbers over 200,000 vol- umes, containing many of the oldest and most valuable works in existence. Among them is a copy of the oldest Bible in the world. There are about two thousand MSS. of classical authors, and others connected with Ger- man literature, and between two and three thousand Oriental MSS., Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Syriac, and He- braic. The catalogue has been systematically arranged in 48 volumes folio, in addition to which there is an alpha- betical catalogue. Among the most remarkable of these MSS. are the following: 171 sheets, small folio of Psalms in Greek, embellished with initials of the 7th century, which formerly belonged to the Monastery of Marborbin Alsace ; (2) Evangelarium on parchment, Greek of the nth century, obtained by Frederic the Wise on his jour- ney to Jerusalem in 1493; (3) Four Gospels, written about the end of the 6th century ; (4) Four Gospels of the iith century, with gold initials, and illumina- ted with paintings. It was the book Luther used, who wrote many marginal notes. On a page appended to it is written : "Anno \'i^22fundit Martinis LutJier Jmnc librumr (5) Breviarium. This is one of the chef d'oeuvres of its kind. It is most exquisitely written on fine silky parch- ment of unborn lambs. It was brought from the Neth- erlands by a son of Ernest the Pious. It was used by Charles V. This Breviary is so magnificent that a de- scription of its contents takes up alone a volume. It is valued at $15,000. (6) Breviarium given by Augusta, daughter of Frederic 2d., of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and mother of George 3d, of England, (7) Preces, with eighty-three paintings and magnificent embellishments by John and Herbert Von Eyck. (8) Valuable collection of autographs, letters, etc., of Luther, (the first part of a marmscript translation of the prophet Jeremiah, in Luth- er's own handwriting) of Calvin, Zuinglius, Melancthon, Beza, Peter the Great, and Henry the Eighth ; about two no EUROPEAN NOTES. hundred letters of Voltaire to Dorothea, wife of Frederic 3d, and about 68 letters of Frederic the Great ; MSS. of the Arabian Nights, ^sop's Fables, Cicero d'Officio and de Amicitia ; Juvenal's satires, Virgil's works, Caesar's Commentaries, and several other rare volumes. The cabinet of coins attached to the library is one of the finest in Germany and ranks next to Vienna. The collection of Roman coins is most perfect, a part of them costing $80,000. The present duke's father added a com plete collection of all the modern coins of Europe. It would be quite impossible to describe all the exqui- site gems and works of art to be found in the cabinet of antiquities: can only mention a few. A large square onyx with Jupiter and Juno, valued at $15,000. A bust of Louis 14th in amethyst. A small figure of Confucius, worth $2,000. A small album, the case of which is in carved ivory, containing the autographs of kings, promi- nent among which is that of James ist, of England. A great sardonyx with head of Medora ; exquisite jugs, cups, hunting horns, in ivory,with most delicate chiselling by Cel- lini ; bas-reliefs in boxwood by Albert Durer, — Adam and Eve in Paradise, Christ and the Apostles, a series repre- senting the life of Christ, etc. The cabinet in the loggie contains the ducal sixver plate. On the terrace south of the palace rises the new muse- um, built in 1879 by Neumann, of Vienna, which contains the collection formerly in the Friedenstein palace. On the ground floor is a magnificent collection of casts of an- cient and modern sculpture. On the first floor is the nat- ural history cabinet, which includes 17,500 varieties of shells and butterflies. The second floor is devoted to the picture gallery, where all the great masters are repre- sented, including some of the finest works of Vandyck, Rembrandt, Rubens, Holbein, Cranach, Tintoretto, Ver- net, Velasquez, and a drawing by Michael Angelo. The outer rooms contain the cabinet of engravings, 50,000 in number, among them the drawing of an entombment by Raphael. Not very far from the residence palace of the duke are the ducal stables, quite as extensive as those in Coburg, THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. Ill with magnificent horses, and a countless number and variety of splendid vehicles In addition to these splen- did establishments, the duke has a tastefully fitted up hunting seat at Reinhardtsbrunnen in Thuringia, also three in Tyrol ; a winter palace at Nice, where he spends two months of the year, and two model country seats and farms in Hungary, and yet another on the banks of the "beautiful, blue Danube." After this glance at his pos- sessions, you would perhaps like to hear something of the mode of living of this "petty German prince." Well, I will state first that he has not much hard work to do, having both at Gotha and Coburg a complete cabinet of counsellors and officers who attend to all the business of the respective duchies. All that he has to do is to cast an occasional vote as one of the sovereigns of Germany, and perhaps sign his name to a commission appointing some one as a counsellor or "rath,'' as they are called. As you may well imagine, he lives like a prince, having all that heart could wish or money buy of this world's goods. I had the honor of being invited to a dinner with him in company with my wife, a compliment which he usually pays to the American consul at Coburg. Costumes and equipage were again prescribed. The palace in the Hof Garten was'the place and four o'clock the hour but expected 15 minutes to four. We were on hand promptly. Met by liveried servants and escorted first to the cloak room, then to the reception room, where we met the guests, only eight in number. A baron and baroness were the masters of ceremony. Soon the duke and duchess entered and chatted with us familiarly till dinner was announced, when we were ushered into the most gorgeous dining room and sat down to the most gorgeous dinner I ever saw. The table was decorated with flowers and fruits, and the ser- vice was of solid silver and gold. There were fifteen courses and a different wine with each course, and two liveried waiters for each guest. The conversation was confined to English, which their highnesses spoke appar- ently with as much ease as German. We were at the table over two hours, after which having exchanged greetings, their highnesses withdrew and the guests re- 112 EUROPEAN NOTES. entered their carriages and departed for their homes. The whole entertainment, apart from the court ceremo- nies, was as free, easy and enjoyable as a h'ke gathering in America, The duke is a thorough man of pleasure, devoted to it heart and soul. He is specially fond of music and composes and plays well himself. During my stay at Kissingen the leader of the band was the duke's capellemeister, and he often regaled the visitors with compositions of his highness. He has written several operas that have been produced on the stage. This is also true of his brother, Prince Albert, whose musical works, I learn, have been collected, edited, and are soon to be published in England. The duke is also very fond of the drama, owning two magnificent theatres, one in Coburg, and one in Gotha, and pays his own performers at an enormous expense, in this respect following the steps of his father, who paid $80,000 per annum for these amusements. One of the duke's operas was played at the Coburg theatre during my residence there, though I did not witness it. On one occasion, I was told, he appeared himself in the leading character, but permitted no one to attend but invited guests, who had to come in court dress. He is likewise very fond of hunting, and has parts of the Thuringia mountains splendidly kept as ranges for deer and wild boars for his own amusement. He also hunts much in Tyrol, and is said to be a magnificent shot. In the museum at Gotha are kept stuffed with straw many of the animals he has slain, and a register showing how many have fallen victims to his skill. Up to date he had killed 39,000 hares, which grow very large there, and are a great delicacy, 8,000 bucks and 1,000 stags. The ducal hunts are grand occasions. He usually invites other dukes or nobles to hunt with him, and has the game flushed or driven by experienced men, and then they shoot, kill- ing from five to ten boars and five to ten deer per day. He has also a district specially reserved for pheasant shooting. He travels much, and always with great display having a special car fitted up in palatial style. I was at the THE DUCAL FAMILY OF COBURG. II3 depot one evening when he arrived, and he was met by a coach with four beautiful blood bays for himself and a coach with four for his baggage. All Coburg can tell when he comes, by the extra flurry and excitement occasioned by his extensive equipage, as he has twenty- eight carriages that are all the time kept going. And now, perhaps, you would like to know what the in- come of such a man is. I remark that he gets from his private fortune $300,000 per annum, and from the revenues of the duchy $150,000, making a snug little sala- ry of $450,000 per annum. Notwithstanding all this magnificence, he is a kind, amiable, gentle, modest gen- tleman. In conclusion let me say, the following is the order of German nobility, beginning at the bottom of the rank. First come the vons, of whom the name is legion, next the barons, then the counts, then the princes, next the dukes, then the grand dukes, then the crown princes, then the kings, and last the emperors. I have mingled freely with all classes up to the dukes and have caught some glimpses of the kings and emperors,, having gone through the Emperor William's palace at Potsdam, and also at Berlin, but I have seen nothing that gave me higher ideas of nobility and royalty than this "petty German prince," and when we remember that Prince Albert was his superior in every respect, the wis- dom of Victoria's choice is confirmed, and I conclude, like the London auctioneer, with the exclamation, "God. save the Queen." CHAPTER V. THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. The American tourist in Europe, especially if he be a minister of the Gospel, desires above all things to visit Germany. To him the fatherland is full of interest. It is a land full of historic and legendary lore ; the land from which we originally derived one half of our language; the land of books, scholars and theologians ; the land of great and incomparable Universities; and the land where, in the i6th century, occurred the mightiest religious revolu- tion the world has ever known ; from which dates the freedom of the church from Papal superstition and op- pression ; and when first began to dawn the light of that religious liberty which now shines so beneficently in this land of free institutions. I confess that in going to Eu- rope one of my chief objects was to learn more of that .great and unique character, who was, under God, the leading and controlling spirit of the Reformation, and the central figure of all that moved upon that field of religious controversy. When it was announced that I had been appointed by the President United States Consul to Sonneberg. I knew not where the place was, for Sonne- berg was to me then a tei'ra incognita. All I could learn by looking at maps and encyclopedias was that it was a commercial town, the seat of a large consular district, sit- uated in the heart of Germany, from which about two millions of dollars' worth of manufactures were shipped annually to theJJnited States. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, on reaching Sonneberg, after a journey of four weeks across the ocean and the continent, to find that it was located in the very cradle of the Reformation, and in the midst of scenes and places made forever memo- THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. II5 rable by the footsteps of Martin Luther. At Sonneberg was a house where he once sojourned ; at Coburg, twelve miles distant, where I lived, was the castle where he was confined during the session of the Diet at Augsburg; at Schmalkalden, twenty miles distant, was the house where he drew up the Articles of the Protestant League in op- position to the combined forces of Rome and the empire of Germany ; at Eisenach, four miles distant, was the famous Wartburg, where he was once confined on his return from the Diet at Worms ; at Erfurt was the Uni- versity where he graduated, and the monastery in which he was made a monk ; at Wittenberg was the University where he was a learned professor, and the house where he lived during the many years he remained there ; at Eisleben was the spot where he was born, and the house where he died; all these places being embraced in the consular district of Sonneberg. Thinking that what was of so much interest to me would interest nry friends on my return, I took notes of what I saw and reproduce them in this chapter on The Homes and Haunts of Martin Luther. I have mentioned these places in the order in which I saw them, but in treating of them more particularly, I name them in the chronological order in which they were in- habited by the great Reformer. First, taking the cars at Halle, on the main line from Frankfort to Berlin, after a ride of twenty miles through a picturesque and beautiful country, we came in sight of an old German city of 14,000 inhabitants, with its narrow streets, dingy-looking, many-storied buildings, and with its lofty church towers, situated in the midst of hills, where the winds, coming down from adjacent mountains, are so piercing that they quickly suggest the appropriate- ness of the name of the place. It is Eisleben (or ice-life, as the word means), important in many respects, but chief- ly important because here, on the loth of November, 1483, Martin Luther was born. Of course, the tourist wishes to see the spot, which is near the present post-office. The house, now a school for poor children, contains many rem- iniscences of the great Reformer, of whom there is a relief above the door. The Andnoskirche contains the pulpit Il6 EUROPEAN NOTES. from which he preached, and busts of Luther and Melanc- thon. Opposite the church is the house in which Luther died, marked by a tablet. The church of St. Peter and St. Paul contains the font in which Luther was baptized, a fragment of his cloak, and a leathern skull cap. So much for the relics, but there are several circumstances connected with his birth, of interest. First, as to his name; he is universally known in Germany as Luter, in England and America as Luther, but he spelled his name in different ways — Luther, Ludher, and sometimes Loth- er. His father, Johannes, Hans, or John Luther, was a miner of a village called Mohrer, near Eisenach, where three or four families by the name of Luther still live, bearing a striking resemblance, it is thought, to the Re- former. Two stories are related as to how Luther's father came to go to Eisleben. One is, that he killed a man whom he found trespassing on a field of his with some cattle, and fled to Eisleben for safety. Another is, that he went there to buy provisions at a great fair held in con- nection with the feast of St. Martin, and the child being born the next day, was called Martin in honor of the saint. Various theories have been circulated by the superstitious Papists as to the birth of Luther,- whom they style the grand Heresiarch. Cholcaeus, in his hostile life of the Reformer, gravely asserts that he was the son of a mon- ster. An Italian, Cajetano, in his poem called Thuendos, says Martin Luther was born of Magaera, one of the fu- ries, and sent express from hell to Germany ! The Pa- pists generally reckoned him the beast of the Apocalypse, and have seriously endeavored to discover in his name the famous mystical number, 666. Luther was the son of a peasant, as he himself says, "I am the son of a peasant — my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather were all peasants." To have been a peasant in those days must have been terrible, for the peasants with which Germany swarms to-day are the lowest of the low, and in those days of feudal oppression their lot was harder still. His moth- er was also a peasant, and the peasant women of the mountains of Germany where Luther was born are the poorest, the hardest-worked, and, I may add, the ugliest THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 11/ creatures, I ever saw in my life, their condition being worse than that of the former female slaves of our South- ern plantations. The men are generally indolent beer- guzziers, while the poor women have to live lives of the ut- most drudgery, tilling the fields, minding the stock, and plying all kinds of handicraft. The streets of all the towns, as well as the roads, are crowded with the poor creatures with huge baskets filled and strapped to their backs, trudging along in all sorts of weather. Often have I seen one of these women with a great basket filled with some heavy wares on her back, while the husband walked leisurely by her side smoking his pipe. A friend told me he once saw a cart drawn by a dog on one side of the tongue, a woman on the other, while the man was lying flat on his back in the vehicle smoking his pipe. Though Martin's parents were poor peasants, and very poor, they did not neglect the education of their children. O what a land for schools Germany is ! When the schools are turned out any day during the week, the streets and woods are crowded with little people like the May-day celebrations in America. The little companions of my children could speak English like natives, and also French. Even waiters in the hotels and boarding-houses generally speak two or three languages. Indeed, a waiter at one of the Berlin hotels speaks eleven languages. So we find the parents of Luther entering their son in the free school of Eisenach at a very early age, and this brings me to the second home of Luther, which he loved to speak of as "Eisenach, my own dear Eisenach." This town with 22,000 inhabitants, once the residence of the dukes of Saxe Eisenach, who became extinct in 1741, now belongs to the duchy of Weimar, and is situated in the prettiest part of the Thuringian mountains at the junction of the Werra with the Thuringian railway. It has long been distinguished for its fine schools, some of which were founded before and others in the time of Luther. I reached this place about four o'clock in the afternoon, the mellow sunlight revealing the place to fine advantage, while the celebrated Wartburg castle appeared on a com- manding hill in the distance. The first thing I saw on Il8 EUROPEAN NOTES. entering the waiting room was a booth where were sold photographs of the Luther family from the original paint- ings of his friend, Lucas Cranach, together with views of places in Eisenach connected with his history. In the "Luther-platz" is the "Luther-haus" where he is said to have lived with Frau Ursula Cotta, when attending school here in 1498. When he first entered the school he was a poor, friendless boy and had to gain his daily bread by singing before people's houses, as was the custom at that time with many poor students in Germany. It is from himself that we learn this circumstance: "Let no one in my presence," said he, "speak contemptuously of the poor fellows, who go from door to door singing and begging hrcdid propter Deum. I, myself, was once a poor mendi- cant seeking my bread at people's houses, particularly at Eisenach, my own dear Eisenach." After a while he ob- tained a more regular subsistence, and an asylum in this house of dame Ursula Cotta, who took compassion on the poor wandering boy. By the assistance of this charitable woman, he was enabled to study four years at Eisenach. In one of his works he records the goodness of his bene- factress in words glowing with emotion, and he was throughout life grateful in a more especial manner, to the whole sex for her sake. What an incentive have the pious, and especially pious ladies, in this noble example to succor those poor students who feel called of God to preach the Gospel, but have not the means to secure an education. The woman of the Bible who anointed our Saviour, did a comparatively small work, yet our Lord said, "She hath done what she could, and wheresoever this Gospel is preached in the whole world, this thing that she hatn done shall be told of as a memorial of her,'' And this deed of Ursula Cotta rendered her otherwise humble name and humble home immortal. Wheresoever the Reformation is known, and Luther honored, her name is spoken of with gratitude and affection; and pilgrims from distant lands pass by the palaces of dukes and kings, and reverently pause and gaze upon the humble house where once: dwelt Ursula Cotta, and her afterwards illustrious /'r6'/^^<^ From Eisenach Luther went to Erfurt, the third home THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. II9 in this narrative, and entered the University there where his father, in better circumstances, managed to support him. Erfurt is a very ancient town of 55,000 inhabitants, situated on the Thuringian railway about midway between Eisenach and Leipsic. It existed in the form of a forti- fied agricultural settlement as early as the time of St. Boniface, the English Apostle of this district. It after- wards belonged to the Hanseatic League of free towns, and reached the height of its prosperity about 1500 or the time of Luther, when it contained 80,000 inhabitants. This quaint old town possesses several handsome Gothic churches and private dwelling houses of the 15th and 17th centuries. The University which Luther now entered, founded in 1392, and suppressed in 18 16, was one of the chief seats of learning at the time of the Reformation. On the register of the University, still preserved, under the year 1501 appears the name of Martin Luther, ex Mans- field; under the year 1502 appears the entry, "Martin Luther, Bac. of Philosophy." German Universities have a reputation all over the world, and when we remember how long they have been in existence and what vast sums have been expended upon them, we cannot wonder that their halls are sought by students from every land. The University at Leipsic, for example, has 160 professors and 3,000 students, and that at Berlin has 200 professors and 4,000 students. Luther made wonderful progress in his studies, became a thorough linguist, a magnificent belle lettres scholar, and a learned theologian. Printing having been conferred on the world by the instrumentality of Gutenberg, he became an om- nivorous reader, versed in all the learning of the times. Having received the degree of Master of Arts, he was equipped for his life work, which was at first designed to be the law, but in 1505 an accident occurred which gave to his career an entirely different direction. One of his friends was killed at his side by a stroke of lightning, and he was so frightened that he vowed to St. Anne that he would become a monk if he were spared. The danger passed, but he only delayed the fulfillment of his vow for a fortnight. On the 17th of July, 1505, after passing a I20 EUROPEAN NOTES. pleasant convivial evening with some friends, he entered the Augustine Monastery at Erfurt, taking with him noth- ing but his Plautus and his Virgil. This old monastery is still in existence, but now used as an orphan asylum. The cell of Luther is still shown, but all reminiscences of the reformer were destroyed by fire in 1862. Luther's monastic life was that of a thorough hermit. " If," said he, " Augustine went straight to heaven from the walls of an abbey, I ought to do so too. I fasted, I watched, I mortified, I practiced all the cenobite sever- ities till I absolutely made myself ill." His novitiate was one of peculiar hardness and trial. His superiors, who had perceived the somewhat haughty tendency of his mind, made him perform all kinds of menial services, such as sweeping the cells, opening and shutting doors, and beg- ging for the monastery with a huge sack strapped to his back. This they did, they said, with a view to humbling him. This is not the only time that attempts have been made to humble a minister by subjecting him to a hard lot. I once heard of a congregation in our own land, who per- mitted their pastor to go half-clothed and poorly fed, with a mere pittance of a salary, and when they were remon- strated with, said their motives were good, as they wished to keep their minister humble. Such treatment generally, however, has a contrary effect. Had Luther been more kindly dealt with, he might have remained longer a devout Catholic. As it was, he murmured not at these inflictions, but bore all, prompted by his solemn vows and sincere piety. About this time, on the recommendation of Dr. Staupitz, he was appointed professor of philosophy in the University of Wittenberg, and this brings us to the fourth home of the great Reformer. The prince's letter requiring him to come, was so urgent that he hardly had time to bid his friends good-bye. His portmanteau was a light affair, containing a coarse woolen robe, two Bibles, one Latin and one Greek, some ascetic books, and a small stock of linen. The senate of Wittenberg, on recommendation of Dr. Staupitz, made Luther turn preacher, and he preached by turns in the monastery, the royal chapel, and in the THE HOMES AKD HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 121 collegiate church. He was at this time in the full matu- rity of his powers. His voice was fine, sonorous, clear, striking, his gesticulation emphatic and dignified. For the first time too, he presented the spectacle of a Christian orator, ceasing to quote the old masters of the schools, and drawing instead, his images from the inspired writers. When he had time he returned to his beloved theology, which he called the queen of sciences. He was soon ad- mitted Bachelor of Theology, and afterwards made Doctor of Divinity. The attraction which he gave to his chair caused students to flock to Wittenberg from all parts of Europe. As Wittenberg was the theatre of the greatest events of Luther's life, it may be interesting for you to go with me, as I recount the incidents of a visit I made to it soon after reaching Germany. It is situated sixty miles from Berlin, on the road from Berlin to Leipsic, and has 12,500 inhabitants. Being widely known, and designated as one of the "cradles of the Reformation," it is a place of great resort, especially for English and American people. Leav- ing the depot, and passing through the Elster Gate near by, we enter the Koelligen street, on the left side ot which rises the Augusteum, erected in 1564, which is now a seminary for ministers. The court contains Luther's house, being part of the old Augustinian monastery, where brother Augustine took up his residence in 1508, when summoned from Erfurt as before related. At a later period, also, the house was occupied by the Reformer, and it was afterwards presented to him by his friend, the Elector of Saxony. Luther's room, containing a stove of colored tiles, a table, and a drinking goblet once used by him, is nearly in its original condition. In the picture saloon excellent portraits of Luther are kept for sale. A little further on is the house of Melancthon, that of the man who was Luther's most intimate, able and trusted friend, whose part in the Reformation, as is well known, was second only to that of Luther. In the neighboring mar- ket place, under a Gothic canopy, rises a large statue of Luther, designed by Schadow, and erected in 1821, bear- ing the inscription : 122 EUROPEAN NOTES. "Ists Gottes werk so wirds bestehen, Ists manchen werk wirds untergehen." " If it be God's work, it will endure ; if man's work, it will perish." Further on is the Palace church, erected in 1439, ori the doors of which Luther fixed his famous the- ses, which were burned in 1760, and replaced by metal doors, provided by Frederick William IV. in 1858, bearing the original Latin text of the theses. In th@ interior of the church are brazen slabs, with Latin inscriptions, which mark the graves of Luther and Melancthon. In the town church, which dates from the fourteenth century, Luther frequently preached ; and here, in 1522, the communion was, for the first time, administered in both kinds to the laity, a circumstance to which German Protestants attach great importance. The interior is embellished with beau- tiful paintings by Lucas Cranach, the most celebrated painter of that time in Germany, who was an intimate and devoted friend of Luther. One of these paintings repre- sents the great Reformer preaching. A new house in the Middle Street has a stone of the period of the Reforma- tion, built into it, bearing the characteristic inscription : " Gottes work und Luther's shrift 1st des Papst und Calvin's gift." " God's work and Luther's pen To Pope and Calvin poison send." Near the station outside the Elster Gate is an oak, sur- rounded by a small garden, which is said to mark the spot where Luther publicly burnt the Pope's bull. This de- scription shows, what I have already afftrmed, that Witten- berg was the principal home of the great Reformer ; and while I cannot enlarge upon all the events memorialized here, yet there are four that require more than a passing note, as showing the true character of the Reformer, and giving at the same time a bird's-eye view of the Reforma- tion. The first is, his visit to Italy. Dr. Staupitz, after Luther had been in Wittenberg about two years, being compelled to be absent, charged his protege to visit the convents in his province, and this work made it necessary that he THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. I23 should go to Italy on some business connected with the order. In all this, God seemed to be preparing him for the great work before him. He had been thoroughly ed- ucated, and had become a monk, then an overseer of the monasteries, by which he was made familiar with their abominations, and now he must go to Italy where Papal idolatry sat enthroned in her thousand temples, while its every altar smoked with perpetual incense. Italy is bad enough to-day when the Pope has been deprived of his tem- poral power, but at this time, the time of the Borgias, it was at the height of its wickedness and grandeur. The atheist priest arrogated to himself the powers of heaven, and pro- claimed himself the monarch of the universe, while count- less servile hosts surrounded him to do his impious bidding. Italy then, indeed, presented the appearance of a splendid drama, the scenery by Raphael and Michael Angelo, the poetry by the high-sounding Ariosto, and popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, monks and nuns the dramatis per- soncE, who received at once the plaudits and money of the deluded spectators. Luther, yet deluded, went full of zeal, hoping to confirm his faith in the Holy City and throw aside any uneasy doubt at the tomb of the apostles. He crossed the Alps, proceeded through the burning plains of Lombardy, was received at Milan in a marble convent, and from that visited one convent after another, or rather one palace after another, for they were all palaces, where he found the utmost good cheer and most sumptuous en- tertainment, and on venturing to observe that this was unbecoming the lowly life of a Christian, he came near losing his own life. Passing through Florence without stop- ping, he at last entered Rome. " On arriving," said he, " I fell on my knees, raised my hands to heaven, and ex- claimed, ' Hail, holy Rome, made holy by the holy- martyrs and by the blood which has been spilt here!' " In his fervor he hastened to view the sacred places, vis- ited the church of St. Calixtus, with its bones of 8,000 martyrs, ascended on his knees the Scala Sancta, and caught a glimpse of the Pope riding on a v/hite horse, dressed in gorgeous uniform at the head of a procession of soldiers, carrying the Host in his hand. He saw all, 124 EUROPEAN NOTES. believed all, but soon perceived that he was the only per- son who did believe. Christianity seemed totally forgotten in this capital of the Christian world. When he took refuge in the churches it was no better, the wicked priests hurrying through with the services in the most indecent and sacrilegious manner. The only thing to be done was to shake the dust from his feet and flee, which he did at the end of a fortnight, carrying back with him to Witten- berg the condemnation of Italy and the whole Roman Church. "I would not," said he afterwards, " I would not for a thousand florins have missed seeing Rome," (and he repeats these words three times). " I should have always felt an uneasy doubt whether I was not alter all doing in- justice to the Pope. As it is, I am quite satisfied on the point." The second event to which I referred is the publication of his theses. When Luther left Rome, disgusted as he was, it was with no purpose of publicly attacking the Pope. That had been tried a hundred years before by great and good men, and all to no purpose. Wickliffe, and John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, for daring to raise their voice against the monstrous Iniquity, had been tried, con- demned and burnt. And Luther had every reason to expect the same fate, should he open his mouth in oppo- sition to the prevailing wickedness. But many had arrived at that point that but little more could be borne, and a circumstance now occurred which caused the cup already full to overflow. They had stood the immoralities of monks and nuns with which all Germany swarmed, they had paid tax after tax for the erection of monasteries and churches, until a city no larger than Cologne had no less than three hundred. But the straw that was to break the back of the camel of submission was the sale of indulgen- ces, decreed by the Pope, Leo X., with a view of raising money to erect St. Peter's church according to the mag- nificent plans of Michael Angelo, with a view to perpetu- ate his name to posterity. It had been customary for the people to go to Rome to secure indulgences, but now they are to remain at home and be waited on by an agent with the indulgences ready signed, which all could buy who THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER, 1 25 had sufficient money. These indulgences granted exemp- tion from all sins the buyer ever had committed, or might intend to commit, and exempted also from the fires of purgatory. In Germany, one Tetzel, a Dominican friar, a man of great learning, but infamous character, was selected by the papal nuncio as a fit person to conduct the traf^c. He entered each town with great pomp, amidst the ringing of bells, the sound of music and the fluttering of banners, accompanied by the clergy, the different orders of monks and nuns, the magistrates, stu- dents, and a large body of men and women singing psalms. He rode in a splendid chariot, and before him on a cushion of velvet lay the decree which authorized the collections. In this state he repaired to the principal church, and after delivering a discourse which generally recommended the abuses of the church, he would offer his goods for sale by striking with a piece of copper on a metal plate filled with indulgences ready signed, crying out at the same time, "Buy, buy." Among the devices employed to attract customers, one of the most successful was the exhibition of a picture representing poor souls tormented by the devil in purgatory, with the inscrip- tion : "The moment the money in the box doth ring The soul out of purgatory to heaven doth spring." On the 3rst day of October, 15 17, Martin Luther declared war against the sale of indulgences, by affixing to the great door of the Castle church at Wittenberg, already described, his celebrated ninety-five theses, chal- lenging all comers to dispute with him, and pledging to prove that the pardon of sins was to be obtained only by contrition and penance and not to be bought with money. The tliird important event to which I refer as memori- alized at Wittenberg was the burning of the Pope's bull. The challenge of Luther fell like a spark on matter pre- pared for explosion. What thousands had thought a secret, what hundreds of thousands had suspected, they now felt to be true. When the theses found their way into every part of Germany and were reported at Rome, 126 EUROPEAN NOTES. the Pope at first looked on the matter as a mere dispute between monks of rival orders, and dispatched Thomas Cajetan,general of the Dominicans, to inquire into the case. Luther was summoned to appear at Rome, and had he gone that would probably have been the last of him, but the Emperor Maximilian, thinking this a good opportunity to humble the pretensions of the Pope, informed Frede- rick, Duke of Saxony, that the monk must be spared. Luther, instead of being given up to the Pope, was per- mitted to meet Cajetan at Augsburg (a city of 50,000 inhabitants in Bavaria), where the Diet was then sitting, and 'discuss with him the subject of the theses. This discussion amounted to nothing. Cajetan, an intemperate man, demanded an unqualified retraction by Luther of all he had written. This being refused, he arose in great wrath and dismissed the assembly with the words, " I will have no more to say to that beast, for he hath deep-seeing eyes and strange speculations in his head." Circumstances at this time greatly favored Luther. The Emperor Max- imilian dying, the administration of the empire fell, during the interregnum, into the hands of his friend, Frederick, of Saxony, and the Pope, wishing to conciliate him, pre- pared a friendly discussion to be held at Leipsic between Luther, Dr. Eck and others. Luther maintained himself grandly on this occasion. A painting in the Dresden gallery by Cranach represents the scene, where Luther in the full maturity of his powers, in the midst of an im- mense multitude, stands nobly contending for the truth of God's word. This discussion was as futile as that at Augsburg. Luther liad gone too far to retract, and Dr. Eck, fully convinced that he was unyielding, proceeded to Rome to secure his condemnation. On the 15th of June, 1520, the famous bull, Exsurge Dotnine, " Let God arise," was published, in which forty-one propositions fnom Lu- ther's works were condemned as scandalous and heretical ; all persons were forbidden to read his writings on pain of excommunication ; those who possessed any of them were commanded to burn them ; Luther himself, unless he re- tracted his words and burnt his books in sixty days, was pronounced an obstinate heretic; was excommunicated THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 12/ and delivered over to Satan for the destruction of his body; and all secular princes were required under pain of the same censures to seize and deliver him up to punish- ment. In pursuance of this, Luther's works were seized and publicly burned at Rome and Louvain. But the bull met with a different reception in the greater part of Ger- many. At Erfurt the students snatched it from the booksellers' shops and threw it into the water. In other towns the publishers of it were insulted, and the bull itself torn up and trodden under foot. Luther himself published a pamphlet against it in which he denounced the Pope as the Man of Sin, or Anti-Christ foretold in the Scriptures, and in retaliation for burning his own books he assembled the professors and students of the University of Witten- berg in the open space, outside the Elster Gate already described, and there in the presence of a large concourse of spectators consigned the bull, together with all the papal decretals, to the flames, saying, " Thou hast afflicted the holy of the Lord, may eternal fire afflict and consume thee ! " The fourth event which happened was Luther's summons to the Diet of Worms. From the publication of the theses the breach had been widening until now there was open war between Luther and the Pope, and the new em- peror, Charles V. being in full sympathy with the Papists, which he thought the strongest party, summoned Luther to appear for trial at the Diet which was then sitting at Worms, a city of Wurtemburg, of 30,000 inhabitants. I take it for granted that you know that a Diet is a general assembly, corresponding somewhat to our house of repre- sentatives. I mention this because a little girl, on hearing me speak of Luther's being called to the Diet of Worms said, "O, horrible ! you don't tell me that they punished him by making him eat worms." With Luther's sum- mons came also a safe conduct which ostensibly guaran- teed his safe return. As this safe conduct had been vio- lated in the case of John Huss, and could not be trusted, as Luther was in danger of being assassinated on the way by the infuriated Catholics, his friends urged him not to go. But no sooner did the summons come than he took 128 EUROPEAN NOTES. up his departure for Worms, there to stand solitary and alone in the presence of an enraged emperor and his co- horts, the infuriated representatives of the papal see. It was a bold undertaking, but boldly was it executed. This journey was like an ovation, for all felt he was going to his martyrdom. At Leipsic, which he reached on the 2d of April, the cup of honor of the city was tendered to him. On the 4th he came to Weimer, where Duke John sent him money to pay his expenses. On nearing Erfurt next day, he was met by an escort of several distin- guished persons with forty horsemen. Here he preached to immense audiences. At Eisenach, his dear Eisenach, he bowed as he passed in front of the house of dame Ur- sula Cotta, with tears in his eyes. At Oppenheim his friends, during the temporary absence of the imperial her- ald, urged him to flee, stating that he would be burned if he went on. "Sir," said he, "if there were as many devils in Worms as there are tiles upon the roofs of the houses, nevertheless, I would go through them and make my con- fession openly " On the i6th, coming in sight of Worms, and at once beholding its old bell towers, he rose in his chariot and began to sing the hymn, the words and the music of which he had improvised two days before at Oppenheim and which from that moment became the Marseillais of the Reformation. "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, Ein' gute Wehr und Woffen. Er hilft uns frei aus aller noht, Die uns jetzt hat betroffen. Der alt bose Feind Mit Ernst er's jetzt meint ; Gross' Macht und viel List Sein' grausam Rustung ist.' Auf Erd' ist nicht seins' Gleichen. "Mit unser Macht ist nichts gethan, Wir sind gar bald velohren : Aber streit fur uns rechte Mann, Den Gott selbst hat erkoren. Fragst du, wer er ist ? Er heisst Jesus Christ, Der Herr Zebaoth ; N SILENTiO FORTITVIDO MARTIN LUTHER. THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 1 29 Und ist kein andrer Gott, Das Feld muss er behalten. "Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel war, Und woUt unst gar verschlingen, So furchten wir uns nicht sosehr, Es soil uns doch gelingen ; Der fust dieser welt, Wie sau'r er sich stellt, Thut er uns doch nichts ; Das Macht, er ist gericht't. Ein Wortlein kann ihn fallen. "Das Wort sie sollen lassen stehn, Und kein Dank darzu haben ; Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem Plan Mit seinem Geist und Gaben. Nehm'n sie uns den Leib, Gut, Ehr, Kind und VVeib, Lass fahren dahin, Sie haben kain Gewinn ; Das Reich muss uns doch bleiben. TRANSLATION. "A safe stronghold our God is still, A trusty shield and weapon ; He'll help us clear from all the ill That hath us now o'ertaken. The ancient prince of hell Hath risen with purpose fell, Strong mail of craft and power He weareth in this hour — On earth is not his fellow. "With force of arms we nothing can,. FuU soon were we down-ridden ; But for us fights the proper Man, Whom God himself hath bidden. Ask ye, Who is this same ?. Christ Jesus is his name. The Lord Zeboath's Son, He and no other one, Shall conquer in the battle. "And were this world all devils o'er,. And watching to devour us. We lay it not to heart so sore. We know they can't o'erpower us. 130 EUROPEAN NOTES. And let the prince of ill ; Look grim as e'er he will, He harms us not a whit, For why ? His doom is writ — A word shall quickly slay him. '•God's word, for all their craft and force, One moment will not linger. But spite of hell, shall have its course, 'Tis written by his finger. And though they take our life. Goods, houses, children, wife. Yet is their profit small. These things shall vanish all. The city of God remaineth." On the following day, April 17th, he appeared before the Diet, where were assembled as delegates and spectators, five thousand people, the great majority of whom would gladly have dispensed with the trial, and hurried him to the stake. Some friends, however, stood near him, though like the Apostles in the Judgment Hall of Pilate, afraid to take part. As he entered the great hall in which the assembly sat, George of Freidsbergsaid : "Monkiken, thou art on thy way to make such a stand as neither I nor many a captain besides ever made on the field of battle, but God will not forsake thee." Many others addressed words of encouragement to him. One recalled to his remembrance the words of Christ, " when they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought, beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate, but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour speak." The proceedings were opened by asking Luther whether he acknowledged a pile of books which lay on the table to be his, and whether he would retract their contents? To the first, he said, " yes," and to the second, he said as it involved a matter of faith, he asked for a little time. It was granted, and when the Assembly met again, the Emperor demanded that Luther should then and there explicitly declare him- self. Hereupon the bold monk made reply with a firm voice: '• If, then, your Imperial Majesty requires a direct answer, I will give one that has neither horns nor teeth. When convinced of my errors by passages from the Scrip- THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. I3I tures, or by clear and manifest reasons and arguments, for I put no trust in a council nor in the Pope, who, it is as clear as day, have often contradicted and confuted them- selves, I will retract, but otherwise not ; since it is neither safe nor prudent to do anything against one's conscience. Here I make my stand, and can act not otherwise. God help me, Amen." At the close of a great speech in the United States Senate, John Randolph once remarked : "I would rather be the author of that speech than Emperor of all the Russias." There was nothing peculiarly rhetor- ical or striking in these words of Luther, but they will live when the empire of Russia shall have fallen, and the most splendid utterances of Webster shall have been for- gotten. Certainly we can say that Luther presented a grander spectacle that day, uttering God's truth in the presence of bayonets and burnings, than did Charles the v., the Emperor of all Germany, who heard them, and who could do nothing in his impotent rage but tremble, Felix like, and dismiss the Council. At the close of the Council at Worms, many were in favor of arresting and destroying Luther at once, but the Emperor, fearing the effect of such a violation of his safe conduct, permitted him to start on his way back to Wit- tenberg. Soon after his departure he was put under the ban of the Empire, and thus deprived of all his privileges as a subject, and every man enjoined to seize his person as soon as the term of his safe conduct had expired. Alas ! poor Luther, the chains are already forged with which thy noble limbs are to be bound, the fagots are al- ready prepared with which thy noble life is to be extin- guished, and wicked fiends in the name of Christianity are gloating over the mere prospect of thy blood. But Luther had a friend who had said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,'' and He provided him another friend in the person of the Elector of Saxony who, knowing that his safe conduct was nearly ended, ventured to arrange a plan for conveying him to some place of safety as soon as he should reach his dominions. Not far from Eisenach three horsemen rushed suddenly out of the wood, one of them seized the reins and interrogated the coachman, and 132 EUROPEAN NOTES, another held a javelin against Luther's breast. He was then placed on a horse and conducted to the Wartburg, a castle belonging to the Elector two nailes from Eisenach, where he lived under the assumed name and character of Junker George, as a nobleman, and this is the next home, or in this case, haunt oi the great Reformer. This castle, situated on one of the loftiest and most beautiful of the Thuringian hills 1356 feet above the sea level, and six hundred and twenty-four feet above Eisenach, was found- ed by Lewis, the Springer, in 1070, occupied by the land- graves of Thuringia until 1247, and is one of the occasional residences of the Grand Duke of Weimar. It is one of the finest castles in Europe, built in the Romanesque style. Interesting reminiscences of the Reformer are still preserved in the Vorburg. A room which has undergone little alteration is shown here, containing Luther's table, drinking vessel, armor as Junker George, bookcase, let- ters, portrait, and other memorials, where the great Re- former zealously worked at his translation of the Bible and other works from May 4th, 1521, to the 6th of March 1522. After the exciting scenes through which he passed, his solitude iiad a very depressing effect upon him, so that his condition was little short of insanity. Strange visions were perpetually presenting themselves to his eyes. One day, as he sat buried in his translation of the Script- ures, the arch fiend himself appeared in bodily presence, standing at his right hand, with a grin of devilish triumph and derision. Half mad with terror, yet indignant at this intrusion on his privacy, Luther seized the heavy inkstand which stood beside him, and hurled it at the head of his unwelcome visitor, who vanished with a cry of rage and disappointment. In confirmation of this strange tale, Luther's room in the Wartburg is shown to strangers with the stains of ink still visible on the wall. Of course, it was a secret all this while where Luther was, and many supposed he had been killed. He dates his letters from this haunt as follows : "From the region of the air, from the region of birds, from amidst the birds which sing sweetly in the branches of the tall trees and praise God," or again, "From the THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 1 33 mountain, from the Isle of Patmos, or from my desert," and from this height he inundated Germany with his writings till the cause of the Reformation, like a mighty torrent, rolled on, sweeping everything before it. Some of his utterances at this time against the Pope were equal te the most withering onslaughts of Demosthenes against Philip or Cicero against Verres. After remaining about a year, he abandoned this safe retreat against the wishes of the Elector, and returned to Wittenberg to quell some disturbances on the part of Carlstadt and others who, abusing the liberty newly vouchsafed to them, were going into all kinds of excesses, destroying churches, breaking images, etc. During the next years of his life, he was engaged in discussion, not only with the Pope, but with those intemperate men, particularly Carlstadt and Meyer, whose course led to the slaughter of over 100,000 mis- guided peasants. He also had a controversy with some learned men of his own party, whose views on certain points of doctrine he thought fatal to the cause. About this time, strange as it may appear, Luther actually mar- ried. You may think it strange that so bold and busy a man, in the midst of such a turbulent life, should find time to think of the tender passion, but perhaps it is only another illustration that "the bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring " He married a handsome nun, named Catherine Von Bora, was devotedly fond of her and had several children by her, not one of whom answer- ed to the prophecy in which the Catholics so cordially believed, that from the marriage of a monk and nun An- tichrist would spring. Antichrist was already in the world, and Luther and his wife were laboring to destroy his power. Luther, while rough and violent towards his en- emies, was as gentle in his family as a woman. I have the photograph of a fine painting by Cranach, representing him in the bosom of his family, amusing them with his guitar, while the children were playing round a Christmas tree prepared by the loving hands of their parents. He was fond of amusements. Music was his chief delight. He cultivated it assiduously all his life and taught it to his children. He did not hesitate to say that music ap- 134 EUROPEAN NOTES. peared to him the first of the arts after theology. "Music,' said he, "is the art of the prophets, it is the only other art which, like theology, can calm the agitation of the soul and put the devil to flight." He was also a great admirer of fine painting, living as he did in the golden age of the great masters. Luther was not averse to creature comforts, but a great lover of Eimbach beer and good Rhenish wine. When he left the hall of the Diet at Worms, a glass of beer was sent to him by Duke Ehrick of Brunswick. He drank it grateful- ly, saying, "As Duke Ehrick hath remembered me, so may our Lord Jesus Christ remember him in his last agony," These words were recollected by the duke on his death- bed. He was not opposed to wearing ornaments. In the celebrated Green Vault, in Dresden, in the midst of the finest collection of diamonds in the world, I saw his en- ameled gold ring, which he habitually wore, on which was represented a skull with these words inscribed, "'Mori sacpe cogita?' By its side was a solid gold medal which his wife used to wear round her neck. About this time he was reduced to extreme poverty. The new church, in throwing off the yoke of Papacy, had placed itself in sub- jection to the civil authority, (the greatest mistake of Lu- ther's life,) and the civil authority had from its very breath left it to starve. Luther resolved upon some secular oc- cupation for a livelihood. "li the world will not support us," said he, "for the sake of the word, let us learn to sup- port ourselves by the labor of our hands." As a matter of choice he would have selected one of the arts he so much loved — painting or music — but unable to do this, he ordered the tools from Nuremberg and became a turner. Let those who would frown upon ministers who have to support themselves by secular work remember that Paul was a tent maker, Bunyan a tinker, and Martin Luther a turner. He was called from his retirement by the Diet of Augsburg, ordered by the emperor to settle the church difficulties which had assumed colossal proportions and threatened the destruction of the Empire. This Diet was opened by the Emperor in person, June i8th, 1530, but it was quite a different thing from the Diet at Worms. Then THE HOMES AND HAUNTS OF LUTHER. 