m r> RAMBLES IN THE BLACK FOREST STefoes : SOUTH COUNTIES PRESS LIMITED. IN THE BLACK FOREST BY HENRY W WOLFF il LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST i6 th STREET 1890 All rights reserved CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE * I. Introductory... ... ... ... ... I II. Porta Hercynise ... ... ... ... 24 III. Wildbad 36 IV. The Valley of the Murg 44 V. Hornisgrinde and Allerheiligen 69 VI. Kniebis and Harmersbach ... ... ... 89 ^ VII. Black Forest Peasants 106 VIII. A Black Forest Wedding 116 *- IX. Black Forest Customs 127 X. The Valley of the Kinzig ... 144 XI. Triberg 160 XII. Among the Clockmakers 173 XIII. Triberg to Constance 186 XIV. Simonswald and the Kandel 201 VXV. Freiburg ..210 ? XVI. Round about Freiburg 221 XVII. Alt-Breisach 235 XVIII. The Kaiserstuhl 243 XIX. Badenweiler ... ... ... ... ...254 XX. The Wiesenthal 267 XXI. The Valley of S. Trudpert 293 XXII. Todtmoos and Wehra 301 XXIII. St. Blasien and Hauenstein ... ... 310 XXIV. The Feldberg 322 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THE Black Forest is, I am afraid, not altogether as familiar to our English travelling public as it deserves to be. The Black Forest historian, Dr. Bader writing, it is true, some decennia ago complains that we are disposed to look upon his country as genuine backwood, and to picture to ourselves its inhabitants as real, wild savages. That holds good, of course, no longer. Nevertheless, to but too many among us the Forest is still something like a Hercynian wild credited, indeed, with natural attractions, but not magnetic enough, in its supposed sameness of silvan scenery, or its roughness of accommodation, to make those attractions effective. We travel past it shoals of us do every year. Trains, closely packed, run by it, carrying our migrating flock of human sheep to those recognized Alpine pastures, to which accepted bell-wethers still lead them on which, amid familiar surroundings to eye and ear English faces, English newspapers, English advertisements, and English speech of various accents travellers may " change their sky " though in truth they change little else. Good speed to them on their journey ! I have nothing to say against their choice. But is there not some virtue still in that old schoolboy proverb variatio delectat ? Must a mountain trip be to Switzerland or B 2 INTRODUCTORY. nowhere ? Some English travellers, indeed, will now so far Vary their* rt>it' jasf at any rate to pass by rail through .thje, piptupescoie Forest^ some even condescending to /break Jbhreipjaii-ney^rthough it be for a night only at Triberg, to see the waterfall, illuminated by the electric light. None of these seem to regret their deviation from the regulation route. Some will venture from Baden-Baden as far as Gernsbach, or spend a few weeks of retirement at Badenweiler or St. Blasien. Americans are growing more adventurous. Their new-English speech is becoming familiar, and innkeepers are learn- ing to look out expectantly for Transatlantic guests. One American family every summer pitch their tent for a few weeks on the heights of the Blauen, beyond the reach of most luxuries of life, to inhale there the pure mountain air and admire the Alps at a distance. But on the whole the English voice is still rarely heard among the black firs of the Silva Marciana, which has in its changeful existence echoed in their turns a very Babel of tongues Latin, German high and low, Prankish and Swabian, Swedish, Spanish, French, Slav, even Hunnish since its Celtic inhabitants were first dis- turbed by Allemannic intruders in their peaceful posses- sion of its hills and dales. And yet for a holiday trip or pleasant summer sojourn for exploration historical, ethnographical, geological or botanical or for an expedition in quest of subjects for the canvas the Black Forest has a deal to recom- mend it. I know of no country which at first sight strikes the visitor more pleasingly, or " grows upon him" more as the saying is on longer acquaintance. There are few districts within such easy reach, in which one may so fully combine the sight of fine scenery with INTRODUCTORY. 3 forgetfulness of home be so freely alone with Nature in all its beauty so little under restraint. Its moun- tains must, of course, not be measured against the Alps* But, then, size is not the only standard of beauty. There are violets as well as dahlias, alike in landscape and garden. There are ambling nags of pedestrianism as well as drudging pack-horses. Now for these the Black Forest is the country of all countries. It has rightly been dubbed the " paradise of pedestrians." Time was, when it was indeed accessible to none but pedestrians who were man enough to climb their moun- tain as a matter of course, and trust to walking as their main means of locomotion. Those were the days of pure, unadulterated Nature indeed, and of such mar- vellously cheap prices as it is now difficult to realize when the Rhenish florin (somewhere about eighteen- pence) would find the traveller in night's lodging, break- fast, dinner and supper (including capital trout) for twenty-four hours together, and sometimes leave a balance over. But time has changed all that. You may walk now and walking is always best in the Forest. You can walk from end to end, ninety miles one way and over forty another, climbing over mountain tops, or keeping in the valleys, measuring your exercise exactly to your taste walking when you like, stopping when you like making sure that everywhere you will find clean quarters and decent food and all amid scenery of unquestionable beauty beauty richly varied, but never broken. But you need not depend upon your legs as a matter of necessity. Railways have been built, roads have been made. Both the Baden and the Wurtemberg Governments have laboured freely and judiciously to open up the country. And now 4 INTRODUCTORY. there is scarcely a point of any importance which cannot be reached by carriage. The florin would not go quite so far as it had gone in the early days referred to, when I first set foot in the Forest nine-and-twenty years ago. But Nature was still but little encroached upon. And I well remember how charmed was my young mind with the dark green forests, the bright meadows, the well-kept gardens, the picturesque cottages, and the rare abundance of moun- tain streams, brooks and rills those silvan waters so largely accountable for the freshness, the beauty, the peculiar charm of this country. They give life to the scene. Their rippling glitter is like so many rays of light scattered over the landscape. And they seem never to leave you. They are with you wherever you turn. It must be here, one would think, that S. Bernard conceived that happy illustration with which in one of his letters he tempts the wavering candidate for monastic orders: " In the place of men, for companion you will have the babbling brook." S. Bernard, we know, was no stranger to these parts. It is a glorious country, no doubt, this forest of dark silver firs, which have given it its modern name. Its hills are not as colossal as those white giants which even from here are seen rising majestically above the horizon, forming in the early and late hours of the day a frame glittering like burnished gold and silver. But they are beautiful, nevertheless, in their picturesque and varied outline, and in the rich play of colour brought about by the effective combination of a very mosaic of rocks, contrasting strikingly with the mass of surround- ing foliage. There is a remarkably impressive effect in the black leaves of the tall silver firs those kings of INTR ODUCTORT. 5 coniferae growing to a height of 160 and 180 feet be they massed in whole mountains by themselves or mingled with the brighter green of oak and beech (beech is the next predominant tree) which looks lighter by the contrast, presenting thereby to the mind the idea of perpetual spring. These same dark firs of the Forest are the " black spruce " of which Ruskin writes with such rapturous admiration, owning them to be his " favourite tree," the tree of strength as well as of beauty, and which of all trees " has had most influence on human character." (" Modern Painters," Vol. v., pp. 81-87.) There is luxuriant growth and un- fading freshness everywhere except where the naked rock juts out ruggedly, by way of contrast and where the high tops rise barely above the forest, in an altitude which forbids all growth except of grass and shrubs. Involuntarily do Mr. Ruskin's apt words in praise of granite and crystalline countries recur to one's mind. Granite, in combination with gneiss and porphyry, only locally overlaid with red sandstone, forms the mountains here. And Ruskin's praise of the granite-country people seems as applicable. You can tell by the look of their quaint and picturesque houses houses with heavy overhanging roofs, bright rows of glittering windows, carved verandahs, and spouting springs that their inmates are a distinct and peculiar race a people with "a force and healthiness of cha- racter definitely belonging to themselves." You can tell it all the more when you see them emerging in their gay and many-coloured dress the women with neat little pointed caps on their heads, from which drop down those massive plaits for which the Black Forest is famous, with their embroidered bodices and bright skirts and 6 INTR OD UCTOE T. aprons even the men wearing what red they can, be- sides bright buttons and curiously-shaped garments. One should not attach too much importance to descent. But it is impossible to be long among these good-tempered children of the Forest without becoming aware that they spring from a different stock than do the denizens of Northern Germany. The latter are, I be- lieve, mainly Semnones and Hermunduri, maybe Frisians and Saxons, with a strong infusion of Slav blood Wendish, Polish, Polabic, Lithuanian, etc. These Black Foresters are Allemannians, with a good deal of Celtic blood in them hence the prevalence of dark features, To this in later times has been added Burgundian and Franconian. The Franconian character ever bright and cheerful shows itself very distinctly in the West in speech, manners and temperament; the Swabian, more heavy and deliberate, in the East. The Bur- gundians, sturdy of mind as of body, and peculiarly tenacious of such remnants of old self-government, once general throughout these regions, as advancing time has left them, predominate on the Swiss border. It is rather curious to trace those relics of home rule. They are very clearly observable in the Hauensteiner Land. But they may be discerned also in other parts. People still talk of the old Dinggericht of Istein and of the Simonswald providing for jurisdiction by popularly elected Courts. Also of the Marianische Rath which, I believe, still survives in some places a local tribunal, purely elective, adjudicating upon small offences between neighbours, and maintaining authority over the young. Home rule in the past has bred a manly sense of independence, such as never fails to impress its own lasting stamp upon the character, even though the circumstances be changed. INTRODUCTORY. 