LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA FROM THE LIBRARY OF F. VON BOSCHAN A JULY HOLIDAY IN SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. A JULY HOLIDAY IN SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. By WALTER "WHITE, AUTHOR OF "A LONDONER'S WALK TO THE LAND'S END;" " ON FOOT THROUGH TYROL." " Ne wolde he call upon the Nine ; ' I wote,' he sayde, ' they be but jyltes :* Ne covet when he wander' d forth Icarus' wings — ne tray tor stiltes." Old Author. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. MDCCCLVIL [The right of Translation is reserved."] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. TAGE "What the Bookseller said— A Walk in Frankfort— What the Por- tress said— Glimpses of Landscapes — Forest and River — Wiirz- burg— Stein Wine— View from the Citadel-hill— A Change of Bedrooms — Coming to an Understanding with the Reader — Good Night! 1 CHAPTER II. Wiirzburg — The University— Red, Green, and Orange Caps— The Marienkapelle— The Market— The Cathedral— The Palace— Spa- cious Cellars — A Professor's Hospitality— To Bamberg— Frost— Hof— A Shabby Peace — The Arch-Poisoner — Dear Bread— A Prime Minister Hanged — Altenburg — The Park — The Castle — Reminiscences and Antiquities — The Chapel — The Princes' Vault — Wends — Costumes in the Market-place— Female Cuirassiers — More about the Wends — Grossen Teich— The Plateau — The Ce- metery — Werdau 11 CHAPTER III. Origin of Altenburg — Prosperous Burghers — A Princely Crime — Hussite Plunderers — Luther's Visits — French Bonfire — Electress VI CONTENTS. PAGE Margaret's Dream — Kunz von Kauffungen — " Don't burn the Fish" — A Conspiracy — Midnight Bobbers — Two Young Princes Stolen— The Flight— The Alarm— The Kohler— The Rescue— Kunz Beheaded — The Triller's Reward, and what a famous Au- thor said concerning it 25 CHAPTEB IY. Zwickau — Beer Bridge — Beer Mount — The Triller Estate — Triller Bierbrauerei — The Braumeister — The Beer — Four Hundredth An- niversary of the Prinzenraub — A Friendly Clerk — "You will have a Tsigger?" — Historical Portraits — A Good Name for a Brewery — A Case of Disinterestedness — Up the Church Tower — The Prospect — Princess Schwanhildis — The Fire-god Zwicz — Luther's Table — The Church — Geysers — Petrified Beds — Histo- rical Houses — Walk to Oberhaselau — The Card-players — The Wagoners 33 CHAPTER V. Across the Mulde— Scenery — Feet versus Wheels — Villages — Eng- lish Characteristics — Timbered Houses — Schneeberg — Stones for Lamps — The Way Sunday was Kept — The Church — A Wagon- load of Music — A Surly Host — Where the Pepper Grows — Eyben- stock — Neustadl — Fir Forests — Wildenthal — Four Sorts of Beer — Potato Dumplings— Up the Auersberg — Advertisements — The School — The Instrument of Order — " Look at the Englishman" — The Erzgebirge — The Guardhouse — Into Bohemia — Romish Sym- bols — Hirschenstand — Another Guard-house — Differences of Race — Czechs and Germans — Shabby Carpentry — Change of Scenery — Neudeck — Arrive at Carlsbad — A Glass Boot — Gossip . . 43 CHAPTER VI. Dr. Fowler's Prescription — Carlsbad — " A Matlocky sort of a Place" —Springs and Swallows— Tasting the Water — The Cliffs and Ter- CONTENTS. Vll TAGE races— Comical Signs — The Wiese and its Frequenters — Disease and ^Health— The Sprudel : its Discharge ; its Deposit— The Stoppage — Volcanic Phenomena — Dr. Granville's Observations — Care's Best — Dreikreuzberg — View from the Summit — Kiinig Otto's Hohe — "Are you here for the Cure?" — Lenten Diet — Hirschsprung — The Trumpeters — Two Florins for a Bed . .61 CHAPTER VII. Departure from Carlsbad — Dreifaltigkeits-Kirche — Engelhaus — The Castle— A Melancholy Village — Up to the Ruins— An Im- perial Visit — Bohemian Scenery — On to Buchau — The Inn — A Crowd of Guests — Roast Goose — Inspiriting Music— Prompt Waiters — The Mysterious Passport — The Military Adviser — How he Solved the Mystery— A Baron in Spite of Himself— The Baron's Footbath — Lighting the Baron to Bed 77 CHAPTER VIII. Dawn— The Noisy Gooseherd— Geese, for Home Consumption and Export— Still the Baron — The Ruins of Hartenstein— Glimpses of Scenery and Rural Life— Liebkowitz — Lubenz — Schloss Peters- burg—Big Rooms— Tipplers and Drunkards— Wagoners and Pea- sants — A Thrifty Landlord — Inquisitorial Book — Awful Gendarme — Paternal Government— Fidgets — How it is in Hungary— Wet Blankets for Philosophers— An Unhappy Peasant . . .86 CHAPTER IX. The Village— The Peasant again— The Road-mender— Among the Czechs— Czechish Speech and Characteristics— Crosses— Horosedl —The Old Cook— More Praise of England— The Dinner— A Jour- ney-Companion—Famous Files— A Mechaniker's Earnings— Kruschowitz — Rentsch— More Czechish Characteristics— Neu Straschitz— A Word in Season from Old Fuller— The Mechaniker departs "" Vlll CONTEXTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE A Talk -with the Landlord — A Jew's Offer — A Ride in a Wagen — Talk -with the Jew — The Stars — A Mysterious Gun-harrel — An Alarm — Stony Ammunition — The Man with the Gun — The Jew's opinion of him — Sunrise— A Walk — The White Hill — A Fatal Field — Waking 'np in the Suburbs — Early Breakfasts — Imperial and Royal Tobacco — Milk-folk — The Gate of Prague — A Snappish Sentry — The Soldiers — Into the City — Picturesque Features and crowding Associations — The Kleinseite — The Bridge — Palaces — The Altstadt — Remarkable Streets — The Teinkirche — The Neu- stadt— The Three Hotels 105 CHAPTER XI. The Hausknecht — A Place to Lose Yourself — Street-Phenomena — Book-shops — Glass-wares — Cavernous Beer-houses — Signs — Czechish Names — Ugly Women — Swarms of Soldiers — A Scene on the Bridge — A Dratenik — The Ugly Passport Clerk — The Suspension-bridge — The Islands — The Slopes of the Laurenzberg — View over Prague — Schools, Palaces, and Poverty — The Rookery— The Hradschin — The Courts— The Cathedral— The Great Tomb — The Silver Shrine — Relics — A Kissed Portrait — St. Wenzel's Chapel— Big Sigmund— The Loretto Platz— The Old Towers— The Hill-top and Hill-foot 118 CHAPTER XII. The Tandelmarkt — Old Men and Boys at Rag Fair — Jews in Prague — The Judenstadt — Schools and Synagogues — Remote Antiquity — Ducal Victims — Jewish Bravery — Removal of Boundary Wires 131 CHAPTER XIII. The Jewish Sabbath — The Old Synagogue — Traditions concerning it — The Gloomy Interior — The Priests— The Worshippers and the Worship— The Talkers— The Book of the Law— The Rabbi— The Startling Gun— A Birth at Vienna— Departed Glory . . 136 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XIV. PAGE The Alte Friedhof— A Stride into the Past— The Old Tombs— Vege- tation and Death — Haunted Graves — Ancient Epitaph — Rabbi Low — His Scholars — Symbols of the Tribes — The Infant's Coffin — The Playground — From Death to Life 141 CHAPTER XV. The Kolowratstrasse — Picolomini's Palace — The Museum — Geolo- gical Affluence — Early Czechish Bibles — Rare Old Manuscripts — Letters of Huss and Ziska — Tabor Hill — Portraits — Hussite Weapons — Antiques — Doubtful Hussites in the Market-place — The Gliickliche Entbindung — A Te Deum — Two Evening Visits — Bohemian Hospitality — The Gaslit Beer-house . . . 146 CHAPTER XVI. Sunday Morning in Prague — Gay Dresses — Pleasure-seeking Citi- zens — Service in the Hradschin Cathedral — Prayers and Pranks — Fun in the Organ-loft— Glorious Music — A Spell broken- Priests and their Robes — Osculations — A Flaunting Procession — An Old Topographer's Raptures— The Schwarzes Ross — Flight from Prague — Lobositz — Lost in a Swamp — A Storm — Up the Milleschauer — After Dark — The Summit — Mossy Quarters — The Host's Story 153 CHAPTER XVII. Morning on the Milleschauer — The Brightening Landscape — The Mossy Quarters by Daylight— Delightful Down-hill Walk — Lobositz again— The Steam-boat— Queer Passengers— Sprightly Music — Romantic Scenery — Hills and Cliffs — Schreckenstein — How the Musicians paid their Fare — Aussig — The Spiirlingstein — Fairer Landscapes — Elbe versus Rhine — Tetschen — German CONTENTS. PAGE Faces — Women-Waders — The Schoolmaster — Passport again- Pretty ' Country — Signs of Industry — Peasants' Diet — Markers- dorf — Rustic Cottages — Gersdorf — Meistersdorf — School — Trying the Scholars — Good Results — A Byeway — Ulrichsthal . .162 CHAPTER XVTII. A Hospitable Reception — A Rustic Household — The Mother's Talk — Pressing ^Invitations — A Docile Visitor — The Family Room — Trophies of Industry — Overheating — A Walk in Ulrichsthal — A Glass Polisher and his Family — His Notions — A Glass En- graver — His Skill and Ingenuity — His Earnings — A Bohemian's Opinion on English Singing — Military Service — Beetle Pictures — Glass-making in Bohemia — An Englishman's Forget-me-Not — The Dinner — Dessert on the Hill — An Hour with the Hay- makers — Magical Kreutzers — An Evening at the Wirthshaus — Singing and Poetry — A Moonlight Walk — The Lovers' Test . 174 CHAPTER XIX. More Hospitality — Farewells — Cross Country Walk — Steinschonau — The Playbill — Hayda — All Glass-workers — Away for the Moun- tains — Zwickau — Gabel — Weisskirchen — A Peasant's Prayer — Reichenberg — Passport again — Jeschkenpeak — Reinowitz — Schlag — Neudorf — A Talk at Griinheid — Bad Sample of Lanca- shire — Tannwald — C urious Rocks — Spinneries — Populousness — Przichowitz — An Altercation — Heavy Odds — The Englishman Wins — A Word to the Company 190 CHAPTER XX. Stephanshiih — A Presumptuous Landlord — Czechs again — Stewed Weavers — Prompt Civilities — The Iser — A Quiet Vale — Bar- rande's Opinion of the Czechs — Rochlitz — An offshoot from Tyre CONTENTS. XI PAGE — A Happy Landlord — A Rustic Guide — Hill Paths— The Griin- stein — Riibezahl's Rose Garden — Dreary Fells — Source of the Elbe— Solitude and Visitors— The Elbfall— Stony Slopes— Strange Rocks — Rubezahl's Glove — Knieholz — Schneegruben — View into Silesia — Tremendous Cliffs — Basalt in Granite — The Landlord's Bazaar — The Wandering Stone — A Tragsessel — A Desolate Scene — Rougher "Walking — Musical Surprises — Spindlerbaude — The Madelstein — Great Pond and Little Pond — The Mittagstein — The Riesengrund — The Last Zigzags — An Inn in the Clouds . . 201 CHAPTER XXI. Comforts on] the Koppe — Samples of Germany — Provincial Pecu- liarities — Hilarity — A Couplet worth remembering — Four-bedded Rooms — View from the Summit — Contrast of Scenery — The Summit itself — Guides in Costume — Moderate Charges — Un- lucky Farmer — The Descent — Schwarzkoppe — Grenzbauden — Hungarian Wine — The Way to Adersbach — Forty Years' Expe- rience 218 CHAPTER XXII. The Frontier Guard-house — A Volunteer Guide — A Knave — Schatzlar — Bernsdorf — A Barefoot Philosopher — A Weaver's Happiness — Altendorf— Queer Beer — A Short Cut— Blunt Man- ners — Adersbach — Singular Rocks — Gasthaus zur Felsenstadt — The Rock City — The Grand Entrance— The Sugarloaf— The Pulpit — The Giant's Glove — The Gallows— The Burgomaster — Lord Brougham's Profile — The Breslau Wool-market — The Shameless Maiden — The Silver Spring— The Waterfall — A Waterspout — The Lightning Stroke 225 CHAPTER XXIII. The Echo— Wonderful Orchestra — Magical Music— A Feu dej'oie— The Oration— The Voices — Echo and the Humourist — Satis- Xll CONTENTS. PAGE fying the Guide — Exploring the Labyrinth — Cnrions Discoveries — Speculations of Geologists — Bohemia an Inland Sea — Marble Labyrinth in Spain — A Twilight View — After a' 235 CHAPTER XXIV. Baked Chickens — A Discussion — Weckelsdorf — More Hocks — The Stone of Tears — Death's Alley — Diana's Bath — The Minster — Gang of Coiners — The Bohdaneiskis — Going to Church — Another Silesian View — ^Good-bye to Bohemia — Schomberg — Silesian Faces and Costume — Picturesque Market-place — Ueberschar Hills — Ullersdorf — An amazed Weaver — Liebau — Cheap Cherries — The Prussian Simplon — Ornamented Houses — Buchwald — The Bober — Dittersbach — Schmiedeberg — Riibezahl's Trick upon Travellers — Tourists' Rendezvous — The Duellists' Successors — Erdmannsdorf — Tyrolese Colony 240 CHAPTER XXV. Schnaps and Sausage — Dresdener upon Berliners — The Prince's Castle at Fischbach — A Home for the Princess Royal — Is the Mar- riage Popular ? — View from the Tower — Tradition of the Golden Donkey — Royal Palace at Erdmannsdorf — A Miniature Chats- worth — The Zillerthal — Ease and Brod — Stohnsdorf — Famous Beer — Rischmann's Cave — Prophecies — Warmbrunn . . . 250 CHAPTER XXVI. The Three Berliners — Strong Beer — Origin of Warmbrunn — St. John the Baptist's Day — Count Schaffgotsch — A Benefactor — A Library — Something about Warmbrunn — The Baths — Healing Waters — The Allee — Visitors — Russian Popes — The Museum — Trophies — View of the Mountains — The Kynast — Cunigunda and her Lovers — Served her right — The Two Breslauers — Oblatt — The Baths in the Mountains 256 CONTENTS. xui CHAPTER XXVII. PAGE Hirschberg — The Officers' Tomb — A Night Journey — Spiller — Greifenberg — Changing Horses — A Royal Reply — A Griffin's Nest — Lauban — The Potato Jubilee — Gorlitz — Peter and Paul Church — View from the Tower — The Landskrone — Jacob Bbhme — The Hidden Gold— A Theosophist's Writings— The Tombs— The Un- derground Chapel — A Church copied from Jerusalem — The Public Library — Loebau — Herrnhut 262 CHAPTER XXVIII. Head-Quarters of the Moravians — Good Buildings — Quiet, Cleanli- ness, and Order — A Gottesdienst — The Church — Simplicity — The Ribbons — A Requiem — The Service — God's -Field — The Tombs — Suggestive Inscriptions — Tombs of the Zinzendorfs — The Pavi- lion — The Panorama — The Herrnhuters' Work — An Informing Guide — No Merry Voices — The Heinrichsberg — Pretty Grounds — The First Tree — An Old Wife's Gossip — Evening Service — A Contrast— The Sisters' House— A Stroll at Sunset— The Night Watch 269 CHAPTER XXIX. About Herrnhut— Persecutions in Moravia — A Wandering Car- penter — Good Tidings — Fugitives — Squatters on the Hutberg — Count Zinzendorfs Steward — The First Tree — The First House — Scoffers — Origin of the Name — More Fugitives — Foundation of the Union — Struggles and Encouragements — Buildings — Social Regulations — Growth of Trade — War and Visitors — Diirninger's Enterprise — Population — Schools — Settlements — Missions — Life at Herrnhut— Recreations — Festivals — Incidents of War — March of Troops— Praise and Thank-Feasts 279 CHAPTER XXX. A Word with the Reader — From Herrnhut to Dresden — A Gloomy City — The Summer Theatre — Trip to the Saxon Switzerland — XIV CONTENTS. PAGE Wehlen — Uttewalde Grund — The Bastei — Hochstein — The Devil's Kettle— The Wolfschlucht— The Polenzthal— Schandau— The Kuhstall — Great Winterberg — The Prebischthor — Herniskret- schen — Ketum to Dresden — To Berlin — English and German Railways — The Royal Marriage Question — Speaking English— A Dreary City — Sunday in Berlin — Kroll's Garden — Magdeburg — Wittenberg — Hamburg — A- top of St. Michael's — A Walk to Altona — A Eide to Horn — A North Sea Voyage — Narrow Escape — Harness and Holidays 291 Index 303 ERRATA. Page 87, last line, /or visitors, read villagers. ,, 153, 11 lines from bottom, for Kraba's, read Hraba's. „ 153, 11 lines from bottom, for Psh-ossiscker, read Pstrossischer. 