1 35 one poor monk stood up for the cause of Reform, but now nearly one half of the princes of the Empire were ar- rayed against the Papal hierarchy. , Luther, being under the ban of the Empire, could not appear. The elector, however, wishing to convey the great Reformer as near to the place of convocation as safety would permit, took him to Cobiirg ; and this is the next home or haunt that brief- ly claims our attention. As this was the place of my res- idence in Germany, I can speak of it with more interest than any other. Coburg is specially noticeable for three things: 1st. Its splendid schools. 2d. Its elegant society. 3d. As being the birthplace and home of Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria. The reigning duke, Ernest II., is the older brother of Prince Albert, with six ro3;'al palaces and an income of $300,000 per annum, but what is even better, a lineal descendant of Duke Ernest, who signed the Augsburg Confession. To this place Luther was brought and confined in a room in Coburg Castle, which is, i think, quite the equal of the Wartburg in size and strength, and more attractive in appearance. Situated on a hill 545 feet above the town, it commands the finest view in Germany. It was the residence of the Saxon dukes till John Ernest transferred his seat to Ehrenburg in the centre of the town in 1549. Here Luther remained three months, translated the Prophets and Psalms, and wrote one hundred and nineteen letters. The castle, elegantly restored and decorated, is fitted up as a museum. The Reformation room contains Luther's writing mate- rials, bedstead, table, chairs, etc., together with portraits of Luther, his wife, and other reformers. From this place he writes, " My residence is now in the clouds, in the em- pire of birds," and the appropriateness of this appears when you stand in the town and look up to the hill on which it is situated, all covered with snow, while the meadows of the Itz, on which the town is situated, are green as summer. Here he was in daily correspondence with Melaricthon, the leader at Augsburg, and other re- formers, and was really the ruling spirit, suggesting most that was done. Failing to reconcile matters at Augsburg, 136 EUROPEAN NOTES. the Emperor declared war against all the Protestants> which led to the formation of the League of Schmalkal- den, drawn up principally by Luther and signed by him. The conflict went on till truth triumphed over error, and the cause of the Reformation was firmly established. On Luther's way to Coburg he sojourned at a house in the suburbs of Sonneberg, which is still preserved as the "Lu- ther house," where I saw the bed in which he slept with Melancthon, some of his cast-off garments, his traveling canteen, and some other memorials. As he was now get- ting old and infirm, he returned to Wittenberg, where he spent the remainder of his life, with the exception of a brief visit to Eisleben, his native place, whither he went to settle some disputes among the nobles, where he died February i8th, 1546, but his body was conveyed to Wit- tenberg and interred, as already stated, in the Castle church there at the foot of the pulpit. This was his last earthly home, to which he was carried with all the pomp and ceremony due to so great a character, and which even his enemies dared not profane. Some years after his death, Wittenberg was besieged and taken. Charles V. on this occasion desired to see the tomb of the Reformer. With folded arms, he was reading the inscription, when one of his officers proposed to open the grave and give the ashes of the heretic to the winds. 1 he monarch's cheek grew red, and he said : " I war not with the dead, let this place be respected." "The memory of the just is blessed." The grave of the peasant boy of Eisenach, of the poor monk of Erfurt, of the faithful preacher of Wit- tenberg, is now a shrine to which the pious of all lands repair, and on which they gaze with gratitude and devo- tion. I have said that this was his last home, but we believe it was but the portal to another home, the Vorberg to his celestial castle, "a house not made with hands, eter- nal in the heavens.'' This home we hope to visit when we go on our last long pilgrimage, not to behold the crumbling relics of the Reformer, but to see Luther him- self in the full enjoyment of his reward, beyond the reach of popes, emperors and diets, reposing safely in the "feste- burg," the strong fortress of his Father and his God, INTERIOK OF WARTBDRG CASTLE. CHAPTER VL RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GER- MANY. I WISH it to be distinctly understood that I have no prejudices against the Germans, but on the contrary, a very high regard for them. They are in many respects a wonderful people. They are the greatest military power on the face of the earth. The whole empire is like one vast military camp; every town and city has its barracks, composed of elegant and extensive buildings, with exten- sive and admirably adapted grounds, where the soldiers, numbering in the aggregate nearly a million, are most thoroughly and artistically drilled every day, and then at certain seasons they have their field manoeuvres, superin- tended by the emperor, kings, dukes and generals in per- son, when mimic battles are fought, marching and coun- termarching performed, and all the exercises engaged in incident to real war. Secondly, Germany is the greatest country in the world, in an educational point of view. I speak what I know and testify to that I have seen, when I say that the University at Heidelberg with its 600 stu- dents, the University of Leipsic with its 3,000 students and 160 professors, the University of Berlin with a like number, to say nothing of Bonn, Halle and Keil, have no equals on the face of the earth. High and low, rich and poor, are all educated in Germany, public school education being compulsory. Thirdly, the Germans are a fine look- ing people. The men are large, well proportioned and handsome, and the ladies — as I think of them the words of Moore rise in my memory : "O woman, dear woman, whose fortn and whose soul. Are the light and the life of each path we pursue, Whether sunned in the tropics or chilled at the pole. If woman be there, there is happiness too." 138 EUROPEAN NOTES. And woman is there, with her fair skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, faultless form, and warm and loving heart. After saying this much, you are doubtless convinced that I have no prejudices against Germany and can speak the truth in regard to the religious condition of the coun- try. Allow me, therefore, to affirm that in a religious point of view, Germany is a failure. I read a small book some time ago, called "Protestantism — how far a failure ?'' That question I can't answer, but I can say, in the cradle of the Reformation it is a failure ; as far as being a mighty spiritual power in that land is concerned, it is a failure; as far as restraining the epicurean propensities of man are concerned, it is a failure; as far as vital godliness is con- cerned, it is a failure ; as far as crucifying the world is concerned, with its affections and lusts, it is a failure, a bald, blank, wretched failure. In Germany, as is well known, the Church is united with the State, the kings, dukes, or princes being the heads of the Church in their separate governments, appointing and removing the ministers, levying taxes for their support, specifying the services they are to perform, and enacting rules for their guidance. Luther never made a greater mistake than when, rescuing the Church from Papal dom- ination, he turned it over to the tender mercies of the State. For my part, I think it makes but little difference whether a Church is ruled by a pope or a king. If it be said that the Pope claims that he is infallible, it may be likewise said that it is claimed that "the king can do no wrong," and both lord it over God's heritage. Christ said: "My kingdom is not of this world," and again, "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." And I can but think that a fearful day of reckoning will come to both kings and popes. "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed." "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall have them in derision." What are we to expect from a Church in which mem- bership is compulsory ? All children are by law required to be confirmed at fourteen years of age. I utterly amaz- RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. I39 ed a gentleman one day by asking him if he belonged to the Church. "Of course, I do," said he, "we all belong to the Church in Germany." I suggested that some one might commit an offence for which he would be excluded. "Oh, that is next to impossible," said he. Nothing is plainer, I think, than that the Bible makes conversion prerequisite to church membership; "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ;'' "If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest :'' but in Germany they are compelled to be church members whether they believe or not. Is it strange that vital godliness should be almost unknown among such a people ? Is it strange that, "hav- ing a form of godliness, they should deny the power there- of?" Is it strange that in such a soil the Upas tree of infidelity should have taken root, whose wide spreading branches extending to all lands, have poisoned the faith and destroyed the hopes of thousands? Nothing can convey a better idea of the religion of Ger- many than the manner in which the Sabbath is observed, or, I should rather say, dishonored. Services are held in most of the churches at nine o'clock, when the preacher deliv- ers a dry discourse, addressed in most cases to a "beggarly account of empty boxes," for the pews are veritable box- es, uncushioned, cold, cheerless, the feet having to rest upon the stone pavements which constitute the floors. Some of these churches are truly magnificent, the relics of the pre-reformation times, adorned with the choicest treas- ures of art. But these churches, so richly adorned, like those in Rome, instead of impressing you as temples of the living God, appear rather as temples of art where, in- stead of the great objects of worship. Almighty God and his Son, Jesus Christ, the names and genius of Lucas Cra- nach, Albert Durer, Titian, or some other "master" of an. tiquity, is adored. The music at the service is nearly al- ways fine ; for where was there ever such a music-loving people as the Germans ? and this with the superb architect- ure and adornments of art, makes the place and the occa- sion interesting enough to a foreigner. But his heart sickens at the apparent want of vital godliness which pervades the whole scene. As some rich piece from Handel or 140 EUROPEAN NOTES. Beethoven is performed by the numerous and cultured choir, accompanied by the deep toned organ, and brass instruments also, his mind wanders back to the primitive days of Christianity when the hurrible disciples "spoke to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, mak- ing melody in their hearts to the Lord." While Sunday is partially observed until one o'clock, after that the day is given up to business and every form of worldly amusement and enjoyment. The stores are thrown open, men go to the fields to rake their hay, visits are made and exchanged, beer saloons are crowded with both sexes, who sit for hours sipping their favorite bever- age, while regaled with delightful music, or amused with comic plays or gymnastic performances by traveling actors. Having surfeited themselves with eating and drinking, the younger part of the assembly repair to the ballroom and dance, until the "wee small hours'' of Monday warn them to a little repose before beginning the labors of another day. So with some. Others attend the theatre, or opera, whose best pieces and best actors are reserved for and presented on Sunday. And these are attended by all classes and conditions of society, from the highest to the lowest, prices being arranged to suit each class and pocket. Here are found those who were at church in the morning, even the preacher often included. If a performance of unusual excellence is to take place in an adjoining town or city, special trains are run, and crowds go to Meiningen, for example, where the theatre is most celebrated, or Beireut, where Wagner held before delighted thousands the merits of his Parseval, deeming this the best use they can make of that " Day of all the week the best, Emblem of eternal rest." The Germans are a fun-loving people, and have numer- ous " fests," or festivals, lasting usually three or four days, sometimes two or three weeks, always including a Sunday, which is set apart as the " big day." This is particularly true of the " Schuetzen fest" (shooting feast), A large plat of ground is owned or leased by the society, and RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. I4I rented out to be used for shops, beer saloons, circuses, menageries, Punch and Judy exhibitions, merry-go-rounds, and all kinds of shows. While these places are well attended through the week, Sunday is the great day when visitors come from many miles around, and the time is spent in indescribable hilarity and excitement. I remember that the authorities at our Philadelphia Exposition would not permit the doors to be opened on Sunday. At the great Exposition at Nuremberg, lasting several months, and the largest ever held in Germany, Sunday was always the greatest day of all, when the " world, the flesh and the devil" seemed to be in league, to produce an effect which would far eclipse the gorgeous trappery of Bunyan's "Vanity Fair.'' But it may be asked, how could I, a minister, remain so long in such an atmosphere and with such surroundings? I answer, it was because I was a minister that I could do so ; being my own chaplain, holding services every Sab- bath in my own residence, independent of the beliefs and practices of others. Moreover, while not doing as much good as I might have done, and wished to do, 1 hoped all along that my example and instructions in individual cases were not without good results. My predecessor, a pious Episcopalian, likewise always had services at his residence on Sunday, and Mr, Scott, the British charge d'affaires, did the same at the legation when practicable, on which services we were frequent attendants. In this way, we made out to get along with that most difficult day that Americans in Europe are called upon to spend. So much for the religious aspects and customs of Ger- many, and now, in conclusion, let us inquire what has occasioned the decay in religion? I answer first, men nearly always go to extremes. The Germans, bound hand and foot before the Reformation in papal slavery, in throwing off their chains abused their liberty and went into excesses unwarranted by the Gospel. This was illus- trated by the Anabaptists in their enormities in one direction, and it is equally true of others so far as con- formity to the world is concerned. Secondly — I say it with caution and regret — some indiscretions of Martin 142 EUROPEAN NOTES. Luther have had much to do with it. Far be it from me to reflect upon the great name of Luther. There are spots in the sun, and he was not perfect. Were he alive, no one would regret more than he that his errors had been magnified by his followers, to the injury of the cause for which he gave his labor and was willing to give his life. Still, it is true, he held liberal views as to the observance of the Sabbath. What thus appeared in the green tree has had a fearful cropping out in the dry. Luther gave his sanction, it is said, to the bigamy of a certain duke who was his friend. Where is there a land where licentiousness is so pronounced, especially among kings, dukes and nobles? Luther bitterly despised the Anabaptists and was relentless toward all of his religious opponents. Where can a people more proscriptive be found than the universal German nation ? Luther was especially fond of lager beer. I do not mention this as a great sin, but it is a significant fact among a nation of beer drinkers that the very cups he used are still exhibit- ed as relics, that connected with the houses where he lived are immense beer saloons, and that a common le- gend on the walls of nearly all the saloons is — "Dr. Martin Luther spricht Freilich wasser thut'st nicht." It must be remembered that the Germans are the idola ters of Luther. They regard him, so to speak, as their patron saint. His birthplace, his places of confinement, his footprints at Worms, his cell at Erfurt, his home, his grave, are shrines to which they all repair with feelings grateful and devout. When they could derive from the example or teaching of Luther the slightest color of authority for their practices, they would urge it as " con- firmation strong as pro^f from Holy Writ" that they were right, and hence the honest conviction of many as to the correctness of their religious opinions, and the innocent nature of their many indulgences. Another cause for the present state of religion is the direction which advanced German thought has taken, crystalizing in what is widely known as German Rational- RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY, I43 ism. " Much learning has made their scholars mad," but they have shown great method in their madness. Instead of attacking Christianity in open conflict, they have sought to undermine it by professedly arraying themselves on its side, while sending forth insidious and dangerous books designed to poison the very fountains of faith. They have chosen the livery of heaven in which to do the work of the devil. However the present state of things may be accounted for, Germany is as ripe for a spiritual refor- mation to day as it was for a theological and ecclesiastical reformation at the time when monks and nuns were swarming throughout the land, and Tetzel was hawking the papal indulgences from every pulpit. There is no better missionary ground ; and while we are thinking of China, Africa and Italy, let us not forget the "Fatherland." While Methodists, Presbyterians and others are striving for what they regard as a pure faith, why may not Baptists do niore? Notwithstanding the prejudices against our brethren, they have already accomplished much. They number 17,000 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and 5,000 more in the German colonies of Russia. They have one hundred and twelve churches, several Associations, a triennial Convention, and a network of preaching stations extending all along the German and Baltic Seas. Indeed, just as the blood of the martyrs proved the seed of the church in the early days of Christianity, just as the perse- cution of our forefathers in the early settlement of this country caused our principles to spread from Rhode Island to Georgia, until the great distinctive tenets of religious liberty were incorporated by Baptist influence in State and Federal constitutions, so the prejudice against and privations of our brethren in Germany may lead to the successful dissemination of a pure gospel there, which, severing Church from State, will give every man the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of his conscience, with none to molest or make him afraid. Baptist principles take kindly in German soil. This was illustrated by the misguided Anabaptists, who in the time of the Reformation spread over the greater part of the empire. They went to fanatical and 144 EUROPEAN NOTES. criminal excesses, it is true, but they had much in their creed that was right, and there is every reason why the Baptists of to-day, not mad and fanatical, but earnest and enterprising, should select Germany as their field, rescue our principles from the obloquy of centuries, uprear the standard of a pure Christianity, and go forth conquering and to conquer, until this mighty empire shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. One of the saddest deprivations I felt in Germany was, the absence of the social prayer meeting. Such a thing seems altogether unknown there. God bless the prayer meeting ! It is the life of every Christian, of every church. God be thanked for the promise, that "where two or three are gathered together," there He is in the midst of them, and for the additional promise, "when any two of you agree as touching any one thing, it shall be done for you;" for with these assurances, a successful prayer meeting maybe held anywhere and at any time. But God pity the people of Germany, who know comparatively nothing of that place, "Where spirits blend, Where friend holds fellowship with friend. That place of all on earth most sweet, The hallowed, blood-bought mercy seat," The Germans never offer thanks to God at the table. When they get through eating, they rise, shake hands, or bow, and say to each other, "Mahlzeit," or "Gesegnete mahlzeit,'' which merely means, "May you have a good time in digesting." Another sad feature of the religious condition of Ger- many, is the neglect of the religious culture of the children. There they have no Sunday-schools, as we understand them, the only instruction given being that in which they are prepared for confirmation in the State Church. In point of educational advantages, as I have said, Germany is ahead of all other lands. The public schools and gym- nasiums are all crowded, and the children are so overtaxed with studies during the week that they have neither time nor relish for religious lessons on Sunday. They have no Saturday holidays as in America, and I have been told RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. I45 that teachers increase their tasks for Monday, that they may devote Sunday also to study, which they often do. The countless multitudes of pupils, while far advanced in some studies, show the deleterious effects of too intense application on their little faces, and are a pale, worn, sickly looking set, most of them wearing spectacles, owing to the effect of the difficult German letters on the strained or- gatis of vision. Another thing that impresses one with the irreligion of the country is the irreverent use of the most holy names of Almighty God and the Lord Jesus Christ, even in the best and most refined circles of society. My ears have been pained and wearied at the table and iu the parlor wath such exclamations as, "Ach ! Gott," "Der Hebe Gott.'' "Der Herr Jesus," and so on, from the lips of ladies often accomplished and beautiful. Another discouraging circumstance we find in the con- ceits and prejudices of the people. They think they have the best, purest and most comfortable religion in the world, and on the other hand, they think that others are deluded with the worst. Their prejudices against Jews,, Catholics, and particularly Baptists, are intense. The hor- rible and unchristian treatment of Jews in Russia is known^ to the world, and must ever remain a stigma on that na- tion. It must be remembered that Germany borders on- Russia, and many here partake of the anti-Jewish senti- ments of that land of riot and disorder. A large and en- thusiastic anti-Jewish assembly was recently held in^ Dresden, one of the largest and most refined cities of the Empire. I have no sort of sympathy with this crusade against the Jews. That they slew our Lord is true, but we must not forget that ''he was delivered by the deter- minate counsel and foreknowledge of God,'' without the shedding of whose blood there could be no remission of sin. One would think from the recent treatment of the Jews that many had just heard for the first time of the part they took in the awful tragedy of Calvary. I was- really tuld of an Irishman who heard at church a minis- ter's description of the murder of our Saviour. He left the place in a rage, and next day meeting a Jew on the 10 146 EUROPEAN NOTES. street, he knocked him down. "And what is that for?" asked the Jew. "Never mind ; you know," said he, "you murdered the Saviour." The Jews in Germany are rarely taken into society, and suffer many inconveniences and reproaches on account of their reHgion. That the Ger- mans should be prejudiced against the Roman Catholics is not so strange, for Catholicism, before the Reformation, had sucked the life blood of the Empire, and still, to the great annoyance of the people, "like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.'' Their prejudice against the Baptists arises from two considerations. 1st. They associate them with the mad peasants of Thuringia, and mad men of Munster, called Anabaptists, of the time of Luther and the Reformation. No people on earth could be more hated than were those Anabaptists. They were hunted down and slain to the number of one hundred thousand, multitudes of them being horribly tortured. I have myself seen some of the instru- ments with which they were tortured, and at Munster, in Westphalia, and at Muhlhausen, in Thuringia, the chief at- tractions of the places consist of museums containing the horrible engines of cruelty with which multitudes of these deluded people were punished. As these people did not be- lieve in a State church nor infant baptism nor in sprinkling, and they detect similar tenets among the Baptists, they class them as lineal descendants of the Anabaptists. 2d. They say if the Baptists succeed, their State religion, and indeed, all other religions, must go down, involving the State itself in the common ruin. Hence the Baptists have a difficult work before them. "The State Church,'' (I quote the exact words of Rev. Philip Bickel, missionary in charge of Oncken's work, in a letter to me,) "is jealous of her ancient prerogative, and in most places a burial with a sermon and hymn is denied us. Our pastors have been fined for speaking at the graves of their friends, and many are the disabilities and vexations put upon us, I have been before the police judge twice, and fined for printing matter which does not please the clericals," Having noticed the religious aspects of the Germans, I proceed, in the second place, to speak of some of their religious customs and observances. RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. I47 Easter is a Roman Catholic institution, but all the churches that have come out of Rome have brought that flowery relic with them. The Episcopal Church in Amer- ica, the Church of England, and the Lutheran Church all make much ado over Easter. But nowhere, not even in the Catholic countries, have I seen the day more " honored" than in Germany. It is looked forward to, and looked back to, as an epoch in the year, from which everything is dated or antedated. When it comes, the churches are ornamented with flowers and the streets with the green treasures of the forest. Every available space in every church is occupied, and the music is superb beyond description. The show windows are filled with gaudily painted eggs, both natural and artificial, and other ornaments emblematic of " the day we celebrate," and many other things done at once novel and picturesque. But as may be supposed, if Easter is celebrated, much more is Christmas. I rather like the way they observe this great holiday. While it, too, is Roman Catholic in its origin, and we don't know even the day, week or month on which Christ was born, I see no reason why the custom, so full of joy especially to the young, should not be indulged in. If we celebrate the birthday of Wash- ington, the father of his country, and that of other illus- trious men, there is no reason why we should not cele- brate that of the Saviour of the world. Only we should bear in mind that while religiously observing it, we should not regard it as a religious festival. At this season, in Germany, extra services are held in the churches, family reunions take place, gifts are exchanged, and Santa Claus, the patron saint of the children, showers his favors on the young, just as here. The place where I lived might be called the peculiar home of Santa Claus, and in my im- agination I can see him now, as I have seen hundreds of his images, with huge, red cheeks, long, grey beard and flowing hair, holding a tree in one hand and a flag in the other, while a great sack is strapped to his back full of toys, as he comes forth from the snow-clad Thuringia mountains to visit all portions of the habitable globe. To give some idea of the extent of his operations, I will state 148 EUROPEAN NOTES. that nearly two millions of dollars' worth of toys are annually shipped from his home through the Sonneberg consulate to the United States. It is said that the "shoe- makers' children go unshod,'' but it is not true that the children in the toy-making region go without toys. But there is a singular custom connected with the way they receive them. A man goes around dressed as Santa Claus to every house, with a basket of toys and a bundle of switches. On reaching the door, he calls for the parents and children, and asks if the children have been good ; if they say yes, he gives them toys, but if 710, he gives them a sound whipping. Another singular custom takes place on the first of May, called Walpurgis, when the peasants leave their homes and stay out in the fields all night with whips in their hands, with which they "cut and slash" furiously for the purpose of driving the witches away. Upon the per- formance of that duty, they think, good crops and hap- piness for another year depends. Other occasions of great interest among the Germans are the "Buss tags," or Fast days. On these days, which come twice a year, these Germans certainly "appear unto men to fast." The stores are all closed, and not an article can be bought for love or money. The streets are deserted, the churches crowded, sweet and plaintive music echoes the feelings of the saddened throng and ev- erything seems as quiet as if "the universal pulse of na- ture stood still." Indeed, it seemed as if the people, con- scious of a life forgetful of God and of sins committed through so many days, weeks and months, were endeav- oring by one tremendous effort to throw them off. And I hope they did ; for "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unright- eousness," There is a wonderful power in even a single tear of repentance. As I gazed upon them in their hu- miliation, I recalled the words of Moore: "There's a drop, said the Peri, which, down from the moon, Falls through the withering airs of June Upon Egypt's land, of so healing a power, So balmy a virtue that even in the hour RELIGIOUS ASTECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. 149 That drop descends, contagion dies, And health reanimates earth and skies. Oh, is it not thus, thou man of sin, The precious tears of repentance fall. Though foul thy fiery plagues have been, One heavenly drop hath dispelled them all." Wedding ceremonies in Germany are not very different from those in America, only they do not create half the interest in a community that they do here. The sexes are restrained by very severe rules before marriage. Young gentlemen hardly ever visit young ladies at their homes, and if they do, the parents cf the young ladies must always be present at the interview. It is considered highly in- decorous for a young lady to be seen walking the street u^ith a gentleman. They mingle freely, however, at balls and parties, on skating ponds and in club-houses. When an engagement takes place, it is announced by a card beau- tifully printed, headed " verlobte," or affianced, and giving the names of the parties. This is sent to all the friends of the respective families of the engaged pair, and some- times a party is given in honor of the event. After the engagement, the bride and bridegroom (for so they are called), while shutting themselves out from society and the world, hold themselves sacred to each other, and can mingle as freely as they please, which is generally pretty freely. It is perfectly proper for them to walk and talk together, no disgrace to embrace, naught amiss when they kiss. So when the marriage takes place the excitement has worn off the minds of the people, and often but very few are present to witness the ceremony. More singular, however, are their funeral ceremonies. Hearses and carriages are seldom seen at a funeral. The dead are carried on a litter borne on the shoulders of the pall bearers, followed by a procession composed entirely of men ; women, though they be relatives of the deceased, never attend. There is an exception to this rule when mourners are hired, which is sometimes the case when the parties are wealthy and wish to make a display. Then five or six young women are employed, who, clothed in deep mourning, follow the remains and weep loud and long in honor of the departed. A gentleman in Coburg I50 EUROPEAN NOTES. told me that when his uncle died he hired six who per- formed the service for two marks (50 cents) each, and said he had no doubt when they reached home they had a hearty laugh over it. On reaching the grave the minister delivers an address, which is generally a eulogy on the deceased, the burial services are read, a hymn is sung, and the body is lowered to its last rest. Another method of disposing of the dead, which is get- ting more and more popular, is by cremation. As I was called upon to superintend a cremation during my stay, and the facts connected with it are interesting, I will give them in detail. The deceased was an American citizen, formerly, I learn, an officer in the United States Army, who died at Baden-Baden. Having requested that his remains should be cremated, his widow gave the whole matter into my hands. The preliminary arrangements are extensive and troublesome. First, permission must be obtained from the municipal authorities where the death occurs, and also from Gotha, that the body maybe removed from one place to the other. A "leiche pass" (or dead body permit) must accompany the remains for the satisfaction of the railroad authorities. The money to pay the expenses of cremation must be paid in advance, and the costs are as follows : For removal from depot to cemetery $7.50 ; for cremating I37.50. As the authorities will not permit the body to be removed unless encased in metal, zinc is prescribed as indispensable, that it may readily melt when exposed to the heat. This is enclosed in a wooden coffin, the dimensions of which must not exceed a certain measurement in height, length and breadth, that it may fit the receptacle in the stone. When a church service is demanded the cost is seven dollars and fifty cents more, but these are usually dispensed with. The apparatus at Gotha, located in the new cemetery, is the only one in Germany; was erected in 1878, and cost as follows : for the machinery $4,600 ; the buildings $17,500; total $22,100. The buildings consist of (i) a suite of apartments for the reception of the bodies, to which are attached the offices of the establishment; (2) the Columbarium, where the urns are kept which contain RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. 151 the ashes of the cremated ones not yet removed. Some of these urns are highly ornamented and expensive, con- tain beautiful inscriptions, and are decorated with flowers and other ornaments; (3) and lastly, the chapel where the solemnities are held, through the floor of which the body is lowered to the furnace beneath. The furnace is a very complicated and ingenious arrangement, built by a Dres- den firm after the Italian model. It consists first of a huge oval furnace where the gas is produced, which is conducted by a canal to the "oven" that receives the body. This oven is twenty-one feet long and thirteen feet high, and has two chambers. The gas is only admit- ted into one at first, where it burns until a white heat is produced. At the proper time (in this instance three in the afternoon), the body, lowered from the church on a sort of dumb waiter, is placed in front of the oven into which the gas has not yet been admitted. It is taken out of the wooden coffin, placed then upon a truck, and the doors of the last named chamber being opened, it is rolled in and the door closed. A crank is then turned on the outside, and the burning gas from the other red-hot cham- ber is admitted, and the body is rapidly consumed. The zinc case rapidly melts first, then the garments are con- sumed, and the body burns for a period lasting from one hour and three quarters to two hours. The ashes fall into a receiver, which, after the burning, is drawn out from below. They are then placed in an urn and stationed in the Columbarium, or in a tin cylinder prepared for the purpose, and taken away by the friends of the deceased. It takes a day and a night to heat the apparatus thorough- ly, so that bodies that reach Gotha one day cannot be cremated till the next. Those who desire cremation gene- rally belong to the wealthier classes of society, but the expenses attending the operation are not so great as those consequent upon fashionable interments in America. I said before that some of the urns in the Columbarium were ornamented with beautiful inscriptions. I must retract so much of that expression as relates to the in- scriptions being beautiful. How could a beautiful in- scription be written over a little pile of ashes ! But 152 EUROPEAN NOTES. while the inscriptions were not beautiful, they were ap- propriate. On several urns simply these words were in- scribed : "Peace to thy ashes." On one I read, "Thy wish was to us holy : Peace to thy ashes ;" on another, "Thy will be done ;'' on another, "Eis war sein wille" (it was his will), as if cremation were too horrible to think of except in obedience to the request of the deceased. On another urn was this inscription, "Seine leben war stre- ben" (thy life was endeavor). Another read, "Sanft ruhe seine ashe" (soft rest his ashes), and still another this verse of German poetry : "Der staub lie^t die urne ; Der Geist weilt im licht i Das bild ruht im herzen, Und schwindet nicht." a translation of which is : "The dust lies in the urn ; The S'«ul in light doth stay ; The image rests in the heart, And shall never fade away." I retired from the place not very favorably impressed with cremation. That silent Columbarium, those artist- ically sculptured urns, those voiceless flowers, those mean- ingless inscriptions, wore a coldness in striking contrast with the "fervent" fires that were glowing and roaring in the furnace beneath. That the grave is forbidding, no one can deny. "To lie in cold obstruction and to rot, this sensible, warm motion to become a senseless clod,'' was a thought too horrible not only for Shakespeare, but for all men. But I cannot see that lying in a red hot oven and being burned to ashes is any the less horrible, but on the contrary, far more so. Besides, custom and the Bi- ble have caused us to mingle associations with the grave which the urn can never possess, and which render the con- templation of even that dark and gloomy subject sweet and consoling. "There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest," are words whchseem designed not for the urn which contains but a handful of ashes, but for that enclosure in the generous lap of our mother earth called a grave, over whose very portals we may sing: RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND CUSTOMS OF GERMANY. 1 53 "I would not live alway ; no — welcome the tomb ; Since Jesus hath lain there, I dread not its gloom, There sweet be my rest till he bid me arise, To hail him in triumph descending the skies." As I gazed upon the body as it was being rapidly con- sumed, I was impressed with the power of God which could create an element that so quickly reduced to apparent nothingness the once splendid temple of the hu- man body, the noblest work of the Creator. "Know that the Lord is God alone ; He can create and He destroy.'' But this impression was increased as my imagination, with little effort, recalled the "fiery furnace" of old, heated seven times hotter than it was wont, into which the three Hebrew children were thrown, and who yet, because of the presence of one who had the form of the Son of God, came out without even the smell of fire upon their garments. CHAPTER VIL GERMAN CITIES. NOTES BY THE WAY. I had been in Germanybut a few months when I made an interesting tour through the northeastern part of the Empire, and I propose to give in this chapter a brief ac- count of what I saw of a "noteworthy" character. Leav- ing Coburg at two o'clock P. M., my first ride was through the celebrated Thuringian Mountains, on the border of which Coburg is located. The scenery along the route is as grand and picturesque as any in the world. And here, it is well to remark, that my consular district embraced the whole of Thuringia, a section of country about as large as an American State, containing no less than eight duchies and principalities, prominent among which are Saxe-Co- burg and Gotha, Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, etc. It contains many interesting cities and towns, and is one of the greatest manufacturing portions of Germany. Many millions of dollars' worth of goods are annually shipped from this section to the United States, and consist largely of toys, glassware, china and hardware. Thuringia also abounds in mineral springs and other health resorts, so that when summer comes, here as in Switzerland, the hotels are crowded, and multitudes may be seen thronging the beautifully graded roads or ascend- ing the sublime and everlasting mountains. Mountains in Germany are called forests or ivuld-s. Hence we have the Thuringian wald, the Schwarz wald, and the Hartz vvald, etc. I suppose they are called forests because they are covered with trees that are cultivated and kept for timber, while the lowlands are all cleared. Forest culture in Ger- many is an important branch of industry, and schools of high grade are established in many places, having in view GERMAN CITIES. I 55 the fostering of this important enterprise. These schools or the industry itself, dates back many centuries, and but for the labors of these cultured but hardy mountaineers, there would be absolutely no timber in all that land to- day. As it is, no finer timber can be found on the face of the earth than that in the forests of Germany. It forms an important export trade with Holland and other ship- building countries, the tall pines of Thuringia being regarded especially valuable for that purpose. The for- esters are devoted to their calling, and wear a conspicuous green uniform, with a leaf worked into the lapel of their coats as a badge of their office. They have their societies and general meetings; and a large congress of foresters from all parts of the empire was held in Coburg just be- fore I left. The trains, after leaving Coburg. run for several miles along the banks of the Werra, one of the famous rivers in Germany, and yet, how small it is. The railroad is called the Werra " Eisenbahn," that is, iron road (they call things by their right name in Germany). One of the finest steamers on the German line to New York is the Werra, and yet the Werra in this country would be called a creek, as it is only a few feet wide. Coburg is " beautifully situated on the Itz," we read, but it is so narrow you can almost jump across it. We have heard much of Frankfort on the Main, but it is a very small stream. And the famous river on which Berlin is situated is not worth the name. But the case is quite different when we come to speak of the Rhine, Danube or Elbe. These are rivers indeed, that compare favorably with any in the world. At 5 o'clock we reached Eisenach, elsewhere described in these notes, a beautiful city of tv/enty-two thousand, situated in the midst of the mountains, on one of whose lovely hills stands the famous Wartburg Castle, where Martin Luther was confined on his return from Worms. There is his room with his chair and writing desk just as he left it, where for eleven months he toiled on his trans- lation of the Bible, playing at the same time the character of "Junker George." On the wall may be seen the ink 156 EUROPEAN NOTES, spot where he broke the bottle in throwing it at the " devil," which his excited imagination had created. Near by, on one of tlie streets of Eisenach is the house of "Frau Cotta," with whom he boarded when going to school as a boy. I felt that I was specially privileged in the fact that I was located while in Germany in the very cradle of the Reformation, and found all around, at almost every turn, relics of the great Reformer. Since my return to America, and in the month of N.)vember, 1883, the four hundredth anniversary of his birth was celebrated, and I regretted that I could not be in Germ my to witness the wonderful festivities that toi^k place. Additional monuments were erected and unveiled. Every city was decorated with flags and lighted up with bonfires, and the Crown Prince of the Empire left his palace at Berlin and went to Wit- tenberg to place a chaplet on his grave. Surely, this was high honor for the monk of Erfurt, an honor to which Leo, and Cajetanus, and Charles V. and his other perse- cutors could never have aspired. There is no name on the page of German history so revered to-day as that of Martin Luther. Leaving Eisenach, we soon came to Gotha, one of the residences of Duke Ernest In my account of the ducal family of Coburg, I described this place, and so pass on to Erfurt, the largest city in my district, containing about 60,000 souls, and many objects of interest. We next pass Weimar, population 20,000, the residence of the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who is a brother-in law of Emperor William. This was the home of Goethe, and his house is still shown there, all furnished as he left it. Some one has said that the English Parnassus has twin peaks u,pon its summit, Shakespeare and Milton. The same may be said of Germany, but in this case the twin peaks are Goethe and Schiller. They were magnificent geniuses, and their works have shed an undying lustre on the literature of their country. We reached Leipsic at a late hour, and stopped at the celebrated hotel Hauffe. LEIPSIC. There are few cities in Europe which have more interest GERMAN CITIES. 157 for Americans than this, and it is worthy of a conspicu- ous place in these Notes. I spent several days there on my first visit, returned several months afterwards to attend the great annual Fair, and again took part in the Fourth of July celebration before described, Leipsic is remark- able for many things. It is situated a little north of the central part of the empire, and has a population of i6o,- ooo, having increased more rapidly in the number of its inhabitants than any other place in Germany. In 1834 the population was only 45,000. That makes it about equal in the rapidity of its growth to some of our western towns. It is the centre of the book trade for Germany, a position it has occupi d for many years. There are about three hundred booksellers' =.tores and sixty printing offices ; and publishers in other parts of Germany always have depots in Leipsic whence books are shipped to all parts of the world. I found some " old book'' stores there worthy of the name, and bought two or three at the small sum of seventy five cents and a dollar, which were printed three hundred years ago. Leipsic is the seat of one of the greatest Universities in Europe, and it is this fact that has made it so well known to Americans. This University has one hundred and si.xty professors, and three thousand two hundred students, who come from all parts of the world. The buildings which I visited and thoroughly inspected, are situated in the midst of the city, convenient to hotels, stores and places of amusement. The city contains many art galleries, all open to the visitor for a trifling fee, and giving him the opportunity of viewing the* greatest pieces of the greatest masters, par- ticularly those of the chief modern schools. It was here that I saw Mackarc's greatest works. Here is located the finest Conservatory of Mu:>ic on the continent, and I had the pleasure of an introduction to the distinguished Di- rector, and a seat with him at dinner. Leipsic is renowned as the seat of the great Fair, which twice ayearattracts merchants from all parts of the world. As early as 1180 markets were held here biennially, and in the fifteenth century attained to great importance. 