7 They have changed but something has always been left to keep alive the sense of comparative freedom. For Baden has somehow in respect of its political insti- tutions and political life managed to keep in advance of other German monarchical States. In the two Baden universities the light of Liberalism has always burnt brightly. And the Grand-Duchy was the first German State to receive a Constitution. The Black Forester's peculiar hilarity and sense of humour few travellers can fail to note. It shows itself in daily intercourse. And it shows itself very plainly in the character of feasts and of that multitude of local customs, many of which at present live only in memory, though not a few survive. The most grotesque, indeed, are gone like that quaintly comic " Fool's Court" of Stockach. But there are many peculiarly local, and peculiarly merry customs still surviving. One need but witness a genuine Black Forest wedding, or a fair, or, best of all, a carnival, to satisfy oneself how much constitutional predisposition to mirth is left. Talking of the Black Foresters' peculiar character, as contrasted with other Germans, it ought to be borne in mind that North German influence is in the South- Western corner of Germany of very modern origin. It only began in 1866. Up to that time the Black Forester and his neighbours took their cue, not from Prussia, but from Austria and France. Vienna had long been their capital. And to the light-hearted Black Forester says the rector of Freiburg, the Rev. H. Hansjakob, who knows the Black Forester as few else know him "the gay mirth of the equally light-hearted Austrian is far more congenial than the calculating coldness of the Prussian." Austria has been the ruling power in the INTRODUCTORY. Black Forest for a longer period than any other. France has also held political sway there. And socially it was up to 1870 all but supreme. There is something of a set-off not of course an equivalent to the glories of the great war, as Black Forest innkeepers and tradesmen in candid moments allow in the painful void left by the absence since then of those hosts of well-paying French- men who used to overrun the Black Forest in an annual pleasure campaign. Baden-Baden was of itself a little Paris. And to the rural or silvan Black Forester, Strassburg German Strassburg, it is true, but distinctly Frenchified Strassburg was the beau-ideal of a city. The see of Strassburg had played so important a part in Black Forest history, and owned so much property in the country, that to the Black Foresters the town had become almost a distinctive capital of their own. To Strassburg flocked holiday-makers from the Forest. And from Strassburg must come dresses, and bonnets and the like for the Black Forest buris and tradesmen's wives and daughters, if they were to give satisfaction. Recent times have changed a good deal. Austrian and French influences have been effaced, and in Baden now everywhere Prussia is writ very large. There are Prussian soldiers really " Prussian " Prussian postil- lions, Prussian postmen. The Prussian " mark " has taken the place of the Baden florin. Among the local officers you hear the Prussian dialect a good deal spoken. And the monuments of 1870 which have been reared in every village, have an unquestionably Prussian aspect. The change was bound to come, and is probably for the best, though some local people do not like it. One thing, however, has not been altered. The genial and cheery disposition of the Black Forester has remained. INTR OD UCTOR Y. 9 And long may it do so ! It may leave the people, as the Prussians object, deficient in " strammheit," in ramrod rigidity and official applomb. But it makes them much pleasanter people to deal with. It is a curious coincidence that both early in the first empire and at the foundation of the second it should have been a Duke of Zahringen more or less a son, therefore, of the Black Forest who rendered signal service to his Emperor, and became his son-in-law. Many centuries ago a German Emperor found himself wandering in the forests of Baden defeated, pursued, without power without followers, excepting his young daughter. The thick trees afforded him a temporary hiding-place. His daughter, seeking for food, came across a rude charcoal-burner, to whom she boldly revealed herself. The man proved true, summoned his fellows, pointed out a treasure concealed in the wood, and so became the saviour of the empire. The Emperor rewarded him with the dukedom of Zahringen and the hand of his daughter. Many centuries after, the direct descendant of that charcoal-burner, the present Grand- Duke of Baden, found himself in the same personal re- lationship to his chief. And if Fortune did not call upon him actually to save the empire, it enabled him more than once to render it most valuable service once in furthering materially by loyal and unselfish action the union of the divided country, and again by solving by his " mild wisdom " and personal popularity in the adjoining Republic a troublesome little imbroglio which excess of ministerial zeal had needlessly brought about. But I must return to my subject of the Black Foresters. Their characteristic intelligence and aptness at work has supplied their country with one of its most distinctive 10 INTRODUCTORY. features. Since the days of the Celts so it is said the Black Forest has been more or less a country of curious handicrafts. The local wood-carving and wood- turning is affirmed to be a direct bequest from the Celts. We know Black Forest industries best by those familiar clocks which strike the hours in cuckoo calls. But that speciality is, after all, only one of many products. The Black Foresters seem to be born artificers. Trades with manual workmanship appear their natural calling. To perfect themselves in these crafts, or else to turn them to account, the Black Foresters have early taken to travel- ling. They have a regular class among them known as " Hollandganger " or (< Englander " for to our own coasts, as to the best market at any rate in bygone times they have most readily turned their steps, not as a rule to remain (though a good many have remained), but generally to return after a time enriched in means, if possible, certainly enriched in knowledge. On the other hand, no homesick Switzer could be more roman- tically attached to his country or more eager to return home. As a consequence of their travels, you find the Foresters well versed in what goes on beyond their borders, and in their most industrial towns, at any rate as, for instance, Furtwangen pretty familiar with our language. [Persons anxious to trace links with ourselves will be able to detect more besides this one. To begin with, the Guelphs, of whose family is our Queen, came originally, one may say, from the Black Forest. The Guelphs of Herrenhausen and of Windsor were originally the Welfs of Altdorf in Swabia (the present Ravensburg). In the Black Forest lay some of their principal ancient possessions, and nothing was done in that country in INTR OD UCTOR Y. 1 1 those days in which they did not, as one of the very few influential feudal families of early times, take a pro- minent part. Of this family is S. Conrad, some time Bishop of Constance, and still patron saint of the Black Forest and of as much country beyond it as belongs to the Diocese of Freiburg. Next, as I shall show, we have been mainly instrumental in converting the Black Foresters to Christianity and our early ecclesiastical relations with them may be accountable for the fact r doubtless most interesting to Churchmen, that instead of being placed, as in the rest of Germany, under u superintendents " whose title has an ugly ring of Scotland Yard about it their Protestants are ruled, like the members of our Established Church, by " rural deans." It is curious to note, furthermore, that as the accepted virginal flower our own orange blossom seems to be crowding out the distinctively German myrtle. And if things be carried into minute particulars, those of our countrymen who delight in cucumber will find it easier to make themselves understood where that vegetable goes by the name of " cucumer " than in the rest of Germany, where it is called "gurke."] The crafts for which the Black Forest is particularly noted are in the main such as go by the name of " small industries" industries carried on in the workers' house and giving free scope to his individual taste and skill. Among ourselves, I fear, there would be too many afraid of the " sweater" who, of course, finds his best oppor- tunities in such trades to care to extend them. But the Government of Baden thinks otherwise. It is the small industries which have helped to make the Black Forest prosperous. And accordingly the Grand-Ducal Government now does its best to maintain and even 12 INTRODUCTORY. advance them, in the face of difficulties. What with clock-making, wood-carving, spoon-making, straw-plait- ing, brush-making, spinning and weaving, the " house industries " are still a substantial institution in the Black Forest, and one affording many a curious and interesting, spectacle. The Black Forester's proficiency in agriculture has been done less justice to than his aptness at mechanical trades. But it needs not much examination of his fields and meadows to tell you that he is a most careful cultivator a husbandman from whose painstaking practise of the petite culture at any rate even we agri- cultural prizetakers might learn something. Ordinary agriculture was well advanced in the Black Forest, as chronicles of the fifteenth century inform us, even in that early age. The meat of Black Forest cattle was then and long after reported superior in quality to either Hungarian or Polish, Bohemian, or even Swiss. To the present day Black Forest irrigation meadows are perfect models. But it is now rather in respect of small husbandry the husbandry begotten of small peasant properties that the Forest more especially shines. It is a curious coincidence that in this small corner of Germany, by a decree of capricious Fate, three different forms of the land system should have been concurrently developed and carried to an exceptional pitch of per- fection two of them forms which in this country various people look upon as specifically desiderata and the third, the most successful of all, one which has here not yet even become a desideratum. It may be as well to explain in brief words how this has come about. Like the rest of Baden, the Black Forest is a patch- INTR OD UC TOR Y. 1 3 work of whilom independent States. In these different now united areas very different laws and customs prevail. But we may note one common feature in respect of land tenure, and that is, the entire absence of such feudal institutions as have found their way with a very firm grip, too, upon their possessions not. only into the whole of Northern Germany, but also into our own country, where they now give us much trouble in attempting reforms. We may laugh at petty " free town " villages under the late German Empire, such as Zell and Gengenbach, and at princelets such as those of Fiirsten- berg. But these small Governments have rendered their nations one very valuable service. Be the cause selfishness or enlightened wisdom, they have effectually stood up for the people, and prevented the common from being stolen from the goose^the feudal overlord from becoming the absolute owner of the land. The owner tried hard at one time to baulk them and in trying, he happened in two ways to benefit his country. First, he sent cultivators into the distant parts of his estate where cultivation by himself would have been out of the ques- tion. And thus he helped to form the class of independent large owning peasants who correspond to our own extinct yeomen, but have, in the absence of feudalism, become anything but extinct. Secondly, to increase his receipts from poll tax, he made villeins work at handi- crafts, and so furthered one main source of national wealth. But further he was not permitted to go. The land always remained the peasant's property. And when in 1783 serfdom was done away with, the abolition to be followed in due course by the removal of all onera, the overlord disappeared, and the peasant remained full owner. What large properties there now are in Baden 14 INTRODUCTORY. and they amount only to 15 per cent. are the pro- perties of whilom