172, last line of text, for Jg)etteri/ read jQiiUi. A JULY HOLIDAY IN SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. CHAPTER I. "What the Bookseller said — A Walk in Frankfort — What the Portress said — Glimpses of Landscapes — Forest and River — Wiirzburg — Stein "Wine — View from the Citadel-hill — A Change of Bedrooms — Coming to an Understanding with the Reader — Good Night ! " How happens it," I said to a bookseller in the Zeil, " that a map of Bohemia is not to be had in all Frank fort ?" " How it happens ?" he answered, with a knowing- smile : " because no one ever goes to Bohemia." He searched and searched, as did a dozen of his fra- ternity whom I had previously visited, and found maps in number of Switzerland, Tyrol, Thuringia, Fran- conia, Turkey even, and Montenegro ; but not the one I wanted. " Such a thing is never asked for," he said, depre- ciatingly. " Suppose you go to Franconia instead." All at once he bethought himself of an inner closet, /f 2 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and there he discovered a map of Bohemia ; but not a travelling map : an overcrowded sheet that confused the eye, and promised but little assistance for the byeways. However, under the circumstances, I took it as better than none. " You will not get the map you want till you arrive at Prague," was the sort of encouragement I got some twenty-four hours afterwards from a Bohemian Professor in the Medical School at Wurzburg. I saw Frankfort under all the charm of a first visit. I perambulated the narrow streets, and the Judengasse, where dwell not a few of the nine thousand Jewish residents ; and stood long enough on the bridge that bestrides the muddy Main to note the ancient towers, and the bits of antiquity peeping up here and there in the city and the Sachsenshausen suburb — contrasted by the modern look of the spacious quays. And of course I saw the house in which Goethe was born, and Dan- necker's Ariadne, and the Horner, that relic of the olden time, crowded with reminiscences of the Empire. You may see the whole line of Emperors in panels round the wainscot of the stately hall on the first floor ; some grim warriors in plate and mail ; some in scholar's gown ; some in slashed sleeves and tight hosen, and some in velvet robes. Here, after the crown had been placed on their heads in the adjacent cathedral, they went through certain formal ceremonies with cum- brous pomp and held their festival, as may be read in the vivid descriptions of Goethe's Autobiography. Having glanced at the imperial effigies from Conrad SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 3 down to Francis, and at the scene from the balcony outside, I dropped half a franc into the hand of the lady portress, and had crossed the landing, when she came tripping after me, and, with an air of lofty pity, returned the coin, requesting me to " give it to a betrsrar." DO The gentleman in charge of the Ariadne had made me a polite bow for a similar fee ; so I complied with the lady's request, and gave the piece of silver among five beggars, each of whom favoured me with a blessing in return. At noon, on the 3rd of July, I left Frankfort for Wiirzburg. The landscape at first is tame, and you will have to watch closely, in more senses than one, as the train speeds across, for the scenes and objects that relieve it. There are glimpses of the Taunus moun- tains; of Wilhelmsbad, embowered in a pleasant wood; of Hanau, a dark-red town, where the dark-red sand- stone station is enlivened by Virginian creeper running gracefully up the columns-; and of memorable battle- fields. And of a dark-red mill, in a green grassy hol- low, with its dripping wheel; and in the middle of the garden a globe of fire that dazzles your eye, and is nothing other than a carboy inverted on a stake, after the Dutch manner, to serve as a mirror, in which may be seen a panorama of the neighbourhood. And every- where women cutting down the rye, wearing bright red kerchiefs on their heads that rival the poppies in splendour. Beyond Aschaflfenburg the country improves. "Wooded hills alternate with lengthy slopes of vines, deep shady b 2 4 A JULY HOLIDAY IN coombs, and leafy valleys, where brooks frolic along in frequent windings, and villages nestle, and gray church spires shoot above the tree-tops. Then parties of wood- cutters, well armed with axes and wedges, enter the train, and each man lights his pipe, and they talk of their craft anion o- themselves in a rustic dialect. And the train dashes into the forest of Spessart, and under the hills, winding hither and thither between miles of trees, the remains, as is said, of that great Hercynian forest which schoolboys read about in their Latin studies. The nursery of them that overthrew Rome ; and one of the haunts of Freedom before she took re- fuge in the mountains, and in a certain island of the sea. At Lohr, a town prettily situate on the Main, the railway road and river come near together, and the fre- quent windings of the stream brighten the landscape. We saw the steamer labouring upwards on her two days' trip from Frankfort to Wiirzburg. Then a vil- lage where the Saal falls in, and more and more vines, and old walls gay with yellow stonecrop, and on the right the ruin of Karlstadt, and by-and-by Wiirzburg comes in sight, and our five hours' journey is over. Bavarian art attracts and gratifies your eye as you alieht. The station is an elegant structure in the Pom- peiian style, ingeniously contrived for the purposes of the railway and post-office, and yet to preserve the architectural character. An impatient traveller might well beguile the time by admiring the proportions, the colouring, and the tasteful decorations along the colon- nades. The building forms one side of a square in the newest quarter of the town. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 5 A curious sign, the Kleebaum, caught my eye in the first street, and I trusted myself beneath it. The Kellner took my knapsack ; asked if " that was all," and led me high up to a small homely-furnished room on the third floor, in which, however, the quality of cleanliness was not wanting, and that is what an Eng- lishman cares most about. At dinner I treated myself to a pint of the Stein wine, for which the neighbour- hood is famous, and am prepared to add my testimony as to its merits. The bottles have a jolly bacchanalian look about them, being globes somewhat flattened at the sides, and contain, when honest, a quart. The cost is from two to three florins a bottle ; but a temperate guest is allowed to drink and pay for the half only, at his pleasure. With vineyards producing such wine around them, it is little wonder that the Prince- Bishops were always ready to fight for their good city of Wiirzburg. The Strangers' Book followed the dinner as a matter of course, and when the landlord saw that I signed my name as " from London," and heard me inquire for the residence of one of the Professors, he put off his natural manner and became obsequious : a change that gave me no pleasure. There is more of life, more to interest the attention in Wiirzburg, than in some places which are much more frequented and talked of. The streets generally are narrow, and built in picturesque disregard of straight lines; now widening suddenly for a brief space, now diminishing and bending away in a new direction. And you saunter onwards, wondering at the panelled house- fronts with their profuse ornament: grotesque carvings 6 A JULY HOLIDAY IN of animals' heads, of clustering fruits in bold relief at the intersections; windows with quaint canopies and curiously- wrought gratings; fanciful door-heads and gables ; in short, a variety of architectural conceits on which your eye will fondly linger. Now, at a corner, you come upon an ancient turret with conical roof, now a sculptured fountain, now images of the Virgin or some of the saints over the doors; and anon huge statues of the Bishops remind you of the men who built and prayed for Wurzburg. So numerous are the churches erected to perpetuate their memory or adorn their inheritance, that you need not go many yards whenever you feel inclined to meditate in a " dim reli- gious light." You meet numbers of soldiers, for there is a citadel beyond the river, and water-bearers with their tali tubs slung on their backs going to or from the fountains, and now and then a peasant woman with conical hat and skirts the very opposite of the fashion ; and except that nearly all the women you see are bareheaded, there is nothing else remarkable in costume. Stroll to the river-side; what prodigious piles of fire- wood at one side of the quay, and what a busy fleet of barges moored on the other. The Main here is about as wide as the Thames at Richmond, and is spanned by a bridge quite in keeping with the city. At either end stands an arched gateway, with statues niched in the massive masonry, and saints above the rounded piers. Cross the bridge, and mount the citadel-hill on the left bank, and you will have a surprise. The hill termi- nates in a craggy precipice, crowned by the stronghold SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AXD SILESIA. 7 and its defences, and you look down on shelly gardens planted here and there among the rocks ; and over the whole city. The river flows by in a bold curve, cutting off a small suburb from the main portion of the city, which spreads, crescent-formed, on the opposite shore. An imposing scene. Thirty-one towers, spires, domes, and steeples spring from the great masses and ridges of dark-red lofty roofs, and these are everywhere dotted with rows of little windows which resemble a half- opened eye. Indeed, the curved line of the tiles makes the resemblance so complete, that you can easily fancy the eyes are taking a sly peep at what is going on below, or winking at the sunbeams, as a prelude to falling asleep for the night. The sun was dropping b'ehind me in the west, and before me lay the city, looking glorious in the golden light. Row after row of the sleepy eyes caught the ray with a momentary twinkle; the gilded weathercocks flashed and glistened, and the reflection falling on the river made pathways of quivering light across the ripples. Presently eight struck from the cathedral, and the clocks of all the churches followed, each with its own peculiar note. One or two solemn and sonorous, in imitation of the big bell; others shrill and saucy, as if they alone had the right to record the march of the silent footsteps; a few sedate, and one irresolute. Now here, now there, now yonder, as if the striking never would cease, and sufjo-estinrr strange analogies between clocks and the race who wind them up. Trees rise here and there among the houses, and form 8 A JULY HOLIDAY IN a green belt round the city, thickest in the gardens of the royal palace, a stately edifice comprising among its two hundred and eighty-four rooms the suite in which the Emperors used to lodge when on their way to be crowned at Frankfort. And beyond the trees begin the vines, acre after acre to the tops of the whole encircling rim of hills. Broad slopes teeming with wine and gladness of heart, but looking bald in the distance from want of trees. One of these hills — the Koppele, so named from a chapel on the summit — is a favourite resort of the inhabitants, who perhaps find in the view therefrom a sufficient reward for a long ascent, un- refreshed by shade or rustling leaves. Seen from the hill, Wiirzburg is said to resemble Prague; not without reason, as I afterwards found. It would be, in my opinion, the more pleasing picture of the two, were its frame set off and beautified by patches of forest. I kept my seat on the outward angle of a thick wall till the golden light, sliding slowly up the hills, at last vanished from their brow, and left the whole valley in shadow. Then I went down and sauntered about the streets, while the gloom within the porticos and gate- ways, behind buttresses and up the narrow alleys, deepened and deepened; and ended by discovering a stranger willing to talk in a well-lighted coffee-house. On my return to the Kleebaum the Kellner lit two candles, and conducted me, not to the little room " up three pair," but to the best bedroom on the first floor. What magic in that little item — "from London!" Now, gracious reader, suppose we come to an under- SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 9 standing before I get into bed. You are already aware that I am going to Bohemia, not to scale snow-crowned mountains, or plunge into awful gorges, for there are none. The highest summit we shall have to climb together is under five thousand feet; and there is none of that tremendous and magnificent scenery which is to be seen in Switzerland and Tyrol. If, however, you arc willing to accompany me to a peculiar country — one which, like Ireland, is most picturesque around its bor- ders — rich in memorials of the past and in historical associations, fertile and industrious, we will journey lovingly together. Now on foot, though perhaps not so much as usual; now a flight by rail, or a steam-boat trip, or by diligence or wagon, according as the cir- cumstances befall. We shall find on the way occasion for discourse, somewhat to observe, for the people are remarkable, and subjects to read about; improving the hours as best we may. Our next halt shall be at the old Saxon town of Altenburfr, where there is something to be seen and heard of worth remembering; then over the Erzgcbirge to Carlsbad, the bathing-place of kings, and through the rustic villages to Prague. Then to the Mittelgebirge ; down the Elbe, to a scene of rural life and industry; away to the Riesengebirgc — the mountains haunted by Rubezahl — and the wonderful rocks of Adersbach. Then over the frontier into Silesia, to Herrnhut, the head-quarters of the Moravians, to Dresden and the Saxon Switzerland, Berlin, Magdeburg, and Hamburg, from whence a voyage across the North Sea will bring us home again. 10 A JULY HOLIDAY IN It may be that this scheme is not to your liking. If so, we can part company here, and you will perhaps never read the completion of that " Story of the King of Bohemia and his Seven Castles," which Corporal Trim began for Uncle Toby and never finished. And so, good night ! SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 11 CHAPTER II. Wiirzburg — The University — Red, Green, and Orange Caps — The Marienkapelle — The Market — The Cathedral — The Palace— Spacious Cellars — A Professor's Hospitality — To Bamberg— Frost — Hof — A Shabby Peace — The Arch-Poisoner — Dear Bread — A Prime Minister Hanged — Altenburg — The Park — The Castle — Reminiscences and An- tiquities — The Chapel — The Princes' Vault — Wends — Costumes in the Market-place— Female Cuirassiers — More about the Wends — Grossen Teich — The Plateau — The Cemetery — Werdau. Wurzburg is now the chief town of the Circle of the Lower Main; it was once the capital of a principality governed by a line of eighty bishops, and figures pro- minently in German history. The University, founded in 1403, is deservedly famous, having numbered among its professors many of first-rate abilities : a distinction it still retains. What with schools, with resources in art and science, cultivated society, and ample means of recreation, the old city is an agreeable residence. Under the guidance of Professor Kulliker, I visited the botanic garden, the anatomical museum, and the medical school, which is one of the best in Europe. The Julius Hospital, a noble institution, founded by one of the Prince-Bishops, whose statue is erected not far from the building, affords opportunities for study seldom 12 A JULY HOLIDAY IN found In provincial towns. The students, after the manner of their kind, form themselves into societies dis- tinguished by the colour of their caps, as you will soon discover by meeting continually in the streets little groups of red, green, or orange caps, marking the three divisions. Then, while the Professor lectured to his class, I strolled away to the market-place, and saw how the women, leaving their shoulder-baskets at the door of the Marie?ikapelle — Mary Chapel — went in and recited a few prayers, kneeling on the floor. A commendable preparation, I thought, for the work of buying and selling. The mounds of vegetables in frequent rows, and numerous baskets of cherries and strawberries, with heaps of fresh dewy flowers between, the many red ker- chiefs and moving throng, and the wares displayed at the wooden booths, made up an animated spectacle. Live geese roosting contentedly in shallow baskets await- ing their sale without an effort to escape, were remark- able among the enticements of the poultry-market. A few yards farther were little stalls with rolls of butter, resembling in shape a ship's topsail-yard, alternating with piles of lumps or rather dabs of butter, each wrap- ped in a piece of old newspaper. These were bought by poor folk. The Marienhapellc is a fine specimen of pointed Gothic, with a graceful spire, which having become di- lapidated and unsafe, was undergoing repair at the time of my visit. The inside is spoiled by overmuch white- wash, and the outside by an irregular row of petty shops — an uncouth plinthe — around the base ; and this is not SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 13 the only church in the city which has its character and fair proportions marred by such clustering barnacles. On the spot where the cathedral now stands rearing its four towers aloft, St. Killian, an Irish missionary, was martyred more than a thousand years ago. The lofty arched nave is supported by square columns, of which the lower portions are hidden by pictures. Marble statues of the Bishops, with sword and crosier in hand, betokening their twofold character of priest and warrior, are ranged along the walls; and the whole in- terior has a bright and cheerful aspect. Of the other churches, I need not say more than that the New Minster