158 EUROPEAN NOTES. Maximilian confirmed the privileges of the town by pro- hibiting markets to be held at any town within a com- peting distance. These fairs are attended by a vast con- course of merchants* estimated at from thirty to forty thousand, from all parts of Europe and the East, embrac- ing Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and Turks. The most important of the commodities are furs, of which five million dollars' worth change hands annually. The total value of the sales averages fifty million dollars. I visited a room in a restaurant there which is kept as a sort of museum, which Goethe used to frequent for eating and drinking purposes. Here I beheld the chair, tables and drinking cups of the great poet, but what was far more interesting, I saw the mural paintings placed on the walls centuries ago, which Goethe so often gazed up- on, and which suggested to him the characters in Faust. All that is necessary to get a view of this interesting place is to buy a five cent cigar. I took great interest in visiting the scene of the great- est battle on record, between the allied powers and Na- poleon, when 450,000 men were engaged, and fifty thou- sand left dead upon the field. The historical incident is perhaps familiar to my readers. Napoleon was overrun- ning all Europe, and kingdom after kingdom was yield- ing to his victorious arms. Three emperors proceeded to Potsdam, and visiting the tomb of Frederick the Great, knelt before it and swore a united and determined hos- tility to Napoleon until his power should be broken. The result of that vow we see in the terrible battle of Leipsic, "the bloodiest picture in the book of time." I visited the spot where 25,000 French prisoners were taken, and where the brave Count Poniatowsky was drowned. A monument on the river's bank marks the spot. Great as Germany is in painting, I think our country can furnish better photographic artists. I tried all day at Leipsic to have my picture taken, and when the photo- graphs were sent to me, they were so poor I was ashamed of them. They resembled the patent medicine picture in the newspapers, called "before taking." The churches of Leipsic are not especially interesting. GERMAN CITIES, 1 59 With the exception of the Nicolaikirche, which contains, built into its walls, some cannon balls taken from the battle field of 1813, and which has a stone pulpit from which Luther is said to have preached. The sexton gave me a small, very old volume containing the Lutheran articles of faith as drawn up by the great Reformer. Leipsic is said to have been once a Sclavonic settlement, and called Lipz.k, or the " town of the lime trees." And this leads to the remark, that the lime tree is greatly prized in Germany for purposes both of ornament and shade. Hohenlinden means the "high lime trees.'' " Unter den Lmden'^ the name of the great street in Berlin, means "under the lime trees," etc. They take the place of our elms, maples and wide-spreading live oaks, and seem to be a favorite from the North Sea to Switzerland. One of the most frequented places about Lucerne, for example, was that called the "drei Linden" — the three lime trees, whose wide-spreading branches afforded a welcome pro- tection to those who stood beneath and gazed on the beauties of the lake that lay sleeping below, and the mountains that towered above. DRESDEN. Having spent several days in Leipsic, I proceeded to Dresden, the capital of Saxony, a beautiful city with a population of 212,000, charmingly situated on the river Elbe, and only three hours' ride from Leipsic. Of all the cities in Germany this is the favorite v/ith Americans, and there is a large and handsome section of the city known as the English and American quarter, where wealthy people, "English lords and ladies," and American "high- flyers," live in almost royal magnificence. I stopped at the Bellevue Hotel, the most noted cara- vansary in the place, which is located right on the bank of the river not far from the old bridge. Here I saw several Americans. In the morning, as a gentleman and two ladies mounted their splendid steeds for a morning ride, with numerous servants in attendance, the mana- ger remarked, pointing to the trio, "That is the way your American people spend money over here." Of all tour- l6o EUROPEAN NOTES. ists who visit the celebrated resorts of the Old World, none are so lavish in their expenditures as Americans. It is a well known fact that the principal obstacle in the way of pleasant, and even economical traveling abroad, is the enormous system of feeing, to which all must submit or be tabooed, and often humiliated, and sometimes involved in difficulties with the persistent extortioners. At a hotel, for example, you must fee the dining-room servants, or you will get nothing to eat ; and the head waiter and cook, or you will be deprived of the choice viands ; and the bell boy, or he will not answer ; and the "boots," or your "stiefel" will go unpolished ; and the chambermaid, or your room will not be swept and slops emptied ; and last of all and dearest of all, the "portier,'' who expects not less than a dollar or a dollar and a quarter. Some of these "portiers'' pay large sums tor the privilege of their positions. The "portier" at a hotel in Berlin, for exam- ple, I was told, paid $5,000 for his position, and still made thousands. The office of the "portier'' is to receive you, assign your rooms, attend to your baggage, give you di- rections about routes, prices, etc.; in a word, do every- thing a proprietor does in this country. (You never get sight of the proprietor of an European hotel.) All these fees are in addition to the regular prices, and are a terri- ble tax on travelers. Now, it is said that Americans have had much to do in creating and extending this state of things. Having made their fortunes in this country, often on "codfish," pork, tobacco, or by "striking oil," they go to Europe to spend it, and they do it with a lavish hand. They always call for first-class accommodations, cut first- class swells and pay first-class prices. Take the velvet cushioned "first class" coupes, for example, on railroads. It has grown into a proverb there that they are used only "by princes, Americans and fools.'' The "portier" de- tecting as soon as I spoke a single word that I was an American, assigned me to a first-class room, calling out lustily as soon as the hack drove up, ''Zwei and sebsich^'' (72). I had been in my room but a little while, when a ser- vant brought me an elegant colored photograph collection of the fine paintings I was to see next day in the world- GERMAN CITIES. l6l renowned gallery. After supper, I amused myself no little in examining these pictures, the originals of which I was to enjoy to my heart's content. After a delicious night's repose, I arose next morning and saw that the day was fine and everything propitious. Going down to breakfast, I was waited upon in royal style, and sat at a table right on the bank of the Elbe, surround- ed by flowers and shrubbery that must have been arranged in imitation of some of the rich scenes on the Nile. After breakfast, I proceeded to the picture gallery which has made Dresden famous wherever art is known and appreciated. This is in the Museum, a handsome edifice in the "Renaissance'' style, one of the finest exam- ples of modern architecture. On a substructure of blocks of freestone rises the vast oblong building, consisting of two principal stories, with a lofty "portcullis'' in the centre, surmounted by a cupola. The Museum forms the north-east wing of ihe Zwinger, which has six pavilions coimected by a gallery of one story, enclosing an oblong court 128 yards long and 117 yards wide. The picture gallery occupied the first and second floors of the Muse- um, and now ranks with the Louvre in Paris, and the Pitti and Uffizi in Florence. I went from school to- school, and from room to room, and saw all this wonder- ful collection, consisting of the greatest pieces of the greatest masters, and costing millions of dollars, but my language is powerless to describe them. The pictures of the great Venetian masters rank among the choicest treasures of the gallery. The " Tribute Money,'' by Ti- tian, a grand work of his early period, is one of the most nobly conceived and admirably executed paintings ever produced. The portrait of his daughter Lavinia, and that of an unknown personage, are also very fine. Palma Vec- chio's "Venus" and the "Three Graces" are said to be the finest works of this great delineator of ripe Venetian beauty. Paul Veronese flourishes here. No other gallery in the world possesses so many of his gorgeous master- pieces. The Spanish school is represented among other fine paintings by the " Elderly Man" of Velasquez, and. the " Madonna and Child" of Murillo. The French school n l62 EUROPEAN NOTES. is represented by leading masters, but I was particularly struck with two landscapes by Claude Lorraine. The Netherlandish school, particularly of the 17th century, is represented by many gorgeous and magnificent speci- mens. Peter Paul Rubens, the great master of the Flem- ish school, whose house I afterward visited at Antwerp, may be studied here to great advantage. Some of his popular pieces seen here are portraits of his sons, the " Herodias," "The Garden of Love," "The Boar Hunt," " Bathsheba," "Entry of Lifant Ferdinand into Antwerp," etc. Rubens luxuriates, so to speak, in all the great Eu- ropean galleries, and he was particularly fond of painting his wives, whom he always makes his Madonnas, his Graces and his Venuses. He certainly loved his wives, but I think he was too fond of exposing them on canvas. The Dutch school is also well represented in this collection, my favorite among whose masters is unquestionably Rem- brandt. The portrait of his wife, the portrait of himself with his wife on his knee, "Samson's Riddle," "Manoah's Sacrifice," and the picture of an old man, will attract the attention of visitors. The Germ.an school is, of course, represented by many fine paintings, but it is not equal to the others. Holbein's portrait of Morett, Durer's "Crucifixion" and the winged altar-piece, and several pieces by Lucas Cranach, the friend of Martin Luther, are worthy of special mention. But last and most attractive of all, the great masters of the golden period of Italian art are admirably represent- ed. The "Herodias" of Leonardo da Vinci, the famous little picture of the "Magdalene" by Correggio, and several others, but prepared the way for viewing the finest paint- ing in the world, here shown in an elegant chapel to itself — namely, the Sistine Madonna, Raphael's masterpiece. The radi\nt magnificence of this painting in which the most bewitching beauty is coupled with the charm of the mysterious vision, will forcibly impress every beholder, and the longer he gazes the more he will be delighted. This picture is an altar-piece, eight feet high and six feet wide, and painted for the church of the Black Friars at Placenzia. The Virgin and Child are in clouds with St. Six- GERMAN CITIES. 163 tus on the right, St Barbara on the left, and two cherubs beneath. Of this painting, Prof. John Auton Springer says : "A curtain has just been drawn back, and the Virgin issues, as it were, from the depths of heaven, awe-inspiring, sol- emn and serene, her large eyes embracing the world in their gaze. The idea of a sudden revelation of the hither to concealed mystery could not be more effectively ex- pressed, The attention is usually concentrated on the Madonna and the two cherubs below, pictures of inno- cence. The saints, however, should not be overlooked. Contrasted in age and sex, expression and movement, they supplement each other with admirable effect. Both must be thought of in connection with the whole community of Christians ; the reverent and pious Sixtus commends him- self to the Virgin's mercy ; the beaming face of St. Barba- ra represents the joyful enthusiasm of the redeemed." It must be remembered that the man who wrote these words was a Catholic, but how wonderful must be the work of the artist when all, Catholics and Protestants alike, and men of no religion whatever, gaze upon it with indescribable rapture ! The picture gallery occupied my attention for about two days, and at intervals I visited the Museum of Casts, which resemble collections found in all other museums ; the Johannes Museum, and other objects in the vicinity of the Zwinger. I was much interested in the collection of porcelain, consisting of 15,000 specimens of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, French and Dresden workmanship. The Dresden china, from the first attempts of Bottiger, the inventor, down to the present day, and the modern European products of Sevres, Berlin, etc., form by far the most interesting feature of the collection. Part of one day I devoted to the celebrated Green Vault, which contains one of the most valuable collections of curiosities, jewels, trinkets and small works of art, in the world. The goldsmith's art is represented here as it is perhaps nowhere else in the world, while the enamels of Limoges and the specimens of ivory and crystal cutting astonish all who see them. Here I saw two horses' heads made of ivory, by Mfchael Angelo ; musicians fighting, by 164 EUROPEAN NOTES. Albert Durer ; crucifix with Madonna, by Paruzzi ; Fall of the Angels, in ninety-two figures carved out of a single mass of ivory 16 inches in height ; and many other curi- osities too numerous to mention. Room No. 4 is called the "Green Vault,'' from the color of its walls, and con- tains innumerable vessels of silver and gold. In another room were figures of nearly all descriptions, wrought out of pearls and precious stones. The most valuable part of the collection consists of jewels — a green diamond, weigh- ing five and a half ounces set as a hat clasp, and costing $300,000 ; a ladies' bow, with 662 diamonds, worth $1,000,- 000; the largest onyx in existence, seven inches in height. In one of the cases I saw the large set rings of Luther and Melancthon, In one case I was shown the complete regalia of Poland, consisting of innumerable jewels of cost- liest value. The Green Vault is a wonderful place, and, as may be supposed, is well protected by strong guards over each case, and stationed "at every turn and corner." Dresden is distinguished for its beautiful environs, but I caught a glimpse of them only, as the train passed going to and out of the city. BERLIN. My description of Berlin must necessarily be meagre. It is one of the great capitals of the world, competing with Vienna for the third place among the great cities of Eu- rope, and contains 1,100,000 inhabitants. If you were to ask me how it looks, I would say it looks very much like New York, as it contains about the same number of in- habitants, is quite compactly built, and having grown to its present importance during the past decade, has more modern built houses than any great city in Europe, it is situated on the Spree, which is navigable as far as Poland. As is well known, it is the residence of William I., who is both King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany ; all the chief German of^cers also reside here. It is an important centre of the railway system of Germany, one of the fore- most seats of commerce in the country, and the greatest manufacturing town in Continental Europe. The princi- pal branches of industry are engine-building, brewing, GERMAN CITIES. l6$ dyeing, the artistic handicrafts, and the manufacture of silken and woolen goods and fancy articles. What lady who knows anything of crochet work is not familiar with "Berlin wool?" Here you see it in all its perfection, and at very cheap prices. Arriving at the depot, after a six hours' ride from Dres- den, I secured a hack and proceeded to the Kaiser Hof, the grandest hotel in the city, resembling in appearance the Windsor hotel of New York. Alighting from the hack, I was met by the inevitable " portier," who spoke several languages — in this case, excellent English. He conducted me to the register, and then to an elegant room, where, with the evidences of comfort and elegance around me, I felt quite happy. I soon strolled down the street on which the hotel is located, and into "Friederich strasse," one of the most prominent business thoroughfares, and saw at a glance that Berlin was a grand city, deserving all the reputation it has abroad. The stores are beautiful to behold, and it was refreshing to see in nearly every win- dow a card hanging, with the legend, " English spoken." The chief objects of interest were all that I had time to see during the few days that I remained, and I proceeded at once to the work before me. I visited first Bismarck's house, on "Wilhelm strasse," not far from my hotel. It is a plain, but very large, brick structure, two stories and a half high, with an immense court in front. The chancellor was absent, and I had a good opportunity to view the residence of the man who stands to-day the foremost diplomatist in the world — the real power behind the German throne. Bismarck is now an old man, but "his eye is yet undimmed and his natural force unabated.'' When 1 was living at Coburg, a violent excitement arose in opposition to his internal policy all over the Empire, and he fought his battle with as much zeal and industry as if he had been a candidate for Con- gress in an American State. One of his measures was the establishment of a government monopoly for tobacco. This the Germans, who are very fond of smoking and want cheap and good cigars, bitterly opposed. At that time he would stand in the German parliament and speak 1 66 EUROPEAN NOTES. without exhaustion two and three hours at a time. While the Germans reverence Bismarck as a diplomat, they do not indorse his management of the internal affairs of the empire. But there is no denying the fact that he is among the greatest of men, and will live in history by the side of Talleyrand, Cavour, Beaconsfield, Metternich and Glad- stone, and perhaps be pronounced the greatest of them all. It was something for me to visit the home of such a man, and see the room, chair and table where he devised these schemes which have shaken empires and overthrown governments. I next went to the headquarters of Count Moltke. He, too, was absent ; but I walked through his "war depart- ment" and saw many interesting things connected with the world's greatest living Captain. Moltke, too, is an old man, over seventy, but neither he nor Bismarck have asked to be retired on a pension. There is no country on earth kept on such a war footing as Germany, the whole empire being filled with camps and training schools, five hundred thousand men being all the while under arms. Of all this vast host, Moltke, the hero of the Franco-Prussian war, is the presiding and directing genius. Near the army headquarters is the statue of Victory, consisting of an immense column, as tall, perhaps, as the Vendome Column in Paris, with a large, more than life size statue of the Goddess of Liberty on the top. It has bas relief sVditnes, of Count Moltke, Prince Bismarck and other prominent actors in the war of 1870, and it must be a scene on which a Frenchman gazes with any other than pleasurable emotions. Not far from the statue of Victory, I viewed the cele- brated panorama of the battle of Gravelotte, the most hotly contested of the whole campaign of '70, and this panorama is well worth seeing ; for it comes about as near being a correct representation of a great battle as human art can produce. Indeed, nature and art are so combined to produce the wonderful effect, that it is impossible to tell where the natural ends and where the artificial begins. An immense building, resembling the "round house'' of our railroad shops, is specially devoted to the exhibition of this sreat work of art. GERMAN CITIES. 167 Within a few steps of the statue of Victory is the world-renowned Brandenburg gate, built in imitation of the Propylasa at Athens, 85 feet in height and 205 in width, and with five different passages, that in the centre being for royal carriages The structure is surmounted by a Quadriga of Victory, in copper, by Schadow, taken to Paris by Napoleon in 1808, but restored in 18 14, after the fall of the great French general. The things I have just described are in the vicinity of the Thiergarten (zoological garden) which competes with that of London in importance. Passing through the Brandenburg gate, I entered the celebrated 'Unter der Linden,'' the handsomest street in Berlin, perhaps the handsomest in the world, the Champs Elysees of Paris only excepted. "Unter der Linden" is the long line of street extending from the Brandenburg gate to the Royal Palace, a distance of one mile. This street is 196 feet wide, and derives its name from the avenues of lime trees, interspersed with cnestnuts, with wliich it is adorned, which makes it resemble the Boulevards of Paris. It is flanked with handsome palaces, spacious hotels and at- tractive stores. The whole length of this beautiful street I walked, stopping occasionally to look at the bewitching and unique goods in the stores, or glance over the regis- ters of the hotels, or gaze at some work of art on stone, or canvas, or wood. At the corner of Paris Place is a beauti- ful palace belonging to Count Radern, in which there is a grand collection of paintings by Netherlandish masters. Next comes the residence of the Minister of Religion and Education, that being a department of the government there, like — that is, in grade — the Department of the In- terior here, for example. Next to this is the palace of the Russian Embassy, and on further, the residences of other govern^Tient celebrities. I next approached a grand aquarium, filled with all kinds of fi.^h, with which is connected a collection of birds, animals, etc. I now came to the Passage, or Kaiser Gal- lery, which leads to the corner of Frederick street. These passages or arcades are to be found in nearly all the large cities of Europe, and 1 should be very happy to see them l68 EUROPEAN NOTES. in American cities. They are the nicest places for shop- ping of which it is possible to conceive, and it is shopping "within doors," for it is all under cover, and everything fixed up in parlor style. Passing several other attractive Jtuildings. I came to the statue of Frederick the Great, by all odds the finest equestrian statue in Europe. The great king is represented on horseback, with his coronation robes and his walking stick. The pedestal is divided into three sections. The upper section contains allegorical figures and scenes from Frederick's domestic life, with figures of Moderation, Justice, Wisdom and Strength. And now I wonder if Georgia did not receive the motto on her coat of arms, which is, "Wisdom, Justice, Modera- tion," from the apotheosis of Frederick the Great ? To the right of this statue is the palace of the Emperor, which I entered, and had the pleasure of inspecting every room, every piece of furniture, every work of art, and it was a privilege not soon to be forgotten. The reception room is about 75 yards in length. The dining room seats 700 people, but the Emperor and his Empress, when no distinguished guests are present, generally take their meals at a small table which is large enough for only tvv^o. In one room is the "council table," around which the Empe- ror and Bismarck sit when deliberating on great State questions. William I. is a great man, and will occupy a conspicuous place in the history of the world. He is eighty-seven years old, but still discharges the duties of his exalted position, and even goes into the field when the troops are called out for review, or the "autumn manoeuvres." The Germans reverence him, and look upon him as the father of their country. Within a square of the Emperor**s palace is the palace of the Crown Prince, soon to be Emperor, in the natural course of things, when an English lady. Queen Victoria's oldest daughter, will be the Empress. On the opposite side of the street, 1 viewed the great University, which has annuaUy about 4,000 students. Many Americans were in attendance, some of whom I met. I visited the royal library, which contained some inter- GERMAN CITIES. 1 69 esting curiosities among its 900,000 volumes and 15,000 manuscripts. Among these were the first impressions of Luther's translation of the Bible, Melancthon's report of the Diet of Worms, Gutenberg's Bible on parchment of 1450, the first book printed with movable types, minia- tures by Lucas Cranach, Luther's artist friend, etc. I crossed the Palace Bridge over the Spree, which is one of the most beautiful bridges in the world, adorned with all the embellishments of art, particularly with eight groups of marble, illustrative of the life of a warrior. Vic- tory first teaches a boy the history of the heroes ; Minerva instructs the youth in the use of weapons ; Minerva pre- sents the combatant with arms ; Victory crowns the con- queror ; Victory raises the wounded warrior; Minerva ex- cites him to a new conquest ; Minerva protects and aids a combatant, and Iris conducts the victorious fallen warrior to Olympus. These groups are all by the greatest masters, and are all full life size. To the left beyond the bridge, is a beautiful park with a statue of Frederick William IIL I next came to the Royal Palace, perhaps the largest and most imposing in Europe, built in the form of a rect- angle, six hundred and fifty feet in length and three hundred and eighty feet in depth, enclosing two larger and two smaller courts. It rises in four stories to the height of one hundred feet, while the dome is two hun- dred and thirty feet in height. The whole contains over six hundred rooms, and these are all furnished in the most royal style, while the walls are adorned with the finest paintings that the greatest artists of Europe could produce. This immense pile was begun about 1450, and one king after another has added to it until it has reached its pres- ent proportions. In the time of Frederick the Great all the royal family resided in the palace, but now only Prince Frederick Charles and Prince Leopold have apartments there. The palace looks sombre and gloomy, and is really the great haunted house, so terrible to Prussian kings. There is a "ghost story" associated with the palace to this effect : Whenever a death in the Hohenzollern family is to occur, a white lady appears to portend the same. The apparition is said to have appeared last in February, 1840, 170 EUROPEAN NOTES. in this palace, and Frederick William III. died soon after. It is thought Emperor William's time will be next, as he is now 87 years old, and the spectre is thought likely to appear at any time. This "white lady" is said to be the ghost of the Countess Agnes of Orlamunde, who murder- ed her two children, that she might be enabled to marry the Burggrave Albert of Nuremberg, ancestor of the elec- tors of Brandenburg. It is astonishing how superstitious people are, the world over, about ghosts. While I write, the people of Macon are intensely excited over an apparition which nightly appears near the Fair Grounds, and the spot is visited by hundreds, some of whom fancy it looks like a child, others that it looks like a bride, while others think it resembles a sack of flour, all to the amusement of some fellow in a contiguous house, perhaps, who with a looking-glass or other "magic" contrivance, is throwing a human shaped white light into the midst of the wondering multitude. But the Bible tells of ghosts ; and Shakespeare tells of ghosts "doomed for a certain time to walk the night," and of others that "did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets," and our nurses all told us of ghosts in our child- hood, and perhaps it is well enough to let people occa- sionally indulge their penchant for the mysterious. Near the palace, one of the finest buildings in Berlin appears in the shape of the "Old Museum," and at the back of this the "New Museum," each of which would require a month to be examined carefully. Connected with these is the "Picture Gallery," the mere nucleus of which was purchased of Mr. Solby, an Englishman, for $750,000, the whole collection now being worth millions. The "National Gallery,'' which will soon rank with that of Dresden, contains one of the finest collections of paintings in the world. The modern paintings especially are very fine. Near this place I visited a great curiosity in the way of art. It was the Annual Art Exhibition of modern paint- ings by the great living artists. The building which contains this monster collection covered four acres ; the Exhibition lasted four months, and the pictures were gen- erally for sale. GERMAN CITIES. 171 To see all that I have here described, of course, took several days, well employed, and I soon found Sunday upon me. All the great galleries and art collections are open on Sunday, and it is generally "free day," but I preserved my American habits and concluded to spend Sunday in the churches. At nine o'clock I noticed that there would be services at the Baptist church. Securing a hack, I proceeded to the church on a somewhat retired street, where I found a good congregation, worshipping very much as our Baptist congregations worship in this country, but using a very different language. I next proceeded to the American chapel, which, at eleven o'clock, I found filled with a large, elegant looking congregation of American and English people, while the services were conducted by a minister from Rhode Island, who preached a very good sermon. Going into the church, I met some of my fellow passen- gers of the "City of Chester," and enjoyed a pleasant re- union. The services being over, I formed the acquaint- ance of the minister, who was temporarily sojourning at Berlin, and belonged at home to the Congregationalists. I also met some American students, among the number a son of the late Dr. T. V. Moore, of Nashville, who was there as a student of theology. There were many otherthings in Berlin which I greatly enjoyed, such as fine churches, parks, drives, etc., but I cannot dwell upon all. The Conservatory of Music here is very celebrated and ranks with that of Leipsic. And here, as may be supposed, you have every opportunity for hearing good music. In the parks, in the elegant beer gardens, in the splendid halls fitted up for the purpose, you can be nightly regaled with the finest productions of Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, Wagner and Brahms. After all, Berlin is called a dull place, compared with Paris or Vienna. We shall see what Paris and Vienna are further on. In the meantime, we can but admire the stately buildings, wide and lovely streets, great factories, towering palaces and magnificent art displays of the great German capital. 1/2 EUROPEAN NOTES. A DAY IN POTSDAM. Potsdam, a city of 46,000 inhabitants, sixteen miles from Berlin, the summer home of the Prussian kings, to be seen in all its glory, should be seen in summer. I was com- pelled to visit it in October, and October in Northern Ger- many is a cold month. The day that I spent in Potsdam was one of the coldest I ever experienced, and yet I was clad as warmly as the heaviest winter clothing could make me. Flannels are always worn in Germany, and I have found them quite comfortable in July. In the coldest weather two overcoats are worn, the ordinary overcoat, such as we wear in this country, and over this the " Kai- ser mantle," a large, loose, long, heavy garment with a cape. Many of the people wear overcoats lined through- out with sealskin, otter, rabbit and other furs; and with all these, it is sometimes difficult to keep warm in winter. My " Kaiser mantle" I brought back to America with me, but I have had but little use for it here. On this journey to Potsdam I was in company with three intelligent Scotchmen, whose acquaintance I had formed at the "-Kaiser Hof," and I found them most agree- able companions, who added no little to the interest of the visit. We left Berlin early in the morning, and reached the station at Potsdam in thirty minutes. We found the place, even in October, picturesque and beautiful. It has wide streets, stately residences, large and handsome parks and gorgeous palaces. Carlyle calls Potsdam an "amphib- ious town,'' as there is quite as much water there as land, built as it is on the arms of the Havel. In giving an ac- count of it, I shall speak only of what I saw, and the order in which I saw it. Taking a hack, we proceeded first to Babelsberg, the picturesque palace of Emperor William, situated in the centre of a large park. The Emperor was absent at the time, and we were permitted to visit all parts of the immense structure — the reception room, parlors, dining hall, bed rooms, etc. The walls are adorned with beautiful pictures by the great masters, and the furniture was such as one might expect to find in the home of such a ruler. I was particularly interested in viewing the room GERMAN CITIES. 1/3 where the great king nightly slept. There was the little single German bed in which he slept, with the inevitable feather bed to cover with. Near his bed stood an ordi- nary table, dear to the Emperor because it was made by his son, the Crown Prince. Every German must learn a trade, and the trade of him who is soon to be Emperor of the proud German Empire is that of a cabinet maker. This table, perhaps one of the first specimens of his skill, is kept here near the Emperor's bed, who thinks there is naught in the world equal to " Our Fritz." From the top of the palace we had a fine view of Pots- dam, Sans-Souct, the Marble Palace, the expanse of the Havel, and the woods and hills. A large lake near the palace is filled with choice fish, and on its bosom the forms of innumerable water-fowls are seen gracefully moving. From Babelsberg we proceeded to Sans-Souci, known all over the world as the summer home of Frederick the Great. Sans-Souci means, " without care," and if there be any place in the world deserving of that name it must have been this at the time the great Frederick lived there, and it was his almost constant residence. It stands also in a beautiful park on an eminence above the town, and strange to say, is only one story high. It was built for comfort, and Frederick, like many other sensible people, had no fondness for climbing stair steps. I had always been an admirer of Frederick the Great, and classed him with the Hannibals, Caesars, Napoleons, Wellingtons and Washing- tons of the world. In some respects he was the superior of them all ; in many he was the inferior of our own Wash- ington. When a boy I heard Edward Everett's great eulogy on Washington. In that he compares the Father of his country with Frederick the Great. I can never forget how reproachfully he spoke when, having drawn a picture of the great German, he closed by saying, "This is the man who, when he died, requested that he might be buried among his dogs at Potsdam." And now I was at Potsdam, at Sans-Souci, and standing on the very terraces where the graves of these dogs were to be seen. On entering the palace, we found the rooms of Frede- rick the Great just as he had left them. The main interest 174 EUROPEAN NOTESo of the building consists in the many reminiscences of the great founder to be seen. A clock which he was in the habit of winding up is said to have stopped at the precise moment of his death. His portrait (in his 56th year), by Pesne, is said to be the only likeness for which he ever sat. The walls are hung with attractive pictures, and the libra- ry is adorned with marble busts of celebrated characters. The west wing contains a room that was occupied by Voltaire, who was a great personal friend of Frederick, and spent most of his time at Sans-Souci. French was the court language at that time, and Frederick could speak and write it as well as he could German, and I have seen many of his autograph letters in that language. Near the palace is the picture gallery, which has yielded up its finest works to the museum at Berlin, but there are many left well worth seeing, especially the dozen or more paintings by Rubens. Near Sans-Sottci stands the historic windmill, which but for an incident connected with it, would look sadly out of place. When Frederick, with millions at his dis- posal, was improvi'-g Sans-Souci^ this old windmill stood in the way, owned by a plain but honest man. Frederick approached him one morning and told him that he needed the site of that mill, but he would pay him for it. The man responded that he was attached to his mill, and did not wish to part with it. "But," said Frederick, "I will give you a large price for it, and must have it.'' The man replied, "You are Frederick the Great and King of Prussia, and you have millions, but you have not money or power enough to take my mill from me, and you cannot get it." Frederick, instead of becoming enraged, admired the old fellow's pluck, and told him to keep it unmolested, and there it has been standirig ever since, the only shabby looking thing in that elysian region, and yet an object of curious interest to all because of this incident. Passing the old windmill, we proceeded to the orange- ry, an idea of which can be best conveyed to you, if I tell you to imagine a small Florida orange grove under glass. It is in the Florentine style, three hundred and thirty yards in length. It is a most charming place, containing besides GERMAN CITIES. 1/5 orange trees, many valuable plants and flowers. On the terrace — and Sans-Soiici is a place of terraces — are two columns with statues of Ceres and Flora, and a copy of the Farnese Bull. The central saloon on the ground floor contains forty-five copies from Raphael. It was quite a delight to examine these, for Raphael, who died young, painted but ninety pieces, and here were forty-five, said to be exact copies. It is said this orangery, which is nothing but a unique palace with an "all-out-doors" con- servatory, was built by Frederick William IV., for his sister. Queen Catharine of Russia. Having left Sans Souci, we called at a restaurant, where we secured an elegant repast. After sight-seeing, it is astonishing what an appetite one has ; and the exercise required in visiting these great objects of interest is just the thing to make the blood course hotly through the veins and bring back the lost roses to the cheeks. Hence, there is no better prescription for an overworked man than travel in Europe. Rested and refreshed, we now visited the Garrison church, one of the most interesting spots in the world to a German, because it holds the re- mains of Frederick the Great, and of his father, Frederick William I., the founder of the church. Flags captured during the Franco-Prussian war are suspended from each side of the pulpit, and the tower contains musical bells which play every half hour. I entered the vault back of the pulpit and was alone with the remains of the illustri- ous Frederick and those of his father. They rest in two small sarcophagi, and the whole arrangement is exceed- ingly simple and unpretending — quite unlike the gorgeous tomb of Napoleon, in the Hotel des Invalides in Paris. But it was to me, and must be to all, a spot eminently solemn and suggestive. All must die, or Frederick the strong, the brave, the powerful, would not have left the hediWt'xQS oi Sans Soiici ioY this dark abode. The mighty King of Prussia, who had conquered kings, must at last yield to the King of Terrors. "It is appointed unto all men once to die," and Horace beautifully says, "Death visits with impartial steps the hovels of the poor and the palaces of kings." The grave of Frederick the Great is 176 EUROPEAN NOTES. the trysting spot of the German nation, and the fountain of their inspiration. When Napoleon was overrunning all Europe with his victorious army, it is said that tliree Emperors repaired to Potsdam, entered the Garrison church, walked into the vault, and got upon their knees before the tomb of Frederick, and there swore that they would never rest until they had broken the power of Na- poleon. The result of that vow was first seen at Leipsic, where Napoleon was defeated by the allies, and subse- quently at Waterloo, where he was routed, horse, foot, and dragoons. I stood long musing at this grave, and the sexton gave me a candle which had been about half burnt out over the tomb of the great man, and I have it now, as a valuable relic, to show to those who take an interest in such things. We drove through and around Potsdam in every direction, and feasted our eyes on many a lovely scene, too tedious to describe. One object more I will mention and then close, jiamely, what is called the new palace of Frederick the Great. It was built just after the seven years' war, by the great man, for the purpose of showing the world that he still had money. This palace has two hundred apartments, richly decorated, and those occupied by the founder are still preserved unaltered. Part of the upper floor is fitted up as a summer residence for the Crown Prince, and he and his family were there when we entered. The vestibule contains the chairs where Frederick's dogs used to sleep. These chairs would cost about fifty dollars each, but they were not too good for his dogs. The Grotto Saloon is inlaid with shells and precious stones. Imagine a room as large as one of our largest churches, with pearls, amethysts, opals and sap- phires glittering from every square foot in the walls, and you will form some idea of the marvelous costliness of this building, which, like the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, was erected for "the might of his power and for the honor of his majesty." The apartments of Frederick remain unaltered and contain many reminiscences of the illus- trious man. Night was upon us, and worn out with viewing the un- rivaled objects of interest furnished by Potsdam, we GERMAN CITIES. 1/7 returned to Berlin, congratulating ourselves that we had accomplished so much in such a little time. NUREMBERG. Nuremberg is one of the most interesting old cities in Germany or the world, and he who visits the Fatherland without seeing it will have much to regret. But there is not much danger of neglecting this place, for the foreigner is always asked, "Have you seen Nuremberg?" If you answer " No," the remark is immediately made, " It is sehr interressant." The interest which clings to it in dis- tinction from other business centres, is its antiquity, and the m.any quaint houses and other relics of the past there to be seen. It is a city of the middle ages, and no other city is so well calculated to convey an idea of the wealth and importance of a mediaeval city as well as the develop- ment of art. The place has about 100,000 inhabitants. It was mentioned in history as early as 1050, and was the residence after of the Emperors Henry IV. and Barba- rossa. Until 1806 it was an independent town of the empire, but has since belonged to Bavaria. At the beginning of the loth century it was the centre of trade. between Germany, Venice and the East. At this time it attained its highest distinction in the realms of art, Al- bert Durer, Wolgemuth, Kulmbach, Adam Krafft and: Peter Visscher having flourished there, leaving behind, them many monuments of their genius and attainments,, which may be seen to-day. It is a well known fact that the principles of the Reformation found great favor here,, and in 1526 Melancthon founded the gymnasium, which. is still in a flourishing condition. Since Nuremberg became a Bavarian town it has pros- pered greatly, and is now the most important seat of trade- and manufacture in South Germany. It was once the great toy depot of the world, but Sonneberg is outstripping it in that class of goods now. It has innumerable foun- dries, and among the great establishments I noticed an American stove factory, which is nothing less than a place where American stoves are imitated and sold at about one- half the price at which they can be made in this country,. 12 178 EUROPEAN NOTES. It is a fact worth recording that the most popular of our American goods are imitated abroad, and at sometimes one fourth the cost at which they are made here, owing to the cheapness of labor and cost of living there, and yet there are those of all political parties who are ever clam- oring for free trade. There are many fortifications about Nuremberg which date from the middle ages, and are still well preserved. They consist of a rampart encircling the town, provided at different intervals with towers of peculiar shapes, and a dry moat thirty- five feet wide and fifty feet deep. The town is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Pegnitz, which is crossed by several bridges. My hotel, the " Bayenscher Hof," the finest in its cias hie and general management, though several hundred years old, is situated on the banks of the river and near one of the bridges which is the "Rialto" of Nuremberg. The Hangman's Bridge, leading from the old prisons to the Lawrence side of the town, may be called the "Bridge of Sighs." The old Burg, or castle, was founded in 1024 by Conrad II., and extended by the old red-bearded Emperor Barbarossa. In the court is a venerable lime tree, said to have been planted by the Empress Canigunde, eight hundred years ago. On the east wall of the castle two hoof-shaped impressions are shown, which are said to have been left by the horse of a robber knight, who was brought here a prisoner in the i6th century, but escaped by leaping over the moat. The incident gave rise to the sarcastic proverb, "The Nurembergers hang no man unless they have caught him." (A different proverb would have to be devised for Americans.) The well here is 300 feet deep, and candles are lowered to show its depth to curious observers. A few minutes' walk east of the castle brings us to a tower which -contains a Torture Chamber, almost equal to the Chamber of Horrors (before described) in Madame Tussaud's Gallery in London. It consists of a collection of instruments of torture in their original forms, arranged progressively, up to the terrible " Iron Virgin," which is a hollow figure with projecting knives in the interior, into which malefactors were thrust. GERMAN CITIES. I79 Nuremberg has three splendid churches or cathedrals, one of which, the St. Lawrence, I attended, and where I saw many wonderful works of art, the paintings by Durer and the sculpture by Krafft. I visited the museums, but they, like all other institutions of the kind, were filled with curiosities too numerous to take notes of. The statue and residence of Albert Durer, v/ho was to Nuremberg what Titian was to Venice, or Rubens to Antwerp, are well worth seeing. But what was especially interesting to us was walking and driving about and over the quaint old city, viewing its curiously constructed old German houses, with their tile covered, angular-shaped roofs, with their innumerable dormer windows. And then the narrow, irregular streets, with cobble-stones over which the Teutonic multitudes have been tramping for centuries, and on either side of these streets unique stores with immense stocks of new and elegant goods, the products of their own factories — these were the things that most interested us. I visited Nuremberg often, but this was an occasion of extraordinary interest, for it was the season of the great Bavarian Exposition, which began in June, and ended in October, and was the largest and finest ever held in Ger- many. This Exposition was held in large and beautifully ornamented grounds, organized at enormous expense, and visited by thousands from all over Germany and the whole of Europe. When it is considered what a sphere for manufactures, art, etc., Europe is ; and particularly what a country Germany is ; and when it is also considered that this great Exposition brought together at one place the cream of all that was excellent and attractive in commerce and industry, you can form a pretty good idea of what a magnificent display it was. The buildings themselves were as beautiful as good taste and boundless means could make them, to say nothing of the glittering wares they contained. An incident occurred while we were viewing the Expo- sition, worthy of note. My family was with me, and in going through one of the halls one of our number said, 'T do believe there is our duchess,'' alluding to the Duchess l80 EUROPEAN NOTES. of Coburg, where we lived. On looking, I saw that it was our duchess in truth, with two maids of honor, moving incogtiito, and at that moment coming towards us. What shall I do ? Shall I speak to her? was my first thought. I knew that such things were not customary in Germany, as it is always proper to be presented when her Grand Ducal Highness is to be addressed. But she was traveling incog., and I was quite sure I was — she designedly and I undesignedly. Yet here were three ladies whom I knew, the duchess and her maids of honor. We all lived in the same town, and knew each other. Yet she was the wife of Duke Ernest, sister-in-law of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and sister to the Grand Duke of Baden. But I was a Consul of the United States, had been presented to her highness, and had several times enjoyed the hospi- tality of her palace. Why should I not speak? Just then meeting, we mutually extended hands, had a " hearty shake," and so with each member of my family ; and a charming little conversation followed. I never saw her more affable and pleasant. On going to the large restaurant, we had seats with the family of the President of the Ducal Ministry of Co- burg, who happened to be there. "I have seen our duch- ess," I said to his accomplished daughter. "Impossible," said she, "she is not here." "Yes, she is,'' I remarked, "for I have seen her and had a conversation with her.'' "Why, Mr. Wharton, that is perfectly shocking!" she said. "Well," said I, "ask your father, and we will leave it to his decision as a point of etiquette." The old gen- tleman was appealed to, who said I did perfectly right, that I was an officer of the United States government, a republican country, and that I had already been received at court, and meeting each other unawares, it was right and proper to speak and talk with her highness. I felt considerably relieved, for knowing the punctiliousness of these court observances, I was a little ill at ease for a few moments after the pleasant interview occurred. A day or two afterwards, the duchess passed our house at Co- burg, and gave a low graceful bow and most cordial smile. GERMAN CITIES. l8l when I knew that "honors were easy," and that I was ^'rec- tus in curiaP This same duchess, by the way, is one of the purest, best and noblest of earth's women, and I trust that she may long live to be the ornament of the Coburg house and the benefactress of her loving and devoted subjects. CHAPTER VIII. GERMAN DRINKS. BEER. Beer is of course drank in the United States, and the appetite for it seems to be ever on the increase. Hun- dreds of breweries have been established all over the land, and some of them, as in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York and Philadelphia, are very cele brated, not only for the quantity but for the character of the beer made by them. But one really knows nothing about the enormous consumption of this beverage until he visits Germany, the "fatherland," in an especial sense, of beer. Even the breweries in the United States have resulted from, and are owned and sustained by the Ger- man population. As the ancient heathen emigrants always carried their gods with them, so the Germans, go where they will, must ever have their favorite beverage, beer. In Germany the very soil is tilled that its products may be converted into beer, and the very rivers seem almost diverted from their channels that they may flow through beer barrels. In every city, town and village, magnificent breweries may be counted by the hundreds, while often almost every other house seems a beer saloon, or restaurateur, where the thirsty population collect in crowds and sip "the happy hours away," for ordinarily it takes a German about half an hour to drink a glass and sometimes an hour or longer. Some of these saloons, like the chief saloons in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, etc., are marvels of beauty and magnificence, adorned often with GERMAN DRINKS. 1 83 the finest works of art. Then they gradually descend to the poor, cheerless, filthy-looking dens of the "peasants," where these sons and daughters of toil and poverty con- gregate to drink up their last "pfennig" in the refreshing liquid. Wagons filled with bottled beer may be seen go- ing through the streets at all hours of the day, supplying the orders of the upper classes, while all along the streets, men and women and children go with a mug of beer in each hand, taking it to their humble abodes, to be used in conjunction with the inevitable rye bread, and perhaps a bit of sausage, as their morning, noon or evening repast. Old, young, rich, poor — all drink beer. I have seen mothers steep the "sugar tit" of their babies in beer before putting it to their mouths. At all the parties I have at- tended among the nobility, after the most costly and de- licious viands have been disposed of, and the finest wines have been drunk, beer was invariably handed round. Even at the palace of the Duke of Coburg, after a dinner com- posed of fourteen courses, accompanied by fourteen dif- ferent kinds of wines, had been served, "Pilmer" beer was brought on the table. In addition to the numerous res- taurateurs always open and always well patronized, in every city and town there are elegant ciub houses where ladies and gentlemen meet to enjoy themselves socially and drink beer. When a musical concert is given (and they are all the time being given), the gentlemen come with their cigars and the ladies with their fancy work, and sitting in groups around innumerable tables, drink glass after glass of beer, as they listen to the enlivening strains of the always excellent music. To give some idea of the enormous quantity of beer drank here, our Consul at Munich states that, taking the population of that place and the quantity of beer reported as drank during the year in the official statistics and aver- aging the same, he discovered that each person in Munich drinks every year 278 gallons, or over 1,162 quarts, or over three quarts a day for each man, woman, child, infant. But then, from this estimate must be taken the quantity drank by soldiers stationed there, and visitors, which, of course, is considerable. A gentleman in Coburg told me 1 84 EUROPEAN NOTES. he knew a man who had drank as many as twelve glasses while the clock was striking twelve — a glass for each stroke of the hammer, and the glasses held over a pint. No won- der then that Mark Twain said the first expression a foreigner hears on coming to Germany is " Zwei glass bier." Now, something may be said in extenuation of this habit, which to Americans seems vulvar and disgusting in the extreme, i. They drink it here in lieu of the water, which is very bad and unwholesome all over Europe. In Munich, particularly, the water is considered the next thing to poison. All over Germany it is full of lime, flat and insipid, and said to be very deleterious to the stomach. Beer, on the other hand, is thought to be very healthy. 2. Drink- ing beer takes away thirst for strong drink, and whiskey, brandy, rum, etc., are at a discount here. Drunkenness is nothing like so common as in America or England, and the beer really seems to have no intoxicating effect. 3. There is something in the climate that seems to render a gentle stimulant necessary, and beer, from actual results, is believed to be the one designed by nature for the inhab- itants of this cold, damp northern latitude. Notwith- standing all this, I can but think the practice as it exists very demoralizing, and, as I have said, disgusting beyond expression. But here it is not considered in the slightest degree so. The best, most celebrated and refined think it no discredit to sit over a mug of beer, in one of these saloons in company with their friends. I have even seen ministers of the gospel, in high position in the State Church, enjoy the indulgence with as ready a grace as the most practiced lay " guzzler." Martin Luther himself, his biographer tells us, was fond of " Zwa Eimbech beer." After his celebrated defence at Wurms, a certain Duke George sent him a glass which he drank gratefully, saying, "As Duke George hath remembered me, so may the Lord Jesus Christ remember him in his last agony," and when the said duke came to die, he thought of this benedic- tion and referred to it. No wonder, then, that in almost every beer saloon you may read in gilded letters, elegantly framed, the reputed saying of the great reformer, " Dr. Martin Luther spricht Freilich wasser thut'st nicht/' GERMAN DRINKS. 