sovereign families, of the Church and of Communes not of nobles and squires as we under- stand them. The Crown owns only a poor five per cent, of the land. The peasant properties are properties entirely per se, peculiar to the Black Forest, owing their distinctive status wholly to the " particular law " of the once in- dependent principalities. They are retained in the family by a system of devolution corresponding to our own borough-English, but which is said to be in Baden a relic of old Celtic law. And either by law or by custom they are kept indivisible. I shall have something to say in the body of this book about these properties. On the large estates of the Black Forest the allotment system, which we are now so anxious to extend in this country, is fully developed. And it works well. The landlords are liberal, even generous. The cultivation is good. The land is made to yield fairly, and the allotments are admitted to be a great boon to the small folk. But yet upon them the full ideal of small cultivation is not attained. Be the landlords ever so generous, it has been found I am quoting from an official publication of the Agricultural Department in Baden that competition and the absence of a full sense of responsibility on the part of tenants, drive rents up beyond what leaves an adequate margin for remunera- tion of the cultivator. The real " three acres and a cow " "the genuine ideal of small husbandry, alike beneficial to the community and the individual has been found to be embodied in that system of cultivating ownership which prevails, and has prevailed for centuries, wherever Prankish law, INTR OD UCTOR Y. 15 requiring subdivision, is the law of the land. One has no idea here what infinite pains the cultivating owners of Baden bestow upon their plots how they toil early and late how they force double and treble crops from a not always willing soil. Looking at the carpet of strips and patches spread out before one, bearing eloquent testimony to indefatigable toil and docile judg- ment, one cannot help feeling the truth of Arthur Young's well-known words : " The enjoyment of pro- perty must have done it. Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden ; give him a nine years' lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a desert." Ministerial Councillor Buchenberger, of the Agricultural Department of Baden, in his admirable summary of the official Report on the agriculture of the Grand-Duchy, says the same thing in different words. He points out that renting paying little or no money down, taking over only an indefinite future obligation, which in the worst case can be got rid of by quitting fails to produce an adequate sense of responsibility, and therefore prompts keen competitors to bid recklessly. Buying, on the other hand, brings home to the purchaser in the fullest measure his respon- sibility. It makes him bid carefully and calculatingly. Once owner, he finds himself under a new stimulus urging him on. Hence this perfection of petite culture. How little ownership makes people think selfishly only of themselves may be judged from the large extent to which that peculiarly German custom, the heimathsrecht and gedingerecht which make owners provide for their old and infirm, instead of burdening with them the resources of others has been developed in the Forest. There is also evidently no serious danger of excessive 16 INTRODUCTORY. subdivision. The present system of subdivision is known to have prevailed for centuries. There are dis- tricts in which the land was as fully subdivided as at present in the early Middle Ages. And yet only in very- few places has it even now been carried to prejudicial lengths.* One conspicuous feature in the Black Forester's character is his signal devotion to his religion Roman Catholic or Lutheran, as the case may be. In the larger portion of the Forest the popular creed is still Roman Catholic. Two-thirds of the Forest the more populous and more picturesque part belongs to Baden, in which quite two-thirds of the population are Roman Catholic. From a decorative point of view this is all in favour of the Forest. For whatever may be urged against Roman Catholicism on other grounds, it certainly helps to make a country picturesque. Full scope is given in the Black Forest to its adaptability to this purpose. What with ornamented churches, and neat chapels, and crucifixes* and stations of the Cross, and pilgrimages, and religious images on the walls of houses, herrgottles within and herrgottles without, private altars in each peasant's dwelling, and stoups for holy water at every cottage door of the external apparatus of religion there is plenty of evidence. And it makes the country so pretty. Those quaint little wayside chapels some of them venerable with age, others picturesque with their tiny spires and curious carving are little gems in a land- scape. And when one sees the people turn in piously to offer a brief prayer in perfect privacy, one must be a * I am quoting from pp. 397 and 398 of Herr Buchenberger's pamphlet, which is based upon the official Report " Erhebungen, etc." Councillor Buchenberger is the accepted official authority in Baden upon agricultural matters. INTRODUCTORY. 17 rigid Protestant indeed not to be pleased with the sight. There is no ostentation in these prayers, and so there can be no hypocrisy. And albeit they are addressed to an image and spoken with the aid of a rosary who can tell but, offered in the simplicity of a well-meaning mind, some of them at any rate may reach the proper goal ? I must confess, I invariably feel a sense of a void when leaving one of these picturesquely Roman Catholic countries for a region of the cold Protestantism of the Continent. There seems such a blank. Nothing to recall to the mind those religious truths which crucifixes and stations after all do force upon one's attention, whatever else they may do. The closed, locked-up churches, opened and attended only on Sun- days, look cold and bare, uncomfortable and unlived-in like a bourgeois state-room abroad. It looks as if as in the works of agnostic writers "God" was spelt with a small " g." Some of the employers complain that the people are a little too religious too much given to pilgrimaging and obeying the dictates of the priest. Maybe the absence of tithes being abolished may have something to do with the ease with which the Church manages to attach the people to itself and its ministers. However, there can be little doubt that the Black Forester's piety is genuine. And it is so among Lutherans as fully as among Romanists. It is never difficult to tell whether you are among Lutherans or Roman Catholics. The Lutherans are more staid in their demeanour, quieter in their apparel. Hence the dress in Wurtemberg is mainly made up of black and violet. They do not indulge as freely in gay pleasures. And what goes by the name of superstition is much less rife among them. C 18 INTRODUCTORY. The Black Forest has a religious history of its own, which ought to be of some little interest to ourselves. For it is from the shores of our British Isles that went forth that succession of missionary apostles who con- verted the Foresters to Christianity not without the sacrifice of some lives. The Black Foresters speak of these apostles as the " Irish Mission." But the names of nationalities were in early days used rather indis- criminately. Among the " Irish Mission" to the Black Forest were, besides the Irish S. Fridolin, who was, about 500 A.D., the first to break the raw ground for S. Jerome, travelling through, as he says, ad Rheni semibarbaras ripas, did not tarry on the way and S. Killian, and S. Trudpert, S. Columba, and S. Arbogastus also Offo, u the English King's son," who founded Offenburg and Offenzell, and S. Landolin, the Scotchman, who founded Ettenheim, and lastly S. Boni- face. The memory of all these men is held in high honour. The monasteries founded by them have lived, and flourished and multiplied, till the Grand-Ducal Govern- ment, in its zeal for Lutheranism or else for the acquisi- tion of their property suppressed them early in this century. It is a pity that scarcely any of the original build- ings remain. That is the one thing which seems wanting in the Black Forest. The ground is covered with historic sites, but on them stand scarcely any really ancient buildings. My last walking expedition, before I recently tramped through the Black Forest, had been in Normandy. And the contrast between the wealth of venerable ruins in one country and the absolute destitution in the other was to me most striking. But the Black Foresters are not answerable for this. It was not they, it was the Swedes of the . Thirty Years' War and the French of INTE OD UCTOB Y. 1 9 several generations, who in destructive campaigns, often quite needlessly, levelled alike church, castle, and monastery to the ground. Barring Freiburg, Alt Breisach, Allerheiligen, Hirsau, and perhaps one or two more, there are no old ecclesiastical buildings remaining. These religious recollections lead one on by a natural sequence of ideas to the remarkable wealth of historical associations, which invest the Black Forest with a particular charm. Time has dealt, on the whole in spite of much destruction so sparingly with the memo- rials of past important events, that you can scarcely take a step without having them vividly presented to your mind. The Black Forest has played a part in European history ever since chronicles were written. It has its geographical position to thank for this. Spread- ing out from the Vertex totius Allemanniae, which forms one of its districts situated as a natural mountain fastness at the point where Germany, France, and Switzerland long met and commanding both the Danube and the Rhine it has found itself forced into the chronic struggles as well as the commerce of nations. Its advantages from a military point of view were recog- nized by the Romans. It was on the ground of strategic importance, above all things, that something above two decades back the construction of the Black Forest railway was urged upon the Government. In every one of the many wars which up to that time Germany had been engaged in with France, it was pointed out, the French armies had invariably begun their campaign by occupying the Black Forest, from which they could operate either against Wurtemberg and Bavaria, or against Austria, or against North Germany, at their own choice. There are 20 INTR OD UCTOR T. abundant traces of Celtic occupation still remaining old Celtic fortifications menhirs, dolmens, mardels, and stone rings. Many Celtic names survive, as in Breisach, Zarten, Riegel, Elz, Belchen, Kandel. The Celts were dislodged by the Allemanni, who in their turn found themselves temporarily displaced by the in- vading Romans. Roman remains, like Celtic and Allemannian, are plentiful. At the foot of the Black Forest was the great colony Augusta Rauracorum. The exceptionally well preserved Roman baths at Baden- weiler, remains of Roman mines, Roman potteries, Roman castella, Roman oppida, all testify to prolonged Roman occupation. At Schleitheim, the ancient Julio- magus, the twenty-first legion had its headquarters. And the vineyards near Buhl were planted by the soldiers of Probus. Much of the struggle between Romans and Teutons was fought out here. It was on the high land of the Baar, and in the mountains over the Wehra, that the Allemanni sought refuge. From there it was that issued Marbod, the Marcoman chief, who long was a dreaded foe to the Romans. In later days German Emperors and their vassals met here in arms. It was at Freiburg that S. Bernard preached his crusade. Black Foresters fought for Austria at Sempach. The peasant hordes subdued this country. Spaniards have fought here, and Swedes, and French again and again, under Turenne, and Jourdan and Moreau. On all sides you have ruins, or battlefields, or entrenchments, everywhere recalling historic scenes here is a Swedish entrenchment, there a castle laid in ashes by the French, there a relic of the German Parliament held at Freiburg, there a tree or a chapel reminding you of Rudolph or INTRODUCTORY. 