enjoys the honour of possessing St. Killian's bones; that St. Peter's at Rome is reproduced in the church of St. John; and that St. Burkhardt's, at the foot of the citadel-hill, is built in the round style. The spacious grounds and gardens of the palace are well laid out. There are umbrageous avenues, terraces, fountains, paths winding among flower-beds and away under the trees and through the shrubberies to nooks of complete solitude. In some parts the plantations are left untrimmed, and give an air of wildness to the scene. In the rear, steps lead to the top of the wall, from whence you may look over greater part of the grounds, and fancy yourself in a region of forest. The townsfolk have free access ; and you meet now and then a solitary student poring over his book, or groups of strollers, or nursemaids with troops of children. The palace, which dates from the year 1720, shows the consequences of neglect. Hohenschwangau has greater attractions for the royal family than Wurzburg; and now, after a view 14 A JULY HOLIDAY IN of the staircase and chapel, there is nothing in the rusty and faded apartments that once exhibited the magnifi- cence of the Bishops to detain you. The cellars are large enough to contain 2200 tuns of wine. What rollicking nights the retainers must have had ! The Professor proved himself not less hospitable than learned. We dined together, and he introduced me to one of his colleagues, the Bohemian mentioned in the second page, who gave me a letter to his father at Prague. And then, after a sojourn of twenty-four hours, I de- parted. To see Nuremberg, and journey from thence into Bohemia, across the Bdhmerwaldgebirge, had been in my thoughts; but finding on inquiry that more time would be required for that route than I could spare, I decided for Saxony. So, away to Bamberg, sixty miles distant, the starting-place of the Leipzig and Nurem- berg trains. There was an hour to wait, and then in deep twilight on we went for Altenburg. Although the night was in July, I shivered with cold. The temperature, indeed, was remarkable. Three days previously I had seen white frost between Aix-la-Cha- pelle and Cologne, and for the first ten nights of the month frosts occurred all over Germany, At two o'clock we came to Hof, where there was a change of train, and time to drink a cup of coffee, doubly accept- able under the circumstances. The country around is bleak, a region of bare low hills, of unfavourable repute owing to its cold. A farmer who came into the train told us there was thin ice on the ponds. Here and there the hollows were filled with a dense mist, and re- SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 15 scmbled vast lakes, and the outlook was so cheerless that I was glad to sleep, till sunrise, with its splen- dours, woke up our drowsy party to welcome light and warmth. What a change since the former year ! Then the war was all the topic among those who were thrown to- gether while travelling. Now, Sebastopol and the Crimea seemed clean forgotten, and no one had a word to say even about the Sick Man at Constantinople. No, all was changed, and talkers busied their tongues con- cerning the " shabby peace," as they called it, the dear- ness of food, and — William Palmer. The simple-minded Bavarians could not understand why England should have been so magnanimous towards her Muscovitish antagonist, until it was suggested to them that France, having come to the bottom of her purse notwithstand- ing all the flourishes to the contrary, the war had to be ended. "And could England have kept on ?" " Yes, for forty years, if necessary." " What a country ! " they exclaimed — " what gigantic wealth!" And then the}' wondered that peace had not brought lower prices, and talked with grave faces and timorous forebodings about the dearness of bread. Scarcely a place did I visit where bread was not dearer than in London. But the arch-poisoner was the prevailing theme ; and eager discussions on the incidents of his trial and execu- tion showed how widespread was the excitement he had occasioned. Even in little towns I saw Prozess gegen William Palmer for sale in the booksellers' windows. 16 A JULY HOLIDAY IN The Germans, however, thought theirs the best law, as it inflicts perpetual imprisonment only, and not death, in cases where the poison is not discovered in the body of the victim ; and they would by no means agree that to hang a villain out of the way whether or no, was the preferable alternative. While the talk was going on, some one was sure to tell of what took place when the news of the execution was flashed from England. Palmer is hanged, was the brief yet fearful despatch. The clerk who received it, by some strange fatality, read Palmer as an abbreviation of Palmerston ; and within an hour all Germany was startled by the news, and be- wildered with speculations as to the causes which had induced the exemplary English nation to get rid of their Prime Minister by so summary a process. " Palmerston gehdnget /" ejaculated one after another, with a chuckle. At seven o'clock we arrived at Altenburg. A night in a railway train is not the best preparation for a day of sight-seeing. However, after the restorative of a wash and breakfast at the Bayerische Hof, the first hotel that presented itself, I crossed the road to the grounds belonging to the castle. By a bold undulating slope, laid out as an English park, you mount to a plateau, where a well-kept garden contrasts agreeably with the tall avenues and grouped masses of foliage. Small pleasure-houses stand here and there among the trees, and you see a pavilion built in the style of a Greek temple. A little farther, and there are the ducal opera- house, the orangery, and the stables — a handsome range of buildings. And beyond is the Little Forest — W'dldchen — enclosed by a wall, where, among the stately trees, you SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 17 may see two, the Princes' Oaks — Prinzeneichen — so named from an interesting event in Saxon history, of which we shall perhaps have some particulars by-and-by. The plateau, moreover, commands views of a fertile and well-wooded country all broken up by low hills, the lowest slopes of the Ore mountains — Erzgebirgc — which show their dark swelling outlines far away in the south. You descend suddenly into a gap, which isolates an eminence — the hill of Stirling in miniature — terminating in a porphyry cliff, crowned by the castle. A convenient ascent brings you into an irregular court-yard, shut in on opposite sides by the oldest and newest parts of the building. Architecture of the thirteenth century mated curiously with that of the eighteenth; and both occupy- ing the site of what was already a fortress in the tenth. The castle owes its present form to the Dukes Friedrich the Second and Third, who, in 1744, completed their thirty-eight years of alterations. The place is a strange medley. Gray, weatherbeaten walls, with square towers and jutting turrets, intruded on by modern masonry — Neptune in his cockle-shell car in the midst of a fountain, and sentries pacing up and down, and soldiers lounging about their shabby- looking quarters — grim passages, and uncomfortable chambers. The Austrian arms, which you may yet see cut in the stone over a doorway, mark the granary built by the Electress Margaret for stores of corn, in order that, when grain became dear, she might save the towns- folk from hunger. A little farther and you come to the Manteltfiurm, a round tower, with walls seven yards thick, commonly called the Bottle, from the form of its c 18 A JULY HOLIDAY IN slated roof. It has two ugly chambers, which were used as dungeons up to 1641, after which it did duty as a magazine ; and now the lower part is a cinder-hole. Adjoining is the Junkcrei — once the pages' quarters — in which are certain official apartments and the armoury. The Imperialists plundered the castle, during the Thirty Years' War, of most of its treasures and curiosities ; and later, many specimens of mediaeval armour were carried off to Coburg, leaving little besides objects which have an intimate relation with Saxon history. Weapons old and new, banners, garments, paraphernalia used in ducal funerals, and many things which belonged to persons con- nected with the Robbery of the Princes (Prinzenraub). In recent times a museum of antiquities has been added : articles of furniture, books, and other rarities which per- petuate the memory of eminent individuals — urns and other funereal remains dug up in the neighbourhood — ethnographical specimens chiefly from Australia and the Sunda Islands — and a collection of china, presented by the Minister Baron von Lindenau. The palace, or modern portion of the castle, dates from 1706. The castellan will conduct you through the throne-room, the great hall, where hang life-size pictures of the dukes on horseback by whom the place was built, and paintings of historical scenes, and other apartments bright with gilding and hung with elegant draperies. The church, built in the old German style, on the spot once occupied by the castle chapel, contains ban- ners, and paintings, and numerous monuments and tablets to the memory of the princely personages buried SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 19 beneath, and some admirable specimens of oak carving. To read their names as you pass along is a lesson in Saxon genealogy. Among them is that of the Eleetress Margaret, whose remains, after a rest of more than three centuries, were removed to the Princes' Vault, the door to which, studded with iron stars, you may see in the nave. But, in 1846, Duke Joseph caused the old tomb to be cleared out and repaired, and honouring the me- mory of her whose name is yet revered in Saxony, had her Coffin restored to its former place with solemn cere- mony. From the balconies or the tower you have a good -view of the town lying beneath on a steep hill-slope, with its large ponds, and many ups and downs. And all around lie fields, and gardens, and rich pastures, bearing fruitful testimony to the good husbandry of the Wends. The main approach to the castle is by a road winding with an easy slope up the steep side of the hill. Its upper extremity is crowned by a gateway in the Ro- manesque style, and where its lower end sinks to the level of the road stand two obelisks — pyramids as they are called — bearing on their pedestals a statue of Her- cules and Minerva. The streets were full of life and bustle, for it was market day, and the Wends coming into the town from all quarters increased the novelty of the sight by their singular costume. The men wear a flat cloth cap, a short tight jacket drawn into plaits behind, and deco- rated in front with as many buttons as may be seen on the breast of a Paddingtonian page, loose baggy c2 20 A JULY HOLIDAY IN breeches, and tight boots up to the knee. You will, perhaps, think it a misfortune that the breeches are not longer, for all below is spindle-shanky, in somewhat ludicrous contrast with the amplitude above, and the broad, big foot. How such a foot finds its way through so narrow a boot-leg is not easy to guess. The men are generally tall, with oval faces of a quiet, honest ex- pression. But the women ! — they are something to wonder at. Most of them are bareheaded : some wear a close plain cap, which throws out their round chubby faces in full relief; some display a curiously padded blue horseshoe, kept in place by a belt that hides the ears, from which two red streamers hang down their back; and others content themselves with a ribbon, tying their hair be- hind in a flat wide bow. Their gown is long in the sleeves and short in the skirt — short as a Highlander's kilt, which it very much resembles, and is in most in- stances of a carpet-like texture. Plum-colour, blue, pink, and green, dotted with bright flowers or crossed by stripes, are the prevailing patterns; their gay tints relieving the sombre blue and black of the men. The skirt is made to fit pretty closely, much more so, indeed, than the men's breeches, and as it descends no lower than the knee, you can see that if Nature is niggard to the men she is generous to the women. Such an ex- hibition of well-developed legs in blue worsted stock- ings I never before witnessed. Some of the younger ones had put on their summer stockings of white cotton, and, with bodice and skirt of different patterns, went strutting about apparently SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 21 well pleased with themselves. But they have another peculiarity besides the kilt: they all, young and old, wear a species of cuirass, secured at the waist and rising to their chin. I judged it to he made of light wood, covered with black stun". It gives them a grotesque appearance when looked at from the front or sideways; suggesting an idea of human turtles, or descendants of a race of Amazons. Some sat at their stalls with their chin resting on it, or face half hidden behind ; and many times did I notice the breastplate pushed down to make room for the mouth to open when the wearer wished to speak — the pushings down being not less frequent than the shrugs of ladies in other places to keep their silly bonnets on. Even little girls wear the cuirass, and very remarkable objects they are. The spacious area of the market-place, enclosed by antique houses, was thronged. Wendish women sitting in long rows behind their baskets of cherries and heaps of vegetables; others arriving with fresh supplies on low wheelbarrows, their white legs twinkling every- where in the sunshine. And many more who had come to buy roving busily from one wooden booth to another among all sorts of wares — books, ironmongery, jewelry, cakes and confectionery, coarse gray crockery, tubs and buckets, deep trays and kneading troughs chopped from one block; but the drapers and haber- dashers, with their stores of gaudy kerchiefs and gay tartans and piles of stockings, attracted the most nume- rous customers. There was a brisk sale of sausages and bread — large, flat, round loaves (weighing 12lb. 22 A JULY HOLIDAY IN English) of black rye bread, at one groschen the pound, which was considered dear. The men wandered about among the scythes, rakes, and wooden shovels, or the stalls of pipes and cutlery, or gathered round the ricketty wagons laden with small sacks of grain and meal which were continually arriving, led by one of the tribe in dusty boots. And all the while the townsfolk came crowding in to make their weekly purchases till there was scarcely room to move. Sucli a scene is to me far more interesting than a picture-gallery. I went to and fro in the throng hearkening with pleasure to the various voices, watch- ing the buying and selling, and noting the honest, cheerful faces of many of the women. Then escaping, I could survey the whole market-place from the rising ground at its upper end, and contemplate at leisure the living picture, framed by houses and shops in the olden style, among which, on one side, rises the ancient Rath- haus. It was built in 1562 with the stones of a church given to the corporation by Duke Johann, whose por- trait you may see hanging in the hall inside among electors and dukes, and their wives; and, ever since, it has been used for weddings, dances, and religious meet- ings, as well as for the grave business of the council and C"> ' C police. Opposite the entrance, the date 1770, inserted with black pebbles into the paving, marks the spot where the last beheading took place under authority of the council. The Wends are the descendants of a Sclavonic tribe, which, according to ethnologists, migrated from the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 23 shores of the Adriatic more than a thousand years ago, carrying in their name {Wend or Wand) a proof of having once lived by the sea. They are remarkable for the tenacitv of their adherence to ancient habits and customs, which may, perhaps, account for their still being a distinct people among the Germans by whom they are surrounded. And they are not less remark- able for honesty, health, and an amount of agricultural skill, which distinguishes them from their neighbours. They are clever and successful in rearing cattle; they get on, and save money ; and the women have the reputation of being most excellent nurses. The Bohe- mian peasant on the farther side of the mountains used, if he does not now, when his children were born, to stretch them out, sometimes at the end of. a pole, to- wards the country of the Wends, that the infant might grow up as able and lucky as they. One of their im- memorial practices, still kept up, is to talk to their bees, and tell them of all household incidents, and especially of a death in the family. Their number is two hundred thousand, all within the limits of Lusatia. A much-frequented promenade is the dam of the Great Pond — Grossen Teich — on the southern side of the town, which, planted with chestnuts and limes, forms a series of green and shady alleys, with a pleasant pros- pect across gardens and meadows to the village of Altendorf. Swans glide about on the surface of the water, which covers sixteen acres, and a gondola plies to a small wooded island in the centre, resorted to by lovers and picnic parties. A short distance northwards lies the Little Pond, bordered by rows of poplars, and 24 A JULY HOLIDAY IN three other ponds in different parts of the town are also made to contribute to its attractions. Another pleasure-ground is the " Plateau," on an eminence between the railway station and the road to Leipzig, from which you may wander through shady alleys to the old ruin of Alexisburg. The cemetery, on a hill to the west of the town, is worth a visit for a sight of some of the tombs, among which appears the entrance to the new Princes' Vault, constructed in 1837, in the form of a small chapel, lighted by richly- stained glass windows, through the floor of which the coffins are lowered to the vault beneath. On St. John's Day the cemetery is thronged by the townsfolk, decorating the graves of their departed friends with flowers. After a visit to all these places, and a peep into the two churches in which Luther once preached— the Bartholomaikirche and the Brtiderkirche — I travelled on to Zwickau, and as there is little to be seen on the way besides fields, low hills, and the tall-chimneyed, smoking, stocking-weaving town of Werdau, we will glance at an interesting event in Saxon history inci- dentally alluded to in the foregoing pages. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 25 CHAPTER III. Origin of Altenburg — Prosperous Burghers — A Princely Crime — Hussite Plunderers — Luther's Visits — French Bonfire — Electress Margaret's Dream — Kunz von Kauffungen — " Don't burn the Fish" — A Con- spiracy — Midnight Robbers — Two Young Princes Stolen— The Flight — The Alarm — The Kohler — The Rescue — Kunz Beheaded — The Triller's Reward, and what a famous Author said concerning it. Wends had long peopled the Pleissengau when King Henry I. — the Fowler, as his contemporaries named him — conquered it during one of his many inroads among his neighbours, and made it part of the Ostcrland early in the tenth century. The newly-won territory was soon settled by German colonists, who, finding an ancient fortification on the summit of a blullj rocky hill, called it alte Burg, whence the present name of the town and principality of Altenburg. Henry, or his successor, Otho, built a castle on the hill, no portion of which, or of the one which replaced it, now remains. The town is first mentioned in a document of the year 986. Its story is the old one: family feud, rapine and revenge, chivalry and heroism, intermingled with quaint and quiet glimpses of social life, characteristic of the " dark ages." Earliest among its possessors were the Hohenstaufens ; latest are the Hildburghausens. At 26 A JULY HOLIDAY IN one time it was imperial ; at another independent ; now pledged or given away by an emperor ; now held by a duke. In 1286 its prosperity was such that the burghers went carried in sedan-chairs to the council-house, and their wives walked to church festivals on carpets spread before them in the street. » Six years later Friedrich the Bitted quarrelled with Adolf von Nassau for having pledged Altenburg to King Wenzel of Bohemia ; whereupon Adolf invited Friedrich to a Christmas feast, and while he sat at table employed a ruffian to murder him, as the speedi- est way of settling the dispute. The blow, however, fell on the wrist of a burgher of Freiberg who rushed between, and lost his hand in preventing the crime. Friedrich escaped, changed his dress, and, under cover of night, fled the city; but, having gained a battle in the interval, he returned as ruler in 1307. The scene of this malignant assault is supposed to have been a house in the market-place. Then came a succession of Friedrichs: the Earnest, the Strong, the Warlike, the Quarrelsome, the Mild, and such like. It was in 1430, during the lifetime of the last mentioned, that those fierce Reformers, the Hussites, came across the mountains and made an in- road into the principality. They chose Three-Kings' Day for their attack on the town, which was aban- doned to them by the inhabitants, who fled to neigh- bouring villages, or took refuge in the castle ; and, having burnt and plundered to the satisfaction of their cupidity or their conscience during four days, they left the place to recover as best it might. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 27 The same Elector, Friedrich the Mild, married the Austrian Princess Margaret — fit wife for such a prince, if we may judge from her endeavours to prevent bread becoming too dear for the townsfolk. Luther was in Altenbun; from the 3rd to the 9th of January, 1519, to hold a conference with Karl von Miltitz, the papal legate. The two met in the house of George Spalatin, who became a firm friend of the great Reformer. Luther visited the town also when on his famous journey to Worms, and on several occasions afterwards. The council-house was the scene of a religious con- ference from October, 1568, to March of the following year. The parties in presence were — the theologians of Electoral Saxony on the one hand, of Ducal Saxony on the other; and among the subjects mooted they discussed the questions, u Whether good works were needful for salvation?" and, " Whether man can co- operate in the attainment of his own salvation ?" and with the usual result; for the disputants separated with- out cominiT to a decision. The old town suffered from the disasters and commo- tions of the Peasants' War. The Imperialists quartered themselves upon it after the fatal battle of L'utzen. The troubles of the Seven Years' War fell upon it, and of the campaigns that ended in the downfall of Napoleon. In 1810, the French commissioners seized a quantity of English manufactures in possession of resident merchants, and made a great bonfire therewith in the market-place. In 1813, the Emperors of Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia visited the town, and in the same year 28 A JULY HOLIDAY IN it afforded quarters to 671 generals, 46,617 officers, and 472,399 ordinary troops. Now we must go back for awhile to the year 1455, the times of Friedrich the Mild. On the night of the 6th of July in that year the Electress Margaret, his wife, dreamt that two young oaks, growing in a forest near the castle, were torn up by a wild boar. Herein her maternal heart foreboded danger to the two princes Ernest and Albert, both still in their boyhood. The times were indeed disquieting, what with Hussite wars, territorial quarrels, and the ominous foretokens of the coming Reformation. Mild as Friedrich was, he, too, had had some fighting with his brothei", Duke Wilhelm, about their lands. Among his officers was a certain Conrad, or, as he was commonly called, Kunz von KaufFungen, formerly captain of the castle, who, through disappointment, had come to entertain two causes of quarrel against his master. One was that, having been sent to surprise and capture Gera, he was taken himself, and only recovered his liberty by payment of four thou- sand florins ransom. Of this sum Kunz claimed reim- bursement from the Elector, and met with denial. The second was, a demand for the restoration of estates of which he had been granted temporary possession, but which, defying legal authorities, he refused to give up until the coveted four thousand florins should be once more in his pocket. Chafing under his twofold grievance, he broke out into threats of reprisal, to which Friedrich answered jocularly, "Don't burn the fish in the ponds." Baffled and exasperated, Kunz devised a scheme for bringing the question to a speedy issue : persuaded Hans Schwalbe, one of the scullions at the castle, into his SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 29 interest; concerted measures with his brother Dietrich von Kauffungen,Wilhelm von Mosen, and others, thirty- seven altogether, and watched his opportunity. Treacherous Schwalbe failed not in the service re- quired of him, and gave information of the Elector's absence: called away by affairs to Leipzig. Whereupon Kunz and his confederates, mounting to horse, rode to Altenburg, and halted under cover of a wood — where now the pleasure-ground is laid out at the foot of the castle — between eleven and twelve in the night of the 7th of July. Finding all quiet, he sent his body-servant, Hans Schweinitz, forward to fix a rope ladder, with Schwalbe's help, at a window above the steepest side of the rock, and, following with Mosen, the two climbed up and got into the castle. Once in, they hastened to the chamber of the young princes, and each seizing one, made their way to the gate. But, instead of Albert, the little Count Barby had been picked up. Kunz was no sooner aware of the mistake, than, giving Ernest, whom he carried, into Mosen's arras, he hurried back with the terrified count, and brought out Albert. Quicker, how- ever, than the robbery was the spread of an alarm. The Electress, apprehensive, perhaps, because of her dream on the previous night, appeared at a window, imploring Kunz to restore her children, and promising to intercede with the Elector in favour of his demands. Her en- treaties and lamentations fell on deaf ears ; Mosen had already made good his retreat, and Kunz speedily fol- lowed him through the gate, which was easily opened, there being but a single invalid on guard. The time was singularly favourable for the success of the plot, as nearly all the residents and functionaries were enjoying 30 A JULY HOLIDAY IN themselves at a feast given by the Chancellor in the town. The alarm-bell began to ring. Mosen and the others galloped off with their prize, and Kunz, mounting his horse with young Albert before him, and attended by Schweinitz, lost no time in making for the frontier. If Isenburg could be reached before the pursuers came up, the game would be in his own hands. On they went in the dim night through the Eabensteiner Forest, along rugged and darksome ways, where they wandered from the track, their horses stumbled or floundered in miry holes, forced to choose the wildest and least-frequented routes, for dogs were barking and alarm-bells ringing in .all the villages, warning honest folk that knaves were abroad. The dewy morning dawned, birds twittered among the branches, the sun arose, daylight streamed into the forests, and still the fugitives urged their pant- ing horses onwards. A few hours later the young prince, worn out by want of rest and the increasing heat, com- plained of thirst ; whereupon Kunz, though still a half- score miles from the Bohemian frontier, halted not far from the village of Elterlein, and crept about in the wood to pluck berries for the boy's refreshment. While the captain was thus occupied, a certain charcoal-burner — George Schmidt by name — at work near the spot, attracted by the glint of armour between the trees, ap- proached the halting-place, made suspicious, perhaps, .by the alarm-bells. To his surprise, he saw horses showing marks of hasty travel, and a fair-haired boy well attired, who said at once, "I am the young prince. They have stolen me." No sooner spoken than the Ko/iler, running up to Kunz, who was still stooping SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 31 over the berries, felled him with a blow of the stout pole which he used in tending his fires. A shout brought up a gang of his comrades, sturdy fellows with long hair and grimy faces, who promptly laid hold of Kunz and Schweinitz, bound their hands, and carried them off for safe keeping to the neighbouring monastery of Grunhain. Thither also was the young Albert borne in friendly arms, and from thence, on the following day, an escort, among whom went the Juihler, conducted him back to his weeping mother — a real triumphal procession by the time they arrived at Altenburg. Mosen and his troop, meanwhile, had betaken them- selves to a hiding-place not far from the castle of Stein, on the right bank of the Mulde, about half way towards the frontier. While some made good their retreat to secret quarters, the principals concealed themselves with Prince Ernest in a rocky cave screened by trees, wait- ing for a favourable opportunity to renew their flight. But hearing, while on their look-out, sundry passers-by talk of the capture of unlucky Kunz, they sent a mes- senger to Friedrich von Schonburg at Hartenstein, offering to deliver up the prince on condition that they should be left free to depart unmolested. The condition was granted : they gave up their captive, and were seen no more in all the province ; and Schonburg conveyed Ernest to Chemnitz, where he was received by his father the Elector. Unlucky Kunz having been carefully escorted to Freiberg, was there beheaded on the 14th of July — an example to knightly kidnappers. On the next day the Kohler's homely gaberdine and the garments of the princes were hung up in the church at Eiaersdorf, not 32 A JULY HOLIDAY IN far from the scene of the rescue. As for the Kbliler himself, he had but to speak his wishes, for the Electress, in the joy of her heart at the restoration of her sons, could not sufficiently reward the man who had saved the younger. "I worried them right well" — (icohl ge- trillt) — he said, when recounting how he had laid about him with his pole at the time of the rescue; and ever afterwards was he known as the Triller. His wishes were modest enough ; — a little bit of land, and liberty to hunt and cut wood in the forest — and amply were they gratified. Such is in brief the story of the Prinzenraub, as it happened four hundred years ago — a memorable event in Saxon history. A walled-up window in the castle at Altenburg, on the side towards the Pauritzer Pond, is said to indicate the place where in the former building the robbers entered. The Princes' Oaks still flourish ; and the cave in which Ernest was hidden is still known as the Prinzenkdhle. And our own history is involved in the event, for from that same Ernest descends the Consort of our Queen. To most English readers the Prinzenraub was an un- known story until a few years ago, when Thomas Carlyle published it from his vigorous pen in the Westminster Revise, where all the circumstances are brought before us in the very vividness of life. " Were I touring in those parts, I would go and see," says the author, re- ferring to the rumour that the estate bestowed on the Triller remained still in possession of his posterity. By inquiry at Altenburg, I learned that this estate lay in the neighbourhood of Zwickau, so, as I also was bound for the Bohemian frontier, I did go and see on the way. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 33 CHAPTER IV. Zwickau— Beer Bridge— Beer Mount— The Triller Estate— Triller Bier- brauerei — The Braumeister— The Beer — Four Hundredth Anniver- sary of the Prinzenraub— A Friendly Clerk — "You will have a Tsigger?" — Historical Portraits — A Good Name for a Brewery — A Case of Disinterestedness — Up the Church Tower — The Prospect — Princess Schwanhildis — The Fire-god Zwicz — Luther's Table — The Church — Geysers — Petrified Beds — Historical Houses — Walk to Oberhaselau — The Card-players — The Wagoners. The dark roofs of a few dull streets, a lofty old church tower, the tall chimneys, and clouds of steam and smoke of a busy suburb, rising amid orchards, gardens, and hop-grounds in the pleasant and thickly- wooded valley of the Mulde, are the features presented by Zwickau as you approach it from the terminus. There needs no long research to discover that the Prinzenraub is a household word among the people: hanging on the wall in the hotel you may see engravings of the Prinzenhiihle, the castle of Stein, the monastery at Gr'unhain, and other places incidental to the robbery ; and the waiters are ready to tell you that the Triller estate lies near Eckersbach, about half an hour's walk to the east of the town. On my way thither I crossed the Mulde, a lively D 34 A JULY HOLIDAY IN stream, flowing between steep slopes of trees, broken here and there by a red fern-fringed cliff. A Saxon liking — one which the Anglo-Saxon has not forgotten — is betrayed in the name of the bridge — Beer Bridge ; it leads to Beer Mount, which conceals within its cool and dark interior countless barrels of the national beverage. While walking up the hollow road that winds round the hill, you see on one side the entrances to the deeply excavated cellars, on the other a tavern, overshadowed by linden-trees, offering refreshing temp- tations to the thirsty visitor. The road presently rising across open fields brings you in sight of a pile of huge bright-red brick buildings, erected on the farther side of a deep, narrow dell, con- trasting well with the green of a cherry orchard and woods in the rear. There lies the Triller estate. Times are changed; and where the sinewy Kdhler tilled his field and reared his family, now stands a brewery — Triller Bierbrauerei. The wakeful genius of trade has taken possession, and finds in the patriotic sentiment inspired by the history of the place a handsome source of profit. I addressed myself to the Braumeistei — Brewmaster — who on hearing that one of England's foremost au- thors had published the story of the Prinzenraub, mani- fested a praiseworthy readiness to satisfy my curiosity. The estate had long been out of the hands of the Triller family, so long that he could not remember the time — perhaps fifty years. But the Trillers were not extinct : one was living at Freiberg, and two others elsewhere in Saxony. The place now belongs to a company, under SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 35 whose management Triller beer has become famous in all the country round ; and not undeservedly, as I from experience am prepared to affirm. There is a large garden, with paths winding among the trees, and open places bestrewn with tables and chairs enough for the innumerable guests who quench their thirst at the brewery. As we strolled about the premises, the Braumeister called my attention to a writing over the main en- trance — Dulcius ex ipsofonte bibuntur aquce, remarking that he had never known a visitor disposed to quarrel with it. Then, abandoning his laconic phrases, he told me how the four hundredth anniversary of the Prinzenraub had been celebrated on the 8th of July, 1855. It was a day to be remembered in all the places made historic by the event. From Schedewitz, on the farther side of Zwickau, a long procession had walked to the Brewery, under triumphal arches erected on the way. First came a troop of Coalers, in forest garb, then friends of the company on foot and in wagons, and bands of music ; altogether eight hundred persons, and among them the three Trillers. Airs were played and songs sung that made all the fire of patriotism glow again; and so earnestly did the multitude enter into the spirit of the celebration, that — a merry twinkle gleamed in the Braumeister s eye as he told it — " They drank a hundred eimers of beer. There they are : look at them," he added, pointing to an engraving of the whole pro- cession — the Trillerzug, as he called it. D2 36 A JULY HOLIDAY IN A similar festival was held at Altenburg, Harten- stein, and Griinhain on the same day, to the entire satis- faction of all concerned, and the reinvigoration of Saxon loyalty. I was seated at one of the tables with a tankard of beer before me, when a young man came up, looked at me inquisitively, and said, " E shmall Eng-lish speak " — meaning, " I speak a little English." I felicitated him on his acquirements, when he pro- ceeded to tell me that he was one of the clerks employed in the counting-house, and having heard of my arrival from the Braumeister, could not resist the desire of speaking with an Englishman. Moreover, he would like to show me certain things which I had not yet seen, and he said, " If you pleasure in Prinzenraub find, so is glad to me." We were friends in a moment. He led me first to the counting-house, and showed me the bust of Herr Ebert, who, as chief proprietor, had headed the proces- sion in the former year, but was since deceased, saying, "We very, very sorry; every man love him. Ah! he was so good." Then running iip-stairs to a large white- washed apartment — one of the drinking-rooms used when guests are driven in-doors by bad weather — where a few portraits hung on the walls, he cried, "Here is something to see. But wait — you will have a tsigger?" "With pleasure," I answered, " if it's good to drink." "No, not drink," he replied. " What you call him? — to shmoke." The room echoed with my laugh, and he prolonged it, as I rejoined, "Oh! you mean a cigar! No, thank you. Tobacco is one of the things I abhor." SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 37 "What you call him?" he exclaimed, in amazement — "cigar!" Then what for a teacher is mine. But he is a German." Our friendly relations were in no way deranged, by my dislike of a " tsigger ;" and we turned to the por- traits, which comprised some of the personages involved in the Prinzenraub. The brave eld Triller is repre- sented in the costume of the period — a stalwart fellow, with ample black beard, bare legs, broad-brimmed hat, and loose frock tied by a belt round the waist. In one hand he grasps his pole, with the other supports the prince, who wearing red. hosen and peaked red boots, looks up to him witli tearful eye. Kunz appears lying down in the background, looking half-stunned and miserable. There are two miniatures — of the Triller and his wife — apparently very old, believed to be like- nesses. In the excitement occasioned by the four hundreth. anniversary, a poor shoemaker, hearing it talked of, came to the brewery with the paintings in his hand, and sold the two for a shilling. Besides these there are seven or eight other portraits, among which the features of Kunz impress you favourably. He has dark curly hair, a high forehead, a clear bright eye, moustache and pointed beard; the whole appearance and expression reminding you of Sir Philip Sidney. What with fluent German and broken English the young clerk worked himself into enthusiasm, and showed me everything that had the remotest connexion with the subject, ending with a book containing the latest history of the Prinzenraub, and engravings of its incidents. Nor could he think of letting me depart till I had seen the whole premises, and the enormous cellars. 38 A JULY HOLIDAY IN " The Triller is a good name for the brewery," he said, as we paced between the furlongs of barrels. On my return to the town I found out the ancient dame who keeps the key of the church tower, and as she unlocked the door offered her a small silver coin. "No! no! no!" she exclaimed, "that is too much. A Dreier (halfpenny) is enough for me." A rare instance of disinterestedness. Once admitted, you find your way alone up to the topmost chamber, where dwells a woman with two or three children. She was winding up from the street below her daily supply of water when I entered out of breath with the ascent of so many steps, and paused in her task to conduct me to the platform, a height of about two hundred feet, from which the steeple springs one hundred and fifty feet higher. Wide and remarkable is tlie prospect: the rows of poplars which border the roads leading on all sides from the town divide the landscape into segments with stiff lines that produce a singular effect as they diminish gradually in thickness and vanish in the distance. Plenty of wood all around, merging towards the south into the vast fir forest which there darkens the long swells and rounded summits of the Erzgebirge: a region of contrasts, with its abounding fertility and unpicturesque foundries and mining-works. The town appears to better advantage from above than below, for the many green spots in the rear of the houses come into the view, and you see gleaming curves of the Mulde, and a great pond as at Altenburg, and the remains of the old walls, and the ditches, now in part changed into a garden promenade. SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AXD SILESIA. 39 The mind becomes interested as well as the eye. You may grow dreamy over the fabulous adventures of the fair Princess Schwanhildis, in whose adventures, as implied in hoary tradition, the place originated; and if you desire proof, is it not found in the three swans, still borne in the town arms? Or you may revert to the sixth century only, when the Wends had a colony here, and worshipped Zwicz, one of their Sclavish fire-gods in the Aue, or meadow — whence the present name, Zwickau. Or you may remember that Luther often mounted the tower to gaze on the widespread view; and imagine him contemplating the scenes on which your eye now rests — a brief pause in his mighty work of rescuing Europe from the toils of priestcraft. A clumsy table yet remaining on the platform, though tottering and fallen on one side with a^e and weak- ness, is called "Luther's table;" the great Reformer having, as is said, once sat by it to eat. But the sen- iment which such a relic should inspire is weakened >y the inference that as the Zwickauers take no pains t> preserve it from the weather, they at least are scep- tical concerning its merits. And the church itself. It is the largest, the finest specimen of Gothic, and has the biggest bell, in all Saxony, and excepting two towers in Dresden, is the highest. It dates from the eleventh century, and has been more than once restored. The interior well re- pays a visit. The slender, eight-sided pillars of the nave, the rare carvings of the bench-ends, and others about the choir and confessional, and in the sacristy, "he high altar, by Wohlgemuth, of Nuremberg, the 40 A JULY HOLIDAY IN only one remaining of twenty-five which formerly stood around the walls, raise your admiration of art. If curious in such matters, you may see a splinter of the true cross — a relic from Popish times — still pre- served. There are some good paintings, of which one by Lucas Cranach the Younger represents Jesus as " Children's Friend." It was painted at the cost of a burgomaster in honour of his wife's memory. For one with time at discretion, Zwickau and the neighbourhood would yield a few days of enjoyable exploration. A remarkable instance of volcanic action is to be seen between Planitz and Niederkainsdorf, which has existed from time immemorial. Steam is continually bursting up from the coal strata beneath, of so high a temperature that the ground is always green even in the hardest winters. An attempt was made, a few years ago, to utilize the heat by establish- ing a forcing-garden on the spot; and in the adjacent forests there are land-slips, produced by disturbances of the strata, which are described as romantic in theii effects. The valley of the Mulde offers much pleas ing scenery ; the castle of Stein and the Prinzenhdhh are within half a day's walk ; and somewhat farther are the singular rocks at Greifenstein, a pile as of huge beds petrified. The legend runs that a princess, having married while her betrothed, whom she had promised never to forget, was absent, the fairies, exercising their right of punishment, turned her and all her household gear into stone, and the beds remain to commemorate the perfidy. There are, besides, baths and mineral springs at the village of Oberkainsdorf, and at Hohen- SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 41 steincr Bad; and curious old carvings in the castle of Scho'nfels ; and, if you incline to geology, the coal measures abound in fossil plants and shells, while of minerals there is no stint. The town has attractions of another sort: early- printed books, rare manuscripts, original letters by Luther and other Reformers, in the Library; the JRathhauSf on the front of which, over the door, you may see the three swans ; and, among the archives, more letters by Luther and Melancthon. There are portraits of the two, by Cranach, in the neighbouring castle of Planitz. The house, No. 22, in the market- place, is that in which Luther lodged in 1522; Me- lancthon sojourned in No. 444, in the Burggasse ; and No. 576, in the Schwgasse, is where Napoleon had his quarters in 1812. It was evening when I slung on my knapsack and began my walk in earnest. A short stage at the out- set is no bad preparation for the work to follow. The road runs between the noisy factories, past vitriol works, smelting furnaces, and, thick with dust, is, for the first three or four miles, far from pleasant. At length the busy district is left behind, the trees border- ing the highway look greener, and the river, separated but by a narrow strip of meadow, is near enough for its rippling to be heard. Excepting a miner now and then, wearing his short leathern hinder-apron, and a general shabbiness of dress, the people I met might have been mistaken for English, so marked is the simi- larity of form and feature. Transported suddenly to any of the roads leading out of Birmingham, no one would have imagined them to be foreigners. 42 A JULY HOLIDAY IX About three hours, at an easy pace, brought me to a wayside public-house near Oberhaselau, where I halted for the night. There were sundry rustic folk among the guests, one of whom told me, while I ate my supper, that he had taken part in the Prinzenraub celebration, along with hundreds of foresters and vil- lagers, at a Wirthshaus built on the spot where the Triller's cabin stood — a day to be remembered as long- as he lived. He had, moreover, seen the Triller's gaberdine hanging in the monastery at Ebersdorf. Later in the evening came in three men of dignified appearance, who sat down at a card-table in one corner, to a game of what might be described as three-handed whist. Gustel, the maid, showed them much deference, and placed before each a quart-glass of beer. They were, she whispered to me, the Actuarius of the village, and the Inspector and Doctor. From time to time, during the game, they broke out into a rattling peal of laughter, as one of them threw a set of dice on the table and handed round a few extra cards. I requested permission to look at the cause of merriment, and, to my amazement, discovered that both cards and dice were disgustingly obscene, out of all character with the respectable appearance of their possessors. Before the game was over, some six or eight wagoners, who had arrived with their teams, spread bundles of straw on the floor, pulled off their boots with a ponderous boot-jack chained to the door-post, and, stretching themselves on their lair, soon united in a discord of snores. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 43 CHAPTER V. Across the Mulde— Scenery — Feet versus Wheels — Villages — English Characteristics — Timbered Houses — Schneeberg — Stones for Lamps — The Way Sunday was Kept — The Church— A Wagon-load of Music — A Surly Host — Where the Pepper Grows — Eybenstock — Neustadl — Fir Forests — Wildenthal — Four Sorts of Beer — Potato Dumplings — Up the Auersberg — Advertisements — The School — The Instrument of Order — " Look at the Englishman" — The Erzgebirge — The Guard- house — Into Bohemia — Romish Symbols — Hirschenstand — Another Guard-house — Differences of Race — Czechs and Germans — Shabby Carpentry — Change of Scenery — Neudeck — Arrive at Carlsbad — A Glass Boot — Gossip. The road crosses the Mulde near Oberhaselau, and, winding onwards between broad, undulating fields, and through patches of forest, rises gradually, though with frequent ups and downs, into a region more and more hilly. A bareness of aspect increases on the landscape as you advance, in contrast with which the stripes and squares of cultivation on the slopes appear of shining greenness. The views grow wider. They are peculiar and striking, though deficient in beauty, for the range of the Erzgebirge, as the name indicates, hides its wealth underground, and makes up by store of mineral treasure for poverty of surface. Yet, is there not a 44 A JULY HOLIDAY IN charm in the tamest of mountain scenery ? It animated rne as I walked along on that bright sunshiny morning. Though the river was far out of sight, were there not a few ponds gleaming in the hollows? while little brooks ran tinkling down their unseen channels, and fountains began to appear at the wayside with a ceaseless sound of bubbling and splashing that fell gratefully on the ear; and the breeze made a gladsome rustling among the birches that flung their graceful shadows across the dusty road. Nature is kind to him who goes on foot, and makes him aware of beauties and delights never discovered to the traveller on wheels. There arc signs of a numerous population: church spires and villages in the distance — among them Reich- enbach and its ruined castle — and in little valleys which branch off here and there, teeming with foliage, snug cottages thickly nestled; and as your eye wanders along the broken line of tree-tops, it sees many wavy columns of smoke betraying the site of rural homes scattered be- neath. And you begin to notice something unfamiliar in the dress of the people who inhabit them : blue and red petticoats are frequent, and scarcely a man but wears the straight tight-legged boots up to the knee, all black and brightly polished; for the groups I met were on their way to church. The honest English style' of countenance still prevails; and another English charac- teristic may be seen, if you look for it, in the decayed and illegible condition of the finger-posts. If the landscape be not picturesque, many of the houses are, with their timbers, forming zigzags, angles, squares, diamonds, and other fanciful conceits. Some SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 45 old and gray, assimilating in colour to the weather- stained masonry; some painted black in strong relief upon a pale-red wall. While pausing to examine the details, you will not fail to admire the taste and skill of the builders of three centuries ago, who knew how to impart beauty even to the humblest habi- tations. Now and then you come upon a house of which the upper storey, faced with slates, appears as if supported by arches and pilasters fashioned in the wall beneath ; and specimens of these several kinds of archi- tecture gratify the eye in all the hill- country of Saxony. Schneeberg, lying in a valley backed by a dark slope of firs, has a singularly gloomy aspect, which disap- pears as you descend the hill. It was eleven on Sunday morning when I entered the town. Because summer had come, the street lamps were all taken down; but that the chains and ropes might not hang idle, the lamp- lighter had tied a big stone or large brick, by no means ornamental, to the end of every one. A military band was playing in the market-place ; a few shops were open ; and a man hurrying from corner to corner was posting up bills of plays to be acted in the evening — a little comedy, followed by a piece in five acts. The prices were, for the first places, 6d., the second, 3d., the third, 2d., which would hardly exclude even the poorest. So, in Saxony, as elsewhere on the Continent, not only Papists but Protestants are willing to recreate them- selves with music and the theatre on a Sunday. A half-dozen postilions, who were strutting about in the full blaze of bright-yellow coats, yellow-banded hats, jack-boots, and with a bugle slung from the shoulder, 46 A JULY HOLIDAY IN seemed as proud of their dress as the peacocky drum- rnajor did of his. I ordered a steak at the Fiirstenhaus. "Will you have it through-broiled or English-broiled?" asked the waiter, and looked a little surprised at my preference of the former. When the band stopped playing, numbers of the listeners came into the dining-room for a Halbe of beer, and sat down to play at cards. The church, a spacious edifice, crowns the height above the market-place. After walking twice round it, I discovered a small door in an angle, which being un- fastened gave me admittance. The interior, with its worn and uneven brick floor, has somewhat of a neglected look, not unusual in Protestant churches; but there are a few good paintings, and the altar-piece, representing the Crucifixion, shows the hand of a master. I was quite alone, and could explore as I pleased. The altar rises to a great height, adorned with statues, and crowned by figures of angels. Near it two or three tall crucifixes lean against the wall ; the font, and a lectern upborne by an angel stand in the centre of the nave, and every- where are signs of the Lutheran form of worship. Here and there, constructed, with an apparent disregard of order, are glazed galleries, pews, and closets, and others that resemble large cages — ugly excrescences, which mar the fair proportions of the lofty nave. The gallery is fronted by a thick breastwork of masonry, bearing a heavy coping, and the brick floor is in many places worn completely through, and the loose lumps are strewn about. The view from the tower, commanding miles of the mountain range, more than repays the trouble of the ascent. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 47 There are three services on the Sunday. From six to seven, and from eight to half-past nine in the morn- ing, and from one to two in the afternoon. The rest of the day is free ; but not for work, as in other countries. Haymaking, as I was informed, is the only Sunday work permitted by the law of Saxony. The Sunday school is well attended, and is not confined to religious subjects, for writing, arithmetic, and drawing are taught. While trudging up the hill beyond the town, I passed one of the springless country wagons, crammed with a military band, the fiddles and big bass viol hanging be- hind, on the way to amuse the folk at Stein with music. They undertake a similar expedition every Sunday in fine weather to one or other of the surrounding villages. I met with two novel experiences during the after- noon. One was, that to sit down in the church at Neustiidl is a penance, for the pews are so narrow that you have to lift up the hinged seat before you can enter. The other, a few miles farther on the way, was of a surly Wirth. dwelling under the sign of the Weisses Lamm (White Lamb) whom I begged to draw me a glass of beer cool from the cellar. Instead of complying, he filled the measure from a can which had been standing two or three hours on the dresser in all the suffocating heat of the stove, and placed it before me with a grunt. I ventured to remind him, with good-humoured words, that lukewarm beer was not acceptable to a thirsty way- farer on a hot day; whereupon he retorted, snarling more like a wolf than a lamb, " Either drink that, or go 48 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and get other where the pepper grows " — wo der Pfoffer wcichst. The old sinner availed himself of a form of speech much used among the Germans to denote a place of intensely high temperature, and sulphureous withal, in which pepper, being so very pungent a product, may be supposed to grow. u Suppose you go first," I answered, " and see if there be any left." And turning away, I shut the door upon the snarl which he snarled after me, and went on to Eybenstock, where cool beer in plenty was forthcoming as soon as asked for. I told the hostess of my adventure with old Surly. " Just like him," she replied, laughing merrily; "no- body ever goes to the While Lamb that can help it. You didn't see any one besides him in the room, I'll engage." True enough, I did not. A long, steep acclivity rises between Schneeberg and Eybenstock, from which you look down into deep, dark gulfs of fir forest, and away to hills swelling higher and higher in the distance — all alike sombre. So that when you come to a green vale, with its little hay-fields watered by a noisy brook, streaked in places with foam, it appears lovely by contrast. The road makes long curves and zigzags to avoid the heights, but the old track through the trees still remains, and shortens the distance at the expense of a little exertion in climbing. The wildness increases beyond Eybenstock. The forest descends upon the road, and you walk for an hour at a stretch under the shade of firs, with beech and birch sparsely intermingled, and here and there a stately SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 49 pine springing from a mighty base to a height far above the rest, the topmost branches edged with gold by the declining sunbeams. Emerging from the grateful shade, we come to Wildenthal, a little green hollow at the foot of the Auersberg, enclosing a saw-mill, a school, a few cot- tages, fields and gardens, and an inn, Gasthaus zum Ross. Great slopes of firs rising on every side shut it out, as it were, from the rest of the world. The aged hostess at the Gasthaus bustled about with surprising alacrity to answer the calls of her rustic guests for beer. " Einfach" cried one ; another, u Weisses ;" " Lager" broke in a voice from among the party of card-players, accompanied by a rapping of the pewter tankard-lid ; " Bayerisches" shouted others from the ninepin-alley outside ; and she, with her ready a Gleich" — directly — appeasing their impatience. Of these four kinds of beer, the first — literally Simple — is equivalent to our small-beer, and is much in request by a certain class of topers from its low price, and be- cause they can drink it the whole day without fear of becoming stupid before the evening. The second — White — is very foamy, and lias somewhat the lively flavour of o-ino;er-beer : after standing some time in the glass a shake round revives its briskness. The third — Store-beer — is of sufficient strength to bear a year's keeping ; and the fourth — Bavarian — is of a similar quality. The last two were the most to my liking. There was greater choice of beer than of viands; and the half-bent old dame thought fit to apologise because she could give me nothing for supper but omelettes and Klese ; the latter a sort of dumpling made of potatoes E 50 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and a sprinkling of wheaten Hour. " If she had only known," and so forth. However, I found them palatable, and ate heartily, and therein she took comfort. Many times did I eat of such dumplings afterwards, for the relish for them is not confined to Saxony. Under the name of Knadeln, or Kipfeln, they are a standing dish amonsr the Bohemians. To hundreds of families in the Erzgebirge they are the only variety — but without the wheaten flour — in a perpetual potato diet : rarely can they get even the sour black bread of the country, and in the years of the potato disease famine and misery desolated many a hearth. The guests went away early, and then, as twilight fell, nothing disturbed the stillness of the vale save the murmur of running water and the whisper of the breeze among the slopes of firs, inviting to a contemplative stroll. I rose on the morrow soon after the sun, and scrambled up the Auersberg. It was really a scramble, for I pushed at a venture into the forest, aiming direct for the summit. How the grass and the diminutive black-eared rye glistened with dewdrops ! Early as it was, the saw-mill had begun its busy clatter, and here and there on the hills the woodcutters' strokes sounded in the calm morning air. Once under the trees all signs of a track disappeared ; and there were slopes slippery with decayed vegetation ; little swamps richly carpeted with exquisite mosses ; dense patches of bilberry, teeming with berries as purple ripe as when Kunz plucked in another part of the forest but a few miles distant. And after all, owing to the tower on the top having fallen down, and the trees having grown up, the view is SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 51 limited to a narrow opening on either side, where an avenue, now rarely used, affords an easy though tedious ascent. A square block of stone stands near the remains of the tower, dedicated to an upper forest-master, who had fulfilled fifty years of service, by his friends and subordinates. However, there is such a charm in the wild, lonely forest, that one need not regret half an hour's exertion in scrambling up a steep hill under its shadow. I amused myself during breakfast with the Erzgebirg- ischer Anzeiger, a small quarto newspaper, published at Schnecberg thrice a week ; the price twelve neu- groschen (about fifteen pence) per quarter. Beer and amusements occupied a large space among the adver- tisements ; for every village and every Wirthshaus in the forest, of any notoriety, promised music or dancing on Sundays, sometimes both ; and fortunate was the one that could announce the military band. Double Lager beer, a penny the pot, was offered in abundance sufficient to satisfy the thirstiest. Stewed meat and fresh sausages next Friday," is the inducement held out by one ambitious little alehouse : and an enterprising refectioner declares, " In my garden it gives fine weather." And, as the Dresdner Anzeiger shows, they do similar things in the metropolis. A coffee-house keeper, "up four steps," says: "My most honoured sir, I permit myself the freedom to invite you to a cup of coffee next Sunday afternoon at three o'clock." Certain young men publish their sentiments concern- ing their hostess, beginning with " Angels until now have led thee," and so on. A fortunate husband and father thanks e2 52 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Madame Kr'andel for the " happy Enlbindung" of his "wife, and publishes his wife's maiden name. Parents announce the death of a child, and invite their friends to " quiet sympathy." A stray Berlin paper makes it clear that a like practice prevails in the capital of Prussia. But most amusing of all was the advertise- ment, in French and English, of the landlord of the Golden Star, at Bonn. Here it is: " De cet hotel la renommee Promet sans exageration Que vous y trouverez Le comble de la perfection. Le luxe de la salle a manger Surpassera meme votre idee." " By all visitors of the Rhine Known as one of the most fine And best conducted models Of all Continental hotels. The dining-room allowed to be A grand pattern of luxury." Which does not say much for the bard of Bonn. Be- sides these there was the Illustrated Village Barber, a paper published at Leipzig, full of humorous cuts, over which the rustics chuckled not a little.* Wildenthal has no church ; the people, therefore, are dependent on Eybenstock, three miles distant, for ser- mons, baptisms, marriages, and burials ; but, in com- mon with other villages, it has a good schoolhouse. Hearing the sound of voices as I passed, I went in, and had a talk with the master, who was a model of polite- ness. He had about a hundred scholars, of both sexes, in a room well-lighted and ventilated, with a spelling- * In Saxony there are published 220 newspapers; in Au6tria, 271 ; in Bavaria, 178. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 53 frame, and black music board, ruled for four parts, and other appliances of education placed along the walls. Threepence a week — two and a half neugroschen — is the highest rate paid at country schools ; but there are two lower rates to suit folk of scanty means, and the very poorest pay nothing. The children attend school from the age of six up to fourteen, with no vacations except a fortnight at each of the three rural ingather- ings — haymaking, harvest, and potato-digging. The hours of attendance are from seven to ten in the fore- noon, one to four in the afternoon. " Yes, they are pretty good children," said the master, in reply to my inquiry ; u I have not much trouble to keep them in order; but, in case of need, here is a little instrument (Jdeines Instrument) which comes to my aid;" and he produced a small birch from a secret place behind his desk. A general nudging went through the school, and quick, sly looks from one to the other, at sight of the interwoven twigs. " Ha! ha !" cried the master, "you see they recognise it. However, 'tis very seldom called for." Then, mounting his rostrum, he said: "Now, chil- dren, tell me — which is the most famous country in the world ?" " Eng-landV' from all the hundred voices. " Is it a most highly renowned country ?" " Ja—ja—ja /" " And how is the chief city named ?" " Lundun" — the u sounded as in full. "And when Saxony wants factories, and steam- engines, and spinning-machinery, and railways, who 54 A JULY HOLIDAY IN is it sends them hither, or comes over and makes them?" " Eng-land V again, and with enthusiasm. " Good. Now, children, look at the Herr standing here by my side — look at him, I say, for he comes from that famous country — Eng-land /" It was a trial to my courage to become thus unex- pectedly the object for all eyes, and feeling bound to say something in return for the master's compliment, I replied that, " if England did do so much for Saxony, it was only paying back in another form the prowess and vigour which the Saxons long time ago had carried into England. Moreover, in Saxony all children could read ; but in England there were many boys and girls who could not read." " Is it possible I" exclaimed the master, holding up his hands. " How can that be ?" " It is part of our liberty. Any one in England is perfectly free to be ignorant if he likes it best." "Remarkable!" answered the dominie; and he in- quired concerning the amount of salary paid to school- masters in England. His own appeared very small in comparison ; but were it not that bread was unusually dear, and firewood five dollars the Klafter — notwith- standing the vast forests — he was quite content, and could live in comfort. Beyond Wildenthal, the ascent is almost continuous: now the road traverses a clearing where the new under- growth hides the many scattered stumps; now a grassy slope thickly bestrewn with wild flowers; now a great breadth of forest, where boulders peer out between the stems, and brooks flow noisily, and long bunches of SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 55 hairy moss hang from the branches, and the new shoots of the firs, tipped Avith amber and gold, glisten and glow in the light of the morning sun. Ever deeper into the hills; the solitude interrupted now and then by a gang of charcoal-burners with their wagons, or an aristocratic carriage, or an humble chaise, speeding on its way from Carlsbad. Or the sound of the axe echoes through the wood, followed by the crash of a falling tree. And always the wind murmurs among the trees, swelling at times to a fitful roar. I saw a stone-breaker at work, afflicted with a huge goitre. He earns a dollar and a half per week, and complains sadly of the dearness of bread, and the hard- ness of the blue granite. Gradually the tall forest gives place to scrubby-look- ing firs, stony patches, rough with hardy heath, offering a wild and dreary prospect. Presently a square stone, standing by the road, exhibits on one side K. Sachsen (Kingdom of Saxony), on the other K. Bcehmen, and passing this you are in Bohemia. Near it is the guard- house, where two soldiers are always on the watch. One of them asked me if my knapsack contained anything for duty, accepted my negative without demur, and invited me to sit down and have a chat on the turfy seat by the side of the door. It was a pleasure to see a new face, for their life was very monotonous, looking out, from noon of one day to noon of the next, for honest folk and smugglers, suffering none to pass unquestioned. They were not much troubled with contrabandists, for these free-traders shun the highway, and cross the frontier by secret paths in lonely parts of the mountains. The summit here forms a table-land some three thou- 56 A JULY HOLIDAY IN sand feet above the sea-level, with a prospect by no means cheering ; limited by the stunted firs, except towards the south-west, where a few black, dreary-looking undula- tions terminate the view. The road, however, soon begins to descend to a less inhospitable region, and pre- sently makes a sudden dip, for the slope of the Erzge- bii'ge, long and gradual towards Saxony, is abrupt on the Bohemian side. The other mountain ranges present a similar formation. Then we come to tall trees, and grassy glades, stony clearings, and acres of bilberries. A little farther, and the sight of a crucifix, bearing a gilt Christ, by the wayside, and of miserable wooden cot- tages, roofed with shingles, convinces you that the fron- tier is really crossed. A valley opens where haymakers are busy ; the men wearing the straight tight boots, the women barefoot, and with a kerchief pinned hood-fashion under the chin. " Gelobt sei Jesus Christus" — Praised be Jesus Christ — salute the children as you pass, and some of them stand still with an expectant look. Then posts, and a toll-bar, painted in the diagonal stripes of black yellow, which symbolise imperial Austria. The bar is kept down, but sufficiently high above the ground for a man to walk under it without ducking. Having passed this you are in Hirschenstand — the first Bohemian village. " Perhaps you come out of Saxony?" said a man, stepping from a house that had a double eagle above the door, and holding out his hand for my passport. He was very civil, and also very positive in his assur- ance that he could not grant me a visa for Prague ; only for Carlsbad, and he wished me a pleasant journey. A few yards farther I turned into the inn to dine, and at SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 57 once met with characteristic specimens of the two races who inhabit Bohemia. There was the German, with a round, flat, hairy face, stolid in expression, and somewhat sluggish in movement, and by his side the Czech, or Stock-Bohemian, whose oval countenance, high intel- lectual forehead, arched eyebrows, clear olive complexion, unrelieved by moustache or whisker, presented a marked contrast; the Sclavonian, bright-eyed and animated ; the Teuton, dull and heavy. Yet the latter is gaining upon his lively neighbour. The German population is every year increasing, and the Czechish language is spoken within a narrower circle. The contrast between the two races will be something for observation during our walk, and with another noticeable difference when we approach the frontier of Silesia. There was something peculiar in the room as well as in the guests; at one side a tali clock, and very tall candlesticks; in the middle a chopping-block, bearing a heap of sausage-meat ; a washing-tub and copper-pans in one corner, and on the opposite side a species of bagatelle- board, on which the ball is expected to find its way into the holes between long palisades of little wires: an exciting game; for even the slow German was quickened as he watched the constant repulsions of the little globe hovering round the highest number only to fail of en- tering. Here, too, were the tall wooden chairs which are seldom seen beyond the Austrian frontier. It made me smile to renew acquaintance with the lanky, spider-legged things. Not the most comfortable contrivance for dis- pelling weariness, as you would perhaps think, reader, were you to see one. They are, however, very cheap ; 58 A JULY HOLIDAY IN not more than thirty-five kreutzers apiece, made of pine, and a florin when of hard wood. Both curiosities in their way. Hirschenstand will hardly prepossess you in favour of Bohemian villages, for its houses are shabby boarded structures, put up with a wonderful disregard of order and neatness — windows all awry, the chimney anyhow, and the fit of the door a scandal to carpentry. And the cottages scattered about the valley, and for some distance along the road, preserve the family likeness strongly marked. They would have a touch of the picturesque with far projecting eaves, but the roofs are not made to overhang. You might easily fancy that the land had not yet recovered from the effects of the exterminating Hussite wars, out of which arose the proverb, " Scarce as Bohemian villages." But Carlsbad is nearly seven hours distant, and we must hasten onwards. The road still descends : the prospect opens over forests far broader than on the Saxon side : valleys branch off, and the scenery im- proves. Rocks choke the' brooks, and burst out from the slopes ; rows of ash, lime, and cherry-trees, border- ing the road, succeed to the firs, and large whitewashed houses with tall roofs to the shabby cottages. Then iron works ; and little needle factories driven by a mere spoutful of water rattling and buzzing merrily as grass- hoppers. Then Neudeck, where a high rock overtops the houses, and projects into the street, having the ap- pearance, when first seen, of an ancient tower. We shall see similar strange-looking rocks, from time to time, on the hill-side, as if to prepare us for rocky SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 59 scenes of wonderful character in a subsequent part of our travel. A high steep hill close to the town is cut up with zigzags, by which the devout may ascend from station to station to the Calvary on the top, from whence the view, at all events, will repay the trouble. The road was made, and the stations and chapel were built, at the cost of an ancient maiden lady, who a few years ago expended 27,000 dollars in the purchase of the hill for the good of her soul. Now the road descends through a vale between broad fields of wheat and potatoes, to the smoky porcelain manufacturing town of Alt, where your eye will, per- haps, be attracted by a few pretty faces among the women, set off by a pink, blue, or green jacket, and petticoat of a different colour. But for the most part the women have a dowdy appearance, of which the Czechs, as we shall by-and-by see, exhibit the dowdiest ex- amples. Still the road descends towards the black group of hills which encircle Carlsbad. It was nearly dark when I crossed the bridge and entered the celebrated water- ing-place. At first I thought every house an inn, for every front carries a sign — somewhat puzzling to a be- lated stranger. At length the Gasthof zum Morgenstern opened its door to receive me ; much to my comfort, for I was very tired, having walked altogether thirty miles. Great was my enjoyment of rest. At supper the landlord brought the beer in a large boot-shaped glass, and placed it before me with the chuckling re- mark that he liked his guests to be able to say they had one time in their lives drunk out of a boot. His wife, who appeared to be as good-humoured as 60 A JULY HOLIDAY IN she was good-looking, amused me with her gossip. Her especial delight was to laugh at the peculiarities of her guests, and their mistakes in speaking German. One, a bilious Greek, had come down one morning with his hand to his head complaining of Fuss-sckmerz — foot- ache. The Saxons, she said, could not cook, or make good butter, and were ready to drink a quart of any kind of brown fluid, and believe it to be coffee. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 61 CHAPTER VI. Dr. Fowler's Prescription — Carlsbad — " A Matlocky sort of a Place" — Springs and Swallows — Tasting the Water — The Cliffs and Terraces — Comical Signs — The Wiese and its Frequenters — Disease and Health — The Sprudel : its Discharge ; its Deposit — The Stoppage — Volcanic Phenomena — Dr. Granville's Observations — Care's Rest — Dreikreuz- berg— View from the Summit — Kbnig Otto's Hbhe — " Are you here for the Cure?" — Lenten Diet— Hirschsprung — The Trumpeters — Two Florins for a Bed. " To lie abed till you are done enough," says Dr. Fowler, of Salisbury, " is the way to promote health and long life ;" and he justifies his assertion by living to the age of ninety, with promise of adding yet some- what to the number. Remembering this, I let duty and inclination have their way the next morning, and the market-women in front of the inn had nearly sold off their baskets of flowers and vegetables before I set out to explore the wonders of Carlsbad. " It's a Matlocky sort of a place ! " cried a young lady, as I passed an elegant party, who were saunter- ing about the pleasant grounds behind the Theresien- brunn — " it's a Matlocky sort of a place ! " And a merry laugh followed the iteration of her ingenious adjective. That it is not altogether inappropriate is apparent as soon as you arrive on the upper terrace and overlook a 62 A JULY HOLIDAY IN small town, lying deep between "hills on either side of the Teple, a shallow and sharply-curved stream. All the springs but two are on the left bank, a few yards from the water's edge. There is a little archi- tectural display in the buildings by which they are covered : a domed roof, supported on columns, or a square, temple-like structure, flanked by colonnades. The water flows into a cavity, more or less deeply sunk below the surface, surrounded by stone steps, on which sit the nimble lasses, priestesses of health, who every morning from six to ten are busily employed in dis- pensing the exhaustless medicine. A few vase-like cups stand ready for use; but numbers of the visitors bring their own glass, carried as a bouquet in the hand, of tasteful Bohemian manufacture, striped with purple or ruby, and some of the purest white. All are made of the same size — to contain six ounces — and a few have a species of dial attached, by which to keep count of the number of doses swallowed. The visitors, hav- ing their glasses filled at the fountain, walk up or down the colonnade, or along the paths of the pleasure- ground, listening to music, or form little groups for a morning gossip, and sip and chat alternately till the glasses are emptied. The rule is to wait a quarter-hour between each refilling, so that a patient condemned to a dozen glasses dissipates three hours in the watery task. The number imbibed depends on the complaint and constitution : in some instances four glasses are taken ; in others, from twenty to forty. I tasted each spring as I came to it, and felt no in- clination to repeat the experiment. The temperature of the Theresienbrunn is 134 deg., of the Muhlbrunn 138 SAXOMT, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 63 deg.j of the Neubrunn 144 cleg., in itself a cause of dis- like, especially in hot weather, and much more so when combined with a disagreeable bitter, and a flavour which I can only compare to a faint impression of the odour of a dissecting-room. No wonder some of the drinkers shudder as they swallow their volcanic physic! But more about the waters after we have seen the Sprudel. In some places the cliff comes so near to the stream that there is no more than room for a colonnade, or narrow road, and here and there the path, stopped by a projecting rock, is carried round the rear of the obstacle by little intricate zigzags. And every minute you come to some ramifications of the narrow lanes, which here, so limited and valuable is the space, serve the purpose of streets, and afford ready access to the heights above. The houses rise tier over tier, in short rows, or perched singly on curious platforms ex- cavated from the rock, in situations where back win- dows would be useless. The topmost dwellers have thus an opportunity to amuse their idleness by a bird's- eye view of what their neighbours are doing below. From May to September the influx of visitors is so great that every house is full of inmates. As every house has its sign or designation, ingenuity has been not a little taxed to avoid repetitions. One ambitious proprietor writes up At the King of England : another, contenting himself with his native tongue, has Konig von England; a third, English House. A little farther, and you see Captain Cook; The Comet; The* Aurora; and many varieties of Rings, Spoons, and Musical Instruments. Israelitisch Restauration notifies the tribes of a dining-room; here The Admiral, there 64 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Tlte Corporal, yonder The Pasha claims attention ; and in a steep street leading towards Prague I saw The ABC And here and there a doll in a glass-case fixed to the wall, representing St. Anne — a favourite saint of the Bohemians — looks down on the sauntering visitors. Continuing up the left bank you enter the market- place, where the indications of life and business multiply, and a throng are sipping around the Marktbrunn. This spring burst up from under the paving-stones in 1838; a temple was built over it, and ever since it has served as a temple of ease to some of the more crowded springs. A little farther, and you come to the Wiese, or meadow, which retains no more of grass than Hatton-garden does of gravelled paths and flower-beds : a row of houses and shops on one side, on the other a line of wooden booths concealing the river, and all between planted with trees which shelter an irregular regiment of chairs and tables. Here is the place where visitors most do congregate, pacing leisurely to and fro, or lounging on the chairs in front of the cafes, gossiping over the newspapers, or trifling around the stalls and shop windows. A remarkable throng, truly ! Some with an air highly dignified and aristocratic ; but the greater part somewhat grotesque in appearance. Graceful ladies with those ungraceful sprawling bonnets not uncommon in Germany; men, lanky and angular, and short and round, and square and awkward, wearing astonishing wide-awakes. Such a variety of loose, baggy trousers, magnificent waistcoats, and gauzy gowns, that look impalpable almost as a cloud! Here comes a Polish Jew with manifest signs of having remained unclean SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 65 beyond more than one evening ; here a Czechish count, who has not forgotten his military paces ; here a spectacled professor, with boots turned up peak-wise, and toes turned broadly out ; here a group of He- brews glittering with jewelry; and here a miscellaneous crowd from all the countries