185 WINE. I have had much to say in the preceding pages on the subject of beer drinking, and beer is the national beverage ; still, it must be confessed that the Germans are equally celebrated for drinking wine. Beer they generally drink between meals, but wine is the great dinner drink. Go to any hotel table where a table cVJwte is served and you will invariably see a long line of wine bottles extending the whole length of the table, and it is the next thing to im- possible to behold a German eating his dinner without his bottle, or rather bottles of wine. They have a decided prejudice against water, honestly, and in most cases truth- fully, believing that it is unwholesome. Nearly all the water in Germany, and many other parts of Europe, is strongly impregnated with lime, and is decidedly injurious to health. In Switzerland, particularly, it frequently pro- duces dyspepsia and goitre. Wines are cheap, good and wholesome, and the Germans drink them without stint. The table wines of Germany are generally clarets, or white Moselle wines, the Teutons having a decided pre- ference for the latter. Many sections of Germany, especially the Rhine provin- ces, are literally covered with vineyards, and it is ques- tionable whether any finer wines are produced in the whole world than the Rudesheimer and Johannisberger, from the Rhine; still, as the French and Italian wines have a higher reputation, the more opulent consumers often import their wines from these countries. The very best clarets can be had at from 25 to 40 cents per quart, and a healthy German never consumes less than a quart at one sitting. It is a custom with the more fashionable people to serve their dinners in elaborate courses, and to use a different wine with each course, champagne being reserved to the last. It is astonishing what fine judges of wine the Germans are. It is almost impossible to deceive them. One of them wagered 100 marks that he could date the vintage of any wine blindfolded. The bet was accepted, the man blindfolded, and one bottle after another presented to his 1 86 EUROPEAN NOTES. lips. The first he said was of the vintage of i860, the second 1865, the third 1870, in each instance being correct. At last they presented a sample which baffled him. He tasted again and again, saying it was very poor and in- sipid, but entirely new to him. At last he said, "I give it up, you may have the money." On taking off the bandage he discovered that it was water. "Gentlemen," said he, "you needn't think it strange that I didn't know it, for I have not tasted a teacupful of it since I was a baby." WATER. While the Germans are prejudiced against water in gen- eral, they are very fond of mineral water, and use a great deal of it. It is kept for sale in all the saloons, drug stores, and hotels, and in the cities and tovvns is delivered by wagons, in syphons and ordinary bottles. But in order to get the best effect of mineral water, it must be drank fresh at the fountain, and no people in the world throng watering places to the extent that the Germans do. Germany, as is well known, is celebrated for its mineral springs, and a proper description of them would require a volume. I propose to write here of only those that I visited, and give a mere outline of these. Most of my readers have heard of, or seen, the "Friedrich's Halle Bit- ter Water." The spring is located about twelve miles from Coburg, in a field or meadow from which it is conducted by pipes to the packing house, where thousands of gal- lons are bottled, packed and thence shipped to all parts of the world. We drank the water at the fountain, or rath- er, tasted it, for a taste is enough of the mean, nauseating fluid. The water is shipped to the United States through the Sonneberg Consulate, and usually it formed a consid- erable item in the Statement of Exports. The proprietor was very polite to us, and gave us as many bottles as we could conveniently take along in our carriage. While this water has a very high reputation in the United States, it is not thought so much of in Germany, particularly in the neighborhood of the spring. Even mineral springs are not without honor save in their own country. Wiesbaden we passed on the Rhine, one of the oldest GERMAN DRINKS. 187 and most celebrated of the world's greatest spas, annually visited by 60,000 patients and travelers. The excellence of its sanitary establishments, coupled with its fine cli- mate, makes it a favorite resort with strangers even in winter. The town of Wiesbaden contains 47,000 inhab- itants, and is the chief town of the Prussian province of Wiesbaden. This watering-place is so old, an account of it is found in Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxi: 2) "Sunt et Matti- aci in Germania, fontes calidi trans Rhenum, quorum haustus triduo ferret." On the Heidelberg, near the town, relics of a Roman fortress were discovered in 1838, which, according to an inscription, was garrisoned by the 14th and 22d legions. A place better known to Americans is Baden, called Baden-Baden, to distinguish it from a Baden near Vienna and Baden in Switzerland. It lies at the entrance of the Black Forest, and vies with Heidelberg in the beauty of its situation. Next to Wiesbaden it is the most popular re- sort, 40,000 people visiting it annually. The climate is exceedingly mild and healthy. Near the church, which is well worth visiting, are the Hot Springs, twenty in num- ber, which have all been enclosed and are conducted by pipes to the bath establishments. Among the visitors here may be found many English and American people. One of these, a distinguished physician from New York, died there during my consulate at Sonneberg, and, as related in previous pages, his body was sent to me for cremation. While not a pleasant task that was de- volved upon me, it was a novel and interesting one, and made me perfectly familiar with the whole process of cre- mation Carlsbadt, in the Bohemian mountains, is another pop- ular and attractive resort, with 18,000 visitors annually, and with waters that are thought to be especially efifica- cious in liver diseases. The springs, according to tradi- tion, were discovered in 1347, by Emperor Charles IV., while hunting, in consequence of which a statue has been erected to him near the Town Hall. I passed Franzensbad on the railroad, a watering-place with a chalybeate and saline spring. The park is beauti- l88 EUROPEAN NOTES. fuland contains a statue of Francis I., the founder of the baths. But of all tlie watering-places which I saw, Kissingen was my favorite. The reasons of this were that the wa- ter was better suited to my taste, I spent a longer time there than anywhere else, it was nearer my home, being only thirty miles distant ; and because I met so many agreeable Americans among the visitors. Kissingen, the most frequented of all the watering places in Bavaria, is beautifully situated on the Saale, in the valley of the Franconian mountains. The healing properties of the water were known as early as the sixteenth century and they are drank all the world over. The summer we were there, twelve thousand visitors had registered, and yet the town itself contains ordinarily only 3,500 inhabitants. Three hundred thousand bottles of water are annually ex- ported and it is a delicious beverage. It is the only thing I ever saw that could induce the Germans to lay aside their beer, but this really did. While quaffing the water the taste for alcoholic drink disappears. It is well known that artificial "Kissingen" is sold at every first-class drug store in the whole land where there is a soda apparatus, and yet I frankly say the preparation is wholly deficient in conveying any idea of what real "Kissingen" is. I would not give one glass of "Rakoezy," fresh from the spring, for a whole barrel of the pungent, artificial "stuff palmed off on those who, misled by the silver letters on the marble fount, ask for "Kissingen." The hotels at Kissingen are superb, and furnish every comfort at most reasonable charges. The " Curgarten,'' or park, where the springs are located, is one of the love- liest spots on earth. This park is embellished in the highest style of art — beautiful walks beneath the wide- spreading branches of magnificent trees, inviting the invalid or tourist to agreeable exercise ; while between them the richest of green grass affords a relief to the eyes, that are lifted ever and anon to view some statue or work of man's hand, making the beholder wonder at the rivalry ever asserting itself as to which is doing most for the scene, nature or art. There stands Hygeia, imparting to the GERMAN DRINKS. 1 89 Rakoezy and Pandur their healing properties ; while the Emperor Maximilian, in a huge statue by Arnold, a native sculptor, protects these great gifts of nature from incau- tious intrusion. In the centre of the park is a music stand where one of the best bands in Europe performs twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, when the guests crowd- ing the lawns, walks and "conversation saloons," make it one of the liveliest scenes which it is possible to imagine. The great Bismarck has a residence here, and prefers Kis- singen to any other spot when, worn and weary with the cares of state, he wishes to seek strength for his body and repose for his mind. Walking through the park one fine afternoon we halted by the band stand where hundreds of people were col- lected, listening to the music. Just as we came up, the band struck up " Hail Columbia," and then in delightful succession, "Star Spangled Banner," and " Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." The crowd loudly applauded, in which we took part con amore. My wonder why these pieces were played just then ceased when the leader of the band came up to me and extended his hand. He was the leader of our Duke Ernest's band at Coburg. Recognizing us, he did the kind thing to honor us with our national airs. We visited the Salt Cure establishment, which is an immense structure, covered with twigs and brush, over which the salt water is continually trickling, creating an atmosphere quite similar to the "salt sea air.'' Patients by the hundred sit beneath the dripping of this health sanctuary, and read, or gossip, or sleep, believing they will thus regain their lost vigor or their vanished beauty. We returned from the Salt Cure to Kissingen in a miniature steamer, on the Saale ; and it was a joyous ride, not soon to be forgotten. We saw much high living and much fine dressing at this renowned watering place ; but like the old White Sulphur, in Virginia, all seemed to be on a common level, each one anxious to make everybody else as happy as possible. CHAPTER IX. LA BELLE FRANCE, EN ROUTE TO PARIS, My consular seat, Coburg, was an admirable centre of operations, situated as it was in the heart of Germany, and from that place, as will be seen, I traveled in all di- rections. One of the most delightful trips was to Paris, the foremost capital of the world. Leaving Coburg at 12 M., we took the direction of Ba- varia by the Werra and Bavarian Government Railroad. All along the line could be seen images of our Saviour, at road crossings, in the fields, and on the walls of dwell- ings, reminding one of the days when Catholic supersti- tion brooded over the land. These images recalled to my mind an incident of the Reformation. It was the break- ing of images at Wittenberg by the followers of Carlstadt that called Luther from t\y^ Wartburg Castle, in which he was confined on his return from the Diet at Worms, where he had remained a year translating the Bible and writing works that had been pushing on the cause of the Reforma- tion. He feared that the intemperate excesses of the church destroyers and image breakers would injure his cause, and at great personal peril he abandoned his safe retreat, and proceeded to Wittenberg to try to arrest their reckless conduct. A wonderful man Luther was ! While contending against the Pope and his adherents, including the Emperor of Germany, he also had to contend against some powerful men in his own ranks, such as Zwinglius and others like him, on certain points of doctrine, and al- so against the lawless image-breakers. LA BELLE FRANCE. I9I But to proceed. Railway travel in Germany is not pleasant. We have the abominable compartment system, which would be good enough, but for the fact that you are locked in with no water to drink, and no toilet rooms, and you are sometimes thrown into companionship with rather disagreeable persons. The trains generally travel very slowly, frequently making only twelve or fifteen miles an hour. The scenes at the depots growing out of the ne- cessities of the long pent-up travelers of both sexes, are far from decent, and often in the highest degree amusing. The waiting-rooms at all the stations are beer and eating saloons, and the Germans love to eat five times a day and drink beer all the while. This is the reason they drink so little water, in addition to the fact that the water here is never good. In many places, in Munich for example, and Switzerland it is thought to be positively dangerous. Hence they look with astonishment on Americans who ask for "fresh water.'' There seems to be something in the climate that makes beer desirable and water undesira- ble. It is a fact that Luther was very fond of good Eim- bech beer. At the Diet at Worms, after his masterly de- fense, on returning to his room he found a glass of beer which a friend had sent. It so pleased him that he utter- ed his benediction on the giver saying,"As he hath remem- bered me, so may the Lord Jesus Christ remember him in his last agony." We spent the first night in Heidelberg, one of the most picturesque and beautiful places in Europe, and concern- ing which Mark Twain has given such glowing descrip- tions in his "Tramp Abroad." The city has 40,000 in- habitants, and is the seat of a great University which is largely attended by Americans. It is unfortunately the scene of many of those foolish, bloody, barbarous duels fought between students who attend the Universities in Germany, and several poor fellows with their faces hack- ed to pieces were strolling about the streets and in the depot. At Heidelberg can be seen the most interesting old castle ruins in Europe, whose decaying "ivy mantled towers" recall all of our childish visions of these relics of antiquity. 192 EUROPEAN NOTES. From Heidelberg we proceeded to Strasburg, passing Baden-Baden on the way. Strasburg is now a German city, made so by the Franco-Prussian war, has 100,000 in- habitants, and a cathedral that ranks next to that at Co- logne. The entire height of the building, including the tower, is four hundred and sixty-five feet, making it one of the highest buildings in Europe. St. Paul's in London is four hundred and four; St. Peter's at Rome is four hundred and thirty-five feet ; St. Martin's at Landehut, four hundred and sixty-two, and St. Nicolas at Hamburg, four hundred and seventy-one feet. The history of the building extends from the twelfth to the fifteenth centu- ry. The fagade, by Erwin of Steinbach, is justly the most admired part of the edifice. The sculptures of three portals, representing scenes from the history of the creation and redemption, are among the finest Gothic works in existence. The interior is wonderfully beautiful. It consists of a nave fourteen yards wide, ninety-nine feet high, and aisles, with transept in all, one hundred and twenty-one yards in length and forty-five yards in width. We were greatly interested in the famous clock in the south transept. This clock is about the size of a large church organ and arranged with galleries. On the first gallery an angel strikes the quarters with a bell in his hand, v/hile a genius at his side reverses his sand glass ev- ery hour. Higher up, around a skeleton which strikes the hours, are grouped figures representing boyhood, youth, manhood and old age. Under the first gallery the symbolic deity of each day steps out of a niche: Apollo on Sunday, Diana on Monday, and so on. In the high- est niche, at noon, the twelve apostles move around a fig- ure of the Saviour. On the highest pinnacle of the side tower is perched a cock, which flaps its wings, stretches its neck and crows, "awakening the echoes in the remotest nooks of the cathedral." The mechanism also sets in mo- tion a complete planetarium, behind which is a perfect calendar. The man who made this clock was a native of Strasburg, and tradition says, had both eyes put out for fear he would make another. STRASBUEG CATHEDRAL. LA BELLE FRANCE. I93 We saw here the bust of Guttenberg, and there is a large statue erected to his memory. He made his first experiments in printing at Strasburg about the year 1436. There are many other interesting things which we saw at Strasburg, but I must pass on or I shall not get to Paris very soon. We traversed the most attractive route through Alsace-Lorraine, gazing with delight on the "Blue Alsatian Mountains," and being deeply interested in the costumes of the peasant girls, especially the "bow" which they wear on their heads in lieu of bonnets. Some of these Alsatian girls are very beautiful, with black eyes, and long, rich, dark hair, which, 1 have been told, is "culti- vated" for market, so that many of the rich braids that come to America to be worn by our fashionable belles are clipped from the fair heads of these more beautiful but pecuniarily less favored maidens. But we have reached Avricourt, the line between Ger- many and France, and must undergo custom-house formalities, which are a great nuisance to many, and lo! in the twinkling of an eye a new language is spokeno . "Parlez vouz Francaise." No more "sprechen zie Deutsch!" But on we go, "first class" in France being the same as to comfort and elegance as "second class" in Germany. The whistle blows, a grand city looms up before us. It is Paris. THE FAMOUS FRENCH CAPITAL. As I had telegraphed from Strasburg for rooms, we were met by an English-speaking courier who conducted us to the Hotel de la Tamise, on the Rue Rivoli, right in front of the Tuileries. I found we were in the " English quar- ter," where, in the hotels, stores, and on the streets, you hear almost as much English as French spoken. The weather was delightful, and Paris, I imagine, never wore a gayer appearance. We concluded to secure a guide recommended by the proprietor, who was Mr. Charles Peaux, an elderly gentleman of elegant manners and great intelligence, who knew all about the wonderful city. He showed me letters of recommendation from Dr. Lewis Rogers and Rev. J. H. Heywood, of Louisville, and in- 13 1^4 EUROPEAN NOTES. formed me that he had accompanied these gentlemen in a tour over the continent. The first place we visited, though in doing this we had to pass through the garden, and in front of the rums of the Tuileries, was the Louvre, the most important public building in Paris. Its name is said to be derived from louverie, or wolf resort, being on the site where once stood a hunting chateau built in 1233, by Philip Augustus, i he castle, which consisted of four wings inclosing a quadran- gle, was furnished as a royal residence by Charles V. in , but no trace of the original building remains. ihe foundation of the present building was laid by Francis I., whose architect, Lescot, continued to superintend the works under subsequent monarchs for thirty years, ihe construction of the south wing was continued under Cath- erine de Medici, Francis II., Charles IX., and Henry III. Henry IV. constructed the Gallerie d'Apollon, _ Louis XIV restored a considerable part of the palace which had been destroyed by f^re. The building was then neglected until the time of Napoleon I., who caused the whole to be thoroughly restored. The building was not completed when Napoleon died, but Napoleon III. completed the north gallery in magnificent style, and at a cost of fifteen million dollars. It is sad to think that the man who did so much for this wonder of architecture and for Pans is now in that silent land " unwept, unhonored and unsung. All through the spacious halls may be seen vacant places from which the portraits, busts and name of Napoleon III. have been removed and erased. The old apartments of the Louvre have been used as a museum since 1793. The ground floor contains innu- merable galleries of sculpture, some of them highly re- nowned, particularly the Venus of Milo, and a piece by Michael Angelo. The Egyptian collection is said to be the finest in Europe. But the charm of the Louvre consists in its picture galleries. I was prepared to expect some- thing wonderful, for 1 had seen the great Dresden and Berlin galleries, and was told that the Louvre was greater still But 1 did not expect that I would be so over- whelmed and bewildered with the exhibition of rare and LA BELLE FRANCE. I95 magnificent paintings as I was in the Louvre, One really traverses acres of galleries, where are displayed in all their bewitching beauty the finest works of Raphael, Titian, Guido, Reni, Rubens, Paul Veronese, Leonardo da Vinci, Murillo, Holbein, Claude Lorraine, Joseph Vernet, and other great masters of all the great schools. From the Louvre we went, by way of recreation, up and down the magnificent boulevards of Paris, riding on the top of the tramways — the best way to see them. I can only say they consist of a series of Broadways, where the crowds are so great and the hackmen so reckless that you are in danger of being run over. We visited the Bourse, which is similar to the gold-room in New York, where the lunatics daily gather to rant and rave over their millions. We passed the statue of Marshal Ney, which stands on the spot where that gallant officer was shot by sentence pronounced against him by the Chamber of Peers, De- cember 6, 18 1 5, for having gone over to the First Napoleon instead of fighting him. We visited, of course, the Champs Elysees. This beau- tiful thoroughfare was laid out and planted with limes in the seventeenth century. By "Champs Elysees'' is now understood the entire avenue from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, The lower end I found filled v/ith cafes, jugglers, mauviettes, merry-go-rounds, and innocent amusements for children. The upper part was crowded with the elite of Paris in their magnificent vehicles, and the thousands of pedestrians who can not afford a vehicle. Vv^'e next visited the Place de la Concorde, said to be the finest place in Paris, Europe, or the world. It is situ- ated between the garden of theTuileries and the Champs Elysees, From the centre of the place, where stands the obelisk of Luxor, sister monolith to Cleopatra's Needle, can be seen the Arc de Triomphe, the Madeleine church, the ruins of the Tuileries, the Corps Legislatif, and many other fine buildings. On the 30th of May, 1770, at a display of fireworks to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin, afterwards Louis 196 EUROPEAN NOTES. XVI., with Marie Antoinette, a panic arose from some unexplained cause, which resulted in twelve hundred per sons being crushed to death and two thousand seriously injured. During the Reign of Terror, in 1793, the guillotine was erected on the spot where now stands the obelisk. Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were the first victims. Be- tween January of that year and May, 1795, upwards of two thousand persons were decapitated. We had a good view several times of the Opera House, the largest theatre in the world, which covers an area of nearly three a-cres.- Between four and five hundred houses were demolished to provide the site, which cost over two million dollars. We entered the Madeleine church, a superb classic edi- fice, the foundation of which was laid by Louis XV. in 1763, with magnificent carvings over the entrance, repre- senting the Last Judgment, and with bronze doors adorned with groups illustrating the Ten Commandments. We visited the Arc de Triomphe, the finest arch of the kind in existence. The arc was designed by Chalgrin for Napoleon I. in 1806. It is 160 feet high, 146 broad, 72 feet deep, and cost two million dollars. The most interesting object in Paris visited by us was, I think, the church des Invalides, which contains the tomb of Napoleon L, without doubt, I suppose, the most costly and magnificent tomb in the world. The Cathedral of the Invalides consists of a square pile surmounted by a circular tower with lofty dome and twelve windows. Immediately beneath the dome is a circular crypt thirty-six feet in diameter and twenty feet deep. The walls are of polished granite, adorned with marble reliefs, the effect of which is greatly enhanced by the strong, beautiful light admitted through the stained win- dows. The mosaic pavement at the bottom represents a wreath of laurels, and from it rises the sarcophagus which contains the ashes of Napoleon I., according to his direc- tion in his will, and his words are inscribed over the en- trance to the vault ; " I desire that my ashes may rest on the banks of the river Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have so well loved." LA BELLE FRANCE. 1 97 The Palais Royal being situated near our hotel, we visit- ed it often for it is the greatest place for shopping in the city. The history of this old Palais Royal would be a history of Paris itself for two centuries and a half. It was built by Cardinal Richelieu in 1629 ; at his death it was occupied by Anne of Austria with her two young sons, Louis XIV. and Philip of Orleans. Louis XIV. presented the palace to his younger brother. The grandson of Philip, who in- habited the palace, having exhausted his means by riotous living, built the arcades at present existing and rented them out to shop-keepers to "make a raise," a device which even royalty has sometimes to resort to. The celebrated Park Bois de Boulogne next attracted us, and here we saw the result of the struggle which has been going on for centuries between nature and art, as to which could do the most to make that the most beautiful "breathing place" in the world. We saw about a dozen wedding parties there on that Saturday afternoon, it be- ing the day and place where and when many of the mid- dle classes celebrate their nuptials. We also visited "Pere la Chaise," the famous cemetery of Paris. There are no less than 18,000 monuments in this vast burial-place. The tomb of Abelard and Eloise, about which so many sentimental tears have been shed and which has been so well described by "Mark Twain" in his Innocents Abroad, we saw. In point of beauty, it can not compare with Miss Canda's monument in Green- wood Cemetery, New York; and indeed, while "Pere la Chaise'' is much larger, it is nothing like so beautiful as Cave Hill. Our intelligent guide frankly admitted that there were no cemeteries in the world equal to those in America. We passed the " Place de la Bastile," but there is no- thing there but a stone or two to mark the spot where that massive old castle and prison stood. The "July Monument," near by, is worth seeing. It is 154 feet high, and the base of white marble. It most exactly resembles the statue of Victory, in Berlin, erected in honor of the victory over the French in 1870. The Vendome Column claimed no little of our atten- 198 EUROPEAN NOTES. tion, situated only two squares from our hotel, and in full view. This was constructed by order of Napoleon I., to commemorate victories over the Russians and Austrians. It is 142 feet high and 13 feet in diameter, built of ma- sonry, cuirassed with plates of bronze representing scenes of the campaign of 1805, the metal of which is composed of 1,200 guns taken from the Russians and Austrians. We visited the Palace of Justice, and heard speeches from eminent lawyers; but as they were delivered in French, we did not understand all that was said. Right by the Palace of Justice stands the Sainte Cha- pelle, the prettiest little church in the world, having been finished when Gothic architecture had just attained its highest perfection. It was used in 1245-48, during the reign of St. Louis, for the reception of relics from the Holy Land. We could only see the gardens of the Palace of the Luxembourg, as it was closed for repairs. It contains a magnificent collection of modern paintings, which I was anxious to see, and worried no little that we reached the spot just after the doors were closed. We felt repaid in looking at the gardens, for flowers bloom nowhere more beautifully than in France. We spent some time in viewing the Pantheon, that large and imposing structure which stands on the highest ground in Paris, and may be called the " Westminster Abbey" of France. The foundation was laid by Louis XV. in 1764. It was built for a church, but during the Convention it was converted into a memorial temple under the name it bears. It is in the form of a Greek cross, 123 yards long and 92 wide. The dome is 272 feet high. The interior is simple and extremely bare, the decorations being not yet finished. We were admitted to the vaults wherein were buried Mirabeau, Marat, Voltaire, etc. As I gazed upon Voltaire's splendid memorial, I thought could the " storied urn and animated bust back to its mansion call the breath" of the deceased after his long experience in the other world, how differently would he write and speak. We, of course, paid a visit to Notre Dame, the cathe- dral of the archbishop of Paris, founded in 1163, on the LA BELLE FRANCE. 1 99 site of a church of the fourth century. It has been fre- quently altered and restored, the last time in 1845. I have seen no cathedral since reaching the Old World that made a better impression on me than this world-renowned temple, aUhough the tout ensemble is diminished by the high buildings that surround it. We attended a brief service and heard the most charming of sacred music, then visited the treasury, in Vv^hich are kept the relics from the Holy Land, removed from the St. Chapelle. These relics include fragments of the crown of thorns and of the true cross (so called), a nail from the cross, many ecclesiastical vestments, silver busts of St. Denis, St. Louis, and other curiosities. In the chapter are shown the blood stained garments of Archbishop Darboy, murdered by the Com- mune. The great bell of Notre Dame, mentioned by Victor Hugo, is one of the largest in Europe, weighing sixteen tons. The clapper alone weighs ten hundred weight. I am sorry we could not enter the morgue in the rear of the church, but it was closed for repairs. In the morgue are exposed the bodies of all unknown persons who die from accident, homicides, or sucdenly. The bod- ies are exposed naked upon marble slabs for three days, unless previously claimed and carried away by friends. They are kept cool by jets of water flowing over them. The clothing worn at the time of death is hung up over each body, I have briefly described the principal objects we saw in Paris, but in visiting these, many others were necessarily viewed, such as the bank of France, the residence of the Rothschilds, the many statues erected all over the city, including that of the Maid of Orleans, the celebrated French markets, etc. After getting through with the pub- lic buildings, art collections, and other objects, we took another stroll over the Champs Elysees. THE CHAMPS ELYSEES. I have already devoted a paragraph to this celebrated thoroughfare. It is deservi.ig of a more extended notice. All large cities have two or three great and conspicuous avenues that give character and reputation to the cities 200 EUROPEAN NOTES. themselves. New York has its Broadway and Fifth Av- enue ; London, its Regent's Street and Cheapside ; Berlin, its "Unter den Linden ;" Vienna, its "Graben" and " Rue Strasse," and Paris has its Boulevards and Champs Elys- ees, without which Paris would not be Paris, while with them it is the most gorgeous and splendid capital in the world. Having seen all the great sights, and having an afternoon that I could devote to the purpose, we took a stroll along the renowned Champs Elysees. The day was bright, the air balmy and invigorating after breathing the thick foggy atmosphere of Germany, and everything seemed to contribute to the delights of the occasion. Now, the Champs Elysees is one mile and a quarter long, and very wide, planted with rows of majestic trees, and laid out in parterres, profuse with flowering plants and shrubs. As already remarked, here are elegant cafes, open air concerts, apparatus for children's games, and hundreds of tasteful booths or stands filled with playthings and tempting refreshments, while a multitude of young and old people were sporting under the trees, or sitting in rows of chairs along the sidewalks, watching the pedes- trians, carriages, and horsemen that throng the avenue. There was also a circus, and panorama, and in close prox- imity the most brilliant and notorious of the Paris dancing gardens, and also the chateau drs fleurs. On the Champs Elysees is the Palais de r Industrie^ or French Crystal Pal- ace, built tor the exhibition of arts and industrial pursuits in 1855, whose ample apartments are now used for the national exhibitions of industry, horticulture, agriculture, and the fine arts, one or more of which is held every year. Midway, the avenue widens into a circular place, called rond poi7it, adorned by a large fountain, and then proceeds, bordered by the most imposing and magnificent houses to the Arc de Triomphe, which is one terminus, while the Place de la Concorde is the other. As I walked along this lovely avenue, I could see on every side and in the dis- tance those magnificent and celebrated edifices for vvhich Paris has become so noted, and which we had, one by one, visited. And need I say, that there, in that foreign land, and in that grand city, with such inspiring surround- LA BELLE FRANCE. 20I ings, I felt happy. I thought the street had its right name, "Elysian Fields;" and commended the taste of Americans which makes them prefer Paris to any place in Europe. If there is any place in the world where cheer- ful surroundings can lift a man out of himself, and make the sick man forget that he is sick, the poor man forget that he is poor, the troubled soul forget its troubles, the rejected lover forget "his mistress' eyebrows," the wan derer iorget his homesickness, that place is the Champs Elysees on a fine afternoon. But read what another says of it, and then cross the ocean and see for yourself : "Who does not know the Champs Elysees? Gay, bright, charm- ing wonder, with its magnificent circus, and its panoramas, and its cafes, and its troops of minstrels, and its little •goat drawn phaetons, and its swings, and its long asphalt, walk and its swarms of people, and its pleasant rendezvous, and its broad, firm avenue sweeping away westward to the Arc de Triomphe.. Who has not loitered there of a sun- ny afternoon, watching the passing multitudes, greeting familiar faces, gazing at the dashing equipages, listening :to the pleasant chanter or harpist, his soul lost in reve- ries, and his fancy busy with bright dreams? And who that has thus idled in such enticing luxury of scene and sound, but longs for such luxurious idleness again ? What a quieter for disordered spirits, what a cure for fainting courage, that walk upon the Champs Elysees! If sick- ness has pinioned your arm. and foot in some dim chamber of the Rue de Bac, tell your coachman to drive you to the sunny Champs Elysees, and you are well again. If de- spondency weighs you down, heavy and dark as the air of such streets as Rue de la Harpe, stroll up the Champs Elysees, and its sights, and its sun, and its trees, and its smiles, will make you forget your sadness. If bitter news has come to you, a stranger in that city, where, of all cities, a stranger is least a stranger, an hour upon that Champs Elysees will drive the bitter memories away." A DAY IN VERSAILLES. Delightful indeed was a day spent in Versailles, the summer home of the kings of France, a city of 25,000 in- habitants, fifteen miles from Paris. 202 EUROPEAN NOTES. The city has wide and beautiful streets, resembling the avenues in Washington City, and many handsome resi dences. But the chief object of interest is the magnifi- cent palace. The facade is a quarter of a mile long, and the building presents various styles of architecture. The centre is the original chateau of Louis XIII. The wings were added by Louis XIV., and other portions by Louis XV., and Louis XVIIL Taken all together, it is a most magnificent palatial pile, with but few equals of the kind on "this terrestrial ball." The Coeur d'Honneur is adorned with statues over life size of celebrities in French history, from Bertrand and Bayard, the chevalier, down to Mortier, marshal of the empire in 1835. In the centre of the court is a colossal statue of Louis XIV., in bronze, on horseback, made of cannon brought from the Rhine, where he was so often victorious in the halcyon gone by days of the kingdom. The spacious halls of this wonderful building were con- verted by Louis Philippe into a museum of historical paintings, which is pronounced the finest in the world. The whole collection is said to have cost $3,000,000. To view all of these grand pictures — even to glance at them — takes a day's fatiguing work. Many of the rooms are royally furnished, and remain just as they were left by the mighty ones who once lived there. We were much interested in viewing the private apartments of Louis XIV., containing the bed in which he regularly slept, and other pieces of furniture used by him. More interesting still were the cosy private rooms of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, whose sad history so touches the hearts of all. We saw the door through which she escaped on that ever memorable occasion, when the ruffians came to arrest her, from which she fled into the country, where she was captured, taken to the Place de la Concorde, and decapitated. Many interesting events have transpired at Ver- sailles. Louis XIV. died here. Louis XV. was born and died here. It was here that Damiens attempt- ed to assassinate the last named king. Louis XVI. was forcibly carried away from the palace in 1780. In 18 15 LA BELLE FRANCE. 203 the palace was pillaged by the Prussians. It was occupied in succession by Louis XVIII., Charles V., and Louis Philippe. In 1871, it was occupied by the German forces, and here, right in front of the statue of Louis XIV., King William of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany. The palace is situated in the midst of immense gardens that are celebrated all over the world. They are in keep- ing with the architecture of the palace, and contain innu- merable vases and statues that are genuine antiques or copies. The great feature of attraction is the playing of the fountains, where water is jetted forth from the mouths of all the gods and goddesses that were ever heard of. On the occasions of these artistic water displays, the grounds are crowded with the gay Parisians and tourists. The orangery was finished in 1686, when the orange trees at Fontainebleau were transferred to it. One of these trees is the subject of a historic legend. A princess of Navarre, in 142 1, planted five orange seeds so close to- gether that when they came up, three of the plants grew into one tree. In 1499, Catherine de Foix, Queen of Na- varre, sent this tree to Queen Anne of Brittany. In the course of time it found its way to Fontainebleau, when it was catalogued under the name of the Corinetable. At Versailles it is known as the grand Bourbon. If its history is true, this venerable orange tree is over four and a half centuries old. We dined in a restaurant which was once part the palace, and occupied by the notorious Madame de Pompa- dour. We were permitted to visit the apartments of this widely known woman, whose name has been so often and so unfavorably before the public. Having visited the great palace, and the beautiful gar- dens, we proceeded to the Great Trianon, a handsome villa about half a mile distant, built by order of Louis XIV. for Madame de Maintenon. It has been since used as a retreat and summer resort by all the rulers of France, and was a favorite residence of Napoleon I. While the apart- ments are not large, they are superbly furnished, and con- tain many valuable paintings, statues and royal relics, prominent among which are the bed and bathing tub of 204 EUROPEAN NOTES. Napoleon I. It was interesting to walk through these now untenanted halls, and view the mementoes of the past, nearly every object having a history peculiar to itself, and suggestive of those events that are forever memorable in French history. Near this place stands the spacious building contain- ing the carriages which have been used by the kings of France for centuries past. These vehicles are magnificent in the extreme, several of them costing as much as ten thousand dollars each. The carriage in which Napoleon rode to his coronation is especially costly and beautiful ; while less pretentious, but full of more absorbing interest, is the one in which, after the divorce, Josephine was sent to Malmaison. That separation must ever remain a stigma on the name of Napoleon. To gratify his inordinate am- bition, he divorced one of the purest, noblest and best of women, and now the blood of Napoleon Bonaparte flows in no veins. We next proceeded to the Petite Trianon, a small villa erected by order of Louis XV. for Madame de Barry, but occupied subsequently by Louis XVL and Marie Antoi- nette. The house is furnished just as the unfortunate lady left it. Near her bed, which stands "made up" as on the ill-fated morning when she went to the guillotine, hangs the picture of the little Dauphin, whose fate is still wrapt in profoundest mystery. It is said she took her infant in her arms, and implored the infuriated mob to spare her for the sake of suffering innocence, but they only replied, "Yes, but we want bread, down with the proud Austrian." It is said that Little Trianon was the favorite home of Marie Antoinette. Not the Luxem- bourg, or Louvre, or great palace of Versailles, or Great Trianon, had half the charms for her that she found in the cosey home, with its handsome gardens, shady groves, and charming lakes. As night was approaching, we returned to Paris. Both coming and going, we had delightful views of the town and park of St. Cloud, nestling between the plateau and banks of the Seine, notable for the palace now in ruins, which was built by Louis XIV., and presented to the Due LA BELLE FRANCE. 20$ d'Orleans, afterward purchased for Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI. The Emperor Napoleon always had a great partiality for the palace, and it was a favorite summer residence of Napoleon III. From the top of the plateau is a magnificent panorama of the city of Paris, and as we had seats on the top of the cars, we could see all to our entire satisfaction. We passed, also, the residence of Gambetta, but recently deposed, and who has since died. He was a great statesman, being to France what Fox or Pitt was to England, or Calhoun, Clay, or Webster to this country. Had he lived,, he would, doubtless, have been restored to power. CHAPTER X SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND, FROM BASLE TO LUCERNE. Having viewed Paris and its wonders to our satisfaction, instead of returning at once to Coburg, we concluded to go into Switzerland, which, at its nearest point, is only a day's journey from the French capital. We left about eight o'clock in the morning, and proceeded by the most direct route, which took us through the very heart of La Belle Fra}ice. Lideed, that expression is no misnomer, for France is beautiful. Cultivated under the most im- proved and ever recuperating systems for centuries, the whole country looks like a garden. The residences as seen from the railroad are lovely. It is said that the French have no word for home. If they have not that sign of comfort and rest, they certainly have the thing signified. We passed several beautiful cities which I will not stop here to describe, and many attractive railroad stations, but after all, as before remarked in these pages, railroad travel in France is not pleasant. We advise all to do as we did, and take "first-class,'' for that is only equal to "second class" in England or Germany. About nine o'clock at night we crossed the Rhine, and the train halted at Basle. The proprietor of the Hotel de la Tamisse told us to stop at the "Trois Rois," (three kings), but by this time we had gotten pretty tired of speaking French, and we accompanied the porter who had *'Englischer Hof on his cap, being much more at home in German than in the former polite language. Our hotel was everything we could desire, and we enjoyed a deli- cious night's repose. SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND. 20/ We felt happy that we were, at last, in Switzerland, that land of which we had read and heard so much, and next morning as the sun looked into our windows, we arose and looked out on a beautiful city of forty thousand souls, while in the distance, the Jura Mountains were plainly vis- ible. Spurs of the Alps could also be faintly seen, and right at our feet we again saw "the blue Rhine sweep along.'' After breakfast I proceeded to the office of the Amer- ican consul, where 1 received a cordial welcome from Consul F. H. Mason, who took me to his home and showed us all much attention. He was formerly the distinguished editor of the Cleveland Leader, and, broken down in health, had accepted the Basle consulate under President Hayes, and was continued by President Garfield, who was his in- timate personal friend. He was on Gen. Garfield's staff during the war, and he showed me a book full of autograph letters from President Garfield, which, written with the unreserved freedom of private correspondence, were deeply interesting. Had the President lived, a bright future was in store for Col. Mason, who would doubtless have been given, I think, the Paris consulate. We walked up and dov/n the streets of Basle, and visited its cathedrals, churches, and medieval museum, all of which were worth seeing. Basle is the centre of the silk trade for all that region, and some magnificent samples of the manufacture Avere shown me by the consul. Aniline colors are also shipped largely from this place to the United States. After a day spent delightfully here, we proceeded to Zurich. The ride was one of the most delightful imaginable. About midday, I looked out of the window and caught a glimpse of the Alps. The scene is forever photographed on my memory. No other mountains in the world look like the Alps, and now, all covered with snow, they re- called all the pictures I had ever seen of them, as well as the historic scenes of Napoleon and his army struggling over them, and of the hundreds of travelers who had sunk to rise no more amid those eternal snows. Soon we reached Zurich, a city of about 20,000, and one of the most fasci- nating places I ever beheld. If I had to take up my abode 208 EUROPEAN NOTES. in Europe for life, I believe I would select Zurich, situated as it is on a beautiful lake, twenty-five miles long, from one to two miles in width, and six hundred feet deep, right in full view of the Alps, and in the midst of towering mountains, themselves the spurs of the great Alpine ranges. We stopped at the Hotel Bellevu, right on the lake, and had apartments ample and elegant enough for a prince and his suite. I will not detail here all that we saw in the churches and museums, but cannot refrain from re- ferring to one object that I examined in the Arsenal Collection, which possessed as much interest to me as any- one thing that I saw in Europe. It was nothing less than the veritable bow with which William Tell shot the apple from the head of his son, preserved as it has been through the centuries. The stores and shops in Zurich are magnifi- cent, particularly those where silks are sold, and also those where articles made of Swiss wood are exhibited. We laid in a good supply of the latter, consisting of Swiss cottages, inkstands, paper knives, toy furniture, writing cases, etc. While in Zurich we made an excursion to the top of the "Oetliberg," a celebrated mountain near by, where we had a view of Zurich, the lake, the Alps, and the whole country, which beggars all description. On the mountain we saw several very fine St. Bernard dogs, which we wished we could have taken to America with us. Here, in Zurich, was living in his old age, with his mind almost gone, Oncken, the celebrated German Baptist father, now eighty-two years old. He did a mighty work in Germany for the Baptists, and his name will ever be held blessed in the memory of his people. His former home was Hamburg, in Germany, but in old age and de- crepitude, his friends advised him to locate at Zurich. But time is precious, and we must hasten on to Lucerne. We passed in sight of several lakes and many inspiring mountains in reaching this far-famed place, and at last reached it, to find more than a realization of all our ex- pectations. Lucerne is situated on Lake Lucerne, the prettiest sheet of water in the world, 1,400 feet above the sea level, and contains 15,000 inhabitants. The hotels, all ill .^^^%^. SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND. 2O9 along the lake, are superb, and resemble those seen at Long Branch. We stopped at the "Hotel Cygne," (Swan Hotel,) which commanded the most beau'iful view of that picturesque lake, which is ninety-five miles long, and with varied breadth, with its blue waters sleeping beneath a blue sky, while on one side towers the Rhegi, and on the other Mount Pilatus. The Rhegi summit is reached by a railroad "among the clouds," where the best view in Switzerland can be obtained. Mount Pilatus is named from a legend or tradition which says that Pontius Pilate, after signing the death warrant of our Saviour, was so filled with remorse that he sought the seclusion of this mountain retreat. Here, living for a few years, he could find no rest, till, at last, overcome by the stings of his guilty conscience, he descended to the peaceful lake, and jumping headforemost into its waters, drowned himself. The mountain has ever since been known as Pilate's Mountain. What gives a peculiar interest to Lucerne, besides its natural beauty, is the fact that on its banks the wonderful feats of William Tell were performed. We wandered in many directions around and about Lucerne, and there is no place of the same size which has more curiosities and objects of interest to strangers. The few days we spent there will ever be reverted to as among the most pleasant of our lives ; and while I write I can see lovely blue waters sleeping before me, disturbed ever and anon by some gayly painted steamer, filled with tour- ists, and on all sides stupendous mountains rise apparently to the very clouds ; and on the highly embellished shores, hundreds of joyous people are standing, gazing on the en- chanting landscape, or walking or driving along its pebbled roads. If there is a place in the world where a man can be lifted out of himself, whatever his troubles, that place is Lucerne, And yet Pilate chose that as the place of his suicide. How awful must have been his crime ! SWISS INDUSTRIES. We were in Switzerland in the early spring, when the lofty Alpine peaks were "most wrapt in clouds and snow." 14 210 EUROPEAN NOTES. Had we been there a little later, the whole country would have been full of tourists, for there is no country in the world so sought after by "tramps abroad" as this. As soon as summer sets in, the magnificent hotels are all thrown open, and their name is legion, vehicles of all de- scriptions are brought into requisition, and donkeys in par- ticular show that they were not made in vain, as they toil up mountain heights which one in this country would think could only be scaled by the agile goat. Multitudes, however, prefer doing Switzerland on foot, and indeed, this is the best and safest way to see it. Most tourists seem to have a craze to go higher up those terrible peaks than others have done before them, and many lives have been lost in consequence. The blood runs cold, as I think of the many daring exploits they told me of, but in- stead of begetting in me a disposition to reach those lofty crags and precipitous places, it made me resolve to stay away from them. One man lost his footing and fell a distance of one hundred feet into a crevasse. How terri ble was his situation ! A narrow pathway below, and on ly a blue streak of the sky above. He followed the path way in one direction, and found that it terminated on the brink of a precipice that stretched hundreds of feet away. He retraced his steps, and found that it terminated at the other end on the brink of another precipice, at the foot of which rolled a dark and turbid river. Into that river he plunged. It was a fearful leap. For a moment he was lost to sight, but rising, he clung to a huge block of ice, on which he floated on what he thought was a ride of death, but soon, and suddenly, he was drifted into the ilowery vales, and landed on the green shores of Cha- mounix. On the top of Mont Blanc, or near the top, is the celebrated Convent of St Bernard, of which all the world has heard, where travelers are so often "taken in," and where one can hear stories of adventures in the Alps to his heart's content. Here, too, he can see those cele- brated St. Bernard dogs, which tradition tells us have been instrumental in saving so many lives. We visit- ed Switzerland about the time that many serious dis- asters occurred, by which whole villages and many sep- SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND. 211- arate dwellings were buried beneath the falling or sliding; mountains. We had the opportunity of" learning much about the Swiss industries. The most important of these, I think, is the watch industry. There are not less than seventy thousand men employed in making watches. There are many schools or colleges where the business is taught as a specialty, and the Swiss have in this business the expe- rience of centuries. The Exposition at Philadelphia showed that the American watch was nearly, if not quite up tothe- Swiss, and American manufacturers have greatly the ad- vantage of their competitors in this as well as in other industries, owing to their new and magnificent machinery. Another great Swiss industry is the manufacture of silk goods. It is said that forty million dollars' worth of manufactured and raw silks are annually imported into the United States, and a large proportion of tliis vast im- portation is made from Switzerland. In Zurich, where we spent many days, we found some very fine establishments, shipping altogether from this district alone over two million dollars' worth of these goods to the United States. From the Basle district, from three to four million dollars' worth of silk ribbons are sent to the United States. In the consul's of^ce at Basle I saw samples of all these, and they were beautiful to behold. " Every figure had its plaidings, Brighter form and softer shadings." Another industry that interested us at Basle was the manufacture of aniline colors, under which general terms are embraced the varied and brilliant coloring and dyeing materials now manufactured chemically from the several products resulting from the dry distillation of coal tar, viz, aniline, naphthaline, phenol, and anthracine. Four large establishments are now in operation in Basle, and one near Geneva, the combined annual product of v/hich is five million dollars. In St. Galle, the principal in- dustry is the manufacture of embroideries, and to show the extent of it, I state that in 1880, over five million dol- lars' worth were shipped from this district to the United States, the duty on which brought to our government one 212 EUROPEAN NOTES. million and a half of dollars. With $1,500,000 from Swiss embroideries alone, who wouldn't be in favor of a protective tariff? But one of the most ancient of the in- dustries of Switzerland is the manufacture of Swiss cheese. It is said that instruments for this purpose have been found in different parts of the country among the ruins of the "lake dwellings,"' whose date is anterior to all histori- cal records, and from the way the cheese smells, one is apt to think that it antedates even that remote prehistoric period. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the production had grown large enough to become the sub- ject of legislation. At the end of the last century, the methods of manufacture were of the rude kind still in use among the mountains and in remote districts. The modern manufacture dates from its introduction about a hundred years ago. Cattle are stabled and well cared for, and such perfection is reached in the production that the bet- ter kinds of Swiss cheese are as much a product of skill and high art as a Swiss watch. Several million dollars' worth of these cheeses are exported annually, and the hom.e consumption in Switzerland, as in Germany, is enormous. A German or Switzer must always have cheese at the end of his meal. Though the dinner has consisted of fourteen courses, concluding Vi^ith ice creams and other delicacies, cheese, with bread and butter, must be served, and this same cheese looks filthy enough, and smells bad enough, to turn the stomach of an ox, and I should think would require all the "pepsin" that the bo- vine stomach contains to secure a proper digestion. But I turn from- the industries of the land to gaze on its indescribable scenery, for this is the charm of Switzer- land Those mountains lifting their now dark, now sun- clad forms to the clouds, so close that " dwellers in the vales and on the hills can shout to each other;" those lakes that calmly and gracefully sleep " under the shadow of a great rock" on every side ; those skies now cold and gray, a suitable back-ground for the snowy, craggy, but fascinating picture that everywhere meets your gaze ; these are the things that make you feel that you are in the land of William Tell, that little Republic in the midst of em- SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND. 213 pires and thrones, where a freeborn American feels more at home than anywhere else in Europe. FAREWELL TO SWITZERLAND. It is astonishing what a fascination water has for us all. All of us have had our favorite wells, our favorite springs, and our favorite streams. Who does not sympathize with thirsting David as he exclaims, " Oh, that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate," and who has not been delighted as he has read the incomparable poem of Woodworth on the " old oaken bucket, the iron bound bucket, the moss covered bucket that hung in the well." " The banks and braes of bonny Dooti" were always an inspiration to Robert Burns. Byron, doubtless, had some old, familiar well in his mind when, expressing his undying friendship for Moore, he said, "Wer't the last drop in the well, As I gasped upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell, 'Tis to thee that I would drink." Tennyson touches a chord in every heart in his Song of the Brook, when he says, " Men may come and men may go, but I go on forever." The German, whether at Bingen or at other points on the splendid river, feels never so rich a joy as when he sees " the blue Rhine sweep along." But of all the waters in the world, none are so engaging, so fascinating as the Swiss lakes, their clear, calm waters margined by stupendous mountains, and unique and at- tractive cottages. It is delightful to gaze on these lakes by day, but the night views are often finer still. I can never forget a night scene on Lake Lucerne, the prettiest sheet of water in the world, Geneva, perhaps, excepted by some. " The twilight hours like birds flew by, As lightly and as free, Ten thousand stars were in the sky, Ten thousand in the sea. For every wave with dimpled cheek That leaped upon the air Had caught a star in its embrace And held it trembling there. ' 214 EUROPEAN NOTES. T. Buchanan Read's "Drifting," descriptive of a sail on the Bay of Naples, best describes my impressions as I stood that right on the shores of Lucerne, and heard the soft waves " murmuring to the murmuring keels " of the many boats that flitted over its silver bosom. But " naught can tether time nor tide," and the time came when I must bid adieu to the Switzerland of the Alps, the real " land of the sky," and go back to Thurin- gia, the "Switzerland of Germany." Blessings brighten as they take their flight, or as we take our flight from them, and Switzerland never seemed so beautiful as on the eve of our departure. And is it true that these scenes which now so charm me will soon be forgotten as other scenes and other objects press upon my attention? It is even so. The beautiful waters on which I have gazed are but emblematic of the heart of man, as to the impressions made upon it by the things of time and sense. "My heart is like a sleeping lake Which takes its hue from cloud and sky, And only feels its surface break As birds of passage wander by, And tip the r wings and upward soar, And leave it quiet as before." And yet, Mark Twain truly says, the Alps have a fasci- nation which makes him who sees them once, always long to see them again. They are like no other mountains. They are gigantic loadstones that hold you by a magic and resistless power. It is, perhaps, this wondrous force which drags aspiring mortals up their craggy and precipi- tous sides to their very tops, there often to perish in their eternal snows, or haplessly fall into their dangerous cre- vasses. In my case, as before remarked, the spell was not so great as to induce me to attempt those dangerous as- cents. Mark Twain always yielded that honor to his companion, Harris, and I yielded it to whoever might de- sire it, remembering the words of Byron on the subject of ambition : "He who climbs to mountain tops oft finds their loftiest peaks most wrapt in cloud and snow." It is literally so in the Alps, We return to Zurich, and stop again at the hotel Belle- SNOW CLAD SWITZERLAND. 21$ vue, on the beautiful Lake Zurich, which I have before de- scribed. We lingered a day or so at this charming place again. I told the proprietor of the hotel that I intended to return in midsummer and spend a month or two with him, and asked what he would charge? He said two dollars a day each for my party of five. Considering the magnificent accommodations, this was very reasonable. The prices of living in Zurich, which is situated almost in the heart of Europe, may be considered a fair sample of what may be expected anywhere on the continent, and having ascertained from our consul there what these pri- ces are, I give them here for the benefit of those who wish to go abroad. . Americans go abroad usually for self-cul- ture, for rest, for the education of their children, and, of course, wish to live in good houses in a respectable quar- ter of the city, and in a way suitable to their station in life. House rent, then, is the first thing to notice. As a rule, apartments only are to be rented on the continent, like the "flats" in New York. They contain usually from five to seven rooms, with servants' rooms at the top, wood rooms, bath rooms, etc. These cost about $400 yearly. At Coburg, however, I had a house to myself, which cost me about $450 per annum. Single rooms it is difficult to rent, but cost, furnished, twelve dollars per month. An American gentleman who has kept house in Zurich for several years, gives the following figures : His family con- sists of himself, wife and two children. They have an apartment of six rooms on second floor in the best part of the city, at a rental of $500 per annum. They employ two servants, a cook and maidofall-work. The first is paid one dollar, and the other a dollar and a quarter per week, with five dollars as a present for each at Christmas, a universal Swiss and German custom. (In Coburg I paid two dollars and fifty cents and three dollars each for two servants. Then they want, in addition to Christmas gifts, about ten cents a week for "beer money.") Sewing women cost about fifty or sixty cents a day. The wash- ing and ironing is all done in the house. Fuel costs about sixty dollars a year for this family, coal being nine dollars per ton. (In Coburg, I got the best of cOal 2l6 EUROPEAN NOTES. for four dollars and a half per ton.) Wood is very dear in Switzerland, being ten dollars per cord. The house expenses of this family, including marketing, wines, everything except servants' hire, were about sixty dol- lars per month. The family lived well, entertained friends, and went on frequent excursions, living as a rule, about as our professional men live in our Southern cities. My experience is, that living is considerably cheaper in Ger- many, except at the hotels, where two prices often range, one for natives, and one for foreigners. From Zurich to Coburg there were three routes: one by Munich, one by Basle, Baden-Baden, etc., and another by Lake Constance. We chose the last, as we wished to take a sail over the beautiful lake, which is, I believe, the largest of all We traversed a picturesque country till we came to the lake, where a splendid steamer was in waiting, and we crossed, a distance of twelve miles to Lindau. The Tyrolese Alps were in view on one side^ and the city of Constance, the palace of the king of Wur- temberg, and city of Lindau plainly visible at the other end of the lake, with other scenery which we thought very attractive. Lake Constance is the " Baden See" of Ger- man maps, and is thought to be the ancient bed of the Rhine, which flows through it now, while no less than fifty other streams empty into it. It is often tempestuous and dangerous to navigators. Vessels have been fre- quently wrecked upon it, and as a storm came up when we were about half way over, the pleasure of the passage was considerably marred, for the lake is said to have a maximum depth of 964 feet. Its waters are dark green, very clear, and seldom frozen over. The lake is subject to sudden risings, which have never been satisfactorily accounted for. But we reached Lindau in safety, and then took the train for Augsburg, (an old Reformation city where the Diet sat when Luther first appeared against Catholicism, and where it sat again during his confinement at Coburg castle,) Nuremberg, and Coburg, reaching our comfortable home there, content to rest for a while after so many rich experiences. SWli-S SCENE, CHAPTER XI. A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. " BEAUTIFUL, BLUE DANUBE." Europe has two rivers that rival each other in size, beauty and grandeur. One is the Rhine, already described, while the other is the Danube. I have seen them both in all their glory, and it is difficult to decide between them. The most trivial circumstance, strange to say, can lend the highest importance and sweetest fascination to any object, and my chief desire to see these noble rivers re- ferred to arose from two poems or songs. In all that long journey from Cologne to Mayence, " fair Bingen on the Rhine" was the object I most wished to see, and in taking up my journey to the other river, I was lured by the song ever "ringing in my head," and which I had so often heard from the lips of fair women — " Can I forget that night in June, Upon the Danube river." I had crossed the Danube in Bavaria, in coming from Switzerland to Coburg, but the stream there was compar- atively small. It was at Ulm. The Danube, on which the town lies, is here joined by the Blau, augmented by the Ider above the town, and from this point downwards, towards Vienna, it is navigable, I saw the river on the tour which I now describe, first at Ratisbon, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, where the Dan- ube and Regen come together, and where the real beauty of the famous river begins. It passes here the celebrated Walhalla (i. e.. Hall of the Chosen), the paradise of the ancient Germanic tribes, and the present German West 2l8 EUROPEAN NOTES. minster Abbey, or national temple of Fame. This magnificent structure cost three million, three hundred thousand dollars, and the highest aspiration of the ambi- tious Teuton is to have a niche set apart for him in this glorious temple. Among the celebrated Germans deemed worthy of a place here, and of whom busts may be seen, are the Emperors Henry IV., Frederick Barbarossa, and Rudolph of Hapsburg; also Gutenberg, Durer, Luther (not admitted till after the abdication of King Louis), Wallenstein, Frederick the Great, Blucher, Schwarzenberg, and Radetzky; Lessing, Mozart, Kant, Schiller, Goethe, Humboldt, etc. From this temple, which is situated on a high hill, the view is superb. In the distance, the dark slopes of the Bavarian forest appear ; below the spectator flows the Danube ; beyond it stretches the fertile plain of Strau- bing, and in clear weather the cloud-capped summits of the Alps may be seen. The usual custom is to take steamers at Passau, a picturesque and beautiful city of 14,000 in- habitants, which lies on a narrow, rocky tongue of land formed by the confluence of the Inn with the Danube. The picturesque and splendid situation of the town, and the variety of views commanded by the neighboring heights make one feel amply repaid in visiting Passau, which, with the exception of Linz, is the most beautiful place on the Danube. From Passau to Linz the journey is four and a half hours, and the scenery along the banks of the river very interesting. A competent judge, who was familiar with both the great rivers, says, "The scenery of the Danube is more imposing than that of the Rhine, but of a more sombre character ; while the intervals be- tween the finest points are often considerable. The moun- tains are loftier, and the banks are generally fringed with forest or clothed with luxuriant pasture, but the popula- tion is poor and sparse, and there is an almost total ab- sence of the busy trafific which characterizes its sister river," The entire valley, as far as Linz, was the scene of many sanguinary encounters during the insurrection of the peasantry of Upper Austria. At Linz, the finest point on the Danube, I remained a A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 219 day or two, taking up my abode at the Erzherzog Carl (Archduke Charles). Linz, on the right bank of the river, which is here crossed by a splendid iron bridge, has a pop- ulation of 30,000. I fell in here with a party of English iron merchants who were on their way to Vienna to attend a convention in the interest of the iron trade. We hired an excellent open carriage and drove up and down the river, and to the neighboring hills and castles, wher- ever we could get the finest views. There are at least a dozen of these points from which the great, wide, beauti- ful stream, " like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.'' No ; I must change the figure, for there is no thing in the scene suggestive of snakes. In every direc- tion, and as far as the eye can see, the great white volume of molten silver rolls along in gorgeous beauty and gran- deur. I must change the figure again, for it is not the "white," but "the beautiful, blue Danube" I am describ- ing. I will say, then, that the most magnificent and fas- cinating mountains in the world, there spread out before the beholder, fascinated them.selves with the glorious river that was forever laving their feet, seemed to have disrobed themselves of their "azure hue" and sent it down to form a covering for the pure and virgin stream which was roll- ing carelessly in its long and mighty bed, and which now, with this azure over its bosom, seemed more beautiful than ever. Reader, if you think these expressions poetical, remem- ber that the Danube is an inspiring river, else wh)^ did Strauss immortalize it in song, and why has it called forth the sweetest notes of other singers? Of one thing you may rest assured ; the writer of these Notes is not a poet, and yet even he wrote, after seeing the Danube, the fol- lowing lines with which this description closes, leaving the Danube to flow on by Vienna, after which, owing to its great width and the flat country through which it passes, its beauty ceases and its interest is lost, except in a com- mercial point of view. THE DANUBE. Oh, it was in tiie mild September, Ah, the blest night I well remember, 220 EUROPEAN NOTES. When, reverencing the Almighty Giver, I gazed upon the Danube river. The waters blue in peace were sleeping. The moon the while its soft watch keeping. Whose rays — o'er fairy landscapes stealing, A scene of light and love revealing — Shone with so rich a radiance never, As when they kissed that lovely river. That river — who can tell its story ? Who paint that scene of liquid glory ? That mirror huge, fore'er reflecting Green shores and castled cliffs projecting ? Rich valleys thence their hot thirst slaking. Return of corn and wine were making, That decked its banks with fragrant blossom. And cast their treasures on its bosom, While distant inountains towering o'er it. Doffed low their caps of snow before it. In ecstasy, all stood admiring, A lifetime on those banks desiring, Where love and peace and beauty blended To grace a scene from heaven descended. Some maidens near, the scene enjoying, Were with their raptured lovers toying, Who gazed into their beauteous faces, Oblivious of all times and places, Who, whispering forth love's tender stories. Were blind to even the Danube's glories. But other lords and ladies ever Stood gazing on the mystic river. The sole regret their lips expressing, That distant friends were barred the blessing. Oh, is it true that scene so mellowing. Was e'er disturbed by cannons' bellowing ? That war cries o'er those vales resounded, While frenzied men to battle bounded ? O yes, through centuries long descending. Have serried hosts here met contending ; The breezes freighted with their sighing. Their blood these azure waters dyeing. Here Roman legions tramped and thundered. And Goths and Vandals spoiled and plundered. Cossack and Russian here united. Have oft this scene of beauty blighted ; While France, her mighty captain leading. The prayers of sister States unheeding, Has here impressed her footprints gory. And won her highest claims to glory. Spears into pruning hooks converted — A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 22 [ Strong hands in peaceful arts exerted — The generous river ever flowing, Its wealth on all around bestowing, Have made that sceile again Elysian, Fairest that meets a mortal's vision. VIENNA. "Have you visited Vienna?" said an American gentle- man to me at Coburg, He had traveled extensively abroad, and was just then direct from the proud capital of the Austrian Empire. "No," said I, "I have not been, but propose to go." "Well," said- he, "Vienna is the finest place in Europe, not excepting even Paris.'' He then mentioned a number of interesting things he had witness- ed there, and I concluded to go and see for myself. I was on my way to Vienna* when I viewed "the beautiful blue Danube," which I have just described. The ride from Linz, on the Danube, to the great city was made by rail, and in the coupe which I entered, I found a family of Bulgarians, highly refined, cultivated and communicative. I had a seat by the side of an accomplished and beautiful young lady, who was of Spanish parents, but born in Bul- garia, and spoke fluently six languages — Spanish, Italian, German, English, French and Bulgarian. Traveling with me was an educated young German, from Dusseldorf on the Rhine, who could speak English fluently. It was in- teresting to me to see these two persons, who had never seen England or America, conversing with each other with the utmost ease and freedom, in the English lan- guage. On our journey we caught charming glimpses of the Danube, along which the road runs, and reached the station in Vienna about nightfall. The name of the hotels there is legion, but we concluded to go first to the Hotel Metropole. On alighting from the hack and going in, we found that there was not a vacant room in the immense establishment. We next proceeded to the Archduke Charles (Erzherzog Carl), where we found a magnificent hotel, and secured an excellent room. The first night was spent in strolling about the neigh- borhood of the hotel, and in viewing the many splendid shops in that quarter, which have made Vienna famous 222 EUROPEAN NOTES, among foreign tourists. Meerschaum goods and Russia leather articles, the great specialties of the Viennese, were exposed in glass front stores in the utmost abundance and variety. Next day, a bright sun rose over one of the prettiest cities I ever beheld. Grand palaces, many-sto- ried stores, cathedrals and heaven-pointing spires, were everywhere to be seen. I secured a hack, took a seat with the driver on top, and told him to drive me over the city, through all the principal streets, and to all the prin- cipal objects of attraction. This he did, and in a little while after we started we had traversed Ring street, stop- ping in front of many interesting places, particularly the ruins of the Ring Theatre, which had been swept away by a great conflagration a few months before, when nine hundred people lost their lives. , The ruins were very sim- ilar to those of the Kimball House just after the great fire in Atlanta. The church of St. Stephen, the most impor- tant edifice in Vienna, was worthy of more time than we could give it. The tower affords an extensive view, em- bracing the battle fields of Wagrarn, Lobau and Esslingen. I traversed again and again the Graben and Kohlmar- ket, with their attractive shops, these streets being to Vienna what Broadway is to New York. In the Graben stands the Trinity Column, very high and imposing, with a large group of figures, erected in 1693 on the cessation of the plague. I noticed, by the way, in many European cities, monuments erected on the deliverance of the people from some great epiden^ic or other misfortune. Having dismissed the hack, I entered the Hofburg^ which has been the residence of the Austrian princes for over five hundred years. Here stands a splendid monu- ment of the Emperor Francis Joseph, with attendant fig- ures representing Religion, l*eace, Justice and Bravery. On the south side of the park was the Residence, contain- ing the imperial apartments, the Long Corridor in which the Emperor granted audience to all comers, the apart- ments occupied by Maria Theresa and Joseph H. and the military office of the Emperor. But the most interesting object connected with the Burg,, and that which induced me to visit it, was the world re- A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 223 nowned Imperial Treasury. Here I saw many rooms, and about thirty cases filled with the most valuable and curi- ous things in the world — the finest productions of the goldsmith's art ; the development of the art of the lapi- dary, traced from the fifteenth century down to the pres- ent time ; a crystal goblet richly set with jeweh, from the treasury of Charles the Bold ; an altar of valuable colored stones, the summit being a large emerald ; drinking cups of lapis lazuli and enameled with gold ; the celebrated gold salt cellai of Benvenuto Cellini, executed for Fran- cis I. of France ; private jewels of the imperial family — the Austrian regalia, crown, sceptre and imperial robes ; crown of the empress ; the celebrated Florentine diamond, one hundred and thirty-three and seven-eighths carats in weight and valued at $300,000, once the property of Charles the Bold, said to have been found by a peasant after the battle of Marat, and sold to a Bernese merchant for one florin (about fifty cents). It is now set in a hat clasp. I beheld also a decoration of the Order of the Golden Fleece, composed of one hundred and fifty bril- liants, the Frankfort solitaire, forty-two and one-half car- ats in weight, being in the centre; a scarf with five hun- dred and forty-eight brilliants in it, a pink diamond weigh- ing twenty six carats being in the centre. The value of all these things is almost fabulous. The imperial "baptis- mal'' vessels, state swords used at coronations, and cor- onation robes, are also seen. More interesting still was the insignia of Napoleon I, as King of Italy ; also the sil- ver gilt cradle of the young King of Rome, weighing five hundred pounds. Here, too, I saw the "insignia and me- morials of the Holy Roman Empire," once preserved at Aix la Chapelle, and afterwards at Nuremberg ; the crown of Charlemagne, the very crown — ponderous, jeweled, beautiful, worn by the great monarch a thousand years ago. I thought, as I examined it and felt of its weight, that "uneasy" must have been the head that wore such a crown. Other relics of the great Charlemagne were his sceptre, imperial robes stole, girdle, coronation robes and his swords In close proximity were relics of a more solemn nature, a piece of wood of the true cross and the lance that pierced 224 EUROPEAN NOTES. the Saviour s side. You smile as you read this, and well you may. Mark Twain says he was shown nails from the true cross enough to fill a keg. I did not see one, and yet visited all the great collections. Of the wood of the true cross I did see some fragments in the Tower of London, in the Notre Dame, and here, but all together would not make one stave in a keg. These relics may be false, but they are certainly not abundant. The piece in the impe- rial treasury is about nine inches long, one inch in diame- ter, and the cross piece (it is shown in the form of a cross) is only about four inches long. As to "the lance that pierced the Saviour's side," it is a rough-looking weapon, about fifteen inches long, and three broad, sharp pointed, with an eye for the insertion of the long handle. As to whether that is the lance that caused the sacred blood of Christ to flow, may well be questioned, but as so many millions of people believe that it is, I could but gaze upon it with interest. It is deeply interesting from the fact that it was exhibited at Charlemagne's coronation, was brought from the Holy Land, and is certainly, with the "wood of the cross," more than a thousand years old. I was so well satisfied with what I saw in the treasury that I did not stop to look at the imperial library, with its 300,000 volumes and 20,000 manuscripts, nor at the cabinet of minerals and natural history, but sought the lovely scenery of the park, where I gazed upon many statues, splendid works of art, particularly that of the Archduke Charles. Night was upon me, and my friend insisted that I should go with him to a concert hall and hear some fine music. We did so, and splendid music it was. Only think ! every day while we were there, we had the privilege of hearing Strauss' celebrated band play in the People's Garden. But this Strauss, himself a great artist, is a brother of the world-renowned Strauss, and not the composer, as so many believe. And while on the music question, I will state that the greatest composer in Europe to-day, now that Wagner is dead, is Johannes Brahms, of Vienna, with whom I had the pleasure of dining. A statue that interested me no little, was that of Prince A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 22$ Swarzenburg, the victorious leader of the Allies in the war of 1813 and 18 14. I have aire idy described the battle at Leipsic, in w'ich he routed Napoleon so completely. Vienna has many large and beautiful parks, and among them the City Park is celebrated for its shady groves and pleasant walks. Every morning I visited the objects of interest lying between Ring street and the Danube canal, (on which Vienna is situated), until I became quite familiar with the locality, and it is the principal part of Vienna, and the most interesting to tourists. Visitors are generally interested in seeing the Emperor's stables, where he has in continual readiness to strve him, no less than seven hundred blooded horses. The Universit)' is one c-f the most renowned in the W'Orld. It lias one hundred and fifty professors, twenty- five hundred students, and nearly as many occasional hearers. The medical faculty is greatly distinguished, so that even here in America, our aspiring young doctors, and sometimes our old ones, feel that there is no higher privilege than attending lectures at Vienna. A hall is provided in connection with the University, where all who apply can receive medical advice free from the most cele- brated physicians in the world. I visited the Belvidere picture gallery, which, so far as I could judge, was about equal to the other great galleries of Europe, such as Dresden, Munich, Florence and the Louvre. I shrink from even attempting a description. Select twenty of the finest halls in the South, throw them all together, and cover their walls with paintings, and you will form some idea of a first class European picture gal- lery. I was charmed with the appearance of the ladies in Vienna, and regard them the most beautiful of all I saw during my travels. Their type of beauty seemed to be a blended likeness of the blonde Germans on the one hand, and the brunette Italians on the other, with an admixture of the voluptuous loveliness of the women of the Orient. Vienna, with its suburbs, contains a million of inhabi- tants, and is all the time improving. During the past few 15 22 J EUROPEAN NOTES. years whole streets of magnificent buildings have been erected. And the Viennese believe in their city as much as the Atlantese believe in theirs. They have a saying that has grown into a proverb — That is, "Es giebt nur ein Kaiser stadt, Es giebt nur ein Wien." "There is but one imperial city, There is but one Vienna." It is truly a cosmopolitan place. You can sit at a table in a hotel or restaurant, and see around you people from all parts of the earth — Americans, Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, Turks, Greeks, Jews, and even the "almond eyed" Chinese and Japanese, occasion- ally. Vienna is a very old place, having been founded, if not "in the year one," at least in the first century of the Christian era, for the Romans then established a town there, which, little by little, through the hoary ages, has grown to its present gigantic size and importance. There is great jealousy between Vienna and Berlin, each claiming for itself the third place among the cities of Europe. The couplet which I quoted has another coup- let connected with it — "Es giebt nur ein Kaiser stadt, Es giebt nur ein Wein ; Es giebt nur ein Rauber nest, Und das ist Berlin." The last couplet being — "There is but one robber's nest, And that is Berlin." BOHEMIA. I expected less and found more in Bohemia than in any other country that I visited. I had formed a contennptu- ous idjd of Boiiemia for two reasons — first, because the wandering bands of dirty, thieving gypsies, that stroll through the country, cheating and swindling, and fortune- telling, are called Bohemians; secondly, because when a A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 22/ man, to use a common phrase, is " played out," and be- comes "seedy'' in appearance, and leads a precarious and indefinable sort of existence, he is styled a "Bohemian " In my early life I lived much of the time in Washington City, and there was quite a number of these Bohemian gentlemen to be seen about the hotels, in the lobbies of the capitol and walking the streets. They were generally broken-down politicians of immoral habits,, and made their living by asking for it — sometimes being "penny-a line'' correspondents for newspapers, or aids to incompetent congressmen, who paid them to write their speeches The true Bohemian character, as it was then understood, found its representative in the notorious Beau Hickman, whom I often saw, and who was as complete a "dead beat" as the world ever knew. It is said that this man would walk into a store, ask to look at a pair of boots, for example, put them on, when, bowing and saying, " this is Beau Hickman," would walk out unmolested, without ever thinking of paying for them. He stopped at a hotel in New York, I heard, and at the end of a week, according to custom, his bill was presented to him. He had not a cent, but asked a gentleman to loan him a thousand dollar note, and stand by his side as his security. He walked up to the proprietor, and throwing down the note, told him he had been insulted in having his bill presented, and would pay him and leave the h >use. The proprietor po- litely begged his pardon, saying that a gentleman of his standing should be troubled no more till he left, and handed the money back. He gave it to the gentleman standing by his side, remained a long time, was never troubled with bills, and left without paying a cent. Such being the associations connected with the Bohe- mians, imagine my surprise at finding Bohemia one of the prettiest, one of the most picturesque, and one of the richest countries in the world. The truth is, Bohemian is a misnomer for such characters as I have described. The gypsies, who number in Europe, all told, about seven hundred thousand, came, many suppose, from Egypt origi- nally — hence their name ; others think they came from India. Certain it is they did not start in Bohemia. When 228 EUROPEAN NOTES. the gypsies first came to France, they came from Bohemia, and were called Bohentieiis, and they have since borne that name. Besides, the Bohemians are not a wandering peo- ple, but love their home and stay at it. When I told a gentleman what the term was understood to mean in America, he laughed heartily. But where is Bohemia? I answer, it lies in Southeast Germany, was formerly independent, and now belongs to Austria. It is bounded on the north by Saxony, east by Prussia, Austria, Silesia and Moravia, west by Bavaria and south by Austria. It is almost completely surrounded by four mountain chains. The country is believed to have been in ancient times a great lake with a few islands, until the waters broke through the sandstone formation of the eastern mountains, and so formed the channel of the Elbe, by which Bohemia is chiefly drained. Within this range is one gieat hilly basin, with no plains of any extent, with a great variety of geological formations. Minerals and precious stones abound in these hills, and here are located the great mineral springs of Carlsbad, Eger, Marienbad, and others less famous. The country resembles in appear- ance our own North Georgia. The climate is delightful, sheltered as it is by these mountain ranges, while the lands are among the most fertile in Germany. The crops of grain and vegetables raised for shipment are enormous, and there is no country of Europe better developed as to manufactures. I learned from a report made of the pro- ducts of this country (and many of them were shipped through my own consulate.) that hand spinning, until recently, employed 300,000 persons, weaving 130,000, lace-making 40,000. There are 1,000,000 cotton spindles running, and the Bohemian glass factories produce annu- ally $3,000,000 worth of goods that are shipped all over the face of the earth, and particularly America. It is the greatest country in the world for good beer, even ahead of Germany proper. Indeed, I learned that it was in Bohemi.i that beer was first carried to the high perfection which it has attained in the Fatherland. My ride through Bohemia was first from Vienna to Prague, where I stopped to view the great curiosities, and A RIDE 'IHROUGH AUSTRIA. 229 from Prague direct to Nuremberg. That ride was one of the most pleasant I ever enjoyed, the day deh'ghtful, the scenery fine, and 1 had two intelh'gent gentlemen in our coupe, who pointed out the different objects of interest along the route. Soon after leaving Vienna, we crossed the Danube and entereci the plains of Wagram, the ver}^ spot where the great battle was fought between Napoleon and the Austrians, in July, 1809. The Austrians were defeated and retired to a height near by, called Zaym, where, after a second engagement, the peace of Schon- brunn was concluded. The bravery of Berthier on this occasion caused Napoleon to have him created Prince of Wagram. The village of Wagram is only eleven miles from Vienna, and as peaceful and smiling fields greet the vision there as if over them war's thunders had never rat- tled. In a little while we had passed through a part of Hun- gary and a part of Moravia, the original home of the Moravian Brethren, described elsewhere in these pages, and who have been instrumental in accomplishing such mighty and successful missionary labors. A little further on, we came in sight of Brunn and the battle-field of Aus- terlitz, where the great fight occurred between Napoleon and the Allies, in iSo5,and which, perhaps, more than any battle in which he was ever engaged, stamped Napoleon the great man that he was. The fruits of this battle were the close of the campaign, the peace of Presburg, the temporary subjugation of all Northern Europe, and, it is said, the death of William Pitt, who died almost heart- broken at the success of Napoleon. It is said the Allies made a mistake in their attack which Napoleon turned to his great advantage, and by an exhibition of almost mi- raculous strategy, won a name "which before him no mortal had won." *'The sun of Austerlitz" furnished the great captain with a theme for those inspiring and bold apostrophes with which he so often regaled his troops. We passed several castles and parks and fine estates which, I was told, belonged to Prince Lichtenstein, whose wealth, it is said, is second only to that of the Emperor. 230 EUROPEAN NOTES. Near Brunn is the Spielberg, an old castle, formerly a State prison, where the turbulent Baron Trenck, colonel of tlie Pandoors, died in 1749. Evening was approaching and soon supper time came on, and at a station a man brought me a waiter full of good things to eat, for which I gave him a ticket that I had bought about three hours before. The train stopped only a moment, and he told me that a servant would call for the waiter and dishes at the next station, I thought it was a pretty good plan in a country like Bo- hemia, where people, unlike the Bohemian Beau Hickman, can be trusted to the last farthing. And now we arrived at Prague, the ancient capital of Bohemia, with about 200,000 inhabitants, a place ''beautiful for situation,'' and nearly nine miles i\\ circumference. It is filled with handsome mediaeval buildings and towers, a fine cathedral and several superb palaces. I stopped at the "Englischer Hof," the best hotel in the city, and next morning proceeded first to the "Carlsbrucke" (Charles' Bridge). Here I saw a statue of St. Nepomuc, the patron saint of Bohemia, who at that very place was thrown into the river Moldau and drowned, by order of the king, for refusing to tell him what the queen had said to St. John at the confessional. According to the legend, the body floated for a considerable time in the river, wMth five bril- liant stars hovering over the head He was canonized by Pope Benedict, after which time multitudes from Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary made pilgrimages to tb.e bridge^ especially on the i6th of May, the festival of the saint. There is a group of figures on one end of the bridge rep- resenting souls in purgatory. I paid a visit to the church of the Hussites, built by the followers of John Huss, who was burnt at Constance; and near the city 1 saw the bat- tle-field where both the leaders, Procopius the "Great" and the "Less," fell, which terminated the war that arose with such fury after the death of Huss. I saw man\ other things which I will not stop to describe, such as the ca- thedral, castle, picture gallery and Capuchin monastery, Bohemian National Museum and the great University, such things being similar to those already described as A RIDE THROUGH AUSTRIA. 23I connected with other great cities, with, of course, many things of vast interest peculiar to Bohemia. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and can never be wanting in interest to those who revere the names of "John Huss" and "Jerome of Prague," the harbingers of the Reformation, who died heroically at the stake, for what they believed to be the truth of God. The ride from Prague to Nuremberg was not marked by any incident worth special mention, with the excep- tion of a pleasant halt at beer-renowned Pilsen, and the fine views we had while dashing through the Bohemian forests or mountains. Two languages are spoken all through Bohemia — Ger- man and Sclavonic. If any of my readers think German is awkward and difficult, they ought to catch a glimpse of some of the signs at the railroad depots in Bohemia. Brunn, for example, is written "Brn," and that is not a circumstance to some of the names. Sclavonic is certainly the most outlandish and incomprehensible of all the lan- guages I ever saw, and it sets at defiance all the principles of any that I ever studied. CHAPTER XII. FIRST VIEW OF ITALY CROSSING THE ALPS. One of the great objects I had in view in going abroad was to visit Italy, that most interesting land, historically, on the face of the earth, with the exception of Palestine, and even this exception need not be made for those who are not conversant with sacred history. So far as I was concerned, I had been longing ever since I had reached European soil, to thrust my foot into the great boot whose top rested against the Alps in the north, whose leg was laved on the east by the Adriatic and on the west by the Mediterranean, while its sole lay on the verge of the waters that washed the Sicilian isles. I wanted to visit the land with which I had been made familiar in my col- lege days, the land of Romulus, Horatius, Caius Marcius, the kings, the Caesars, of Livy, Cicero, Sallust, Juvenal, Horace, Virgil — in a word, of those great statesmen, he- roes, philosophers, poets, painters, who more than two thousand years ago — more than three thousand years ago, exhibited a genius, a culture, a splendor, a familiarity with science, law and art, to which the civilization of the nine- teenth century can scarcely aspire. But going to Italy was no small journey. People in America imagine that Europe is a small continent, and that one can, when once on its shores, cross to its farthest limits in a day. This is a great mistake. To go to Italy from where I lived in Ger- many was like going from Boston to New Orleans, or from Atlanta to the City of Mexico. It took me three days to make the trip. Between my residence and the historic land lay the great, the stupendous Alps, with their cloud- FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 233 like peaks and eternal snows. But I felt that go to Italy I must, or my trip to Europe would be in vain. The Egyptians have a saying that he who has not seen Cairo has not seen the world. It may be truthfully said that he who has not seen Italy has not seen Europe. To go to Italy I had to select one of three routes — that by the Mt. Cenis tunnel (by the way of Geneva), that by the St. Gothard tunnel, then just completed, or that by the celebrated Brenner Pass, which would take me through the clouds. Wishing to see as much as possible of the Alps, having visited other portions, I chose the last, which was also the most direct route. 1 proceeded first from Coburg to Nuremberg, over ground that I had often traveled and have before describ- ed. From Nuremberg, after spending a few hours pleas- antly in the old town, I went to Munich, one of the most celebrated cities of Germany, the capital of Bavaria, with a population of 170,000, and deserving a much better de- scription than I can here give. I stopped a night and part of two days here, and viewed the principal streets and buildings, stopping at the famous hotel "Four Sea- sons." This is the place where there is a picture gallery equal to that of Dresden or Berlin, a bronze factory un- equalcd by any ('n earth, and beer brewcrits also excel- ling all (^hers in the world. It is said that by actual esti- mate every man, woman and child in Munich averages a half gallon of beer per dRy. The public buildings and the private residences of Munich are regarded the finest in Germany. Here at Munich, I bought my ''rimd rcise billet'"' or round trip ticket to Italy, which was good for thirty days, and allowed me to stop at pleasure at the following places, which I wish to describe in these pages : Verona, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Pisa, Padua, Venice and Trent. Leaving Munich, we were not long in coming in view of the Tyrolean Alps. The ride through Tyrol was charming. No such scenery I had ever witnessed, the train all the time going up grade, and in the mdst of mountains that were piled one upon another "like Pelion 234 EUROPEAN NOTES. upon Ossa," and that looked like p^reat bald banks of clouds, lifting their sombre and weird forms into the very- skies. The train, in order to make some of the ascents, had to wind itself along a track which climbed the awful peaks after the fashion of a spiral staircase. It interested and amused me to look out of the car window down an almost perpendicular distance of over a mile and see the very road over which we had passed half an hour before. The people that crowded the different stations, gay Tyro- lean peasants, with their blood red costumes, interested us as much as the scenery. These were mountaineers indeed, who would be as ill at ease in a low country as fish out of water. We passed many interesting towns and villages, took dinner at Innspruck, where the statue of Andrew Hofer could be plainly seen, and where the stran- ger was impressed with the curious but thrifty capital of the Tyrolese. Their real capital, however, is Vienna, for Tyrol is now a part of Austria. Later on in the day we found ourselves getting higher, still higher, till at last we reached Brenner, the highest point on the road, the sum- mit of the Alps, and the watershed between the Black Sea and the Adriatic. As the train stopped there some time, I got out and looked around. I was in the midst of great, gray, treeless mountains covered with snow, and the snow, though it was in May, was tb.en falling. Little "red riding hood" girls gathered around us with Alpine flowers for sale, for, however C'">ld the weather or deep the snow, somehow the supply of flowers never seemed to be ex- hausted. And I can, in imagination, hear even now their little girlish voices, crying out, '' Edehveiss ! edelweiss! kaufen zie, bitle, inein cdehveiss ! "Noble white! noble white ! buy, pray, my noble white flowers !" The "Tribune'' thus describes the legend of the Edel- weiss : "Once there was a maiden — so the legend runs — so fair, so pure, so heavenly minded, that no suitor was found worthy to win her; and so, though all men vamly sighed for her, at last she was metamorphosed into a white star like flower, and placed high upon the loftiest mountain tops, close to the snow she resembled, to be forever a type FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 235 of the womanhood that is purest and most lovely. And because the flower was only found through peril and toil, and upward struggle, it became a saying through all the cantons that to win the love that was highest and noblest was "to pluck the edelweiss;" and no higher honor could any lady merit than to have the little white flower placed, as her own emblem, within her gentle hand. So at length it grew to be sacred to betrothals, as the orange-blossom is to marriage; and no maiden might be won until her lover had scaled the perilous heights himself, to seek the priceless edelweiss, and lay it at her feet. And, like the Scotch white heather, it told in itself the old sweet tale ; for if the maiden toc .k his offering, the happy lover might hope ; and if she placed it in her girdle or belt, then he knew that she was his." Not many hours after we left Brenner station, descending all the time, signs of a different soil and climate began to present themselves. We descended quite rapidly by means of a long embankment and two tunnels, till we reached a point only 4.500 feet above the sea level. The most remarkable part of the line is between Schelleberg and Gossensass, which last-named place lies almost per- pendicularly 600 feet below it. A fine view of the glacier region is here obtained. At Gossensass we had a magnif- icent view of the glaciers of Phyrschthal (now let my readers try to pronounce that word ; it means simply "peach valley"). The train runs high above the river Eisach, which reminded me of "the Iser rolling rapidly,'' which I had left at Munich. The scenery was still wild, rocky, weird and enchanting. Vegetation soon assumed a southern character, and vineyards and chestnut trees began to appear. We passed here a castle called Frost- burg, with its numerous towers and pinnacles, and this is the most striking part of the valley of the Eisach, which still continued to dash down mountain sides, widening and gathering strength at every plunge. At Station Az- wary I saw numerous detached pyramids of reddish, clay- ey porphyry, most of them covered with slabs of stone. Near here are the country seats of the wealthy inhabitants of Bozen, a town of 10,000 inhabitants, which we soon 236 EUROPEAN NOTES. reached, and which was once the seat of a great traffic, it is said, between Venice and the North. We next entered a district of most luxuriant fertihty, resembhng a vast vineyard. Having left Bozen, we crossed the Eisach, which a little further on ennpties into the Adige, which at Station Branzoll becomes navigable. At Trent I spent a night simply to get a look at the church in which the celebrated Council of Trent was held. It is one of the most picturesque places I ever saw, in the midst of wild, tall, stony mountains, so high and so near as absolut* ly to obstruct the view in every direction. In the midst of such a circumscribed place one feels that he can- not breathe well. Still the town is pretty, though very old, having been founded by the Etruscans, and mention- ed by Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy. It possesses numerous palaces of marble, towers, dilapidated old castles and broad, well paved streets. The hotels are numerous, large and modern, and arc liberally patronized by health and pleasure seekers. There is a magnificent cathedral in Trent, begun nearly seven hundred years ago ; but the St. Maria Maggiore was more interesting from the fact that it was in this that the celebrated Council of Trent sat in 1545-63. It contains on the walls portraits of the members of this Council — seven cardinals, three patriarchs, thirty-three archbishops and two hundred and thirty-five bishops. rhe Italian language is almost exclusively spok- en in Trent. The city now has a population of eighteen or twenty thousand. Leaving Trent, the train resumed its course in the val- ley of the Adige. We passed in sight of a waterfall which somewhat resembled Toccoa, the beautiful. We entered the land of southern fruits and vineyards and felt, as everything wore an Italian appearance, that we were in Italy — but we were not yet there. The first Italian sta- tion is Pesi, on the west of which I beheld Monte Baldo, 7,280 feet above the sea level, which separates the valley of the Adige from the Lake of Gardo. The road now en- ters the celebrated Chiusa de Verona, ox rocky passage, by which the Adige penetrates the limestone mountains, and you can form some idea of it if you imagine a street with FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 237 perpendicular sides cut through Stone Mountain from its very base. It is a very Thermopylae, and has often been the scene of sanguinary conflicts. On a height to the right lay Rivoli, which was stormed several times by the French, in 1796-7, under Massena, who derived his title from this village, and I suppose the Rue Rivoli in Paris also thence derived its name. Our train passed three stations, crossed the Adige and entered the depot at Verona. FROM VERONA TO FLORENCE. I did notremain in Verona long, but long enough to be- come deeply interested in the place. It lies at the base of the Alps and contains a population of about 70,000. It is situated on the rapid Adige, along whose banks I had come from the point where the Eisach empties into it, away up in the mountains, and here at Verona it is span- ned by five bridges. The city is strongly fortified and garrisoned by 6,000 men, and next to Venice is the princi- pal town in Venetia. The city, as may be supposed, is very old, having been founded by the Rhaetians and Etruscans, and being a border town has been the battle ground of contending nations forages. I beheld here many unique and beautiful medijeval buildings, some of which reflected the genius of Michael Sammicheli, one of the most famous architects of the world, who once resided here. Here are also some mon uments of Fra Giacondo, a master whose works are to be found at Paris, Venice and Rome. The painted facades of the houses, particularly of the palaces, are very at- tractive. Verona has given to the world some of its greatest painters, but strange to say, Paul Veronese, as he is called, Avhose works I had so often witnessed on the Continent, belonged more particularly to the Venetian school. I was much interested in viewing the Arena, erected by Diocletian in 284, an amphitheatre which was capable of seating comfortably 25,000 spectators, and in which 70,- 000 could stand. A fragment only of the external wall remains. To show what a singular thing fashion is, the 238 EUROPEAN NOTES. pillars of the amphitheatre, it is said, were left rough unde- signedly, and yet they became a model for the favorite '•^rustica' pillars of the Roiaissance. So it is with many other things. A lady, perhaps, in Paris, whose hair would not grow, gave rise to the short hair custom of a few years ago ; and some one who could not conveniently "keep her hair out of her eyes,'' gave rise, perhaps, to the custom of "bangs;" while, perhaps, some poor creature with curva- ture of the spine, started the unnatural attitude of the "Grecian bend." But one had as well be out the world as out of the fashion — so "they say." But how is the glory of this place departed ! A small theatre is usually kept up in the centre, while the arcades, seventy-two in num- ber, are let by the town to traders of every description. The Palazzo del Consiglio was an exceedingly beautiful and attractive place, erected by the great Giacondo. Abi.vc are statues of celebrated natives of ancient Verona ■ — -Cornelius Nepos, a name familiar to every school girl or bv:)y, Catullus, Vitruvius, the younger Pliny, and Aure- lius Macer, the friend of Virgil. In the middle of the square is a statue of Dante, who fled to Verona after his banishment from Florence. I did not stop to examine the gorgeous tombs of the Scaligers, who for upwards of a century were the presi- dents of the Republic of Verona. But that which made Verona most interesting to me was its association with the name of William Shakespeare. When I saw two natives, well dressed and cultured in ap pearance, talking in the streets, the thought would arise, There are Shakespeare's " Two Gentlemen of Verona." But more interesting still is an object shown in the south- eastern part of the city. In the Capello street, a hat over the gateway of a court opposite the palace of St. Boniface, is said to indicate the house of Juliet's parents (Capuletti). The play of "Romeo and Juliet'' was founded on events which actually took place at Verona. "Escalus, prince of Verona," was Bartolomeo della Scala, who died about the beginning of the fourteenth century. And now, to one familiar with the world renowned, love sick drama, what a privilege it was to stand and view the real balcony (we FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 239 could imagine it real, anyway) where Juliet sat in all her loveliness, when Romeo exclaims : " But soft, what light through yonder window breaks ? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon That is already sick and pale with grief. That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she." In another part of the city is situated the old Francis- can Monastery, where a partially restored chapel contains a rude sarcophagus called the tomb of Juliet. But it is so called without the slightest authority, and credulous and sentimental people may find, and do find it, a suitable place at which to give forth their tears and sighs, yet to the sober minded they render themselves more ridiculous than lovers weeping over the tomb of Eloise and Abe^ lard ; or, what is more to the point, than Mark Twain wringing his tear-wet (?) handkerchief over the grave of Adam, his " blood relative." But 1 expect to visit Verona again, and must leave. Getting into a coupe where I found a priest with his broad brimmed hat and long, black gown on (whose like I am to see now until my disgust shall grow utterly fatigued), I started on my journey southward. In about three hours we came to Mantua, a place where I was advised not to stop on account of the huge mosquitoes that ever infested the place. That was ''a tale of Mantua" which I had not expected to hear, so I contented myself with viewing the town from the dtpot. Wliile it has its 25,000 people, its cathedral, art galleries and other attractions, that which made it chiefly interesting was the fact that it was the ancient home of Virgil, who was born about three miles from where I then stood The wonder to me was that a man could write sucli poems as the Georgics and the ^neid while troubled with mosquitoes. What might he not have done had he been in a land where there were no mosquitoes .■' The great Saurin said the profoundest meditations of a philosopher could be disturbed by the buzzing of a fly. Then what poetic dreams could be dis- sipated by the singing of a mosquito? Some elegantly dressed ladies about the depot suggested the idea that the 240 EUROPEAN NOTES. art of female adornment must have originated here. To say the least of it, wherever dresses are worn, mantua- makers are found. The whistle blows, we are locked in again, and on we go until we reach Modena, the ancient Mutina, a place of about 50,000 inhabitants. After the murder of Caesar, Brutus was besieged hereby Antony for four months, but the latter was defeated by Octavian, and compelled to raise the siege. After killing Caesar, Brutus had a hard time of it, and at length plunged the sword into his own heart, doub less more willingly than he did the dagger into the heart of Caesar. Modena once had an art gallery almost unequaled by any on earth, but Duke Francesco got into a "tight place" pecuniarily, and ha(i to sell his master pieces. These were bought by the art loving and rich Augustus the Strong, of Saxony, and they now adorn the world renown- ed Dresden gallery. A specialty of Modena is terracotta work, and evidences of proficiency in the art may be seen in every window. On we go, passing many a scene of liistorical interest, until we come in sight of another great city, and that Bo- logna, notorious in many parts of the world, if for nothing else, on account of its sausages. It is said that Cincin- nati is "haunted by the ghosts of swine," there are so many slaughtered there. It is difficult to tell what kind of ghosts haunt Bologna, whether cats, dogs, or horses, for who can tell what these sausages are made of? One man said he knew they were made of horse flesh, for he ate a great many for supper and had a nlght.7nare after- wards. Certain it is that these sausages are made here by wholesale and shipped to all parts of the world. But really, Bologna is a great city of 100,000 inhabit- ants, and one of the most important places in Italy. It is situated in a fertile plain at the baie of the Apennines, and possesses no less than one hundred and thirty church- es and twenty monasteries, with an old and celebrated University. Thia old town, during the Punic wars, es- poused the cause of Hannibal, one of the greatest gener- als, by the way, that ever lived. It was to me an interest- FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 24 1 ing fact that the eyes of the great Carthagenian had once gazed on the very scenes that then occupied my atten- tion. The University, which was founded in 11 19, once had as a teacher the renowned Irenaeus, and other teach- ers of greatest fame, so that no less than 10,000 students flocked to it annually. There are now only 400 students, and strange to say, some of the professors are women. In the 13th century, Novella d' Andrea, a lady of great personal attractions, was a professor, and it is said she was always concealed by a curtain during her lectures. It is quite different with the ladies who lecture to us in these days. They take us behind the curtain with them. I was strongly tempted to remain In Bologna longer, for there is no city of its size in the world richer in art treasures or objects of historical interest, but Florence was my objective point, and after a short stay, on we went until that glorious city came in sight. BEAUTIFUL FLORENCE. I parted with my readers in the last paragraph just as we came in sight of Florence, appropriately called "the beauti- ful," which we beheld situated in a lovely valley, on both banks of the Arno. It is surrounded by spurs of the classic Apennines, which here looked like huge banks of clouds that, tired with their aerial suspension, had come down to earth for repose. But I will let another describe the impres- sion which the first view of this splendid city produces on the beholder : "Who can describe the enchanting view of this art-city of Tuscany and the world, Florence, with its surrounding gardens? Who paint the distant horizon, from Fiesole smiling at us with its fair towns, to the blue ridge of the Lucchese mountains standing out against the golden background of the western sky? Here everything betrays the work of generation after generation of ingeni ous man. Like a water lily rising on the mirror of the lake, so rests on this lovely ground the still more lovely Florence, with its everlasting works and its inexhaustible riches. From the bold, airy tower of the palace, rising like a slender mast, to Brunelleschi's wondrous dome of the cathedral ; from the old house of the Spini to the 242 EUROPEAN NOTES. Pitti Palace, the most imposing the world has ever seen ; from the garden of the Franciscan convent to the beauti- ful environs of the Cascine, all are full of incomparable grace. Each street of Florence contains a world of art ; the walls of the city are the calyx containing the fairest flowers of the human mind. The population of Florence, formerly the capital of the grand duchy of Tuscany, and for five years capital of the kingdom of Italy, is now 125,000, and with its suburbs, 170,000. It is distinguished for many things. First, I should name its beautiful and healthful situation in the upper or mountain region, bearing about the same relation, in this respect, to the other Italian cities that Atlanta does to the other cities of Georgia. The weather in sum- mer is warm, and in winter the v/inds are bleak, but for an all-year climate it is about the best in Italy, It is the home of the celebrated Medici family, one of the most remarkable ever known in the world. The Medicis were originally rich merchants. The first one who became a ruler was Giovanni. He was succeeded by the celebrated Cosmo, who won the distinction of "'Pater Patriae,^' words inscribed on his tomb, and which in our country have been given to one much worthier to bear them. He was suc- ceeded by his son Pietro, and he by Lorenzo, called the Magnificent, who, like his grandfather, expended his wealth liberally in the support of art and science. He had three sons, Pietro, Giovanni, who was made a cardi- nal at thirteen and became afterwards Pope under the title of Leo X., and Giuliano. Pietro, his successor, who was talented but imprudent, involved Florence in war with Charles VIII. of France, which led to his own expulsion and the occupation of Florence by the French. After his death, the young cardinal became head of the family, and he effected the restoration of the Medicis in Florence and shortly afterwards was elected Pope. The government of Florence then fell to Giuliano, who, loving literature more than politics, resigned it into the hands of his nephew, Lorenzo, who governed Florence for some time under the direction of the Pope. Now com.es a very interesting part of this history. This Lorenzo married Magdeleine FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 243 de Boulogne, of the royal house of France, and by her he had a daughter, the famous Catherine de Medici, after- ward queen of France and one of the worst women that ever Hved. I saw a full life-size portrait of this woman when I was in Paris, and I can never forget the counte- nance of the woman. She it was who caused her son to put Francis to death by having poison poured into his ear, and she it was who caused the St. Bartholomew mas- sacre. Before her father married her mother, he had an illegitimate child by an African slave, whose name was Alessandro. This son of an African slave became ruler of Florence, with the title of duke, but was so licentious and unpopular that he was soon assassinated. The Medici family became extinct in 1737. It was one of the richest, most intellectual, most powerful families ever known to earth. One of the greatest curiosities in Florence is the "New Sacristy,'' built by Michael Angelo, which contains the monuments of the Medicis. It is perhaps the most wonderful collection of tombs in the world and cost, first and last, no less than eighty million dollars. Florence is distinguished for having the finest art col- lections in the world. Even the Louvre, and Dresden, and Munich, and Berlin pale before the unrivaled and indescribable splendors of the Uf^zi and Pitti Palace gal- leries. The city is all the time crowded with visitors from all parts of the world, particularly English and Americans, who come to behold these treasures of art. It would take a book, much less a short article, to describe even the master-pieces that adorn these galleries. In other Euro- pean galleries, if even one piece or a drawing can be shown from Michael Angelo or Raphael, it is considered a treas^ ure giving character to the whole collection. Here at Florence, where Michael Angelo lived and labored, are innumerable works of the great master, and so with all the great painters. The richest little collection in the world is that of the famous Tribune in the Uffizi. One is so bewildered in seeing the great paintings in Florence,, that he does not know what to say about them, or how to write about them. Even Mark Twain, who made a visit- to Florence especially to see these galleries, described only. 244 EUROPEAN NOTES. two pictures, that of Moses and the celebrated Venus, by Titian. As I remained several days, my plan was to view the pictures every morning until I became fatigued, and then I would stroll about the city and inspect the other wonders of the place. I have already remarked that the city is located on both banks of the Arno. On the street or quay that runs along the river's bank are innumerable fine hotels, and curiosity shops that dazzle you with the brilliant wares with which they tempt the tourist. The chief commodities consist of fine mosaics, for which Flor- ence is renowned. These mosaics form the principal in- dustry of the place. They are sold to visitors and also shipped to all parts of the world. I visited the great cathedral, which, in addition to being a wonder of architecture, is, of course, filled with fine paintings, any one of which would render an American city famous. I also visited the celebrated Baptistery, an octagonal building which was highly extolled by Dante, (who, by the way, was a resident of Florence until his ban- ishment, before referred to) and which contains those mag- nificent bronze doors, three in number, which are celebra- ted the world over. The second door is a marvel of art, and is the one which Michael Angelo pronounced worthy to form the entrance to Paradise. It represents ten scenes" from' Scripture history: (i) Creation and Expulsion from Paradise; (2) Cain Slaying his Brother; (3) Noah after the Flood ; (4) Abraham's Sacrifice ; (5) Esau and Jacob ; (6) Joseph and his Brethren ; (7) Promulgation of the Law on Sinai ; (8) The Walls of Jericho ; (9) Battle against the Am- orites ; (10) The Queen of Sheba. Other great churches, great museums and palaces are there, but I must desist ; 1 have said enough to show that Florence is the home of art. Indeed, what ancient Rome ■was in the development of the arts and sciences, this and much more Florence has been in modern times. The modern Italian language and literature have emanated principally from Florence, and the people there to day are the most cultured and the most polished to be found in Italy. The whole city wears an air of refinement delight- ful to behold. Going into the Uf^zi gallery, I noticed a FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. ' 245 great variety of shops where curious wares were sold. Among these was a place where a woman was selHng canes. One of these canes was different from anything I ever saw. I asked the price in French (the Italians nearly all speak French), and was told ten francs. The cane con- sisted of a rod of some metal over which button like bits of bone were placed and nicely glued together. I offered her five francs and she gladly took it, and I the cane, which I carry with me now, and it is greatly admired. It was even a curiosity in Italy, for when I reached my hotel in Rome, an Italian gentleman told me he had never seen one like it. My object in mentioning this is to speak of a practice common among Italian shop-keepers, and those in many other countries in Europe. That is, to ask twice as much for an article as they will take. If travelers would keep this in mind they could save a vast amount in mak- ing their purchases. When one goes to Florence he will wish, of course, to buy either copies or photographs of some of the great paintings, and would do well to keep the rule in view to offer just one half of what is asked for the articles. Florence is surrounded by beautiful environs, and the little adjacent towns, and castles, and convents are pic- turesque in the highest degree. Near Florence is the celebrated convent of Vallambrosa, founded eight hundred years ago, and which is occupied now as a forest school. It is situated in a valley covered with a dense forest, the large trees of which, casting their leaves and covering the ground with them, suggested the Miltonic phrase, "Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallambrosa." It is said that this convent was built by a wealthy young man of Florence, whose name was Giovanni (or "John," as we would call him), who, having lived a life of profli- gacy, resolved to spend the remainder of his days doing penance. His brother Hugo having been slain, a custom required that he should slay the assassin. Descending on Good Friday from a Florence church, he met the assassin at a narrow part of the road. The latter dropped on his knees and begged for mercy. John, moved by a generous impulse, forgave him, and resolved to renounce the world 246 EUROPEAN NOTES. and its passions. He retired to one convent, but the dis- cipline was too loose, and so he went to the sequestered "vale of Vallambrosa," and built this convent. Well, if it has accomplished no other good, it gave Milton a fine figure in the grandest of all poems. FROM FLORENCE TO ROME. Before leaving Florence I wish to make a general re- mark. It has reference to the character of the Italian people. We in America having formed our opinions from the few organ-grinders and fruit venders that we have seen in this country, are in the habit of thinking the Ital- ians a lazy, filthy, thriftless race. This is true of the lowest classes, peasants, or lazzaroni, among whom are the most disgusting beggars on the face of the earth. But if I am to judge of the Italians by the people of Florence, I would say that they are as intellectual and refined as any in the world. Indeed, from its infancy, two thousand years ago, Florence has been the seat of learning and re- finement. J ust think of the men who have made Florence their home — Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Macchiavelli, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto Cellini, Galileo, Guicciardini, Amerigo Vespucci, Cosmo and Lorenzo de Medici, and Filicajo, the chief lyric poet of Italy. Lord Beaconsfield said : "You cannot stroll fifty yards, you cannot enter a church or a palace without be- ing favorably reminded of the power of human thought. In Florence the monuments are not only of great men^ but of the greatest. You do not gaze upon the tomb of an author who was a great master of composition, but of one who formed the language. The illustrious astronomer is not the discoverer of a planet, but the revealer of the whole celestial machinery. The artist and politician are not merely the first sculptors and statesmen of their time, but the inventors of the very art and the very craft in which they excelled." The Italians of modern times, some of them, are scarcely less distinguished. Where was there ever a greater statesman than Cavour, a greater poet than Alfieri, a greater general than Garibaldi, or a greater ruler than FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 247 Victor Emanuel? And as to painters, sculptors and ar- chitects, Italy is full of them. The ladies of Florence struck me as especially beauti- ful, and, with the exception of being darker, looked very much like our better class American women. One of them was at the depot waiting for her husband, who had been on a visit to Vienna. She came in her nice little one-horse carriage as they do here. The train rolled up, out sprang the husband from the coiipe^ and into the arms of his wife he fell. They kissed three times, (there is more kissing done on the part of families in Germany and Italy than in America) and then, arm-in-arm, they walked off to the vehicle and drove away, doubtless to some lovely Florentine home. It is astonishing how a stranger can feel at home at such a strange place in a foreign land. It is all because he has money to pay his way. Henry Clay once said to a man who was going to Europe and who asked for a letter of introduction, "Sir, have you got money? Money speaks all languages." Now, Florence is a place where money holds sway to a great extent, although it is said to be the cheapest place in Italy to live. The florin^ one of the oldest and most common of coins, was invented here and has been adopted by many countries, and I found it specially common in Austria. From Florence to Rome is about a day's journey, and there are two routes. I selected the most interesting in a historical point of view, and I will partly leave my readers to imagine the privileges and enjoyments of a day spent in going through the very heart of Italy. In my coupe were a gentleman and his wife, a young married couple, going on a visit to some friend several stations off. They could not speak a word of English, nor I one word of Ital- ian, and yet by signs and smiles, we got w'ell acquainted and the time passed pleasantly. When they got out, I was left alone, and I did not fancy traveling alone, locked up in an Italian coupe, away from conductors and protect- ors. How did I know what bandit or other rufifian might get in as has been so often done ? For instance, a man was murdered by his traveling companion in a coupe on 248 EUROPEAN NOTES. the Brighton railway in England. A German consul was severely wounded and robbed in a similar way, while pass- ing through the Mont Cenis tutmel. And there I was, alone in a coupe, liable to have disagreeable company at any moment. A station was reached ; the train stopped. Just as I expected, in came, with a huge satchel, a burly Italian, and we were locked in together. I eyed him close- ly and bowed to him politely. We passed through a short tunnel. I then handed him some cigars. He shook his head. Worse and worse. We now passed a region of tun- nels, and, by the way, between Bologna and Milan there are no less than eighty, and between Bologna and Pisa not less than nineteen, and between Florence and Rome I know not how many. Just before entering a long tunnel, my companion unceremoniously jerked his satchel down from the rack, and, unlocking it, took out a great navy pistol and buckled it on him. I thought I had "caught it at last," and somehow or other my heart had an upward tendency toward my mouth. I looked at the window to see if there was any possibility of escape, in case I came to the worst. There was no hope. I looked at my com- panion and he was in the act of lying down, and soon fell asleep. I was much relieved, and enjoyed the scenery with a greater relish, being very careful not to disturb the slumbers of my friend. I think he was a cattle hunter, and perhaps had some misgivings as to who I was, as he was not used to foreigners. We passed a hill where no less a person than the great Julius Caesar once held a consultation with his generals. We passed LakeTrasimene, of which I had, in my college days, so often heard Professor Dabney speak, and of which I had read as the scene of one of the greatest battles of Hannibal, when so many were slain that the waters of the Sangiiinarius, a little stream which we crossed near the lake, ran blood. On and on we went, stopping for a few minutes at towns renowned in ancient and modern history, until we reached a river, the sight of whose waters made an impression on me which I can never forget. It was the Tiber — the Tiber of Caesar, the " yellow Tiber" of Horace, the Tiber whose FIRST VIEW OF ITALY. 249 history outrivals even that of the Nile. Along the banks of this river we went for over a hundred miles. About the time we reached the river we came to a beautiful bridge, the veritable Ponte Felice, built by Augustus, two thousand years ago (restored in the 15th century), and over which in ancient times, and long before railroads were ever dreamed of, all the trafific was carried between Rome and the northeastern part of Italy. And now, on looking to the right, I beheld an object which thrilled me. It was Mount Soracte, the Soracte of Horace and Virgil, a limestone ridge about three miles long, with pre- cipitous sides. The privilege, the delight of gazing on that mountain which had inspired those ancient poets, will be appreciated by every reader acquainted with classic history. We passed several ancient and modern battle fields, many convents and nunneries, multitudes of old castles, beautiful mountain peaks, some of them the seats of the ancient gods, while on the left towered in blue and pic- turesque grandeur the Sabine Hills and Alban Mountains. I looked to the right, and lo ! the dome of St. Peter ap- peared. CHAPTER XIII, ROAMING THROUGH ROME. FIRST DAY IN ROME. As I gazed upon the dome of St. Peter's, which towered majestically above even the other superb structures around it ; as the train went whizzing by old ruins forever memo- rable in Roman history, here an old castle, there an old wall, yonder the ancient aqueducts, in the distance the baths of Diocletian ; as the city itself, spread out in the widely extending canipagna, burst upon my vision, I felt as if the dream of my life was about to be realized, and my nerves quivered with delight in contemplation of the rich enjoyments that lay before me. It is difficult to de- scribe one's feelings on the first view of the Eternal City. When Martin Luther first caught a glimpse of it, he ex- claimed, " Hail, holy Rome ! made holy by the blood of the martyrs spilt there." I felt that, having ascended round by round the ladder of European travel, I was then upon the veiy top, from whose height I was to see things with which I should be satisfied and filled. Recollections of Roman history, dreamlike, crowded into my mind. The "flight of birds;" the "sow and nine farrow;'' the fate of Virginia; false Sextus and the ruin of Lucrece ; the strug- gle over the Sabine women ; the cackling of the geese ; the feat of Marcus Curtius ; the sacrifice of Caius Mucins Loyola; Horatius keeping the bridge; the weighing of the iron sword of Camillus ; Nero fiddling while Rome was burning ; magnificent triumphal processions of the conquerors ; scenes in the forum ; the matchless speeches of Cicero; the undying verse of Horace, Virgil and Juve- nal; the assassination of Caesar; the death of Brutus; crowds rushing to the gladiatorial shows ; melancholy ROAMING THROUGH ROME. 25 I processions of augurs and soothsayers ; the surrender of Coriolanus to his mother ; panoplied men wading through blood to the throne; a thousand altars smoking with in- cense ; decay and ruin ; magnificent temples of unearthly grandeur ; the wholesale massacre of Christians ; the bones of myriad martyrs ; a lonely apostle in chains, with a guard at his side; scarlet robes and triple crowns; great galleries of world-renowned paintings and sculptures ; these things in incoherent and anachronic order occupied my thoughts like a wild and incoherent dream. I was awaked from my revery by the blast of the whistle, which announced that W£ were in Rome, rightly called the Eternal City, because, since the legends of the origin of the city are discredited by the best authorities, there is no known period of the past when Rome was not. The "general passenger de- pot'' in which I alighted is not unlike those in large cities in this country. Indeed, the depot and everything around it are modern being in New Rome, or the Strangers' Quarter, where are innumerable splendid hotels, stately residences and wide and beautiful streets. The city num- bers now 300,000, and looks a little like Baltimore. In the time of the Caesars it numbered one million five hun- dred thousand. Most of the American tourists stop at the renowned Quirinal, or International, or Continental hotels, near the depot. These are the Fifth Avenues, Windsors and Grand Pacifies of Rome. As I wished to go into the heart of Old Rome, I concluded to stop at the Minerva, a mile and a halt away, near the banks of the Tiber. I hired a hack, and it seemed to me there M^ere hundreds then in waiting — nice, new carriages, with handsome horses, and ready to take you anywhere in the city for one franc (about twenty cents). 1 will here state that Rome is better supplied with cheap, excellent hacks than any city in the world, and this circumstance renders sight-seeing much more pleasant and expeditious than it would otherwise be. "Hacks and matches,'' said Mrs. Dr. Taylor to me, "are the cheapest things in Rome." That ride to the Hotel Minerva ! It was charming. First along the wide street of the Stranger's Quarter, then through the magnificent 252 EUROPEAN NOTES. Corso, the principal street — the Broadway of Rome — now through some of the narrow, queer, ancient streets, passing palaces, ruins, gorgeous art stores, sidewalks lined with people from all lands, wearing costumes of every descrip- tion, among which the broad-brimmed hals and long gowns of the countless priests were most conspicuous ; at last the hackman drove up in front of the Hotel Minerva, in one of the most thickly settled portions of Old Rome. The hotel is very old and first-class, though not so gorgeous and extensive as those named above. Marble statues stood in the halls, along the stairways and in all the public places about the establishment. My room was elevated, neat and comfortable, while my attendant was a German with whom I could converse. After refreshing myself with a bath, I came down and was met by an English-speaking guide. One word about guides. Let every one who travels in Europe always secure a guide. Those who do not are "penny wise and pound foolish." These guides know all about the places to be visited. It is their business, their study, and with a good guide a man can see more in one day than he could in a week without him. I secured this one, who proposed to take me to some objects of interest that very evening. Wishing to view the ancient ruins first, we had to go but a few steps, and entered the church of St. Maria Sophia Minerva, which was erected on the ruins of a temple of Mi- nerva, founded by Domitian, andis the only Gothic church at Rome. Here stand the very pillars used in the ancient temple, and by their sides, and on the walls, some of the great works of art of masters of the middle ages. The one object here, however, that I wished to see was Michael Angelo's "Christ with the Cross," which was erected in 1 52 1. It is the most singular representation of Christ I have seen, and not my conception of his personal appear- ance at all, but art critics have all pronounced in favor of it. A learned critic says, "The nudity of the figure is just- ified by the master's intention to portray the Risen Christ, but it is now marred by a bronze drapery." In front of this church, in the centre of the plaza, is a marble elephant, on the back of which is a small obelisk, ROAMING THROUGH ROME, 253 placed there by Bernint in 1667, being one of those which are said to have once been in front of the temple of Isis. Right in sight of where I stood, was the most celebra- ted building in the world, the best preserved of all the ancient ruins of Rome, the renowned Pantheon, which stood as it stands now when our Lord entered the world. This building, which has been at once the admiration and the despair of the architects of all ages, deserves a more extensive description than I can give here, I visited it re- peatedly, as it was only a square from my hotel, and it was one of the spots around which I loved to linger. It was built of brick, which leads to the remark that bricks are about the most durable material out of which to construct houses. 1 saw bricks in Rome three thousand years old, in a perfect state of preservation. The walls of this build- ing are twenty feet in thickness, and were originally cov- ered with marble and stucco. The ground around the building has been gradually raised by the dust and rub- bish of centuries until it is now twenty feet higher than it was when the temple was built, and comes up even with the top step. Originally it was necessary to enter the building by a flight of marble steps. Excavations are now going on at the rear and on the sides of the building, and it was often a pleasant pastime for me to stop and see the workmen, as they dug up one after another of the in- teresting mementoes of the past. The excavations in front had to be discontinued, as they interfered with the traffic of the street. I entered the portico, which was thirty-six yards wide and fourteen yards deep, and was supported by thirty-six Corinthian columns of granite, each one being thirteen feet in circumference and thirty- nine feet in height. On either side of the immense origi- nal door were niches in which once stood colossal statues of Augustus and his son-in-law, Agrippa. An inscription on the frieze states that the latter caused the building to be erected B C. 27. 0&^ going into the interior the effect is very fine. The building is lighted wholly by an aperture in the centre of the dome, through which, it being never closed, alternate sun and rain have come for two thousand years, the rain 254 EUROPEAN NOTES. passing through holes in the floor and flowing into the Tiber. The effect produced by this opening is so fine that it is supposed the building was called Pantheon from its resemblance to "the vault of heaven." In the walls are seen niches in which once stood statues of the gods, in- cluding those of Mars, Venus and Csesar. The diameter and height of the building are the same, nearly one hun- dred and forty feet. In 609 it was consecrated by Pope Boniface IV. as a Catholic church, and it is now known as the St. Maria Rotonda The two bell towers were erected by Pope Urban VIII. and are derisively called "asses ears." To the right of the high altar is the tomb of King Victor Emanuel. To the left of the third altar is the beautiful tomb of Raphael, the greatest artist that ever lived, Michael Angelo, perhaps, excepted. The Sistine Madonna at Dresden, as before remarked, was Raphael's greatest work and the greatest painting in the world, and on the altar here is a fine statue of the Madonna by Lo- ronzetto, executed in accordance with Raphael's last will. Back of the Pantheon are seen the ruins of the baths of Agrippa, their proximity to the Pantheon giving rise to the exploded conjecture that the building originally belonged to the baths and was afterwards converted into a temple. Having mentioned baths, I had as well dispose of that subject here. The baths of Rome were wonderful, sever- al of which I saw. The Thermae of Diocletian, the most extensive, were constructed at the beginning of the 4th century. The circumference of these baths is said to have been two thousand yards, and the number of daily bath- ers three thousand. The baths of Caracalla accommo- dated sixteen hundred bathers at once, and were the most magnificent in the world. Many master-pieces of art, in- cluding the Farnese Bull, Hercules, Flora at Naples, and valuable mosaics were found here. Of course, there were other public baths in Rome, but these were the most im- portant. It was perhaps largely owing to the free and daily use of water in that hot and unhealthy climate that the Romans arrived at such high intellectual and physical perfection, and it might be well if we of these Southern ROAMING THROUGH ROME. 255 States sI^'J^^ imitate the example of the ancients in this particula These baths could be used to advantage on multitude '^^ filthy people that I saw in Rome at this day and time Anothc'' interesting object that I visited in this vicinity was the l^ieatre of Marcellus, which was begun by Caesar and comt'^t^<^ B- C. 14 by Augustus. It was anciently said that -^^ Roman people required two things, bread and publP shows, and before I get through with these Notes m'' readers will think that it was a true remark. This ther ^^' ^^^ example, is said to have accommodated twenty tiousand spectators. I stood for a long time and gazed at ^^ venerable pile. Twelve arches of the outer walls are occupied by dirty-looking, impecunious smiths and tinke 's» who kept up such a hammering, bellows-blow- ing and t;*^^w^"S together of pieces of old iron, as to pro- duce soui' ^s quite discordant with those that had been so often hea; '^ '^^ ^^^ centuries long gone by from performers on the arte '^^^ stage above. Within the theatre is a palace which ha; ^^^ several renowned occupants, but none more so than t? ^ German ambassador and historian, Niebuhr, who had \ ^^^ quarters here during his residence in Rome. We pass'--'^ t^''^ celebrated Portico of Octavia, or what remain 'S o^ it, from which magnificent columns have been taken • to adorn other buildings. It was once adorned with spil^endid works of art, and it was here that the celebrated ' Venus de Medici was found. Full enough for one day, I think, as I lay My head down on my pillow at night : But oh, who can portray the wonders so grey That to-morrow shall bring to my sight .'' CAPITOLINE HILL. "I am in Rome ! Oft as the morning ray Visits these eyes, waking at once I cry. Whence this excess of joy } What has befallen me ? And from within a thrilling voice replies. Thou art in Rome !" — Rogers. I arose "bright and early," on the second day, and pro- ceeded at once to the dining room, where I secured a la 256 EUROPEAN NOTES, carte a magnificent breakfast. All of us have .^ t ?^ j excellency of the ancient Ronnan ««'j'/«^, and h ^ , r viands as tempting as those that tickled the. P^ ^ ^ Macsenas in the good old days of Horace and . l^ P .,. ■\^ -A A T ^ th smihng Mv guide was ready as soon as i came out, w 5 c ' A • u- u -J skeleton was found enclosed in a marble sarcophagus, grasping a sword, and it was pronounced to be that of the- Trojan founder. But there were other things of interest', in this dingy old town of narrow, dirty, tortuous streets. It has a university which in the past has been very cele- brated. It was at this university, so it is said and be- lieved, that dissection of the human body was first prac- ticed for scientific purposes. Galileo was professor in^ this university for twenty years, and in the museum they show apiece of his spine preserved in alcohol. It has art galleries (of course) and many manufacturing establish- ments, particularly of silks, leather and cloths. After sup-- per, 1 proceeded to a large and elegant cafe, where I learn- ed that the chief people of the place assembled every night for recreation and refreshment. There, lone stran-. ger that I was, I had a pleasant time watching the manceu- vres, habits and customs of the people. In one corner of the large hall was a place where tobacco and other articles 20 306 EUROPEAN NOTES. were sold, and I noticed that every now and then a visitor would walk up, exclaim "Virginia !" and then walk out again. Wondering what all this talk about Virginia meant, I slyly approached the proprietor and asked, as best I could, what occasioned it ? ''They call for cigars," said he, "made out of tobacco which is grown in a country called Virginia, somewhere in America." Reader, can you believe me? that simple announcement made me feel quite at home in that strange place and among those strange people. I told him to give me some "Virginias,'' and he handed out a few long, slender cigars made of black looking tobacco, with straws in the middle. I lighted one and took my seat, and began to smoke the quid (pardon the paraphrase) of sweet and bitter fancies. And this is from Virginia, I said, far away in my own loved country, and for aught I know, it came from Amherst county hard by Lynchburg ; and if from Amherst it may be from my own father's plantation, for he had grown tobacco there. And then 1 closed my eyes to everything around me .and thought of home. Home f "Who has not felt the magic of that name, As o'er the soul its sacred memories came, When far away upon some distant strand -His thoughts reverted to his native land." Though a moderate smoker, I have enjoyed many a fine 'Cigar from tlie "little operas" of the Italian wanderer in Louisville, to the fine Partagas of the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York ; but I have never enjoyed anything so much as that long, slender, black "Virginia" with which I was regaled that night. I left in a meditative mood and pro- ceeded to my hotel, where a refreshing night's rest pre- pared me for the labors and enjoyments of the next day. I had several hours in the morning to devote to sight- seeing, and I gave them to a stroll through the city, and a visit to the Church of St. Anthony, the patron saint of the city, whose relics, including particulaily his tongue, are shown in the treasury. This church is one of the grandest in Italy, and larger than the celebrated St. Mark's, of Venice. After strolling for some time through "long drawn aisles THREE ITALIAN CITIES. 307 and fretted vaults," and viewing innumerable paintings by the "old masters,'' and noticing innumerable devout Catholics as they bowed low to the Virgins in the chapels, and crossed themselves after first dipping their fingers in holy water, I noticed my watch and found that it was about time for me to board the train for the most unique and in some respects most beautiful city in the world. ENCHANTING VENICE. I can never forget the impression made upon me when I first beheld this unique and wonderful city. It seemed to rise in enchanting grandeur and beauty right from the midst of the sea. And indeed, the scene was no illusion, for it is situated in the Adriatic Sea about two and a half miles from the mainland. It is built on several original small islands, and multitudes of made ones, numbering one hundred and seventeen in all, in a lagoon or arm of the Adriatic Sea, nine miles broad and twenty-five miles long, and this sea is but an arm of the Great or Mediterra- nean Sea. The city, which is seven miles in circumference, contains about 130,000 inhabitants, but formerly contain- ed 200,000 and was one of the greatest commercial cities in the world, and the capital of the province of that name which has ever been one of the most celebrated and in- teresting It was always a wonder to me why a city should have been built in the water in that way, when "terra firma'' af- forded in all that region so many magnificent sites. The reason was, at time the city was founded, that whole sec- tion of country bordering on the Adriatic was infested by robbers and desperate characters generally, and the peace- fully disposed inhabitants sought refuge by founding their city, establishing their homes and business houses where they would be the better enabled to repel their disagree- able and marauding neighbors. The city has three hun- dred and fifty canals that take the place of streets and on these canals are continually running no less than five thousand gondolas, little boats of swan like shape, which by a law issued many years ago are painted jet black. Some of these gondolas are very costly and beautiful. In 308 EUROPEAN NOTES. the centre of each is a cove ing resembling a buggy top. Seated in this the man of business or pleasure, the young man or maiden, old people and little children, move grace- fully over the fairy waters in execution of their varied purposes. Thanks to modern invention, the cars now run to the very gates of the city, (in this case water gates, of course), the rails being supported by trestle work similar to that which holds (and on one notable occasion did not hold) the trains on the Frith of Tay in Scotland. On reaching Venice, we were landed in a depot of large size and elegant appointments, around whose sides the waters were plashing, as they do around a ship lying at anchor in the ocean. I stepped out and found the side of the grand canal lined with gondolas, with importuning boatmen, resembling hackmen at the depots in this coun- try. The fare per person to any point in the city was only one franc (about twenty cents.) I entered the gon- dola, took my seat, and the boatman pushed off from the shore. I then for the first time had that delicious feeling which Read described when he said : " Over the rail My hand I trail Within the shadow of the sail, A joy intense, The cooling sense Glides down my drowsy indolence." The Grand Canal, from lOO to 180 feet wide, is the Broad- way of the city, the main thoroughfare, which runs in the shape of an inverted S through the whole length of the place. Starting at the tail, we had to go a roundabout way through many small canals, (back streets and alleys, so to speak,) in order to reach the Grand Hotel, which was situ- ated on the upper shoulder of the S. It was a delightful ride, and on turning each corner the boatman would utter a strange, weird shout, which resembled the song-like ex- clamations of plantation negroes measuring wheat into bags, which I had so often heard in my youth, " Five and tally, move the bag.'' This was the alarm sounded to pre- vent a collision with some boat that might be rounding the corner in an opposite direction. After awhile we were THREE ITALIAN CITIES. 309 brought up to the hotel, and I stepped from the boat right into the house. It was a grand hotel indeed, and located in the midst of those waters, wore in a most striking manner the charm of novelty. It was large, elegant and modern in all its appointments. Many Americans were there, and having formed their acquaintance I soon felt quite at home. After dinner I secured a guide (who agreed to take me everywhere for ten francs a day), and proceeded on my sight-seeing expedition. He first conducted me on foot to St. Mark's Square. This last remark needs an explanation. While the city is built in the water, by the use of bridges and narrow foot-paths, one can walk over a good part of it ; still, as may be supposed, walking is the exception, and boating the rule. We passed out of the back yard of the hotel and along a narrow passage until we entered a beautiful street lined on either side with magnificent shops, that I found were crowded with tourists, buying all sorts of curiosities, but particularly mosaics, to take home with them. The prettiest of the stores, however, were the glass houses, Venice being noted for its large and unique glass factories. We soon reached the central point of interest, the "Pi- azza of St. Mark," a square paved with marble, one hun- dred and ninety-two yards in length, and about seventy- five yards in breadth. On three sides it is enclosed by magnificent buildings which appear to constitute one grand palace. On the east stands the church of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, whose bones (so they say) re- pose in his tomb in the magnificent cathedral near the Piazzetta connected with which is the great palace of the Doges. When I entered this square it presented a most animated scene, for it is indeed the focus of attraction. In front of all the houses are awnings and arcades, and be- neath these hundreds may be seen eating or drinking, read- ing, playing games, or listening to enrapturing music from the military band. I witnessed here that scene which all travelers crave to witness — the feeding of the pigeons. At two o'clock the largest flock of pigeons in the world must here be fed. A lady comes out with their food and they 310 EUROPEAN NOTES. crowd around her and on her, until she is one mass of fluttering feathers. According to tradition, carrier pigeons once saved Venice from destruction. This was the begin- ning of the thirteenth century, and since then the descend- ants of the birds that bore the important message have been carefully revered and nursed. In many cities that I visited and in others that I have read of, some species of bird or beast was thus honored, nursed and revered in commemoration of some special service. Strasburg had its storks, Coburg its bears, Rome its wolves, London its lions, and all America its eagles. The church of St. Mark was the first grand building that I entered, and it is one of the most celebrated in the world. It was erected near- ly a thousand years ago, and decorated with oriental mag- nificence. It is in the form of a Greek cross with an im-' mense dome. It is adorned with no less than five hun- dred columns of marble, some of these columns having been brought from Jerusalem. The mosaics are so numerous and beautiful that a description of them would be regarded as almost fabulous. They cover 45,790 square feet, while the interior is ornamented with the finest pro- ductions of the sculptor's art. Over the principal entrance are four gilded bronze horses which were once supposed to be the v/orkof Lysippus, a Greek master, but are now believed to be of Roman workmanship of the time of Ne- ro. It is thought that they once adorned the triumphal arch of Nero. Constantine caused them to be conveyed to Constantinople, but a Doge brought them toVenicein 1204. Napoleonl. carried them to Paris in 1797, where they v/ere placed on the summit of the Arc de Trioinpke, In 181 5 they were brought back to Venice and placed over the portal of St. Mark. They are pretty old horses and still show no signs of decay. Time would fail me to de- scribe all the wonderful works of art in this church. Oppo- site St. Mark's stands the bell tower (or campanile) three hundred and twenty-two feet in height. I walked to the top of it and yet never ascended a step except at the very top. It is ascended by a winding inclined plane of thirty- eight bends. Napoleon Bonaparte once ascended this tower on a donkey. From the top the view is grand be- THREE ITALIAN CITIES. 31I yond description and embraces the city, the lagoon, the Alps, a good part of the Adriatic sea, Mont Engami, near Padua, and the Istrian Mountains. I regret that I must pass by the palace of the Doges, (or ancient rulers of Venice) with a brief notice, when a volume might be written on the subject. It was founded in 800, has been destroyed five times and each time rebuilt with greater splendor, until it is one of the finest palaces in the world. I entered by a flight of steps at the top of which the coronation of the doges used to take place. The grand reception room was hung with portraits of all the doges, by the great masters. After this I passed through room after room filled with the grandest works of Titian, Paul Veronese, and other illustrious artists. The upper floor contains the magnificent apartments in which the rulers held their meetings. I entered the Sa- loon of the Three Inquisitors of the republic, and remained for several moments in the chamber of the celebrated "Council of Ten.'' There was the same hole in the wall through which the letters of the informers were thrust into the hands of the inquisitors, which though anony- mously written resulted in the decapitation of many a noble citizen. On the east side the palace is connected by the lofty and celebrated Bridge of Sighs with a prison. On this bridge I paused recalling the words of Byron. "I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs A palace and a prison on either hand.' I stood for some time on this bridge (which is stretch- ed across the canal and is very narrow), on the very spot where it is said Byron stood when he drank in the inspi- ration of his poem. Having crossed I descended to the lower dungeons of the prison and saw the cells where the wretched prisoners were confined and the very block on which their heads were cut off, there being a place scoop- ed out for the head to rest in while the fatal blow was being struck, and a groove or trench by means of which the blood flowed away into the canal beneath. Those were terrible times, and that was another dark, cavernous place from which I was glad to make my escape. 312 EUROPEAN NOTES. It took me a day to go through the Academy of Beau tiful Arts, and it would take me a week to describe it. Sufifice it to say that it is another Louvre, or Uffizi, a grand collection of the rarest and costliest works of art. There were many other interesting things that I wit- nessed in Venice, but this article has already grown so long that I must close, not, however, without saying that I took a ride on a fine day from one end of the Grand Canal to the other almost, and leisurely floating, saw many splendid churches, m^any grand palaces, (some of which I entered to inspect the works of art,) many stately resi- dences. Ever)thing was tranquilizing and softening to the spirit. There was no neighing of horses, for the bronze horses were all that were there, no lowing of cows, for cows were not there, no rattling of drays, no discord- ant sounds whatever. I just floated along, "a cloud upon that liquid sk>'." A house that I was much inter- ested in was the very one that Byron and Moore occupied during their residence in Venire. 