21 Maximilian. One might almost say with Lucius Cicero : Quacunque ingredimur, in aliquant historiam vesti- gium ponimus. You can take no walk without its being brought home to you that you are in an old historic country a country which played a part in European politics when as yet the sandy sweeps of North-Eastern Germany were unexplored desert. History suggests legend, which is ever a welcome companion to romantic scenery. Thanks to an un- usually fertile imagination of its inhabitants in times gone by, the Black Forest is as rich in local legends as the Rhine country itself, in which it is said that there is not a stone without a story to it. Its woods are regularly peopled with ghosts. Its mines are rich in tales. Some of these legends are, no doubt, made, as it were, to order ex vocabulo fabula. But the majority are the genuine growth of poetical fancy, embodying in many instances merely a poetical version of some distant historic event. I ought not to forget mentioning the delightful sense of solitude, of complete rest and removal from all hackneyed associations which you can obtain in the Black Forest far more fully and easily than in Switzer- land. It strikes you as a difference as between night and day whenever from the Black Forest you tap the Swiss route. Trains and hotels are full to overcrowding full with the very class of people whom you did not come on a holiday to meet. In the Black Forest you may be almost absolutely alone, if you choose. To be able to travel for six or eight weeks without once having Pears' soap, or Beecham's pills, or the Monkey Brand forced upon your notice, or finding your sense of music gratified 22 INTRODUCTORY. by the euphony of Cockney accents, is certainly some- thing to achieve in these days of easy locomotion and obtrusive publicity. I hope I have shown that in the Black Forest there is much to see and much to enjoy. As a concluding recommendation I should like to mention that, although not any longer such an El Dorado of cheapness as it used to be in times referred to, it still continues, according to our notions, in the main a cheap country, a country in which those who have to study economy rigidly may without much loss of enjoyment suit their holiday expenses to their purse. Most travellers will prefer not selecting the cheapest places to put up in more especi- ally those much frequented luftcurorte or pensions, which have become almost too numerous, but which can always be avoided. One of the distinctive recommen- dations of the Forest, however, is that you may be sure in every village of clean quarters and fair food. To the pedestrian it must also be a relief to know that thirst is out of the question. The Forest is a land of water clear, cold, wholesome water from the granite. Here in truth are " The thousand sparkling rills "Which from a thousand fountains burst, And fill with music all the hills And" to change the poet, though not the theme " sparkling woo the thirst." And not less welcome must be the ease with which you can travel or send on your luggage when walking. The Baden railway officials are really exemplary in their civility and obligingness, and both the railway and the postal service are good. Coming from the North of INTR OD UCTOE T. 23 Germany, where every railway guard, being a State official, is except on a few more civilized lines a little Bismarck, who dictates and does not reason, and with whom you must not remonstrate for fear of being charged with laesa majestas, you feel in Baden as if you had come into a different world. All in all, the Black Forest is a comfortable country to travel in, as well as a fine one to see. The modern hotels are quite on a par with the best elsewhere, and even the humble inns are decent. So on the score of accommodation there is nothing to deter lovers of fine scenery from visiting as pretty a little corner of God's earth as is to be found anywhere, and one which deserves more attention than has hitherto been paid to it. CHAPTER II. PORTA HERCYNI^:. THERE is nothing like beginning at the beginning. And since the town now going by the name of Pforzheim was christened Porta Hercynix, that is, " the gate of the Hercynian Forest" of which the Black Forest formed the corner nearest to Italy in very early days by the Romans, there is at any rate classical authority for entering the Forest by that convenient point. Not that that rather prettily situated place is otherwise supremely interesting. Its surroundings are unquestionably attrac- tive. There is no' avoiding the sense, as you reach the town, that you have come within the borders of real fine mountain country. The picturesque outline of the en- circling hills, the deep dark-green of the dense fir forest, agreeably relieved by bright patches of red sandstone peeping through the gaps, the fresh verdure of the meadows, and the silver streaks of three rivers foaming through those meadows over their beds of stones all these things tell you that. But in the centre of this picturesque frame is set a prosaic object an ordinary manufacturing town, built of common brick and stone, with scarcely more than one real old building in it to excite your curiosity. The town has its points of interest, all the same. Its antiquity ought to be interesting, even though it is not proclaimed by venerable ruins. We PFORZHEIM. 25 -know that the Romans had established a foothold here, and availed themselves of the place as a base for their military operations. It is very probable that they worked mines in the neighbourhood. Reuchlin, the reformer who wrote in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and who was a native of Pforzheim will have it that the town is even older than the Roman invasion, and, in fact, than Rome itself that it owes its origin to Greek founders, and derives its name from $6p/cvs, the father of the Grais?, Gorgons, and other monsters of the classical era. There is certainly ample legendary evidence of his offspring having haunted the neighbour- hood in large numbers. Therefore, spiritually, if not etymologically, the Greek deity may have had a hand in the foundation. Coming to more recent times, Pforzheim may boast of other antiquarian associations, more or less interesting still. Its venerable old church was begun in the eleventh century. In its chancel lie buried the earliest margraves of the Baden-Durlach line. Unfor- tunately their tombs are not generally accessible to the public except by the eye, through the medium of a closed glass screen. For, like the church at Arundel, this church is in divided possession, and the joint owners are at enmity with each other. The Lutherans, who predominate largely in the town, hold the nave, and the Roman Catholics the chancel. And for fear lest any heretical microbes should penetrate to the tombs, and disturb the corpses in their orthodox rest, the entrance is hermetically closed. A matter of far greater practical interest which is at the same time also a little archaeological is the peculiar local industry of Pforzheim, by means of which the little Baden town has become so a circular report 26 THE GERMAN BIRMINGHAM. received by our Foreign Office in 1887 says something of a rival to mighty Birmingham. Your very first walk through the town tells you that you have come into a settlement of jewellers. There is evidence of the trade in almost every house. In one there lives a gilder, in another a polisher, in a third a maker of rings, and so on. And, moreover, as you view the crowd of " hands " issuing at dinner-time from the workshops, the number of watchchains, breastpins, and other cheap ornaments made of metal,- which profusely deck the persons of these mechanics, can leave you in no manner of doubt as to your being in a place where at any rate to people in the trade such objects of adornment are easily attainable. It may gratify you to find English names and German names familiar to the English trade inscribed over more than one door, informing you that in the local commerce England has her fair share. The truth of the matter is, that Pforzheim does a considerable jewellery trade both with England and the rest of the world, and so- far as it can with its small means effectually com- pete with our manufacturers, it manages to undersell them. The modern jewellery trade is a direct descendant from one of the good old Black Forest crafts a craft originally imported, indeed, from elsewhere, but early taking root, and taking root so effectually as to secure to the Forest a practical monopoly. The first lapidary migrated to the Forest from I don't know where, and the stones used were generally imported. The first crystals of the kind mainly chalcedonies came from Lorraine. But soon Bohemia sent her garnets, which grew to be the favourite material. And so fully identified did the Black Forest " schleifhauschen " become with garnet- OLD JEWELLERS' CRAFT. 27 cutting, that in the sixteenth century Bohemian garnets were actually brought to Freiburg from their native country to be there cut and returned home. The Black Forest lapidaries constituted a " free " guild, whose home was at Freiburg, where their work throve and prospered amazingly. They worked little, because a few days' occupation was enough to keep a family com- fortably for a week. But they lived like kings and amassed wealth. The Basle " Kosmographie," published in 1543, extols their prosperity. And Dr. Johann Fis- chart in his Gargantua, published in 1582, bears similar testimony. Sets of garnet ornaments became, a Freiburg speciality and were long reckoned specifically " royal " gifts, fit to be presented to the most illustrious person- ages. A melancholy interest attaches to the last such " royal " present made. It was given to poor Marie Antoinette by the loyal town of Freiburg then still an Austrian city in 1770, when she passed through on her fateful journey to Paris. Rudolph II. of Austria in 1601 broke through the monopoly, and by his imperial pro- tection succeeded in setting up similar works in Prague. From Prague this peculiar kind of gem-cutting was in due course transplanted into Italy. The old craft did not cling to Freiburg long after that. In 1644 Louis the Fourteenth entered the city, on his triumphal but de- structive progress through Southern Germany, and had all its suburbs laid in ashes. With them disappeared the " schleifhauschen," and the lapidaries fled in fright some taking refuge in the near town of Waldkirch where their descendants may still be seen plying the same craft others settling in the out-of-the-way village of Ober-harmersbach, in a side valley of the Kinzig. There are now in all about three hundred persons still 28 AROUND PFORZHEIM. devoted to this trade, who are about equally divided between the two places named. That is the end of the old industry. Out of its ashes has sprung, like a phoenix, a craft which promises in the future vastly to outstrip it in importance and productiveness. And this craft has fixed its seat at Pforzheim. By their own account the Pforzheim jewellers are prospering and progressing. And yet they have a grievance against us. I was seriously remonstrated with on the score of our perverse retention of the duodecimal system of bronze coinage. The Germans have grown uncompromising decimalists decimalists in weights, in measures, in money only not yet in time. And the larger makers complain that the arithmetical difficulties presented by our duodecimal system compel them to keep additional clerks, and amount, in fact, to protection of British Birmingham. Pforzheim is surrounded by beautifully-wooded heights, accessible by pleasant walks, up and down which lightly trip, in their neat dress of black and violet, Black Forest peasant girls, balancing on their heads, in baskets, heavy loads of produce which they carry to and from market. This mode of carrying is unquestionably con- ducive as our gymnastic masters have found out to a graceful and erect bearing. But unfortunately, when habitually practised, it is also often productive of goitre. That form of disease seems very prevalent here. On the highest point of the near mountains stands an iron gazebo, which affords a rather extensive view. Another favourite sight is the rocky reservoir in the Grossel- thal, which supplies the town with water. In its way it is unique. Two masoned drifts are carried, in different directions, deep into the rock. The water NEUENBURGWURM. 29 rushes out, clear as crystal and cold as ice, in rare abundance. The principal features, pictorially, of the surrounding country are the three river valleys radiating from Pforzheim. The largest of the three rivers is the Enz, which comes down from Wildbad, passing on its. way the pretty little town of Neuenbiirg, almost entirely encircled by a picturesque valley a town to the new- comer typically characteristic of the Forest. You see here in close combination the two great mainstays of Black Forest wealth agriculture and manufactures. In small places their union seems to help both. To the mechanic, who employs his spare time on his plot, that plot repre- sents more than its strictly agricultural value. Conversely, the man who grows his own corn and vegetables can afford to put up with moderate wages. A curious sight at Neuenbiirg, and elsewhere in the Forest, where land is much subdivided it is a standing feature in most mountain towns and villages in Wurtemberg or near the Wurtemberg border are the minute little sheds built up in the meadows like so many tents pitched in a camp. The silvery sheen of their grey timber boards helps to light up the landscape. They are haysheds each taking in the produce of a small plot. Of course this involves waste. One large shed would be cheaper in the end. Open stacks would never recommend them- selves to the local cultivator. And, after all, the latter is not unwilling to pay the price of a shed for the benefit of having his own little property and its produce safe under roof and lock. The Enz just outside Pforzheim takes in the Nagold, which in its turn is a little higher up joined by the Wiirm. The confluence of the two principal rivers 30 SIRSAU ASBEY. makes a strikingly pretty picture. In the charming valley of the Wiirm, along which there is a delightfully shady walk, lies Weil der Stadt, the birth-place of Keppler, the astronomer, and of Gall, the phrenologist. The river Nagold has greater pretensions to notice. It extends eastwards as far as Hochdorf, and parallel with it runs the railway communicating directly with Con- stance, and by a branch line with Freudenstadt. On its bank about fifteen miles up river, beyond the pretty point of Weissenstein, with its three ruined castles, of which one is worth inspecting are the interesting ruins of Hirsau, one of the very few old monastic buildings still to be seen in the Black Forest, and to be seen, in this instance, with at any rate all its outline preserved. The Monasterium Hirsaugiense was in its day a most important and influential establishment. It was of very old foundation. It is said that as early as 645 a chapel was erected on this site, dedicated to S. Nazarius. But there was no monastery till 830, when the Benedictines established themselves at Hirsau, bringing with them the sacred relics of S. Aurelius. The selection of the spot is, as the name implies, attributed to the acumen of a legendary stag (hirsch, hence Hirschau or Hirsau), which still figures in the local coat of arms, with an abbot's staff tumbling about between its feet. Of the original monastery very little now remains, though there are a few stones left. In its place the new and very much larger one was built between 1059 and 1071, by the lords of the district, the Counts of Calw, who were great landowners here, and from whom is said to have been descended the rather priest-ridden Emperor Henry III., and his son, the vanquished of Canossa, Henry IV., of whose humiliation Prince Bismarck has helped to INTERESTING RUINS. 31 keep the world mindful. Henry the Third's mother is said to have been a Countess Calw, and he himself was born at Hirsau. One of the first abbots of Hirsau was S. William, who died in 1091, and is reported to have been as saintly as he was learned. Like most sacred buildings in the Black Forest, the Abbey of Hirsau has to thank for its destruction, not infuriated peasants or iconoclastic reformers, but the armies of the faithful " eldest son of the Church/' It was indeed an abbey no longer when the French General Melac, in 1692, whose advent betokened " red ruin and the breaking up of laws/' battered down its venerable walls. (The French have left a deplorable record in these parts of their " civilized " warfare. South Ger- man historians write of them much as our Saxon Chronicle wrote of the Danes : " Everywhere they plundered and burnt, as their custom is/') The Abbey had been more or less partially secularized in 1558, and converted partly into a palace for the Dukes of Wurtem- berg, partly into a monastic school, or, as we should call it, a theological college, of some repute. Melac fortu- nately left enough of the fine old red sandstone structure to enable one to form in the present day an idea of the extension and magnificence of the Abbey in former times. One may still trace the ground plan of the build- ings, and admire the architecture of part of the church and of the cloisters. Of the latter a good deal is preserved. This is, in the Black Forest, much to be thankful for. The buildings covered a considerable breadth of ground. The church was, next to the cathedral of Ulm, the largest in all Swabia. Its oldest portion is built in Romanesque style. There are two towers at the west entrance, built in six stories, and 32 TIN SPOONS. decorated with fine symbolical sculptures. They both measured ninety feet in height. One at present remains. At the eastern end of the church were a cluster of chapels, one commemorating the " giant" Erkinger, a partly historical character, and once lord of a neighbour- ing domain. The Lady Chapel, built in 1508, in the Gothic style, must have been very fine. It is now being restored by this time it is probably in use as parish church. Above it is the old Abbey Library stripped of books, but not bare of shelves and cupboards, on and inside which are preserved a really valuable collection of sculptured ornaments, most of them of very pure design, which being accessible for study, attract every year a large number of artists who come to copy them. At the south end of the block stands the abbots' palace, which was after the secularization appropriated by the Dukes of Wurtemberg, and on which Uhland has written some clever verses. The great hall is roofless. But a high-stemmed elm, springing up from the vaults below, has spread its crown of leaves over it. To this Uhland refers, and says that like this elm tree struggling for light from the depth below, even so from the dark cells of a cloister did the Augustinian Luther successfully strive for the light of truth. One may well stop on one's course Hirsau is a railway station to view the ruins. An hour or two devoted to them are not misbestowed. In the village there is, among other small manufac- tories scarcely any village is without these in the Forest an establishment for making tin spoons, which is a distinctively local trade. This curious industry is an offshoot originally from the manufacture of glass - which was established in the Black Forest in 1683 and is really an importation from Saxony. The glass trade CALWTIN SPOONS. 33 was carried on in those early days wholly by itinerant dealers, who scoured the country far and wide for a market. Some of these, about 1720 or 1730, brought home with them from Saxony spoons made of wood. People were badly off in those days for spoons. Silver spoons were a luxury indeed, and within reach only of the most wealthy. Even spoons made of horn like the old Scotch " munns " were reckoned costly for ordinary use and beyond the means of the general public. So spoons were made of wood. Then an ingenious Saxon Saxony (alone, I believe, of European countries) shares with us the possession of known tin mines-^- hit upon the plan of utilizing tin for the purpose. About 1740 it occurred to some enterprising glass-blowers at Triberg that they might as well make their own tin spoons as import them from Saxony. They began by making only the scoops or bowls of tin, fitting these to wooden handles. In course of time they learnt how to make the entire implement of metal, and so drove the Saxons out of the market. A guild was formed, and to the present day tin spoons which are an article largely used in every German household remain a speciality of Black Forest manufactures, and the trade employs a consider* able number of hands. The little town of Calw, lying three miles higher up the river the reputed birth-place of Pope Victor II. - cannot claim the same archaeological interest as Hirsau, though it is perhaps equally interesting in its own way. In bygone ages it was known as the leading feudal stronghold of the district. In aftertime it became a local leader in manufactures. Cloth-weaving found here its first home in the south of Germany, and since 1540 D 34 AN OLD-FASHIONED TRADE. Calw has been specifically identified with that industry. In 1650 its cloth-weavers secured a practical monopoly, which they managed to maintain till 1797. This trade was altogether of an old-world character. It was carried on by a trading company who worked their market entirely by the agency of hawkers, or " ganglers," as they are here called. These fixed the prices from time to time, according to the state of the market the distinct understanding with the manufacturers being that they should not sell to anyone else, whereas, on the other hand, the " ganglers " undertook to buy from no other sources. It seems strange now that a trade built up on such artificial foundations should have obtained the sway which it did. But Calw goods went far into both Austria and Italy. The manufacture was much im- proved towards the end of the seventeenth century by an Italian named Crollalonga, who associated himself with the guild. But in 1797 the Governments of Austria and Italy, resenting the monopoly in their dominions, broke it down by a system of prohibitory customs regulations. The company did not outlive this shock, but the trade continues to be carried on. Like Hirsau, Calw was destroyed by Melac. But it was speedily rebuilt. Above Calw the river Nagold pursues a perpetually winding course, which leads it through extremely picturesque country. The scenery is made up of rich, green meadows, luxuriant forests and craggy rocks. In this inviting country lie, among other places, the dwarf town of Zavelstein, the smallest town in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, with a population of only 307 -the water- ing-place of Teinach and the very picturesque town THE NAG OLD VALLEY. 