1 got out at the Rialto landing, and walked over that historic structure. I then visited the Jews' quarter and found myself among the mone}' changers, the real Shylocks of to-day; and my guide pointed out to me the dingy shop of the ancient Shylock who then and there demanded his " pound of flesh.'' It was an interesting locality. At night I witnessed a grand illumination of the Grand Canal. It was like a display of fireworks in some large city in this country. An immense steamer floated along, crowded with people and illuminated with Chinese lanterns, electric lights and every contrivance for such a purpose as it is possible to imagine, while thou- sands of people crowded the canal and swam round the steamer in their gondolas. It was a gay scene, en- livened by the choicest of music, under whose calming influence, after I had watched the sport long enough, 1 re- paireci to my room, soon fell asleep, and lay dreaming the happy hours away. Mils/,-: "^P^^ :^ #ar* '»' ilk ^fS 111* 1*1' ', ,ll,„ ^ CHAPTER XVL THE NETHERLANDS. I USE the term Netherlands in the broadest sense, as embracing both Belgium and Holland. The expression, in a political sense, is now confined to Holland, which is called the " Kingdom of the Netherlands," and the word simply m.eans lowlands. All that vast section is a dried plain, lower than the level of the sea, and protected from raging billows by dykes twenty feet high and seventy feet broad at the bottom, with room enough on top for a good road. These dikes have cost, first and last, $2,500,000,000. The district is really but the delta of the three great rivers that pass through it — the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt ; and the land was formed by the mud of the rivers mixing with the sand from time to time thrown up by the ocean. It is an amphibious country, being half land and half water. Nearly all the forests have been planted by hand. But to show what men can do when they try, the whole section has been reduced to garden- hke cultivation, and it has been peopled with one of the most thrifty, refined and intelligent populations on the face of the earth. It is the land of the "Dutch,'' (and those who apply this term to the Germans are greatly in error, for you had as well call the English French, or Americans Irish,) and all of our preconceptions of the Dutch charac- ter are at once dissipated when you gaze upon the culti- vated, polite, progressive people. The climate in this region is very variable, and subject to great extremes of heat and cold, the thermometer going up in summer as high as 102 above, and down in winter to 23 degrees below zero. They have a most outrageous language, a thousand 314 EUROPEAN NOTES. times worse than German ; but the most of them are versed in many languages, particular!}^ French, German and English. I found more English speaking people than in any continental country that I visited. Living just across the channel, as it were, and having frequent contact with the English, their facility in speaking our language was easily accounted for. But I began this article to speak of the Belgians first, as " the miniature Paris," was the first place in the Netherlands that I visited. BRUSSELS. I passed this splendid city, as already stated, on our way from London to Cologne, but it was not till our return trip that I had the time to give it a thorough inspection. Reaching the city, which has a population, including the suburbs, of 400,000 souls, we proceeded from choice on foot along the magnificent central street to the Grand Hotel de Brnxclles, (French is the language spoken here, though many and particularly the common people speak Flemish.) The hotel is one of the largest and finest in the world, and gave us a fine opportunity to witness the manners, habits and dress of the better class of the peo- ple. As we were tired viewing art collections and muse- ums, we concluded to "take in" this grand city by going from street to street, entering the stores and manufacto- ries. Brussels is celebrated all over the world for elegant streets, gorgeous buildings, lovely parks, and carpet and lace factories. We entered some of the most noted of the factories. We had thought that we had seen some fine carpets in this country, and particularly on the floors of some of the palaces we had visited. But O, the rich, royal, enchanting tapestries of Brussels ! " Soft and smooth and even spreading As if made for angels' treading, Every figure had its plaidings, Brighter form and softer shadmgs, Inwrought figures fading ever, Tufted circles touching never. Oft illumined — what a riddle — By a cross that gemmed the middle." But the greatest charm, especially for the ladies of my THE NETHERLANDS. 315 party, was in the lace factories, where hundreds of women are all the time at work with nimble fingers, straining the eyes and nerves, knitting hand-made lace, which is sold at enormous prices and shipped to all parts of the world. One of these poor creatures had worked on a single piece of lace for three years. It was for the queen. We saw it stretched against and covering one half of the wall, and it was worth several thousand dollars. I bought a small shawl on which the maker had been engaged three weeks. Seeing these neat looking but overtasked women plying their needles, under heartless masters, I could but think of Hood's Song of the Shirt: Work, work, wo'-k, Till the brain begins to swim ; Work, work, work, Till the eyes are heavy and dim. And I trust that my countrywomen, living in luxury and flitting like butterflies through the social world with their gay adornments, will ponder the reflections contained in the following paraphrase in the kind spirit in which it is submitted : O ladies — sisters dear, O ladies, mothers and wives, It is not 'ace you are wearing out. But human creatures' lives. Stitch, stitch, stitch. In poverty and disgrace, Knitting at once with a double thread A shroud as well as the lace. But we turned away from these scenes, to enjoy the more enlivening promenades of the grand streets and parks that have made Brussels so distinguished. I judged from the exhibitions in the stores, that the finest hats in the world were made in Brussels, and I con- cluded to buy one. I carried it carefully and safely during all the balance of my trip through Holland, England, Scot- land, Ireland, over the ocean and through the continent of America, to have it taken from me at the breakfast room at Central, on the airline railroad in South Carolina, getting one in return much the worse for wear. What do you think of T'hat? 3l6 EUROPEAN NOTES. THE FIELD OF WATERLOO. It is astonishing what importance the occurrence of a battle gives to a place. It may never have been heard of before. It may consist only of a village, a cross-roads, a lone house, or a tree ; but after battling hosts have met and shed their blood there the place, the name, becomes immortal. Thermopylae was an obscure mountain pass, Marengo and Austerlitz were small villages, Wagram con- tained only a few dilapidated houses. Coming to our land, the "Cowpens" were only enclosures for cattle, Ma- nassas was a railroad station, Big Bethel a church, and "Seven Pines" seven pine trees. All the world has heard of Waterloo, and yet Waterloo was then, and is now, only a small, insignificant village which would never have been heard of fifty miles away but for the great, decisive battle fought there June i8th, 1815, between Napnleon Bonaparte on the one hand as commander of the French, and the duke of Wellington on the other, commander of the allied English and Ger- man forces. But everybody has heard of Waterloo now. It has become a household word, and when a man is badly defeated in anything, it is to give the strongest expression of his overthrow to say that he has "met with a Waterloo defeat." Of course, I do not propose here to give a history of the battle of Waterloo. To do half justice to such a subject would require much more space than I can spare. I pur- chased a book in the Museum on the battle-field called "A Voice from Waterloo," written by a man who was en- gaged in the battle, whose descendants keep the museum and sold me the book, and yet this "Voice" occupies no less that 200 pages in a goodly sized volume. I must take it for granted that my readers have read the history of Waterloo. A few remarks, however, may be necessary by way of refreshing their minds. Napoleon, after his disastrous campaign into Russia, where he lost more than half of the 500,000 men with whom he invaded that country, on getting back to France rallied his wearied and sick soldiers and added to them THE NETHERLANDS. 317 recruits until he was able in a short time to invade Ger- many again, with a view of meeting and vanquishing the combined forces of Europe which were arrayed against him. He routed the allies at several important places, but at last they met at Leipsic, where the greatest battle on record was fought, and Napoleon was defeated. I visited and have already described this battle-field, where 450,000 men were engaged and 50,000 left dead on the field. Napoleon's power was now broken, and he after- wards signed the terms of capitulation dictated by the Powers, by which he was to be sent to Elba to be sover- eign of that little province, with an annuity of 6,000,000 francs, (about $i,ooo,coo.) It would have been well, if he had been satisfied with this liberal arrangement. But Napoleon wanted no "pent up" Elba for his empire, and ail the time he was on the island he was in correspondence with the Republicans of France, and at the end of ten months he left for the land of his glory again. Regiments were ordered to meet and arrest him. At last Marshal Ney who had sworn allegiance to the King after the de- feat at Leipsic was sent to meet and capture him. When Ney left Paris, in the direction of Cannes, where Napoleon had landed, he " kissed the king's hand and said he would bring Napoleon back in an iron cage." When he met Napoleon, however, the old feeling came back. Vive V empereur rang through the air, and Ney and thou- sands of others marched under the imperial standard. Soldiers flocked to Napoleon from all over France ; the Empire was re-established, and soon he found himself at the head of 200,000 men and eager to strike for his new schemes of ambition. Seeing that all Europe was aroused, armed and marshaling their countless hosts to put him down, and this time to make sure work of it, he marched at once to the Belgian frontier, in the hope of destroying the allies. Wellington's headquarters were at Brussels, and while attending a ball given by Lady Richmond he was summoned to the field to meet Napoleon, who was already attacking part of the allied army, which, in de- tached portions, was scattered for many miles in every direction on the Belgian frontier. 3l8 EUROPEAN NOTES. Wellington had 92,000 troops, Blucher 90,000, making 182,000 in all, while Napoleon had there 124,000 of all arms. Napoleon having defeated Blucher, ordered Grou- chy to prevent his joining Wellington with the remnant of his army. Napoleon and Wellington both moved their troops then near the village of Waterloo, completing their work about the close of June 17th, both, like crouched lions, ready to spring the next day. The armies opposing each other numbered on either side about 70,000 men, 1 5 ,000 of whom on each side were cavalry and artillery. This would have made the fight about equal, but there was Blucher Vi^ith his immense army, who had been ordered by Wellington to join him without fail on the i8th, if he should be defeated at Ligny. He had been defeated, and was now on his way. But it had rained incessantly and in torrents from the 17th to the 18th, and the ground was so saturated that the movement of troops was almost impossible. This caused Napoleon to delay his attack till twelve o'clock in the day, which delay lost him the battle, for it gave Blucher time to come up, and had it not been for this brave old German soldier Wellington had never won the glories of Waterloo. Suffice it to say, Napoleon was routed, "horse, foot and dragoons," leaving 26,000 dead on the field against 23,000 slain of the allied forces. He was arrested at Rochfort, where he was en- deavoring to make his escape to the United States, or rather he gave himself up to the captain of a British war .ship. He was banished to St. Helena, "A lone, barren isle, where the wild, roaring billows Assail the stern rock, and the loud tempests rave." Here he lived in exile for about six years and died of cancer of the stomach. Be that as it may, he was the world's greatest military genius, and left behind him "a name which before him no mortal had won." Of course, I wanted to see that battle-field, which lies only ten miles to the south of Brussels. Leaving on the early morning train, we proceeded thither and reached the depot in about forty minutes. Hacks met us to take us to the battle field, which was about a mile off. Before THE NETHERLANDS. 319 reaching the station we came in sight of the "Lion," a huge monument that can be seen easily twelve miles distant from the railway which leads from London to Cologne. This monument is an immense mound or pyramid, built in the midst of the field and on the spot where the battle raged the thickest, and it is crowned with a great bronze lion. There are two hotels on the battle-field, and the advo- cates of each were about as numerous and importunate as the porters of rival hotels in a Georgia country town. We concluded to go to the Museum Hotel, with which we were well pleased, as the large'museum there contains in- numerable relics of the battle, such as dispatches of Na- poleon and Wellington, skeletons dug up on the field, old guns used on the occasion, old coins taken out of the sol- diers' pockets, and bullets by the bushel, "and many other things too numerous to mention." We secured an excel- lent guide who took us first to the top of the "Lion,'' where we had a magnificent view of the field, which we visited at our leisure afterwards. Wellington's forces occupied a ridge of semicircular shape, one and a half miles in length. The French occu- pied a ridge opposite, and the two armies were separated by a shallow valley. The field of Waterloo may therefore be described as an open undulating plain. On the day of the battle it was covered with splendid crops of rye, wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, tares and clover. At the time I saw it (early in October), it was yellow with golden harvests, with here and there a few patches of plowed ground, the only objects plainly visible being the dilapidated chateaus, the monument and hotels, with a few farm houses and many forests in the distance. To our right was the Hougomont chateau where the hardest fight- ing was done ever known, and around which were men piled five deep. To the left was La Haie Sainte, where the intrepid Ney repulsed the English, and where the gallant Ficton was killed and Fonsonby fell mortally wounded. Ney had five horses shot under him, and led his last attack on foot, waving his sword, his whole form being covered with dust and blood. He was indeed the 320 EUROPEAN NOTES. "bravest of the brave.'' I saw the spot by the Luxem- bourg gardens in Paris where he was shot ; and as there was no necessity for the death of the brave man, it must be regarded in the light of a national assassination. Right in front was the celebrated spot where Blucher's men coming up and compelling the retreat of the French, the Imperial Guard was called in, (which was never done except in extremest need,) and performed deeds of valor such as the world never saw before. After they had been driven back, Napoleon, summoning one regiment that remained at its post, endeavored with that as a nucleus to reform his lines. But all to no purpose. This regi- ment, formed into a square, was surrounded and ordered to surrender. The answer which came back, attributed to Gen. Cambronne, was, " The Guard dies, but never sur- renders." They then charged the enemy, and were slain almost to a man. "When will their glory fade ? O, the wild charge they made ; All the world wondered." "That glorious immolation," says M. Brialmont, "con- soles to this day the French people, for the most terrible disaster which their arms ever sustained." Napoleon threw himself into the square and said he would die with them, but Marshal Soult hurried him away. The battle of Waterloo may be styled "a tragedy of errors." Had it not been for these, Napoleon would have won. Two things lost it to the French, ist. Blucher coming up when he did. 2d. Grouchy's obstinacy. Had Grouchy done as Napoleon told him in holding Blucher back, the disaster would never have occurred. M. Thiers says: "Nothing can extenuate the fault of Marshal Grou- chy, except his former services which were real, and his intentions which were loyal and devoted." He says fur- ther: "No one can deny that the plan and the execution were all that could be expected of a consummate com- mander." But Napoleon lost and Wellington won. It was with feelings of sadness that I looked on the La Belle Alliance, the very house he occupied as headquarters on THE NETHERLANDS. 32 I the occasion, and gazed upon the memorials of his over- throw, I was interested in standing on the spot where Welling- ton stood when he exclaimed, "O for night, or Blucher," and in seeing the "woods of Paris" on the left where the dust was seen to rise, indicating the approach of "Marshal Forwards," as the Germans called Blucher, Wellington made himself a name there, and is now re- garded as the savior of Britain and deliverer of Europe. I noted his tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, which is a splen- did sarcophagus, while by its side is the ponderous fune- ral car in which his body was drawn thither, made out of cannon which he captured at the battle of Waterloo. After a day spent delightfully on this historic field, and after making numerous purchases of bullets, canes, flowers and photographs, we repaired to the depot late in the afternoon, and taking the train for Brussels reached our hotel at nightfall, I slept that night on my arms (my habit), but they were side arms, quite different from those on which the ensan- guined hosts of Waterloo slept on the night of June 18th,. 181 5. Lying on my luxurious bed, I dreamed of the mightiest battle of the world. " Yes, Agincourt may be forgot. And Cressy be an unknown spot. But still in story and in song Shall live the walls of Hougomont And field of Waterloo." ANTWERP, ROTTERDAM AND THE HAGUE. The sights which we viewed on the field of Waterloo' were so different from anything we had seen in Europe,, and at the same time so absorbing, and diverting, that we felt a keener relish for the scenes and objects that await- ed us in our projected tour through Belgium and Hol- land. We went first to Antwerp, situated twenty- six miles from Brussels, an old town of 100,000 inhabit- ants, and a place of great importance both in regard to commerce and art. In the middle ages Antwerp contained 200,000 inhabit- 21 322 EUROPEAN NOTES. ants and. was the commercial centre of Europe. Then 2500 vessels could be seen in its harbor at one time, now about th.it number of sea-going vessels may be seen in its waters during the year, while its harbor can protect 1,000 at a time. It is a favorite point of embarkation for emi- grants going to America, and as I walked along the v/harf and saw several ships ready to start for New York, I felt like boarding one of them and coming straight home. We stopped at a magnificent hotel from whose upper stories we could get a good view of the city, which is in the shape of a bow, the semicircular town representing the wood and the river the cord. There is a fine old cathedral here, with delightful chimes and many works of art. On either side of the altar are the masterpieces of Rubens who was a citizen of Ant- werp, one being the Ascent and the other the Descent of the Cross, copies of which have been so often seen in this ■ country. They are only shown at twelve o'clock in the 'day, and an extra fee is charged for viewing them. I saw here a head of Christ, said to be the most celebrated in ^the world. We witnessed a marriage of one of the nobil- iity in this cathedral, and it was an interesting sight to us foreigners. My principal object in stopping at Antwerp was to see ithe great picture gallery there, which is one of the finest in /^Europe. As Peter Paul Rubens luxuriates so extensively an nearly all the continental galleries, it may be well imag- ined that he can be seen to the best advantage here at his ■ own home. Here, as elsewhere, you behold his wives as the Madonnas and Venuses of his pictures, and you see the same gorgeous coloring which everywhere distinguishes .him. In his own house which is now a private gallery,! saw the original of his celebrated "Judgment of Paris." Ru- bens loved his wives (he had two, having lost his first), and here we see them again. Even the Grecian Helen must belike his wife. And yet I don't admire his taste. His iDutch wives look entirely too beefy and flabby for per- ;fect beauty. ,Jn the gallery I saw the famous original "Lady Godiva," THE NETHERLANDS. 323 a chaste and beautiful picture viewed by thousands of the finest and purest people in the world, but a copy of which, shown in an Atlan*n picture store, caused the policemen to arrest the ven ;orand subject him to a ridic- ulous trial. We passed several days delightfully at Ant- werp, pleased with the place and the people, and then pro- ceeded to Rotterdam, the second city in importance in Holland, with 150,000 inhabitants. It is an amphibious town, just as all Holland seems to be an amphibious country. The scenery around Rotterdam and throughout Holland is one vast plain, intersected by streams of im- mense width, and about the only things that attract the eye of the stranger are the innumerable wind mills. The country is protected from overflow everywhere by dykes. I found there the truth of the saying that the "Dutch have taken Holland," and they really have taken it from the sea to which it rightfully belongs. Rotterdam is built in the form of a triangle, with two sides next to the rivers, and the third defended by old fortifications. It has canals running all through the city, which are" used as streets, and in this respect (but in nothing else), the city bears some resemblance to Venice. It is a great shipping point, about equal commercially to Antwerp. Right in front of my hotel were several immense ships belonging to one man. The name of each ship was Noah, Noah No I, No 2, and soon, and this man was named Noah, He reminded me of an incident of a man by the name of McLean who claimed that he belonged to a very ancient family. His friend said that his genealogy went back to David. "O," said McLean, "mine goes back to Noah." "That is impossible said the other, for the Bible does not say anything about a McLean going into the Ark." "Pshaw," was the reply, "did you ever know of a McLean that would not have had a private boat of his own." So this Rotterdam Noah had six Arks, used however for a different purpose than preserving animal life. They were being unloaded of immense cargoes of sheep brought from Australia to be slaughtered in Rotterdam. I visit- ed one art gallery with a view to seeing some of the best works of the pure Dutch masters, and it was very pleas- 324 EUROPEAN NOTES, urably enjoyed. The most splendid church in Rotter- dam is that dedicated to St. Laurence, and near this is the house where the great Erasmus was born, now used as a gin shop. This leads to the remark that gin flows in Holland like water. The Dutch drink it as the Germans do beer, or the English ales. Artemus Ward said of Utah, " 'Tis the most distressful country that ever yet was seen. They imprisoned men and women there for selling of the gin," But if such a law should be enacted in Holland, they would have to arrest the whole city of Rotterdam at once. On the great bridge in the heart of the city stands the colossal statue of Erasmus, one of the greatest names that adorn the annals of Christianity. This old city, with its quaint houses with gables towards the streets, resembles Charleston, S. C, more than any American city that I know of. We were much interested in viewing the Dutch peas- antry that crowded the streets and markets in their gay red costumes, with their dog carts, and other vehicles, in which they conveyed their milk, butter and "country produce.'' From Rotterdam we made a delightful visit to the Hague, the capital and finest city in Holland, with 80,000 inhabitants. It is situated only two miles from the sea, and thirteen and a half from Rotterdam. It is called the Hague (or hedge) from the fact that in the thirteenth century it was the deer park of the Count of Holland, with an immense hedge around it, and it has been ever since call- ed the Hague. The streets are wide, regularly laid out and beautiful, adorned with magnificent trees, and the houses are large and elegant. There are many historical associa- tions connected with the Hague. It is here that William III. of England was born. In the palace of the Prince of Orange is the inner court in which Barneveldt was behead- ed. Here is the State prison in which Cornelius DeWitt was confined, and from which he and his brother John were dragged and torn to pieces by the populace. The royal library has the prayer books of Catherine de Medici and THE NETHERLANDS. 325 Catherine of Aragon, the Bible presented to William and Mary at their coronation, and so on. The principal attrac- tion is the picture gallery, which contains Paul Potter's *' Young Bull/' Rembrandt's "Surgeon," Van Dyke's por- trait of St. Simon, etc. We visited on the outskirts of the city the country palace of the king, which has a grand park and many splendid paintings. If I had to live anywhere in Holland, 1 should certainly select the Hague, which is one of the most charming of cities. But now our hearts bound with joy as we think of leav- ing the continent, with its confusion of tongues, for dear old England again. Leaving the Hague, we spent a day in Rotterdam on our return, and then journeyed to Flush- ing, which we reached at eleven o'clock at night. The ship was ready to sail, and we got on board, ate a late lunch, and sat for awhile on deck drinking in the invigor- ating sea breezes. We then retired to our state room, and waked in the morning to find ourselves at Queensland. Boarding the cars and enjoying the charms of the king's English as we had never done before, we flew rapidly along (remember that all trains in England fly), until we reached the Royal Hotel, London, perhaps the largest hotel in the city. CHAPTER XVIL FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH. FAMOUS MIDLAND SCENES. After spending a few days in my favorite city, London, we bade a final adieu to its wonders and delights, to visit Scotland, the land made forever illustrious by its patriots and "patriot bards." As we came by the Northwestern railway from Liver- pool to London, we concluded to return by the celebrated Midland route, which has more scenes of historic interest for the traveler than, perhaps, any railroad in the world. We entered the train at St. Pancras Station, which is itself a wonder. Just as we think we have the finest hotels in America, so we think that we have the finest railway sta- tions. But let us undeceive ourselves ; there is no such depot in the world as at St. Pancras Station. The span of the great shed is 243 feet from wall to wall. The length is 700 feet, and the height lOO feet. The length of the roof is 690 feet, with a span covering eleven lines of rails, and a cab stand of 25 feet, altogether occupying a site of nearly ten acres. In the construction of this enormous building, 60,000,000 bricks, 80,000 cubic feet of dressed stone, and many thousand feet of glass and timber were used, and nearly 9,000 tons of iron work were employed. At all the termini of these great railroads, as already remarked, fine hotels have been erected by the companies, and the St. Pancras hotel is one of the largest and finest. The objects of interest are so numerous along this line that I can barely mention a few of them. Old Pancras church itself, is interesting, which, in 1 593, "stood all alone, utterly forsaken, old and weather-beaten." It was the FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH. 327 last church in England where the bell tolled for mass. We soon had a distant view of High Gate, where Cole- ridge, the poet, spent his latter days, and where Lord Ba- con died in 1626. It took its name from the high gate on the hill, where tolls were received, and, it is said, that in ante railroad times, eighty stage coaches passed there daily. The neighborhood was once remarkable for the exploits of Dick Turpin and other highwaymen, and it was over this toll-gate that "Bonny Black Bess,'' Turpin's fine mare, leaped when he was hotly pursued by men seeking his arrest. He rode that day, it is said, about two hundred miles. We had a view also of Hampstead, where James n. had a hunting-seat. 1 his neighborhood was also one of the haunts of Dick Turpin. We passed a church built on a street, cut as a road by the Romans, 2,000 \'ears ago, and then again had a view of "Harrow on the Hill,'' with the grammar school peering over the trees, which Lord Byron once attended. Re-visiting this spot, in after years, he wrote : "Again I revisit the hills where we sported, The stream where we swam, and the fields where we wrought, The school where, loud warned by the bell, we resorted, To pore o'er the precepts by pedagogues taught." Next, came a beautiful view of St. Albans, named for the first English martyr burned for embracing Christianity. Near the Abbey stands the church tower where, in Nor- man times, "The curfew tolled the knell of parting day." We then passed an historic battle-field, where one of the greatest battles was fought between the White and Red Roses. Next, came an old castle of the time of Henry VL, and to this. Queen Catharine of Aragon, re- tired, while her divorce suit was pending. We next came to a spot dear to all Christians the world over, and par- ticularly to Baptists, for it was the village of Elstow, where John Bunyan was born, one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known, whose Pilgrim's Progress stands in, allegorical literature, single and unapproachable. The tower of the church can be plainly seen from the railway, 328 EUROPEAN NOTES. where he was for so many years, a bell-ringer. Near this spot, stands Darrow Farm, celebrated from the fact that in the reign of Charles II. it was one of the places where Dissenters held their "unlawful conventicles," for which offense John Bunyan was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. Bunyan took refuge from his pursuers in one of the lofts of Darrow Farm. The roof of the house and gable end of the loft may be seen from the cars. We now reached Bedford, where Bunyan preached the pure gospel of Christ in the midst of "a wicked and perverse generation." Here stands Bedford jail, in which he was imprisoned twelve years, and in which he wrote his unri- valed dreams. A statue of John Bunyan, presented by the Duke of Bedford, stands upon the green. One who gazes upon that interesting scene cannot but form resolutions to live for the glory of God and the good of his race. When Bunyan was silenced and imprisoned, he was offered liberty on condition that he would abstain from preach- ing his "heretical" doctrines, but he replied that "he would stay in Bedford jail till moss grew on his eyebrows," be- fore he would prove so faithless to his Master. Now, Baptists, Methodists, Independents, Moravians and other denominations have churches there. It is ever so, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." We soon came to another town of equal interest to the Baptists. It was Kettering. There still stands the house, with its white front in the northern part of the town plainly visible from the railroad, where, on October 2, 1792, missions to the heathen w^ere set on foot by Rev. William Carey, Rev. Andrew Fuller and a few other min- isters and members of the Baptist denomination. A col- lection was taken up on that occasion, the first effort of the sort in many centuries, which amounted to $65,500 From that small beginning what mighty results have fol- lowed. It is remarkable that there, in a circuit of a few miles, are spots where two of the great distinctive principles of Baptists were asserted, Bunyan clamoring for soul liberty,* and Carey pleading for foreign missions. On the 31st of FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH. 329 May and ist of June, 1862, a jubilee was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Missions. To commemorate the event a medal was struck, the in- scription on which was as follows : "Baptist Mission found- ed Oct. 2, 1792, commenced in the East Indies 1793, West Indies 1813, Western Africa 1840; Stations 157; Missionaries 71; Teachers and Native Preachers 127; Members, upwards of 30,000; Scholars, about 18,000; Scriptures translated into 40 Languages and Dialects; Copies issued in the year 1861, 85,000." These results are all attributed to the organization of that little society in the back parlor of that white house on which I then gazed. We next came to Rushton, where the conspirators met in the reign of James I. to concoct the "Gunpowder plot." We think it terrible in the Irish to be annoying the Eng- lish with dynamite, and so it is. But it is not the first time England has been disturbed by seditious citizens. The memory of "Guy Fawkes" is about as horrible as that of the infernal machines of 1881, or of the Phoenix Park murders of 1882. We soon came to Leicester, another interesting town. It was here, among other incidents, that Cardinal Wolsey died in 1530, exclaiming with almost his latest breath, "Had I but served my God as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have left me desolate in my old age." We now left the main track of the Midland line and took the branch road by way of Manchester to Liver- pool. Our object in going by Liverpool was to look after our baggage, which we had shipped from Germany by ex- press. We wished to make some other arrangements, preparatory to sailing on our return from Scotland. Night came on, and the darkness shut out many interesting ob- jects from our view. The train stopped fifteen minutes at Manchester, a great manufacturing city of 400,000 souls, and I can never forget the appearance of the city lighted by the blasts of its innumerable factories. Hun- dreds of immense buildings seemed to have roofs of flame. To this place much of the cotton of the world comes. It 330 EUROPEAN NOTES. is made up into goods of various descriptions and shipped to all parts of the habitable globe. It was somewhat late before we reached Liverpool, and we look rooms at the Adeiphi Hotel — very good, but enormously expensive, crowded as it always is with Americans, whose extrava- gant habits have elevated prices all over Europe. THE WHARTON FAMILY OF WESTMORELAND. After remaining in Liverpool a day or two, we departed for Edinburgh. My readers will pardon me for passing over many interesting and "noteworthy objects," until the train reached the weird, rocky, mountainous, picturesque region of Westmoreland county, the ancestral home of the Wharton family, from which my branch of the Whar- ton nam.e claims to be descended. It has always been a tradition with us that our ances- tors belonged to the English nobility. But I wish it to be distinctly understood that I attach no great importance to this circumstance. I scorn the idea of being "a pen- sioner on the dead.'' There are many comparatively hum- ble wearers of our name who are very dear to me. How- ever, for the sake of "'the truth of history,'' and of giving some personal interest to these Notes, I state that recent researches have shown that my father, Malcolm H. Whar- ton, deceased, was the nearest of kin of all then living to the royalist, George Wharton, who, deprived of his estates during the civil wars, emigrated from Westmoreland, England, to Westmoreland, Virginia. Bishop Meade, in his " Old Churches and Families of Virginia," refers to him when he says, of ''Overwharton Parish," Stafford, county, created before the revolution of 1688, "This name, like that of Strat:on, is that of an English town, in the first place, and secondly, of an individual. It may have been called in honor of George Wharton, a native of Westmoreland county, England, who lost all during the civil wars," etc. But he did not lose all, or recuperated his fortune rapidly, for I have heard my father say that the royalist's son George, my great grandfather, owned the land on which the city of Fredericksb-^irg was built, and that he always drove a "coach and four." FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH. 33 1 The line of descent is as follows: George, the royalist, begat George, Thomas, Jesse, John and Joseph (or Sam- uel,) George begat John, Joseph, William, George, Zachary and Samuel — the last being my grandfather. The royal- ist, George Wharton, was a near relative of the celebrated Lord Thomas Wharton, of Kirkby Stephen, Westmore- land county, England, who was first a baron, then an earl, and then a marquis ; who was Governor of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the most successful and influential politician of his time, though an unprincipled man. His name appears often in Macaulay's History of England, and the learned historian devotes nearly a whole chapter to describing his extraordinary character, which description has been reproduced in his Essays. He was the author of " Lillibullero," the famous ballad with which he boasted that he "sung a king out of three kingdoms." This Thomas Lord Wharton was the father of the still more celebrated Philip, Duke of Wharton, who receiving at one time $80,000 per annum, and at another being on such good terms with the widow of James H., that she pawned her jewels that she might loan him $10,000, died in poverty and exi^e. He was a brilliant scholar and au- thor ; left several celebrated works, and was the man of whom Pope speaks in his Moral Essays, in the following strain : "Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days, Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise, Born with whate'er could win it from the wise, Women and fools must like him or he dies ; Though wondering senates hung on all he spoke, The club must hail him master of the joke." It is a mistake of some of the Whartons to suppose that they descended directly from Thomas Lord Wharton, for Philip, Duke of Wharton, was his only son, and he died Vv'ithout issue. Before Thomas there were four Baron Whartons, and it was from one of these, perhaps from Thomas' father (as there were several brothers) that we get our descent. The following extracts from a letter which I have received from Rev. L. B. Wharton, an emi- nent Episcopal clergyman of Virginia, who has devoted 332 EUROPEAN NOTES. much care and research in tracing the genealogy of the Whartons, bear directly on the subject. Speaking of this branch of the family he says, "There are no traditions here of noble descent, though my father (Rev. John A. Wharton, of Liberty,) recollects hearing Dr. William Whar- ton speak of their descent from Thomas Lord Wharton as a fact. None of us can be descended from the famous 'Tom,' but he had brothers, I am told." Of my own branch of the family he writes, " What I know of your branch comes from General Wharton, and would not be new to you. George, the royalist, begat George, Thomas, Jesse, John, and Joseph (or Samuel), George begat John, Joseph, William, George, Zachary, and Samuel your grandfather.'' The same writer, in a letter to R. S. Wharton, of Cave Springs, Ga., says: "I wrote to General Wharton's uncle Malcolm, [my father] but he died a few days before he could answer and give me any information. He was about eighty years old [really seventy-six ; he died November II, 1881 during my residence in Europe], and standing one degree nearer the Royalist that came over." The coat of arms of all the Westmoreland Whartons was the same, and consisted of a "bull's head gorged with a ducal crown," with the legend, ^^generosus nascitur noil Jity Philip, Duke of Wharton, had another crest of his own devising, worn in addition to the one named, "a Moor crowned, kneeling and stabbing himself with a sword." Imagine my anxiety to visit the ancestral residence of the Whartons. On approaching the town of Kirkby Stephen my railway guide book had this to say : "KiRKBY Stephen. — A market-town situated in amoun- tainous part of Westmoreland, deriving its name from the saint to whom the church is dedicated. It is seated on the western bank of the river Eden, opposite the hills which separate Yorkshire from Westmoreland, and consists prin- cipally of one street. "The church, which is of early but unknown foundation, has a lofty steeple tower. In the aisles are sepulchral chapels containing curious munuments of the families of Wharton, and of Musgrave, of Hartley Castle. One mon- ument in the Wharton aisle, is that of Thomas first Lord FROM LONDON TO EDINBURGH. 333 Wharton, and his two wives. He was Governor of the town and castle of Carlisle, and signalized himself in the wars of Scotland (temp. Henry VHI.) as also at the battle of Pinkey. "The Grammar School here was founded by Thomas Lord Wharton. There are three other schools and two Dissenting Chapels. ^'Wharton Hall, the ancient residence of the family of Wharton, now the property of the Earl of Lonsdale, is on the bank of the Eden, near here. "It is a very large edifice. In the kitchen are two vast fireplaces, and in the hall is one twelve feet wide, testi- monies of the former hospitalities of the place. It is sometimes visited in the shooting season by the noble owner,'' It was with the most lively interest, not to say "deep emotion," that I gazed upon those ivy mantled buildings, particularly the one that contained the graves of my "kindred.*' A feeling came over me resembling, I sup- pose, that with which Mark Twain viewed the grave of his "blood relative, Adam," in the Holy Land. "Not a near relative, it is true ; some six thousand summers have passed between his day and mine," said Mark, "but still we are relatives,'' Thomas Lord Wharton was "not a near relative, it is true" ; about two hundred and fifty years had passed between us, but still, oh, still a relative. How affecting was the scene 1 The family, it is said, originally came over to England with the Normans. Rev John A. Wharton, a jurist, and also a minister of the Episcopal Church, writes : "I heard Dr. Wm. H. Wharton, now deceased, say that the family came over to England with William the Conqueror and was in some way connected with that Prince.'' Be this as it may, I am quite sure that Judge Wharton and all the Whartons of my acquaintance are "plain, blunt men'' who indorse heartily the sentiment so beautifully expressed by Tennyson : "From yon blue heavens above us bent. The gardener, Adam, and his wife Smile on the lines of long descent. 334 EUROPEAN NOTES. "Howe'er it be, it seems to me 'Tis only noble to be good. Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simp e faith than Norman blood." ENTERING SCOTLAND, When the train reached Carlisle, the old and historic city on the Scottish line, the darkness of night had set in, but the trembling gas jets that revealed narrow and crook- ed streets, and antiquated houses recalled "the light of other days," when this very spot was the scene of "bor- der warfare." Then Scotland and England were contend- ing for the mastery of that picturesque region. How Edward, Htsselrig, and others on the one hand, and William Wallace, Robert Bruce and others, on the other, had "marched and countermarched," and ever and anon engaged in those hot conflicts which called forth the "pa- triotic tide that streamed through Wallace's undaunted heart." Along these very roads too, after the forces of Scotland had succumbed to those of England, wandering minstrels had tramped with harp or bag-pipe, awakening memories of the "brave days of old " We soon came in sight of the locality of Gretna Green, where in former times no less than three hundred runaway marriages took place annually. The ride from Car- lisle, passing many an interesting town and stream of familiar name, was rapid indeed, for the train made sixty miles an hour. Sitting in our coupes we were more anxious and alarmed at the exploits of the "Flying Scotch- man'' (as the train was called), than at the wild plunges of the "City of Chester" in mid ocean. We stopped sev- eral days on this line, when we returned, and notes of what we saw will be given further on. We concluded that we would sit still, listen to the buz- zing of the cars, and keep our nerves as quiet as possible, but the way the train flew, reminded me of the remark of a man I had before met, who said the train on which he traveled went so fast that the telegraph poles looked like a picket fence. On and on we went "rustling over ridges, buzzing through the vale," until a loud blast from the whistle caused me to look out and ascertain our prog- ress. We were "within a mile of Edinboro' town." CHAPTER XVIIL EDINBURGH. A bird's eye view. The ride from London to Edinburgh, when direct, takes seventeen hours by the fast trains that go at fifty or sixty miles an hour, so that going from London to Edinburgh is like going from Atlanta to New York. But it must be remembered that we made a detour to Liverpool and stopped there a few days en route. Having reached the depot about ten o'clock at night, we entered a carriage, repaired to the Royal Hotel and secured elegant apart- ments. This hotel we found to be a good one but very expensive. Indeed, the most costly hotels we found in all our travels were in Scotland. One cannot live there in first-class style on less than five dollars per day. I re- member paying three dollars and seventy-five cents per day for "attendance'' on two rooms, which included making up the beds, sweeping the rooms and emptying the slops. These hotels are conducted more nearly on the "American plan," than any in Europe. You are presented with a good breakfast and elegant table d hote, supper be- ing ordered by the card. It is said that the best English in the world is spoken in Edinburgh, but this is true only of the higher classes. It was with difficulty that I could understand some of the servants at the h'tels. I addressed one in English but his reply was hardly intelligible. I then spoke a little German to him when he shook his head in disgust. I next tried him in poor French. He still shook nis head. "What language do you speak ?" I asked. "I cannot speak American^' was his reply. 336 EUROPEAN NOTES. Having spent a comfortable night, next morning I had from my windows an excellent panoramic view of the city. I at once pronounced it beautiful, one of the handsomest, if not the handsomest city in Europe. Its situation is picturesque and grand in the extreme, resembling that of Prague in Bohemia, before described. It had once 250,000 inhabitants, and is located within two miles of the Frith ot Forth, and the town of Leith, its port, where an Ameri- can Consulate is stationed. It is built like Rome, on a series of hills. On the highest hill is the renowned castle, which descends gradually to the site of Holyrood Palace, and on the slopes are the houses of the "old town." Another hill runs to the foot of Salisbury Crags, which rise in picturesque grandeur in the distance. Next comes a third long hill on which the beautiful " new town'' is built. The views in every direction are superb. It is a well known fact that Sir Walter Scott, in Marmion, chose that from Blackford Hill. The mcst popular point of ob- servation, with tourists, is that called "Rest and be thank- ful." In front of our hotel ran the celebrated Princess Street, the Scottish Champs Elysees, which has many objects of greatest interest upon its borders. I traversed this street from one end to the otlier, again and again, and the walk was always full of incident and exhilaration. Right across the street from our hotel stands the Scott monument, one of the grandest structures of the kind in the world. It is an open spire, and is 200 feet high. I ascended the inte- rior staircase till about half way up, and then becoming dizzy, returned. On the lower arch is the matchless statue of Sir Walter and his favorite dog Maida, lying at his feet, in gray Carrara marble. The figures occupying the niches above are Prince Charles Edward, Meg Merilles, the last Minstrel, the Lady of the Lake, and George Heriot» Above the first arch is a large room or museum contain- ing relics of the past, and also a collection of the various editions of his writings. The monument cost about $80,- COO, It stands in a handsomely laid out park, known as Princess Street Gardens. On Princess Street, near Scott's monument, is a fine statue of Professor Wilson, the Chris- 'i'^t ut 'jL'aag^jS '.anji* EDINBURGH. 337 topher North of Blackwoocfs Magasine. I soon came to a splendid structure, which I learned was the Royal Institu- tion. I had seen so many iruseums and art galleries that I had no disposition to enter. On the other side of the street stood a statue of Allan Ramsay, the author of the "'Gentle Shepherd." In close proximity to the Royal In- stitution is the National Gallery, with a magnificent col- lection of ancient and modern paintings. What is known as the " Mound," is an accumulation of earth resembling a railroad embankment, which connects the old and new towns. It arose accidentally, but now serves a valuable purpose. Permission was granted to the citizens who wished to build houses to deposit the waste earth in the North Loch Valley, and as the accumulation grew in size, it became apparent at once that it would be a valuable means of connecting the towns divided by this deep valley. On the east side of the bank is a row of very tall and very ancient buildings that have a history. The cream of Edinburgh society once inhabited them. David Hume, the historian, among others, occupied one of the upper flats ; and Boswell here entertained the cele- brated Dr. Johnson on his visit to Scotland. At the end of the street rises the most noted spot about Edinburgh, namely, " Castle Hill.'' THE CASTLE. The first important object that visitors wish to inspect on reaching Edinburgh is the historic old castle. We ascended the hill which is a little like climbing Stone Mountain, until we came to a gate guarded by soldiers in Highland uniform and flanked by two batteries. We then passed through two other gates beyond which were placed the artillery stores, and Argyle's Battery. The armory on the west side had 30,000 stand of arms. At the top, just before entering the enclosure, we were shown the great gun "Mons Meg,'' made at Mons in Brittany in i486. The most elevated part of the castle has a "court" or quadrangle one hundred feet square, three hundred and eighty three feet above the sea level, the houses being used as hospitals and barracks. It was once a royal res- 22 338 EUROPEAN NOTES. idence and we entered eagerly to see the apartments of Queen Mary, better known as "Mary Queen of Scots." We entered the small room (about twelve feet square, I should think), in which James VI. of Scotland (who was James I. of England), was born June 19th, 1546. I put my head through the little window through which the royal babe was let down in a basket to the foot of castle rock, whence he was conveyed to Stirling Castle for safety. We viewed a fine portrait of Queen Mary in this room. We next entered the "Regalia"' room where in a glass case we saw the crown, sceptre, sword of state and other costly crown jewels. Here, also, was the golden collar of the garter conferred by Queen Elizabeth on James VL with the George and Dragon believed to be the finest jewel of the kind in existence. In this same room is shown the oak chest in which the Regalia of Scotland lay lost until 1817, when they were found by Sir Walter Scott. We then left the quadrangle and entered St. Margaret's chapel, "dedicated to the sainted Queen of Malcolm Cum- min," and in which every child born in the castle is bap- tized. One arch was specially interesting that our atten- tion was called to on coming out, as having been that un- der which Oliver Cromwell had marched. He defeated the Scots in 1650 and took possession of the castle. One day we visited the castle to witness a grand pa- rade and drill of the Scottish Highlanders. The occasion was that of extending a welcome to the Highland soldiers that had fought so nobly in the recently terminated war with Egypt. We saw the battle scarred heroes as in filth and tatters they were brought up to the castle, and re- ceived by the gayly attired regiment of Highlanders over 1,000 strong. It was the most interesting military display I ever witnessed. What attracted me most was the cos- tumes of the soldiers. The day was cold, raw, and it was drizzling rain, and yet these hardy fellows with bare legs, (having no covering from the hips down but the short skirts of their kilts), marched and counter-marched, ad- vanced, knelt, "fired and fell back," with as ready a grace as if they had been waltzing in a warm parlor. The cos- tume of the Highland soldier is simply barbarous. EDINBURGH. 339 As I gazed for the last time on the walls of that vener- able pile, many incidents of its long and eventful history rose before me. How old it is ! The castle moat is said to have been a fortress before the subjugation of the Scots by the Romans. It was called in the Gaelic, Magh- dun. in the British Maiden, styled, hence in English, Mai- den Castle, and by Latin writers it was called Castruin Puellarinn. This name was occasioned by the romantic story that British kings in times of war sent their daugh- ters here for protection. In the beginning of the seventh century the place was called Edwin's burgh, from Edwin, king of Northumbria, who occasionally made his residence here. About the middle of the ninth century the pos- session of the castle was hotly contested by the Scots and Anglo-Saxons. In the twelfth century William the Lion made this old castle his residence. In June 1291 the cas- tle was surrendered to Edward I. of England. In 13 13 it was stormed and destroyed at midnight. It was rebuilt and occupied as a residence b}^ Edward III, of England. During the reign of King David it was the seat of Parlia- ment. But what made it more interesting than anything else was its association with the names of Wallace and Bruce, who are to the military glory of Scotland what Burns and Scott are to its literature. But we turn our faces toward another great object of interest. HOLYROOD PALACE. Holyrood Palace is a stately, but gloomy structure, quad- rangular in shape, gothic in order, and measuring about 230 feet to the side. It was originally an Abbey founded by David I Burton thus details the legend which caused its erection : " King David had gone a hunting in the forest of Dramshench, on which stand Charlotte Square and other partsof western Edinburgh. The day was the commemora- tion of the Exaltation of the Cross. The King followed his sport in defiance of the solemn admonition of his confes- sor, and of course something was to come of his so doing. He followed, unattended, a stag, which stood at bay and would have done him deadly injury but a sacred relic, a fragment of the true cross, at the moment miraculously 340 EUROPEAN NOTES. slid into his hands and the furious animal vanished." On the following night he was admonished to build an ab- bey on the spot " where he got the cross." It was nam- ed Holyrood, (which is simply holy rod) from this circum- stance. Of course, the possession of so valuable a relic made the abbey sacred in the eyes of all, and pilgrims flocked to it from every direction. In the abbey many royal guests were entertained ; among them James I. and his queen. The royal visits to the place led to the erec- tion of a palace in connection with the abbey, some think as early as the times of James IV., for his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of England, is said to have occurred in Holyrood Palace. Only small portions of the original building remain, but these, notably Queen Mary's apartments, are full of absorbing interest to the tourist. There we beheld the "presence chamber," in which the interview took place between Mary and John Knox, the leader of the Protestant reformation in Scot- land, He succeeded in having the reformed religion es- tablished and Roman Catholicism prohibited by law. On the arrival of the young Queen from France, she summoned the reformer to her presence. Six interviews are reported as having taken place between them, and the questions she raised were discussed by him with such determination, vigor and eloquence, that she was brought to tears. She ordered his arrest, but all her counsellors, ex- cept some subordinates, voted for his acquittal. It was interesting to view the apartment where their celebrated interviews took place. We entered the room where Queen Mary slept, and the bed is there, drapery and all, just as she left it, with the exception of that decay which is inseparable from long exposure to the corroding hand of Time. A bed over three hundred years old may well be supposed to be affected with the "dry rot." Near the bed hangs King James' "baby basket," a relic of the babyhood of the sixth James of Scotland and the first James of England. The embroidery on the chairs in the room was wrought by Mary's own hand; and the pictures of herself and family on the walls, hanging now as they hung EDINBURGH. 341 then, are greater objects of interest than many masterpieces of the great artists, not as works of art, however, but as mementoes of the hoary past. On the hall floor, just out- side of the bed chamber, dark spots are shown, said to have been made by the blood of Rizzio, as his body was borne thither, immediately after his murder, by Darnley and Ruthven. The murder took place in the Queen's boudoir, a little room adjoining the bed chamber, about ten feet square, and connected by a flight of stairs with the chapel below. While the Queen and her Italian secretary, Rizzio, with one or two other friends, were at supper, the assassins ascended by the stairs mentioned, and in an in- stant, (Darnley pretending to embrace his wife that he might shield her, but really holding her so that she could not assist Rizzio) Ruthven and others thrust their daggers into the heart of the unsuspecting and ill-fated secretary. The ruined chapel below bears traces of its original splendor; and in a vault, beneath the south aisle, rest the remains of David II. James II. and his Queen, and the third son of James IV., James V., his queen, and second son, and Lord Darnley, husband of "Mary Queen of Scots,'' and murderer of Rizzio. We lingered for along time about this old palace, look- ing at its rooms ; its picture gallery ; its historic relics ; and came out to gaze on the more inspiring scenes of the splendid city, covering lovely hills on the right, while on the left towered the picturesque Salisbury Crags. Edinburgh is the last city that should be visited by the European tourist, for it recalls pleasantly many places on the continent. As Sir David Wilkie remarked, " Here are alike the beauties of Prague and of Salzburg; here are the romantic sites of Ovietc and Tivoli, of Geneva and Na- ples; here indeed to the poet's fancy may be found real- ized the Roman capitol and the Grecian Acropolis. On our way to our hotel we stopped to get a view of Calton Hill, whose summit is one of the finest points of observation about the city, and is itself attractive on account of the noble monuments and other edifices that crown its brow, those of Burns, Dugald Stewart, Lord Nelson and Pro- fessor Playfair being the most conspicuous. We entered 342 EUROPEAN NOTES. Burns' monument, where an interesting collection of relics of the great poet is kept, such as innumerable manu- scripts, his walking canes, drinking cups, etc. These things recalled the time when poor Burns was scarcely known in this proud city, going there a friendless boy, but rising by his genius to the first position in society, which he might have retained through life but for the influence of strong drink, "Which led him down from life and light, And all that made his pathway bright," causing him to perish at last in want and misery. OBSERVATIONS. There were many things in Edinburgh that attracted our attention, worthy of note, but with a few observations I leave the subject. On Sabbath we heard the celebrated Dr. McGregor, of the 'Church of Scotland, preach. He is the foremost orator in this land of orators ; like Zaccheus, is small of stature, and is afflicted with lameness, but is still not known " better by his walk than his conversa- tion." They call him the " little preacher." He always retorts when he hears that appellation, " No, I am the little man, not the little preacher." On that Sunday his subject was the Disestablishment of the Church of Scot- land, and he spoke in opposition to the efforts of the Free Church party to destroy this ancient institution. He was very severe upon the voluntary principle of the Americans, and said that the $1,500,000 which the church received from the crown annually was necessary for the religious instruction of the poor. He was eloquent, but not con- vincing ; and I predict that the Free Church party will ultimately succeed and the disestablishment of that Church will be the entering wedge to the disestablishment of the Church of England. There is no denying the fact, I think, that the American system is at the bottom of this great movement, and some modern John Knox will arise to undo at least so much of the work of the old reformer as pertains to the union of the Church with the State. So mote it be. EDINBURGH. 343 We remained in Edinburgh several days, hoping for weather that would permit a visit to the Trossacks, the celebrated lake region of Scotland. But it rained all the while. The question was asked of an urchin, " Does it rain here all the time ?" His nonchalant reply was, "Naw, sir, sometimes it snaws;" and really, it seemed to do one or the other all the time. Two things struck me as characteristic of the Scotch people: (i) they are the greatest church-going people I ever saw, and (2) they drink more whisky than any peo- ple in the world. On Sabbath the streets of Edinburgh are crowded with church-goers, and in the hotels the guests are all the time calling for " hot Scotch," that is, Scotch whisky taken with hot water and sugar. I saw but few beautiful women in Scotland. Though they are elegant in their manners and most tasteful in their dress, they do not possess the physical charms of their English sisters. While I was in Edinburgh, Edwin Booth was there play- ing some of his most celebrated characters. He created about the same sensation that Irving did here on his re- cent visit ; and though I did not go to see him, it was pleasant to hear an American so highly spoken of. I left Edinburgh with the most delightful impressions of the place and people. CHAPTER XIX. THE LAND OF BURNS. " O Scotia ! my dear, my native soil, For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent ! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health and peace and sweet content ; And oh ! may Heav'n their simple lives prevent From Luxury's contagion, weak and vile ! Then, however croiv7ts and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace will rise the while, And stand a wall of fire around their much-loved Isle." No truer patriot and no sweeter poet ever lived than Robert Burns. He was Nature's own bard. He was the Shakespeare of Scotland, and Tam O'Shanter, the Cotter's Saturday Night, the Jolly Beggars, and his incomparable songs will live and increase in popularity " down to the last syllable of recorded time." The charm of a visit to Scotland consists largely in the opportunity it presents of seeing the ancient humble home of this wonderful poet, who " touched his harp and Nature heard entranced." In order to reach this Mecca of poetical pilgrims we had to pass through the great seaport, GLASGOW, which is the largest city in Scotland, having over 600,000 inhabitants, and ranking with its English rival, Liverpool. It is situated on the river Clyde, not far from its mouth. Like Liverpool, it is of comparatively recent growth, and owes its importance to foreign commerce. The Clyde was at the beginning of this century only a few feet wide and five feet deep, but enormous sums have been spent in widening and deepening the channel. Now, vessels of 2,000 tons can readily navigate it ; and at high tide ships THE LAND OF BURNS. 345 drawing 21 feet of water can sail on its bosom. On the Clyde are immense ship-yards, the finest vessels in the world, and nearly all of the English, Scotch and American lines being built here. The first steamer ever constructed was built here four years after Fulton's invention. I cannot say that Glasgow is a pretty place, but it cer- tainly bears every evidence of commercial activity and importance. On the day of our arrival, a reception was given to the Duke of Albany, Queen Victoria's son, and his bride. We had the honor of being a part of the great crowd that formed a line, or I should say a "lane," through which their highnesses were driven, in an elegant carriage drawn by four beautiful grays. The duke was a fine looking young man, and his bride {nee Baroness Von I'eck of Ger- many,) was a magnificent specimen of a lady. They seemed very happy, but since then the duke has died, and the young and beautiful wife is left alone in the world. No one can escape death, and I am here reminded of the saying of Horace, " Death visits with impartial step the hovels of the poor and the palaces of kings." The crowd that welcomed the duke and duchess that day was im- mense. It was Saturday, and mechanics and working men generally quit their work, and united with the gran- dees in doing honor to this son of " Her Majesty." Mul- titudes of the people were drunk, and we were glad to get away from the noisy and disorderly crowd. We visited the attractive scenes in the vicinity of George Square. Here are many splendid monuments, particularly that of Sir Walter Scott, but the plaid is thrown over the wrong shoulder on the statue, which shows that the artist was a low countryman, as some one has remarked. On the upper part of High Street, known as the " Bell of Brae,'' is the place where Sir William Wallace defeated Percy and his English troops, but it does not look much like a battle ground new. There are many public buildings in Glas- gow which would have repaid the labor and fatigue of a visit to them, but we were anxious to hasten on; and go- ing to the depot, were soon dashing along on the banks of the Clyde, now in full view of the "deep blue sea" 346 EUROPEAN NOTES. that was soon to bear us to our loved home ; now hard by an old castle covered with ivy, and rich in legendary his- tory, until at last we drew up at a place forever memora- ble "in story and in song," — it was Ayr. burns' HOME. At the depot we found excellent waiting rooms and re- freshment saloons, and quite a number of comfortable carriages, with proffers from the importunate drivers, to take us (and my party consisted of five), anywhere and everywhere at $2.00 per hour. We first drove through the town where we caught glimpses of the "Auld brig," immortalized by Burns; the Wallace Tower which con- tains a colossal statue of Wallace, and the "dungeon clock'' of the poet : the house in which Wallace found shelter on a certain occasion ; the "fort" erected by Crom- well ; the Tam O'Shanter's Inn, which we entered and where we saw the room and the tables where Tam and Souter Johnny regaled themselves, and the very cups out of which they drank on that memorable night when "Tam must ride." Ayr is on the sea shore and possesses those charms of scenery and atmosphere which the sea alone can confer. It was in this neighborhood that Rob- ert Bruce landed, when he began the struggle for his crown which terminated in the victory of Bannockburn. But the great object of interest was yet to be seen. Taking the supposed road that Tam O'Shanter traveled with his "Mare Meg" on that eventful night, we proceed- ed over beautiful landscapes to Burns' Cottage, two or three miles distant. We soon came to that "lowly straw- thatched cottage," pictures of which we had so often seen. It stands on the right of the road side as you go out, on seven acres of land once rented by the poet's father. We entered the room where transpired those scenes so graph- ically described in The Cotter's Saturday Night. Around this hearth they sat, on this floor they knelt. Could it be, I thought, that this coarse, plain room was the nursery of genius? It was even so. This is the room in which Robert Burns was born and there in the corner, is a "primitive" bed on which the poet of nature first saw the THE LAND OF BURNS. 347 light, January 25th, 1759. The cottage is kept in a good state of repair, and several rooms have been fitted up where relics and curiosities are exposed for sale, particu- larly articles made from wood that grew on the banks of the Doon. We went next to "Old Kirk Alloway'' about a half mile distant. Now only the walls remain, ,but the bell still hangs in its old place. The poet's father lies buried in the churchyard, where lie those whose ghosts so frightened Tarn O'Shanter. Burns loved his father and wrote the following epitaph which was formerly inscribed on his tomb: "O ye, whose cheek the tear of pity stains, Draw near with pious reverence and attend, ■ Here hes the loving husband's dear remains, The tender father and the generous friend, The pitying heart that felt for human woe. The dauntless breast that feared no human pride, The friend of man — to vice alone a foe ; For e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side." The sexton was in the churchyard, and as soon as we arrived began to sing grave-yard songs in the Scotch tongue, some of which affected us deeply, as they doubt- less had done many before us. A shilling was enough to induce him to show us all the curious graves, which he did "with alacrity and delight.'' Near the church, on the left of the road, we visited Burns' celebrated monument, the one which tradition says called forth from his old mother the remark: "Robert asked for bread but they gave him a stone " On the ground floor is a museum, a circular room where the relics of the past are kept, and here we saw his manuscripts, his wine glasses, and the veritable Bible which he gave to Highland Mary, with an inscription to her mother with his own hand. Burns loved that girl, and had he married her his whole subsequent life might have been different. I purchased an "original'' photograph (of course) of Highland Mary, and her face is lovely indeed. But I can- not say the samiC for "Bonnie Jean," the wife, whose pic- ture I also secured. The monument is in a beautiful 348 EUROPEAN NOTES. park on the "banks of the Doon," and we left the enclos- ure to walk over the "auld brig o' Doon," immortalized by Tarn's ride. We also strolled up and down the banks of the picturesque stream, with the tender words of the poet occupying our thoughts: "Ye banks and braes of bonny Doon How can ye bloom so fresh and fair ? How can ye chant, ye 'itt'e birds, And I so weary, full of care ? Thou'lt break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons 'mid the flowery thorn, Thou 'mind'st me of departed joys, Departed never to return." In a small room in the monument are the life-size stat- ues of Tarn O'Shanter and Souter Johnny. The original hero of Burns' poem was one Douglas Graham, of Shanter Farm, in this neighborhood, and here rest the remains of this Scottish Yorrick, who, judging from his "stature, was a fellow of infinite jest and of capacious soul.'' Hearing that two of Burns' own nieces lived in the neighborhood, we called to see them, and were most cordially received and kindly treated. They were aged about eighty and ninety respectively, were pious Presbyterians, bright and cheerful in their manners and seemed to be delighted with our visit. They loved to talk of "Robert," and one of them resembled closely the picture of Burns which usually accompanies his works. They showed us a great number of the poet's manuscript letters and other papers. Their name was Beggs and they had never married. They were the daughters of the poet's youngest sister. Since my return one of them has died. The visit to these saintly old ladies was full of interest. We returned to Ayr, to Glasgow, and to Edinburgh after one of the rich- est experiences we ever enjoyed. CHAPTER XX. THE LAND OF SCOTT. In England and Scotland the localities that are associ- ated with the lives of illustrious men are often styled, and placed on nnaps as the "lands'' of such men. In Eng- land, for example, they have the "Land of Shakespeare," and in Scotland the "Land of Burns," and the "Land of Scott.'' I have already described my visit to the "Land of Burns," and my closing chapter on Scotland, and last but one of my entire views abroad, will be on the "Land of Scott." I have before remarked that Burns was patriotic. Scott was equally so. It was he who sang: "Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land ! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand .'' If s'jcn there be go mark him well, For him no minstrel's raptures swell. High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish could claim, Despite those titles, power and pelf, The wretch concentred all in self, Living shall forfeit fair renown And doubly dying shall go down. To the vile dust from whence he sprung. Unwept, unhonored and unsung." I have given these lines not only to show that he was pa- triotic, but to give a specimen of his heroic verse, which in Rokeby, the Lady of the Lake, the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and other poems, has so charmed and delight- ed the world. But great as he was as a poet, he was great- ter as a novelist, and the "Waverley Novels," fordescrip- 350 EUROPEAN NOTES. tive power, and absorbing historical and legendary in- terest have never been surpassed, either before or since his day. Unlike Burns he was both rich and noble, and as will be presently seen, left behind him memorials of his greatness, which render his "Land" one of the most attractive places of resort in the whole world. After remaining a few days in Edinburgh, on our return from Ayr, we visited Melrose, 37 miles distant, on the same road we had traveled from London to Edinburgh. MELROSE ABBEY. The town of Melrose is not large, but is situated in a most picturesque and beautiful region, in the midst of which rises the "Eildon Hills,'' celebrated in the works of Scott. From one of these eminences one can witness the tortuous flowing of the Tweed, and many of the old Bor- der battlefields. From the depot to the Abbey is a short walk. There are several good hotels in the town, but we concluded to stop at the Abbey Hotel, kept by ladies, and presenting, (as we found on entering) a most cheerful and homelike appearance. This little hotel, like all oth- ers in Scotland, we found to be very expensive; but as the accommodations were good we made no complaint. There is in this hotel a museum filled with almost every description of Scottish curiosities, for the gratuitous in- spection of the guests. Our rooms were on the second story and overlooked the Abbey burial grounds. From our win- dows we enjoyed all the views of the historic ruins that could be desired — by sunrise, sunset, and moonlight. This old Abbey, like Holyrood, was founded by King David, and presents the finest specimen of Gothic archi- tecture in the world. The building is in the form of a Latin cross, 285 by 130 feet, and every portion of the architec- ture is so perfect as to win the admiration of of all behold- ers. It was destroyed by the English, and rebuilt by Rob- ert Bruce, in the present magnificent style. The win- dows and doors are marvels of beauty, and on all sides are sculptures of flowers, plants, animals, and men, so com- plete, so delicate, so true to nature, as to have the ap- pearance of a recent creation. Of one of the windows THE LAND OF SCOTT. 35 1 Walter Scott remarked : "It is impossible to conceive a more beautiful specimen of the lightness and elegance of Gothic architecture when in its purity." I noticed the forms of leaves and stalks so delicately traced that a pin could be thrust between the interstices. Within the walls lie buried Alexander II. James, Earl of Douglas, Scott, of Buccleugh, and other border families. On the north part of the floor I noticed a small stone marking the spot where was buried "the heart of Bruce," after the unsuccessful attempt to convey it to Palestine. In the centre was a stone seat, on which Sir Walter Scott usual- ly sat, when drinking in the inspirations of the scene. j,"The Lay of the Last Minstrel," has a description of the abbey which is beautiful, and as true as beautiful. One of the windows, called the "apprentice's window," has connected with it the legend that it was made by an apprentice dur- ing the absence of his master, who became so envious of his success that he murdered him. O these legends ! The photographic views, books and wood curiosities exposed for sale in one of the cloisters, are splendid speci- mens of the attractive trifles that catch the pennies of European sight-seers Melrose Abbey has been immor talized by Sir Walter Scott, whose genius has thrown over the classic and mystical ruins a charm that can be felt but not expressed. ABBOTSFORD. Three miles from Melrose, on the banks of the Tweed,, is Abbotsford, the palatial ho-me of Scott. On our way out, we met some handsome Scottish "lassies" in the road ; I asked their names, and was told that they were the children of James R. Hope Scott, Esq., grand- son-in law of the poet, the present owner of the property, and who holds the high distinction of being one of the Queen's Counsel. On approaching the house, I noticed at the gateway the implements of torture used by the Douglases at Thrieve Castle. The house has a frontage of i6o feet. It was built by Sir Walter after his own de signs, and may be regarded as a " patchwork palace" of a magnificent kind. Stones from all parts of the country. 352 EUROPEAN NOTES. each having a history, were inserted in the building. Al- most every ancient structure in Scotland has sent its contri- bution to Abbotsford. Holyrood, Dunfermline, Linlithgow, Melrose and Roslin, are all represented in the picturesque walls. But let us enter this superb structure. The great door is surmounted with a gigantic pair of antlers. The hall is adorned wirh stained glass windows of curious designs, and the walls are hung with the arms of Rob Roy, Montrose, Napoleon, etc. The parlor is furnished with an elegant ebony set, donated by George IV. Another room contains innumerable valuable curiosities, among them the cross of Mary Queen of Scots, worn at the time of her death, and her pocket Bible, with notes in her own hand-writing. In another room we saw some of the hair of Napoleon, and the drinking cups of Burns. In still another we saw the veritable chest in which Ginevra perished. The young bride , to "play a trick" on her husband, hid herself in this chest, which becoming fasten- ed with its spring lock, rendered her extrication impossible. No occasion for opening the chest having occurred for sixteen years, when it was opened, only the bones of the long lost one were found. The most interesting room of all was the library just as the great student left it, and containing 20,000 splendid volumes. Here, also, are some chairs donated to the poet by the Pope; a writing-desk presented by George III. ; a silver urn presented by Lord Byron ; and in a glass case the suit of clothes worn by the great man at the tir^ie of his death. There was the table on which he wrote his multitudinous works, and there the arm chair on which he sat while writing. I took a seat in this chair, viewed the interesting mementoes around, proud as a Jew "sitting in Moses' seat." I ascended the spiral staircase connecting the library with his bed-chamber, and down which the great author would trip early every morning to do his writing for the day, all of which was finished before his guests came down to breakfast. And yet Scott was one of the most accurate and voluminous writers that ever lived. How much can be accomplished by system ! The fee for each person visiting Abbotsford is one shilling, and THE LAND OF SCOTT. 353 the income to " Hope Scott," as he is familiarly called, thus accruing, is said to be immense. In the " porter's lodge" canes of various kinds were offered for sale. "What sort of wood is this ?" I asked of the man having them in charge. " Hit his hash,'' he re- plied ; and one of our party not recognizing the fact that he was a cockney, asked, "What sort of wood is hash f We returned to Melrose. The day was bright, the roads were good, the scenery was inspiring, and the coachman obliging^ — all of which conspired to make the visit to Ab- botsford one that shall linger long and pleasantly in our memories. CHAPTER XXL HOMEWARD BOUND. REFLECTIONS ON LEAVING EUROPE. Having finished sight seeing in Scotland, which would 'have been more extensive but for the inclenrient season and the pressure for time, we proceeded to Liverpool pre- paratory to sailing. We decided to engage quarters at the Northwestern Hotel, but that huge establishment was so full we had to be taken in an elevator to the top floor, where the rooms were small, badly lighted and "low pitch- ed." We resolved to seek another place. Across the ;street diagonally was a hotel of good proportions with the name in conspicuous characters on the walls, "Wash- lington Hotel." This we selected. The name of the father • of his country never looked so dear to us before, for it suggested everything good and lovely in that land on ^which our thoughts were now fixed. This allusion gives me a good opportunity for remarking that I quit Europe a better American than ever, and honestly believing that ours is the greatest country on the globe. Here is Europe, I mused, with its old civilization, its art galleries, its mon- uments, its gilded palaces, its crowned heads, but with its xiespotisms, its peasants and its paupers. There stands America, "the gem of the ocean," the home of freedom, the hope of nations, the asylum of the oppressed. There she stands with her boundless domain, her fertile fields, .her waving forests, her inexhaustible mines, her matchless irivers, her free government, her soul liberty, her religious progress, her brave men and her beautiful women. And my readers may rest assured that I loved America that moment" better than I had ever done before. Had I not done so, I would have been the *'man with soul so dead" described by Sir Walter Scott.: HOMEWARD BOUND. 355 "Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering in a foreign land." One of the strangest things in the world to me is, that so many Americans who visit Europe become European- ized. Many change their names, adopt an entirely new pronunciation and affect the stiffness and quiet of English manners, or the extreme politeness and softness of the French, until, like Shakespeare's players, they may be de- scribed as "neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christians, Pagans nor man.'' These men come back with their heads turned, and with a contempt for everything American. My advice to all such is to go abroad again, and stay there. They will leave their coun- try for their country's good. It seems to me that if anything can give one an ad- equate idea of the greatness of our land it is to go to Eu- rope. Let him gaze on the poor, oppressed people of Ireland, the downtrodden and seditious sons of Russia, the squalid and miserable peasants of Germany, Italy, France and England, and he will, if a thoughtful man, turn away, thanking God that there is yet one land, and that a great and capacious one, where might does not make right, where men reap the reward of their labors, and where gov- ernment is administered with the consent of the governed. No wonder that immigrants flock to our shores. No won- der that a member of the German parliament said in the presence of Bismarck and the assembled Congress, that "the highest aspiration now of a German is to make money enough to pay his way to the United States.'' I felt, then, in taking my last glimpse of the Old World, that Europe was a good country to visit, but that Amer- ica is the best country to live in. BOARDING THE "CITY OF BERLIN." '*My boat is on the shore And my barque is on the sea." — Byron. We had engaged passage on the elegant Inman steam- ship, "City of Berlin," the finest of the line (now that the City of Rome built for this company has been rejected), 356 EUROPEAN NOTES. and she was even then lying at anchor in the Mersey, ready to sail. After a pleasant night's rest at the "Wash- ington," we awoke next morning to find the rain coming down in torrents. I do not think that I have ever in all my life witnessed such floods of rain as deluged Liverpool that day. I proceeded to the Inman office early in the morning and found everything in readiness, and the "tend- er,*' at the wharf waiting to conduct us to the ship. I was informed that the storm signals were all up and that we would have a rough passage at first. An old gentle- man, a clerical passenger present, hearing the re- mark asked "if the ship would not wait till the storm was over ?" "No sir,'' was the reply, "we move at precisely one o'clock, fair weather or foul." An hour or two before the starting time people began to crowd the wharf, coming down in carriages provided with waterproofs and umbrellas. Emigrants were already on board to the number of six hundred, and the cabin passengers numbered about two hundred. We were much concerned in looking at the faces, and watching the ma- neuvres of the passengers who were to constitute our "compagnons de voyage." Hasty good byes were spoken by those who were leaving dear friends, and we moved out about one o'clock on the little vessel, and were soon alongside of the grand ship to which our lives were to be committed over three thousand miles of deep and treach- erous water. Having gotten on board we were delighted with the splendid appearance of the vessel. The state rooms were large and elegant, the saloon princely, the dining-room palatial, (in a double sense), and the whole illuminated with electric lights. The ship was five hun- dred and thirty feet long, and had every comfort and con- venience. "Visitors ashore," again rang out, the ponderous wheels began to move, and we were soon fairly under way. In a few hours we had reached the sea, and night coming on we slept until the morning light revealed again "the green shores of Ireland." OLD IRELAND. I was very anxious to make an extended tour through Ireland. It was our original purpose to cross over the HOMEWARD BOUND. 357 channel from Glasgow to Belfast, but two obstacles stood in the way ; first, the unsettled weather, and secondly, the state of Ireland, at that time. It was a time when the whole country was in disorder. Secret organizations of land renters were daily committing some outrage. Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke had just been murdered in Phoe- nix Park, Dublin. The constabulary was kept busy, day and night, making arrests, and there was, from one end of the Emerald Isle to the other, a reign of terror. Learning that the ship was to stop a day at Queenstown we concluded to disembark and visit that place and Cork, "sweet Cork," or as the Irish girl in the play expressed it, "Cork in the province of Munster in my own dear native Ireland.': As soon as the City of Berlin anchored in Queenstown harbor, innumerable peddlers of canes, laces, etc., came up in small boats and got on board for the purpose of dispo- sing of their wares. I was approached by a little boy with an arm full of "Shelalahs." "What do you do with these things ?'' I asked. "Faith," was the reply, "these are the things that we pay the landlord with.'' An old woman came up to the Consul General of Cairo, Egypt, who was aboard, and proposed to sell him some laces. '"I have on- ly foreign money,'' he said, "and I suppose you won't take that.'' "Sir," she rejoined, "I will take any kind of mon- ey, except matrimony^ These women were the exact counterparts of Biddies we have in this country, and some of their laces and linens were very beautiful. After land- ing, which was again doqe by means of a "tender," we were besieged by a multitude of hungry, ragged beggars. Queenstown I found to be one of the dirtiest and most forbidding places I have ever seen — but has one crown- ing advantage. It is exactly adapted to the purpose for which it was designed — it is a good place to emigrate from. We soon got aboard the train for Cork, twelve miles distant, on the beautiful river Lee, along whose green banks we rode enjoying the enchanting scenery every- where spread out before us. We had even in this brief journey many glimpses of Irish life. The people crowded the depots, or sat in their doorways eagerly watching the 3S8 EUROPEAN NOTES. large crowd of tourists that occupied the coaches. On getting to the depot at Cork, we proceeded on foot (for purposes of observation) through the greater part of the city to the principal hotel. On the way an Irishman ap- proached me and said : "You are an Irishman, I believe." "No, I am an American,'' I replied. "Ah," said he, "but your forefathers were Irish." "That is possible," I said, thinking of those things that they paid the landlords with. "And you are not ashamed of it either.'' "By no means," I said, with memories of the recent murders stealing over me. '^Andyefd be a scoundrel if you were,'' was the em- phatic rejoinder, and I concluded it was best to pass rapid- ly on. Cork is really a very beautiful city, with a population of about 100,000. The principal streets are Patrick, Grand Parade and South Mall. The houses show a great want of symmetry and harmony, but some of them are costly and attractive. We spent our time chiefly in view- ing the customs and manners of the people, and in exam- ining the fine stores, where Irish linens, poplins, laces, etc. are kept. There are many fine public buildings in and around Cork that we did not take time to visit, but there was one to which I was attracted by a famous and familiar poem — the Church of Shandon. It is not a very imposing edifice, but has an interesting history. It is most celebrated for its sweet-toned bells, that inspired Father Prout to sing as follows: "With deep affection. And recollection, I often think of Those Shandon bells, Whose sounds so wild would In the days of childhood, Fling round my cradle Their magic spells. On this I ponder, Where'er I wander. And thus grow fonder. Sweet Cork, of thee, With thy bells of Shandon, That sound so grand on The pleasant waters Of the river Lee." HOMEWARD BOUND. 359 Father Prout's real name was Francis Mahony, and he sleeps in the Shandon church yard. I visited the grave and read the inscription on his tomb. Wishing to test the sweetness of the bells, I paid the sexton to ring them for us, and the music was certainly very fine. With Father Prout I could say : "I've heard bells tolling Old Adrian's mole in Their thunder rolling From the Vatican ; And cymbals glorious. Swinging uproarious In the gorgeous turrets Of Notre Dame." But 1 could not say with him — "Thy sounds are sweeter Than the dome of Peter Flings o'er the Tiber, Pealing solemnly." It was " memory dwelling on each proud swelling," that made the bells such a charm to him ; still they are sweet bells. We strolled up and down the river Lee, caught pleasant views of the old castles in the neighborhood, and then having dined at the hotel, we returned to the depot ; and after an hour's ride were again in Queenstown. While waiting for the ship's departure, we were again beset with beggars and venders. "Give me a shilling, and I will pray that the Lord will grant ye a safe passage across the ocean,'' said an old hag. As soon as she received it, she turned around and offered to make a bet with a woman at her side. " I am afraid your prayers are not worth much," I said. One woman with bare feet and ankles, for a six- pence thrown her by a frolicsome fellow, danced a regular old Irish "breakdown," in the presence of all the passen- gers. Just as the tender was about to leave the wharf, an affecting scene took place. It was the parting between a lad of eighteen years, coming to America, and his old 360 ' ElfROPEAN NOTES. father and mother who had followed him from their coun- try home to the very water's edge, and wept when they bade him farewell as if their poor hearts would break. Long after we had left, and until they looked like two specks upon the, shore, we could see these two old people straining their gaze after the boy, who, unknown to the world, but dear to them, was about to seek his fortune in the New World. The boy likewise wept bitterly, and touched the syrnpathies of all who saw him. I went up to him and tried to £onsole him ; but alas, the thought had taken possession of him that he would never see his dear parents any more ! How many sad separations take place in life ! We should all endeavor so to liv^, as that we may reach "That blissful shore, Where falls no shadow, rests no stain. Where those who meet will part no more. And those long parted meet again." A STORMY PASSAGE. As the shores of Ireland receded from our view and the "waste of waters" was spread out around us, with our no- ble ship heading to the west, we felt the full force of the in- spiration that we were " Homeward Bound" indeed ; and the whistling of the winds, and the plashing of the waves seemed to chime in with the words of the familiar hymn : "Out on the ocean all boundless we ride, We're homeward bound, homeward be und. Tossed on the waves of a rough, restless tide We're homeward bound, homeward bound." But we were soon not so sure that we should ever reach that home. Storms set in soon after leaving Queenstown, and continued almost without cessation for four or five days. The scenes were terrific. Myriad waves, some of them mountain high, seemed to be angry with the ship and determined to dash her to pieces. ^ First the vessel rocked until all the cabin passengers except seven persons were frightfully sea-sick, but I am happy to say that I was one of the seven. The steerage part of the ship was one vast sickening sight — a marine hospital disgusting to be- hold. One squall succeeded another, until the storms HOMEWARD BOUND. - 361 reached a climax. The waters were thrown over the hur- ricane decks, the ice house was washed away, the timbers were creaking, the screw groaning and occasionally the heart of the engine ceased to beat. The alarm was general, and men who had traveled all over the world swore that if they could touch terra finna again, they would be forever done with the sea. We moved on, still to encounter another storm equally bad. The thunders apparently rolled out our doom, the lightning "painted hell on the sky," and the waves, gathering reinforcements from every direction, struck such blows as it seemed impossible to withstand. "This is very bad," I said to the captain. He replied, "I don't want to see it any worse.'' One night I werwt on deck at one o'clock to witness the progress of the storm. It was a grand sight. A lone sailor was standing near. "You can't say that you have not seen a storm at sea,'' he said. "Yes, and I have seen enough of this and don't want to see another," I replied. "Do you think we will get through it?'' I inquired, "Ah, sir," he said, "the Berlin is a very duck for the water," and the vessel was plunging, and rising, and diving and fluttering after the manner of a duck bathing herself vigorously in her favor- ite element. After "many days" the clouds disappeared, the seas were calmed, and we were ready to forget the terrible scenes through which we had passed. It is astonishing how prone we are to run to the captain in times of dan- ger at sea. A minister v/ho was greatly frightened (so I was told) v/ent to the captain five times, till, wearied by his questions, that officer said, "You are a preacher, I be- lieve." "Yes, sir," was the reply. "Come with me then," said the captain, "and I will allay your fears" He took him to "midship," raised up a trap door and showed him a company of sailors playing cards and swearing as only sailors can do. "These men,'' said he, "are sailors, and know all about the deep. Do you suppose they would act in this way if the vessel was going to sink?" Greatly relieved, the preacher said, "I think not." Soon another great wave struck the ship. This time he did not go to the captain, bnt went to the trap door. Raising it up 362 EUROPEAN NOTES. and looking down, he exclaimed, "Thank the Lord, they are swearing still." Religiousservices during the storm were very impressive, and the collection taken up for the benefit of the sailor's hospital at Liverpool was unusually large. This collec- tion was "lifted" at the close of a concert similar to the one we gave on the "City of Chester." I was again called on to take part, and one of the pieces was so admired that Dr. Pollock, an eminent physician of Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, who was present, wrote a glowing account of the rendition in a Pittsburgh paper on getting home, it was called "The Weaver," and I reproduce it here for the gratification of many friends who have heard me recite the piece on other occasions. Besides this poem will form a fitting close to these notes, re- cognizing as it does the hand of God in conduct ing us over the stormy billows of life ; leading us often 'by a way that we know not" to scenes and objects of sur- passing beauty and interest, and landing us at last upon those shores where each shall be forever happy, and from which "he shall go no more out.'' THE WEAVER. The Weaver at his loom is sitting, Throws his shuttle to and fro, Up and down the treadles go; What a rattling, What a battling, What a shuffling, What a scuffling! As the Weaver makes his shuttle Hither, thither, scud and scuttle. See the Mystic Weaver sitting High in Heaven, his loom below ; Takes for web the world's long ages, Takes for woof its kings and sages, - Takes all stations and all stages — Takes the nobles and their pages ; Thrones are bobbins in his shuttle. Armies make them scud and scuttle, Web into the woof must flow. Up and down the nations go ! HOMEWARD BOUND. 363 Calmly see the Mystic Weaver Throw his shuttle to and fro, Mid the noise and the confusion, Well the Weaver seems to know What each motion and commotion. What each fusion and confusion In the grand result will show. Glorious wonder, what a weaving, To the dull beyond believing. Such no fabled ages know ; Only faith can see the mystery How along the aisle of history, Where the feet of sages go. Loveliest to the purest eyes, Calm the mystic tapet lies. Soft and smooth, and even spreading. As if made for angel's treading Every figure has its plaidings, Brighter form and softer shadings, In wrought figures, fading ever. Tufted circles touching never. Each illumined — what a riddle, By a cross that gems the middle. 'Tis a saying, some reject it, That its light is all reflected. That the tapet's hues are given. By a light that shines from heaven ; 'Tis believed by all believing That great God himself is weaving ; Bringmg out the world's dark mystery In the light of faith and history ; And as warp and woof diminish Comes the grand and glorious finish, When begin the golden ages, Long foretold by seers and sages. The balance of the voyage we had smooth seas, fair weather and a joyous time. No language can describe our feelings as we came in sight of the dear shores of America again. We regretted to part with the many pleasant friends whose acquaintance we had formed on ship-board ; the very sea itself seemed dearer to us on account of the troubles we had had with it; the City of Berlin that had buffeted the waves so successfully in our behalf was not forgotten, but a thrill 364 EUROPEAN NOTES. of joy ran through our hearts as we steamed into New York harbor. We disembarked, realizing to the fullest extent the sentiment, so beautifully and tenderly express- ed by our own John Howard Payne : "Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam Be it ever so hu:-nble, there's no place like home." THE END. INDEX. PAGE Abbotsford , , .351 " Ginevra..,. 352 " Scott's Library 352 " J. R. Hope Scott, Esq 351 Aix La Chapelle , 59 Alps, Crossing the. 232 Alsatian Mountains , 193 Americans Extravagant ...... .160 Angelo, Michael. ..... 282 Antwerp .321 " Ascent of Cross .322 " Descent of Cross 322 " Rubens 322 ''AuldKirk Alloway" ..347 Anxious Preacher. . . .361 Apollo Belvidere . . .283 Austerlitz 229 Banks of the Doon 348 Baptist Chapel 285 '• Missions , .285, 328 Basle. 206 Beatrice de Cenci 287 Beer Drinking ...... 182 Bells of Shandon. ...*. ...358 Berlin ,.164 " Bismarck's House .. 165 " Moltke's Headquarters. 166 " Statue of Victory 166 " Panorama of Gravelotte 166 " Brandenburg Gate 167 " Unter den Linden 167 " Statue of Frederick the Great 168 " Emperor's Palace 168 " University 168 " Palace Bridge. ,.....' 169 166 INDEX. PAGE Old Palace. .169 "White Lady" .169 Art Exhibition 170 American Chapel 171 Conservatory of Music 171 Bohemia 226 " Industries 228 Bologna 240 Brahms, Johannes 91 Brussels 314 ' ' Carpets 314 ' ' Laces 314 Bunyan, John 328 Burns' Cottage .346 ". Monument.... 347 "Busstags" ...148 Byron, Lord. ...11, 327 Calais. , 58 Canterbury 57 Catacombs 274 Carey, William 328 Carlisle .. . ..334 Cicero 286, 296 Castle St. Angelo. 287 Coburg . ... ..... ... .. 85 Cordemann, General 86 Coburg Society .......................... ... . 87 " Nobility 88 " Castle........ 107 Cork 358 Cost of Living . 215 Cologne 60 " Cathedral 61 Coupe Traveling. 247 Cremation at Gotha 150 Crewe, etc 9 Danube Eiver .'.':. 217 " Poetry... 219 Demas • 273 De Medici, Family of 242 Dover. . . 58 INDEX. 367 PAGE Dresden 159 " Gallery 161 " Johannes Museum 163 " Green Vault 163 Duchess of Edinburgh 90 Ducal Family of Coburg 97 " Palace in "Hofgarten".. 101 " Residence 102 " Ball 105 " Palace "Callinberg" .106 " " Rosenau 106 " Dinner Ill " Hunts 112 " Income 113 Duke of Albany. 345 Dying Gladiator 258 Edelweiss 234 Edinburgh 335 " Princess Street 336 " Scott's Monument 336 " The "Mound" 337 The Castle 337 " Birthroom of James I .338 " Scottish Highlanders 338 " Holyrood Palace 339 " Queen Mary 340 " John Knox ....340 " Rizzio 341 ' ' Observations 342 Elstow. ....327 Feeing in Germany .160 Florence . 241 " Picture Galleries 243 " Cathedral and Baptistery .244 " Ladies 247 Flushing 325 Fog Horns ........ 6 Fourth of July Celebration in Leipsic 92 Frankfort on the Main 78 Funeral Ceremonies 149 Gahleo 304, 305 Gambetta 205 368 INDEX. PAGE German Military. , 137 ' ' Women 137 " Festivals.... 140,147 " Baptists 143 Hotels.... 75 Godiva, Lady. ... 10, 322 Gotha 108 Glasgow ...... 344 Gretna Green. 334 Gunpowder and Dynamite 329 Gutenberg, 77, 193 Gypsies 227 Hague, The 324 Heidelberg 191 Highland Mary ............ ... 347 Hill of Garr ns. .................................... . 285 Hohtn: 'in. ..... . .... 87 Home at Last ........ .. 363 Horned Moses 288 Hurrah for America, anecdote 96 Inscriptions on Urns .152 Ireland. .356 " Laud Renters. .357 " Aflfecting Scene .359 Jews, Oppressed. . . . . .145 Kirkby Stephen .332 Wharton Hall ...333 Lake Constance. .... ........... 216 Lake Trasimene 248 Lateran Palace and Church. 288 Leipsic 156 " University.. ...157 Fairs................... 157 " Goethe'sChair.... 158 Battlefield 158 " Photographs. .158 ' ' Lime Trees. 159 Liege 59 Lighthouse "Cow and Calf " 6 Liverpool 8 London. . 12 " Nelson's Monument 13 INDEX. 369 PAGE Havelock's Monument 13 Home of Ben Johnson 13 "Westminster Abbey •• 1 " Poet's Corner 16 " Chapels 17 " " Jerusalem Chamber 19 " " Divine Service in 20 " " Neighborhood of 21 St. Paul's Cathedral 21 Sir Christopher Wren 22 " " Whispering Galleries 23 " " Divine Service in 24 Churches Wesley's Chapel j Whitefleld's Tabernacle .26 Rowland Hill's Church . . 26 Spurgeon's Tabernacle , .' 27 Rev. C. H. Spurgeon 27 " " Pastor's College 29 The Tower 30 " Crown Jewels 34 " Tower Hill 35 " Tower Burial Ground 35 Madame Tussaud's Gallery 36 " " Chamber of Horrors 37 " " Relics of Napoleon 38 Streets 39 Bridge 40 Billingsgate 41 Newgate Prison 41 Mansion House 42 George Peabody 42 Bank of England 42 Albert Memorial 43 Temple Bar . .^ 4' Wars of the Roses 44 Oliver Goldsmith . . 45 Parliament 46 Westminster Hall 47 Whitehall 48 Charles I 48 370 INDEX. FAGS " British Museum 49 " Zoological Gardens 51 " Crystal Palace ... 51 " English Horses 54 " DickTurpin.. 55,327 " Feeing 55 Luke, the Evangelist 273 Luther, Martin 114 at Eisleben 115 " " at Eisenach 117 " " at Erfurt 118 " " at Wittenberg 121 in Italy 122,286 " Burning the Pope's Bull 122, 125 at Diet of Worms 127, 130 " at Wartburg Castle 132 Hymn 128 " Grave 136 Manchester 329 Mantua 239 Marguerite, Queen of Italy 289 Mark, John, Evangelist 273 Meiningen, Duke of 89 Melrose Abbey 350 Heart of Bruce 351 Modena 240 Naples ... 290 " Bay 291 ' ' Museum and Gallery 292 " Tomb of Virgil 293 " Reserved Gallery 293 Netherlands, The 313 Nuremberg ..177 Old Castle 178 " Iron Virgin 178 " Albert Durer 179 " Exposition 179 An Incident 179 Ocean, Dread of the 1 Onesimus 273 INDEX. 371 PAGE Padua 305 Paris 193 " Louvre 194 " Boulevards 195 " Bourse 195 ' ' Statue of Ney 195 " Champs Elysees 195, 199 " Place de la Concorde 195 " Tomb of Napoleon 196 " Palais Royal 197 ' ' Bois de Boulogne 197 " Pere la Chaise 197 " Column Vendome 197 " Saint Chapelle 198 " Pantheon 198 " Notre Dame 198 Peter, the Apostle 274 Pilate's Mountain 209 Pisa . 302 " Cathedral 303 " Leaning Tower 303 " Campo Santo 304 Pompeii 294,299 " Amphitheatre 296 " House of Diomed 296 " House of Pansa 297 Street Notices ..298 " House of Tragic Poet 298 Porpoises 5 Potsdam , 172 " Babelsburg 172 " Sans Souci 173 Windmill 174 " Orangery 174 " Tomb of Frederick the Great 175 The New Palace 176 Prague 230 Queenstown 357 Raphael 283 Reflections on leaving Europe 354 Righi 209 372 INDEX. PAGE Rhine, The 63 Bonn 65 Drachenfels 66 Wines 67, 74 Moravian Brethren 68 Seven Mountains 69 Coblentz 70 Lurlie ; 72 Mouse Tower 73 Bingen 73 Mayence 74 Rochester 57 Rome 251 " Hotel Minerva 251 " Temple of Minerva 252 " Pantheon 253 " Baths 254 " Theatre of Marcellus 255 " Capitoline Hill 256 " Temple of Jupiter. ..257 " Bambino 257 ' ' Capitoline Museum . 258 " Forum 259 " Tribune of Orators ... 261 " Mamertine Prison 262, 271 " Campus Martins .,263 ' ' Forum of Csesar 264 " Forum of Trajan 264 •' Palatine Hill 265 " House of Romulus 265 " Gracchi Family 265 " Palace of the Cajsars 266 " Circus Maximus 267 " Colosseum 268 " Cloaca Maxima 269 " Paul's Footprints 270 Rothschild, Baron 79 Rotterdam 323 " Gin Drinking 324 Rubicon, The 304 Rugby 10 INDEX, 373 PAGE Sea Birds 5 Scala Sancta 288 Sedan, Panorama of 80 Scott, Charles Stewart 86 Sclavonic Language 231 Scott, Sir Walter 349 Signaling Ships 5 Sonneberg , ... 82 " Consulate of 82 " Consular Duties , 83 Vice Consul 83 ' ' Consular District 155 Steamship City of Chester ... 2 Steamship City of Berlin . 355 Storm Signals 356 Storm at Sea 360 Sunday in Germany 139 Strasburger, Oscar 89 Strasburg 192 " Clock .192 St. Bernard Dogs 208 St. Paul's Without the Wall, Church of, 272 St. Peter's Church 278 Swiss Industries 209 St. Pancras Station 326 Church 327 Strauss Band 334 TamO'Shanter 348 Taylor, Rev. Geo. B., D. D 374, 385 Teil, William 208,209 Tiber, The River 248 Three Fountains, Church of 272 Thuringia • 153 Trenck, Baron 230 Trent 236 Tyrol 233 Universities, German 119, 137 Vallambrosa • - 245 Vatican, the 281 " " Sistine Chapel 282 Verona. 237 3T4 INDEX. " Juliet's House 238 Tomb 239 Versailles 201 " Great Trianon 203 " Little Trianon 204 Venice 307 " Gondolas 308 " St. Mark's Square 309 " Pigeon Feeding 309 " Bronze Horses . . .310 " Palace of the Doges. 311 " Bridge of Sighs 311 " Picture Gallery 312 " Grand Canal 312 Vesuvius 290 Vienna 221 " Hofburg 222 " Imperial Treasury 223 " Charlemagne's Crown 223 " Wood of the Cross 223 " Lance that Pierced the Saviour 223 " Strauss' Band 224 " Parks 225 " University 225 " Belvidere Gallery 225 " Ladies 225 Virginia Tobacco in'Italy 306 Von Bora, Catherine 133 Wallace, William. 345 Walpurgis 148 Walton, Izaak • 9 "Weaver" Recitation 362 Watering Places 186 " Fredericks Hall 186 " " Wiesbaden 187 " " Baden Baden 187 " " Carlsbad 187 " " Franzenbad 187 " " Kissingen 188 Waterloo, Field of • • -316 " TheLion • ......319 INDEX. 375 PAGE " Museum 319 "Bravest of the Brave" 319 " Napoleon 316' 320 Old Guard 320 Wellington 317,321 " Grouchy 320 Blucher 318,321 Wedding Ceremonies , 149 Wharton Family 330 Wine Drinking . 185 Winser, H. J .86 Wolverton 11 Wolsey , Cardinal 329 Wurzburg 81 Zurich 207 ^/^r^-\o^ \^^^^ J^ -o V«C.U\\:?: 0- 4-^ • S'^' x; \ o ^PislF| * ^ ■.V .0 ,0 -.* O v^ ^^ '- \.^* -life:-. \.^*' *• o^q. .0 '7^_, JAN 79 N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962 -#. -^^a^ I:!^"'^"^ O*^ CONGRESS 020 678 892 6