35 of Wildberg, situated in a high position at a point where the hills seem entirely to surround the little place and leave no outlet for the river. The architecture in these little towns differs materially from what one sees else- where in the Forest. One of the most striking features is the prevalence of old-German gable towers, looking re- markably quaint and archaic. Eventually the Nagold loses itself among the fir forests of the high country. CHAPTER III. WILDBAD. IN the valley of the Enz, directly connected with Pforzheim by a short railroad, lies the watering-place of Wildbad, to which every year a host of rheumatic and gouty wend their steps. So far as climate and situation go, there is not a pleasanter health-resort. " The Wild Bath," it used to be, as our ancestors spoke of " the " Bath. Involuntarily, as one mentions the place, the name of Prince Gortchakoff recurs to one's memory. Every summer, while his life lasted, saw the Russian Chancellor come hither for relief from that fashionable complaint which seems to plague Ministers even more than humble folk. And no doubt in modern times the Prince has contributed not a little to the making of the place whose waters, by the way, are said to be really exceedingly efficacious. It is well for Wildbad that they are so. For barring curative efficacy and charm- ingly fine and fresh country, the place has little to offer to visitors unless it be tolerably high prices. Evidently the Russian rouble has done its work in habituating innkeepers to a princely tariff. There is no casino, there are no plays, no petits chevaux. There is a band, of course, and a curhaus, and there are concerts and table-d'hotes. But patients accustomed to diversion and entertainments are heard to complain of dulness. WILDS AD. 37 However, there is beautiful nature to make up for this defect. Anything fresher, leafier, shadier than Wildbad one cannot possibly imagine. The river is rendered beautiful by the rockwork and the wonderfully luxuriant trees enclosing it. There are splendid hills on either side. Between these the Nagold splashes and foams along tumbling, dancing, spurting over its rocky bed with never-slackening impetuosity. One wonders how so violent and so rock-impeded a stream can be made the carrier of rafts and big stems. Yet somehow it manages to float them down expeditiously enough. And by way of introducing at any rate one little exciting amusement, visitors every now and then take their passage on a raft. It is rather a dangerous proceeding here, where there is more bumping than smooth progress. One poor Englishman got very much laughed at, while I was at Wildbad last year, for having navigated down provided, with due caution, with a spare pair of socks. After the general wetting which he underwent his socks proved of little use. The quantity of timber floated down these rivers is considerable. There is a wealth of it, manifestly, all around. Somehow there is a look of bigness about the Wurtemberg forests which one does not notice to the same extent in Baden. The reason is, that in Wurtemberg the forests are less broken up in two ways. The areas are generally larger, and, moreover, the surface is less broken by hill and dale. The outline of the soil seems to move in larger curves. In any case one is here more strongly impressed with the mass of forest. Wildbad is an old watering-place. Its spring was, as the legend affirms, originally discovered by a wild boar which was espied bathing its wounded limbs in the warm 38 COUNT EBERHARD THE "SQUABBLER:' waters, evidently much to its own relief. That human wild boar Count Eberhard the fierce and quarrelsome Duke of Swabia, who was perpetually squabbling and fighting, either with his nobles or with his towns used the spring situated in his own dominions for the same purpose, when old age and frequent exposure, in hunting and fighting, had made his tough limbs stiff with rheu- matism. Many a tale is told of him at Wildbad, for of many of his exploits the neighbourhood was the scene. Here, more particularly, it happened that he was all but caught by his allied foes the mutinous nobles who significantly called themselves " die Schlegler " and who under their old leader, Count Eberhard's most determined opponent, Count Wolf of Eberstein, came up from the valley of the Murg to surprise and seize him. They nearly succeeded. He was actually in the bath when a faithful shepherd brought him the alarming news. There was no escape possible except by the help offered by the shepherd, who resolutely lifted the old Count upon his back and by secret paths carried him up the steep mountain side and across to his castle of Zavelstein. An alto-relievo over the spring commemo- rates this adventure, to which Uhland has done justice in popular verse. The valley of the Murg being near Wildbad, it is not a bad plan to walk across to Gernsbach. This walk takes one through magnificent forest and over some beautiful heights. The nearest road is across the Dobel, but much the pleasantest is that leading by the Wildsee, Kaltenbronn, and the Hohloh. This road also has the advantage of being easy to find which is rather an ex- ceptional merit on the border of Wurtemberg and Baden whose common frontier in this neighbourhood frequently ACROSS THE FOREST. 39 crosses one's path, in its serpentine course marked by black-and-red and red-and-yellow boundary posts. These political divisions have lost all practical significance since Swabian stag and Zahringen lion have lain down together amicably under the wing of the northern eagle. There is no barrier any longer either of customs or police. But some little distinctions have survived. Among other things, each State has its own Black Forest Association. These bodies work well each in its own domain, setting up guide-posts and volunteering directions. But where their territories meet, everybody's duty now and again becomes nobody's duty, and the traveller is left helpless. On the travelled paths around Wildbad, however, neglect is out of the question. Once you start on the " Blocher- weg" you are pretty safe to find your way through the " Wolfschlucht," past the " Wendensteine " which may possibly commemorate a past Slav incursion past the " Soldatenbrumen " and the " Lowenbriickle," and so on to the Baden border. All this is delightful walking, and gives the traveller some insight into the Wurtem- berg system of forestry, which it is a pity that one cannot see transplanted to some bleak heights in Scotland and Ireland. Across the frontier there are frequent boundary stones marked with curious hieroglyphics, the meaning of which it is not easy to divine, though the object is plain. There is more mystery about some larger stones, set up along the roads around Wildbad and some other watering-places marked with a huge black or red T. These, I may explain, are " Schweninger stones " stones, that is, set up under the directions of Dr. Schweninger, Prince Bismarck's own pet physician, who has invented a new reducing treatment, by which the great Chancellor keeps his growing circumference within something like 40 SCHWENINGER STONES." bounds. The treatment, as I understand, consists chiefly in regimen, abstention from drinking with, or shortly before or after, food, and regulated exercise. The Chancellor's submission to this treatment has made it violently popular among German patriots, hundreds of whom now do their " Schweninger " religiously with a double sense of satisfaction. And even those who do not, observing these T stones [put up to tell patients how far they ought to walk in the several phases of their "cure "], think, as they pass them, of their great Chan- cellor and of the glories of 1870, and thank Providence for the blessing. Some little distance beyond the Baden frontier lie, close together, the weird-looking waters of the Wildsee and the Hornsee. They afford a curious picture. Enclosed by a peat moss, on which grow stunted Scotch firs, and rushes and cottongrass, amid bleak surroundings, they look as if a dead blight had fallen upon them. There is a remarkable stillness all around. A few waterfowl may be seen flitting timidly from tuft to tuft. Otherwise there seems absolutely no life in the scene. All appears dead and unearthly. The spot might be enchanted ground, and a ghost or watersprite rising up from the water and stretching out shadowy hands, by way of greeting or of warning, would be a natural complement to the picture. A narrow foothpath leads along between the two sheets. This takes you straight to Kaltenbronn, the rather overpraised shooting-box of the Grand-Duke of Baden. It is a plain wooden structure, prettily enough situated in the dell, amid surrounding dense forest. There is capital shooting here. Altogether though generally speaking in the Black Forest the shooting has been sadly spoilt by the peasants sport- KALTEXBRONN AND HOHLOH. 41 ing over their own little patches of forest here on the Wurtemberg border, and in the valley of the Murg, where the forest is owned in large areas by wealthy pro- prietors, there is still plenty of game red and fallow deer, black game, and above all things capercailzie. It is to shoot capercailzie that the Grand-Duke repairs to Kaltenbronn regularly every spring. And I am told that he makes good bags. The gamekeeper's house, <:lose by the shooting-box, does duty for an inn, and as the drive is fine, Kaltenbronn has become a favourite place with excursionists from Wildbad. Very little beyond, but considerably higher, and across another stretch of uncanny-looking bare peat moss with some stagnant water in it, stands the wooden tower of the Hohloh, from the top of which there is an excellent view of the bright valley of the Murg and the heights be- yond. The valley of the Murg is best seen from this point. For other views there are better heights. A pleasant descent brings you down to Reichenthal, a picturesque little village nestling between high hills in a pretty glen. At Reichenthal it was my fortune to fall in with a " holiday colony " of girls from Carlsruhe. I was glad* J must confess, to see and learn something about what has in Germany become a very popular institution. Every year the wealthier classes send as many poor but well-conducted children as the funds subscribed will provide for, for a holiday of four or five weeks into the country. The arrangements are probably particularly good in Baden, because in so small a country they are best kept under efficient control. The Grand-Duchess, who has proved as devoted a mother to her subjects as she is known to have been a daughter to her father, 42 A "HOLIDAY COLONY." William I., takes a personal and very active interest in the work, which is subjected generally to the direction of a leading physician of Carlsruhe. The children sons and daughters of very small tradesmen and mechanics are selected according to their want of health, the most delicate being given the pre- ference, and grouped accordingly the boys by them- selves, under the direction of a master, the girls the same, under a mistress. They are drawn indiscriminately from all schools. In the Black Forest, happily for them, a little money will go a long way. For things are cheap, and the weather is more dependable than here. A large loft or store-room, such as is easily found in any village house, serves as dormitory, the sleeping accommodation consisting of paillasses, filled with straw on the spot,, with sheets and blankets for covering. Meals are taken in the common coffee-room, the children doing their own waiting. And one more room is ample for day occupation. The innkeeper contracts for " doing " the children during their stay, according to an accepted standard. I found the girls at their midday meal at the " Auerhahn" inn at Reichenthal, and certainly they had no reason to complain of the amount of food set before them. They were supposed to be the sickliest lot, but ten or twelve days in the bracing Black Forest air had made them all look rosy and strong. And I was pleased to find them remarkably well-behaved. A small offering which I left with the mistress towards the defrayal of waggon-hire on one of their more distant expeditions I was surprised to learn what distances they walked helped to win me the little women's hearts. Scarcely had I left the inn but three of them came scampering after me, volunteering, with their mistress's consent, to A SOLID A Y COL ONY." 43 show me a short and pleasant cut to Gernsbach, which otherwise I might have missed. I was glad of an opportunity of questioning them. Evidently they all thoroughly enjoyed their annual " out," and looked for- ward to it with keen pleasure. They are always allowed one week to spend with their parents before the school reopens. Laden with wild flowers which their little hands had gathered for me, and which, though a burden, I dared not refuse, I took leave of my young guides, soon to reach Gernsbach, which lies at the foot of the hill in one of the finest valleys of the Black Forest. CHAPTER IV. THE VALLEY OF THE MURG. THE valley of the Murg, which may be loosely said to stretch from Freudenstadt to Rastatt, is one of the most characteristic and thanks to its proximity to Baden- Baden one of the best-known parts of the Black Forest. From Freudenstadt down to Forbach the river is, strictly speaking, not the Murg at all, but the For- bach. However, structurally the valley is all one, and the distinction is but a matter of names. Rastatt that imitation Versailles of the Baden-Baden margraves used formerly to be washed by the Rhine. But the great river has deserted it, like its own sovereigns, who have long since taken up their residence in Carlsruhe, that sleepiest of capitals. With them has departed that uncanny " White Lady/' weird harbinger of death, whose possession Rastatt used to share with Berlin. Rastatt has been a fortress since the days of the Romans. Further up the river lies Favorite, the rococo chateau erected by the Margravine Sibyl, the widow of the doughty prince who fought the Turks in the East, and was hence irreverently christened by his subjects " der Tiirkenlouis." The chateau is surrounded by grounds which have acquired some fame, and which contrast strangely, in their flowery brightness, with the gauntly severe chapel raised in their midst, in which the SLACK FOREST LEGENDS. 45 same Sibyl did voluntary penance for her murder of Zoraide, a Turkish damsel whom her husband had innocently brought home as Juan took Leila under his protection but whom Sibyl's jealousy would not allow to live. The scenery here is pleasing, but by no means heroic. On the right bank of the river rise the spurs of the Black Forest mountains, in the shape of a sandstone ridge. On the left the well-known and more interesting heights surrounding Baden-Baden are visible. The rail- road which runs from Rastatt to Gernsbach (branching off from the main line) is quite a modern innovation, and a decided convenience. At Rothenfels begins the country of Black Forest legends. Here Knight Keller of Yburg met with his death, in consequence of engaging in a nocturnal amour with a pagan sprite rising at mid- night from the grave of a buried statue of Venus. " Keller's Bild " marks the place of their meeting, " Keller's Kreuz " of his burial. Half-a-mile's walk brings the traveller to Ebersteinburg, the original seat of the Eberstein family, with whose fame the whole sur- rounding country rings. They were great nobles, great knights, and great adventurers, these Counts of Eber- stein. The stories of their feuds with neighbours, their adventures of love and war one Eberstein married a daughter of the Emperor fill volumes. Besieged and besieging, conquering and defeated, the fortunes of the line changed from the height of glory to the depth of humiliation. By such a wild course their position of independence and wealth could impossibly be main- tained, more especially when accompanied by large gifts to religious foundations. So about 1500 the Ebersteins disappear from the scene as independent lords, to con- tinue their existence for a time as vassals of their 40 E BE R S TEINB UR &. whilom peers, and eventually to vanish altogether. Ebersteinburg, which affords a beautiful view, not only of the Black Forest but of the Vosges, of the plain of the Rhine, and of more northern hills, is a favourite place for excursions both from Baden-Baden and from Gernsbach. The woods around are magnificent. The ruins them- selves are well worth seeing. This is the Castle in which Emperor Otto, the same chief who greedily claimed Denmark as " good Germany," casting his spear into the ocean in token of taking possession, besieged Count Eberstein, and which he sought to carry by dis- honest craft. Under cover of an armistice which he meant to violate, he invited the Count to a tournament at Spires, instructing his soldiers to storm the castle in his absence. The Emperor's daughter betrayed the plot while dancing with the Count. The Emperor accordingly found himself forestalled, and was eventually content to make up the quarrel by giving the Count his daughter in marriage. There is also a rather touching legend of the Odyssean order attaching to this castle, relating to one of its early masters. Count Ulrich of Linzgau went a crusading, and not returning in proper time, was given up as dead. Hosts of aspirants for the hand of his wealthy widow, Wendelgardis, at once flocked to Alt Eberstein to woo, quite after the insolent manner of the wooers of Ithaca. Wendelgardis, thanks to Christian institutions, had an escape open which was denied to Penelope. She took refuge in the Convent of S. Wiborad at St. Gaul, paying a visit every year to her late residence in order to assist at a mass for the rest of her husband's soul. Some ten years had passed by when on such an occasion she was impetuously embraced by an old beggarman. The knights present pushed him GERNSBACH. 47 back, but the countess recognized her husband even in his tattered garments. The Bishop of St. Gaul readily released her from her vows, and the couple lived a happy old age together, generally commended for their mutual fidelity. Not far distant from the castle is one of the numerous German Wolfschluchts the genuine one- is in the Saxon Switzerland a dark hollow, rendered excep- tionally gloomy by overhanging trees. There is water ever flowing or trickling here, keeping the place damp and cool. The water helps to set off the red sandstone, which under the glaze of the moisture glistens like marble. AtHorden, a beautiful point on the river bank, the stream is closely hemmed in by rocks. Some Latin lines record the first making of the road, actually forced from the rock, in 1786: Ex rupe fracta Haec via facta. In 1869, when the railway was built, the following in- scription was added : Aetate peracta Haec ferrea tracta. Gernsbach, a little town of about 2,600 inhabitants, is looked upon as the principal place in the valley. Above it, a short distance up river, rises " Neu Eberstein," the later seat of the Counts of that name, and now a most covetable summer lodge of the Grand-Dukes of Baden. The views from its windows are magnificent, more especially that pointing up the valley. In the courtyard is to be seen the historic coat of arms, sung in popular verse, of the Ebersteins a boar's head not yet accom- panied by the rose which was added by the Emperor, to whom one count loyally delivered the rose of gold 48 NEU EBERSTEIN. conferred upon himself on " Rose Sunday " by the Pope. The oil paintings, of the German school, and undoubtedly old, though the artist is unknown, are more interesting than beautiful. The castle also contains a good collec- tion of old weapons and sets of armour. It was built in 1272, and has become the centre of many legendary tales, A rock is shown, known as the Grafensprung or Hustein r from which Count Wolf of Eberstein, the most celebrated hero of his race, when hopelessly beset by his implacable adversary, Eberhard of Swabia, is supposed to have leapt with his horse into the river. The horse perished in the feat ; but the Count got down safe and managed successfully to escape by swimming. At the foot of the rock stands a little chapel known as the "Klingelcapelle." Here, under the shadow of an oak which might in its younger days have witnessed Druidical worship, dwelt a pious hermit, who was one day tempted, like S. Anthony, by the appearance of a seductively beautiful lady. He might have scented mischief when the lady, before entering, stipulated, like a modern Ecclesiastical Court, that the crucifix standing on the altar should be removed. However, Homer was for once found nodding. The hermit was about to comply, when a silver bell tinkling from the oak opportunely reminded him of his duty, and at the same time removed the object of temptation by frightening the lady away. Gratitude to Heaven impelled him to erect a chapel, which, having become sorely dilapi- dated, was in 1852 replaced, by order of Grand-Duke Leopold, by the present structure. On the southern slope of Eberstein grow the dark grapes from which is prepared a rather famous wine, called Eberblut from the locality and which is incom- parably superior to its semi-namesake, the Drachen- THE " ROCKER T FA IR IV 49 blut of the Drachenfels. This vineyard makes Eberstein a rather valuable possession, apart from its charming situation. The Grand-Duke accordingly keeps a steward here, who fills a rather important post in administering the property, which includes a station for the artificial breeding of fish not very far off. There was one steward, in olden days, noted far and wide for his harshness and oppression. He was brought to book for this, as the legend tells, by a good fairy having her home in the Rockert rocks on the opposite side of the valley. [Rockert is supposed to be a name of Celtic derivation.} This fairy played the Robin Goodfellow to the people in the valley. Accordingly, when the steward, in the prosecution of his course of cruelty, had driven an honest couple of his master's serfs into their graves by oppression, and capped this proceeding by mockingly ordering their daughter, as the price of his permission for her to marry, to make him a peculiar kind of shirt sup- posed to be proof against sword thrusts and herself a bridal gown, of thread spun from the nettles growing on her parents' graves, the '* Rockert fairy " felt called upon to interfere. By her help the girl accomplished the task in one night. But on donning his " nothhemd " the shirt in question the steward to his dismay found it a very shirt of Nessus, which clung to his body and burnt him to death. There is a steward in the castle at present of a very different type, whose marriage to the sister-in-law of mine host of the " Bath" created not a little commotion and evoked corresponding sympathy when I was at Gernsbach last summer. What with speak- ing and feasting, and bridesmaids and wedding guests, mine host himself scrupulously supervising all the E 50 GERNSBA CH. arrangements, the Bath Hotel was a sight indeed on the festal day. Gernsbach is a pretty village, very romantically situated on the Murg at one of its most picturesque points, where it divides into two arms, and has accordingly to be spanned by two bridges. Its Roman Catholic Church, the most interesting and picturesque of the two rival houses of worship, lies high above the village on a projecting rock. The Lutheran Church occupies a less conspicuous site lower down. The latter building is archaeologically interesting, as possessing an ancient sacramental shrine of sandstone. The tombs of the Eberstein family seem pretty impartially divided between the two churches. Gernsbach owes its local importance, as the capital, so to speak, of the valley, to the advantages of its position, in virtue of which it has become the seat, not only of a law court and some administrative boards, but also of the important corporation of Murg timber merchants. Of the importance of the Black Forest timber trade I have already spoken briefly in my intro- ductory remarks. Among Black Forest timber-men the Murg " shippers," as they are called, are out and out the largest and most influential association. They possess some fifteen thousand acres of woodland of their own, mostly in their own valley. These forests are extremely well cultivated. The river is one of the most ornamental features of the valley. It is wide at Gerns- bach, therefore convenient for ranging rafts, and there is no fear of any stoppage lower down. In winter, of course, it is full. Even in summer, though there is not sufficient water for floating, the bed is kept fairly filled, the waves rippling and dancing down over the broad layer of granite stones with delightful and unceasing LOCAL INDUSTRIES. l vivacity. There is plenty of trout in this stream, but it is no longer to be had as in my young days as an item included ad libitum in a thirty-six kreuzer menu. Trades and manufactures are well represented on the spot, more especially by sawmills which are here a familiar sight, lining the river-sides all up and down the Murg, and keeping themselves in evidence by a concert of grating, and rasping, and shrieking such as would under any other circumstances be judged a decided nuisance. But in a fine mountain valley all is tolerable. Moreover there are some considerable paper mills turning out packing paper and millboards, all made of wood pulp. To gauge the extent of this modern trade in products of wood pulp, which has proved something like a California to the Black Forest, one need but watch the big waggons laden with goods of that kind, rumbling along the highroad. Round millboards for packing seem a specially favourite article. A cognate local industry calling for mention is the wholesale manufacture of very cheap large-scale maps of Germany, of parts of Germany, and of Europe all made of wood-pulp and intended for use as didactic wall paper. You see these maps, unquestionably valuable mediums of instruction, posted up on walls all over the Grand-Duchy, more espe- cially in schoolrooms and railway stations. As one walks through villages like Gernsbach one cannot help being struck, as a new-comer, with the evidences of most grandmotherly government carried into small details, apparent in the official notices exhibited in every baker's shop, stating the approved prices of the day for millers' and bakers' wares. The Murg valley proper shows very little either of Black Forest dress or Black Forest architecture. Both 52 SMALL FARM CULTIVATION. appear to have been crowded out by contact with the larger world. They are both, however, to be found in the side-valleys. On the other hand, in this neigh- bourhood may be studied in something like perfection the petite culture in agriculture. It is a curious sight, and most striking to the eye, this minute sub- division of land into small strips, following here the lines of the mountains, high and low, making a scene like a patchwork quilt. The soil varies considerably, and is probably at no point of the best. But the people take an infinite amount of trouble in cultivating it and extorting from it double and treble crops. No one passing can fail to admire the persevering toil given by the local people to the care of their little plots, how they carry manure, mould, whatever is needed, long distances, up and down steep inclines, how they dig and subsoil, hoe, weed, as if to compel fertility. And the variety of their culture contrasts strangely with our own monotony. They are ever careful to pick out the best paying crops. By dint of labour they make the soil bear double harvests. For instance, where they raise a crop of rape (for seed) they sow carrots with it, which grow freely after the rape is carried. To do this, constant weeding and hoeing is indispensable. But the prize is well worth the toil. A very favourite crop is hemp, which is much used for spinning, in the absence of flax, w r hich is little grown. Tobacco and hops are rarely seen here. To witness this small husbandry carried to such a point may in itself be thought worth a visit to the Black Forest. Gernsbach makes a convenient centre for exploring a neighbourhood rich in noteworthy points. There are, first, the Baden hills, green and fresh as a garden, with capital roads and footpaths, and no lack of guide-posts. MOUNT MERCURIU8. 53 In summer time they swarm with women and children gathering berries of every description, which these woods produce, generally speaking, in great abundance. The people complain that they can make little by their labour. But according to the figures which they them- selves supplied me with, they must earn a very fair living. It is true, many of them walk miles and miles to reach the best gathering grounds. Mount Mercurius, with its splendid panoramic view* is well worth the rather stiff but enjoyable climb. Its regularly conical shape, combined with a very fair height, makes it easily recognizable all round. The ascent leads through the greenest of woods. The hill has, of course, its own gnomes and sprites, and its own peculiar store of legends. One of the latter, having for its heroine a beautiful Moorish princess, Rosaura, is just a little pathetic. It is, briefly, a tale of lovers a Christian knight and a Moorish maiden forcibly separated by powerful friends, but yet remaining true to one another. In advanced age they meet again, after many trials and varied experiences. Legends grow plentiful in this silvan corona of Baden-Baden. But many of these tales do not really concern the Black Forest. The town itself, fashionable Vanity Fair that it has long grown to be, must in any case rank as a locality by itself. Amid palatial dwellings, and churches glittering with gold, and in streets trodden by people in the daintiest of Parisian toilettes, it is idle to think or talk of Forest scenes and Forest history. Baden- Baden is about the nearest approach to a small scale Paris which Germany has to show. It used to be a Parisian outpost, French in dress, in speech, in habits. And it has of late changed its allegiance rather 54 DEVIL'S AND ANGEL'S PULPITS. than its character. Its surroundings, indeed, are en- chanting. A short descent from Mount Mercurius brings one to a point where two rock " pulpits," appropriated severally to the devil and to some good angel, directly face one another. The angel's pulpit affords the finer and wider view, but the devil's is naturally, perhaps the most frequented. It was a favourite resort more particularly of the Emperor William I., to whose memory a monu- ment is raised upon its summit. The legend goes, that in the early days of Christianity the devil grew alarmed at the very rapid spread of the new doctrine, interfering sadly with his own authority. Those must have been blessed days. To stem the growing tide, he turned preacher, and, taking his stand in this improvised pulpit, appealed to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who obligingly flocked to hear him, not to forsake the flesh-pots of his own cult. His specious words capti- vated his audience. But in the best of his preaching an angel put in an appearance on the opposite height, and, arguing on the other side, drove his antagonist out of the field. The monument raised in memory of the Emperor William records the fact that he was here for the last time in 1886. It is of black granite, having on its side a polished German eagle. Upon the " Engelskanzel" is a granite cross erected in commemoration of the Grand- Duke's recovery from a serious illness in 1882. At the side of the path leading up to the " Engelskanzel " the line which divides the granite from the overlying sandstone is very clearly marked. Geological bits of this sort are frequent. From the two pulpits it is a very easy walk to one of the most noteworthy points near Baden-Baden, "the Rocks," a perpendicular wall of porphyry of THE ' ' It O CKS "- HO HE NBA DEN. 55 grotesque formation. There is a path leading along their foot, and another on the top, from which there is an extensive view. And there is a curious track leading up in 2igzag and reaching the summit near the Felsen- briicke, which is, for a view, the master-point. On the other side of the Rocks lies Hohenbaden, also known as the Alte Schloss y a ruined pile mainly of fourteenth cen- tury bui'ding. The most ancient part was built in i no. Sone local guides will have it that the tower is of Roman origin, but that is nonsense. The " Rocks " have been made by tradition -the scene of a favourite German myth, the appearance, namely, of a mountain spirit to protect a poor hunted doe from a pursuing knight. A similar story is told of St. Ilgen a German form of S. Giles where the huntsman of the legend was a Merovingian king, and the protecting spirit the Saint. An altar-piece representing the scene has only recently been put up in the local church. Immo, the hero of the tale of the " Rocks/' is said after the spirit's reproof to have turned hermit, forswearing hunting as a sinful occupation, and still to haunt his old hunting- ground in his later character. Of the old Schloss scores of legendary tales are told. There is a grey lady haunt- ing its ruins for no particular purpose known. The old Margrave Christoph, who built the new Schloss, is like- wise said to appear occasionally. A story with more point to it is that of the Margravine Katharine, whose wise counsel in 1475 saved the town from the Black Death. She very naturally isolated herself and her children completely from the infected district, and would allow no one to come inside her tower. And, instructed by the Holy Virgin, she advised the Baden people to flush their streets thoroughly with hot water from the 56 LICUTENTUAL CONTEXT. springs. This had the effect of removing the Blaxk Death entirely. The story also goes, that there is a treasure buried in the ruins. From the top of the tower, as from the adjoining rocks, there is a really extensive view, showing the Rhine, Strassburg, the Vosges, the Black Forest, and the hills of the Palatinate, as a splendid panoramic picture. Of the legends of Fremers- berg, Yburg, the old cemetery, etc., I can scarcely find space to speak here. But a word is due to the old Con- vent of Lichtenthal an offshoot from Clairvaux, and named in imitation of the parent establishment (Clara vallis) lucida vallis, whence " Lichtenthal." This is the only conventual establishment now tolerated in the Grand-Duchy. It was, together with all ocher local monasteries and convents, secularized in 1803, but the Cistercian nuns soon obtained leave from the Elector (that was his title at the time) to reopen it, on the ground of proved loyalty to the reigning house. (This, a zealous Roman Catholic priest at Freiburg explained to me, was in his opinion the only lucid(inter)val which the Government had shown in its religious policy in the course of this century.) The convent was founded in accordance with a wish expressed in 1 147 by S.Bernard, when at Spires. It was actually opened in 1245. The building is said to have been twice miraculously saved from destruction at the hands of the French, by the special intervention of the Virgin Mary. In one case the abbess, in her utter helplessness, committed the keys to the Virgin, laying them down before her picture, which picture, assuming life, met the entering French and bade them turn back. In the second, in answer to prayer, the Virgin caused the entrance of the church to assume such a broken- down and shattered appearance that the French soldiery MEMORIAL OF STULZ. 57