of Europe, but Germans the most numerous. Of English very few. There is nothing stiff or formal about them ; to make things pleasant seems to be a tacit understanding, for disease has brought them all to one common level. All are animated by the hope of cure, and find therein an in- spiration towards gaiety. But who shall be gay in an hospital, among sallow, haggard faces, sunken eyes, and ghastly features ? Some you see who, preyed upon by disease for years, have well- nigh lost all faith in the smiler who lingers so long at the bottom of the box ; some afflicted by hypochondriasis appear to wonder that the sun should shine, that others can be happy while they themselves are so miserable. The lively fiddles, and twanging harps, and jingling tambourines — theTyrolese minstrels — the glib conjuror, all fail to bring a flash of joy back to their deadened eye; to win for mirth one responsive thrill. I have never been more thankfully sensible of the blessing of robust health, than while strolling on the Wiese at Carlsbad. What with its many stalls and shops, the Wiese re- sembles a bazaar. All sorts of trifles and knick-knacks tempt the visitor, and entice money from the purse. Among queer-looking toys you see Windsor Soap labelled in good, honest English ; pipes, ribands, and pocket-books, fans, satchels, and jewelry, among spe- F 66 A JULY HOLIDAY IN cimens of Sprudehtein, and crystals and minerals, from the surrounding bills. Money-changers abound; and polyglot placards — English, French, German, Czechish, Hungarian — everywhere meet the eye. And not only here, but all over the town, brisk signs of business and prosperity are apparent. But to quote the gossip of my hostess, "many in Carlsbad have to endure hunger during the winter." The place is then deserted, for the season lasts only from May to September. Turn into a short Gasse from the market-place, cross the foot-bridge, and you will see a Geyser without the fatigue of a voyage to Iceland. It is the far-famed Sprudel, or Bubbler. At one end of a colonnade open to the river on the right bank, a living column of water springs perpetually from the ground. Through an orifice in the centre of a basin about three feet deep, the water leaps and plays with a noise of gurgling, splash- ing, and bubbling, to a height of six or eight feet, and throwing off clouds of steam. Now it forms a column with palm-leafed capital — now a number of jets tumb- ling over in graceful curves — now broken, fan-like masses, all throbbing and dancing in obedience to the vigorous pulsations under ground. There is something fascinating in the sight. Allowing for the artificial elevation of the floor, the whole height of the jet is about twelve feet ; and so has it leaped for ages, and with but one interruption since its fabulous discovery in the fourteenth century. The Sprudel is the hottest of the springs, scalding hot, in fact, marking a temperature of 167 deg. Fah- renheit : hence the attendant Naiads — here a couple of strong-armed women — make use of a cup fixed to one SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AXD SILESIA. 67 end of a staff for filling the Masses. When a visitor approaches, the staff is held out to receive the glass ; and after a plunge into the steaming jet, is handed back to the expectant drinker, who, taking his glass from the cup, swallows the contents at pleasure — if he can. The drinkers were but few when I came up, for ten o'clock was ni^h ; strasrsrlers, who having arrived late, were sipping their last glasses — some not without a shudder. While the dose cooled, they examined the heads of walking-sticks, snuff-boxes, seals, and other specimens of Sprudelstem, on sale at a stall ; or the time- tables and advertisement photographs hanging about the colonnade. The Naiads, in the interval, emptied ladles full of the water into stone-bottles, which a man rapidly corked in a noisy machine. The waste water flows away along a wooden shoot to the river, where it sends small light wreaths of steam floating about on the surface. But I saw nothing at all like what has been often described as a cloud of steam perpetually hovering above the Sprudel, visible from afar. Regarded near at hand, or from a distance, there is no cloud visible in July, whatever may be the case in the cool months. The quantity of water poured out every day by the Sjirudel alone is estimated at two million gallons. Mul- tiplied by 365, it becomes truly amazing. In this quantity, as shown by Gilbert, a German chemist, ten thousand tons of Glauber salt, and fifteen thousand tons of carbonate of soda are thrown up in a year. And this has been going on from immemorial ages, the waters de- positing calcareous matter in their outflow, which has F 2 68 A JULY HOLIDAY IN slowly formed a crust over the vast boiling reservoir be- neath. And on this crust Carlsbad is built. The constituents of all the springs, as proved by analyses, are identical with those of the Sprudel — soda in the form of carbonate, Glauber salt, and common salt; carbonic acid gas, and traces of iron and iodine. Bi- tumen is also found in a notable quantity, and a peculiar soapy substance, a species of animal matter, the cause, perhaps, of the cadaverous flavour already mentioned. The water, which when first caught is bright and clear, becomes turbid if left to cool, and throws down a pale- brown sediment. Ehrenberg, the celebrated microsco- pist of Berlin, who has examined specimens of this sediment under his microscope, declares it to be com- posed of fossil animalcules inconceivably minute; these animalcules being a portion of the material out of which Nature builds up the solid strata of the globe. Some patients have feared to drink the water because of the concreting property; but the medical authorities assure that in this respect it produces no inj urious effect on the animal economy. Shopkeepers turn it to profit, and offer you fruits, flowers, plants, and other objects, petri- fied by the Sprudel water. The roof of the colonnade above the spring is dis- coloured by the ascending steam; and standing on the bridge you can see how the wall is incrusted with calcareous matter, as, also, the big hump swelling up from the bed of the stream — a smooth ochreous coat, brightened in places by amber, in others darkened into a rich brown, or dyed with shades of green. This con- cretion is the Sprudelstein, or Sprudel- stone, noticed above ; firm and hard in texture, and susceptible of a SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 69 beautiful polish. A portion of the waste water is led into an adjoining building, where it undergoes evapo- ration to obtain the constituent salts in a dry state for exportation. From the other shoot, as it falls into the river, supplies are constantly dipped by the townsfolk, who use it to cook their eggs, to scald pork and poultry, and other purposes. All day long you may see women filling and carrying away on their shoulders big bucket- fuls of the steaming water. Notwithstanding this con- stant inflow of hot water, the Teple appears to agree with fish, for I saw numbers swimming about in good condition but a short distance lower down. As a stream, it adds little to the salubrity of Carlsbad, for it is shal- low, sluggish in places, and tainted by noisome drainage. Another cause of offence to the nostrils exists in what is so often complained of on the Continent, the obtrusive situation of the latrina at the principal springs. Only in England arc such matters properly cared for. In 1809, and for ten 1 years thereafter, the Sprudel ceased to flow, and the water broke through at a spot some fifty feet distant, to which the name Hygieas Quelle was given. Here it continued to play till 1819, when it reappeared at the former source, and from that date there has been no interruption in the copious dis- charge of the Sprudel. The underground action is at times so powerful as to rend the crust and form new openings, and these, if large, have to be stopped, to pre- vent the loss of the springs. The yellow hump men- tioned as swelling up from the river's bed, is nothing but a thick mass of masonry, braced together by iron bars, covering a ^reat rent through which the waters once boiled up from below. Similar outbreaks occurred 70 A JULY HOLIDAY IN in 1713, and again fourteen years later, when attempts were made to ascertain the depth of the great subterra- nean reservoir by splicing poles together to a length of one hundred and eighty feet, but neither bottom nor wall could be touched in any direction. The hills around are of granite, containing mica and pyrites, and one of them, the Hirschsprung, is said to be the source of all the Carlsbad springs. Their bases come near to- gether, and it is easy to imagine a huge cavern formed between them descending deep down into the bowels of the earth. As regards the efficacy of the Carlsbad waters, let us hear Dr. Granville, an authority on the subject: " They exert their principal sanative action," he says, " 1st, on all chronic affections which depend on debility of the digestive organs, accompanied by the accumulation of improper secretions; 2ndly, on all obstructions, particu- larly of the abdomen, which, as Becher, the oracle of Carlsbad, observes, they resolve and disperse; 3rdly, on the acrimony of the blood, which they correct, alter, evacuate, or drive towards the extremities and the surface of the body ; 4thly, on calculous and gravelly deposits ; 5thly, on many occult and serious disorders, the nature of which is not readily ascertained until after the partial use of the waters, such as tic doloreux, spasms, rheuma- tisms, and gout." As if here were not virtues sufficient, the Doctor pro- ceeds : " My own experience warrants me in commend- ing the Carlsbad waters in all obstinate cases of indura- tion, tumefaction, tenderness, and sluggish action of the liver; in imperfect or suppressed gout; in paralysis, de- pendent on the stomach, and not fulness of blood in the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 71 head; in cases of tic and nervous disorders; finally, in obstructions of the glands of the mesentery, and dis- tended state of the splenetic vessels." The effect on stones in the bladder is almost magical, so promptly are they polished, reduced, rendered friable, and expelled, leaving the patient a happy example of perfect cure. " It is the despondent," to quote once more from the Doctor, " the dejected, misanthropic, fidgetty, pusillani- mous, irritable, outrageous, morose, sulky, weak-minded, whimsical, and often despairing hypochondriac — for he is all these, and each in turn — made so by continued in- digestion, by obstinate and unremitting gout, by affec- tions of the nerves of sympathy and of the gastric region, and by other equally active causes, that Carlsbad seems pre-eminently to favour." After reading this, the won- der is, not that the visitors number from five to six thousand in the course of the season, but that they are not ten times as many. The Doctor finds nothing nauseous in the taste of the water. "Once arrived in the stomach," he says, "it produces an exhilarating sensation, which spreads itself to the intestinal canal generally." To him I leave the responsibility of this statement; for, preferring to let well alone, I sipped by spoonfuls only, and can there- fore bring no testimony from my own experience. The practice of drinking the waters has almost set aside the once exclusive practice of bathing; but baths are always to be had, as well of mud and vapour as of the water of the springs. Now, after this stroll through the town, let us take a wider survey. As Ave follow the street down the right bank, we see parties setting off in carriages for excur- 72 • A JULY HOLIDAY IN sions to the neighbourhood, and rows of vehicles in the open places ticketed, Return to Marienbad, to Eger, to Toplitz, to Zwickau, and the like, and drivers on the alert for what your London cab-driver calls " a job." A short distance beyond the Morgenstern a path zigzags gradually up the hill and brings you soon under the shade of trees, and to many little nooks and sheltered seats contrived for delightful repose. One remote bower, ap- parently but little frequented, is inscribed, Care's Rest : make thyself happy. A little farther, and crossing a carriage-road, we come to a temple where you may have another rest, and enjoy at the same time the open- ing panorama. From hence the paths zigzag onwards to the top of the Dreikreuzberg — Three- Cross Hill — by easy shady slopes, which even a short-winded patient may ascend, while those with strong legs may shorten the distance by the steep cut-offs. An agreeable surprise awaits you at the top : a large, well-kept garden, gay and fragrant with flowers, surrounded by arbours of clipped fir, and a graceful screen of trees, while at one side stands a spacious Restaur ation — all clean and cheerful of aspect. From an elevated platform, or from the arched recesses on the terrace in front of the garden, you see all Carlsbad and the hilly region around. Now you see how singularly crooked is the narrow valley in which the town is built ; how the Avhite houses gleam from the steep green sides of the farther hills, and straggle away to the wooded hollow at the head of the valley, from whence the river issues in a shining curve. In and out flows the stream past the church, past the springs and public buildings, cutting the town in two, on its way to fall into the Eger. Your eye SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 73 takes in the life of the streets, the goings to and fro, but on a reduced scale — such tiny men and women, and little carriages ! Tis as if one were looking into Lilliput. Opposite rises the precipitous rocky hill, the Hirschsprung, to the craggy summit of which we shall climb by-and-by; and beyond it, ridgy summits, away to the gloomy expanse of the Schlaggcmcald. Many are the paths that penetrate the rearward valleys, and white roads curving alon£ the hill-sides hi»h above Carls- bad, and far up the distant slopes. Altogether the view is striking, and somewhat romantic ; yet in the eyes of the Germans fresh from their flat, uninteresting coun- try, it is " ivunderschbn" — an epithet which they never tire of heaping on the landscape. From the garden a path leads along the ridge to a higher elevation, where the three tall crosses, seen for miles around, spring from a rocky knoll at the rear of a small semicircular opening, enclosed by firs, prettily in- termingled with beech and birch. Heath and yellow broom grow from crevices in the rocks, and the wild thyme, crushed by your foot, fills the air with aromatic sweetness, for the spot is left to the nurture of the winds and the rain. It commands the same view as from the garden ; but with a wider scope, and the town lying at a greater depth. The path still curving along the ridge brings you presently to Kdnig Otto's Hoke — King Otto's Height — the highest point of the hill. This is also an un- trimmed spot, with two or three seats, and a fluted granite column, surmounted by a globe and star, rising in the midst. You now look over some of the nearer hills, and get fresh peeps into the valleys, discovering 74 A JULY HOLIDAY IN topographical secrets. Raised high into the region of cooling breezes, yet easily accessible, it is a pleasant place for quiet recreation. I took the shortest way down from Otto's Height, crossing the rough declivity and the fields that stretch far up the lower slope of the hill, and made a circuit to .. Findlater's monument at the upper extremity of Carls- bad. From the eminence on which it is erected you get a new prospect of the town, and up the valley of umbrageous retreats much resorted to by visitors on sultry afternoons. On my way back to the Morgenstem I had another look at the Sprudel. The place was now deserted; the Naiads had departed; the stall-keeper had locked her glazed doors and withdrawn; and there was nothing near to subdue the vivid rushing sound of the water. So to remain till evening, when a few anxious patients would appear to quaff new draughts of health. The inn was in all the bustle of dinner, after the manner of a table d'hote, but without its formality — twenty little tables instead of a single large one. By this arrangement the guests formed small parties, and ate and chatted at pleasure. Many came in who were not lodgers in the house — among them a countess, from Moravia, to whom no more attention was paid, nor did she appear to expect it, than to the others. The absence of stiffness was, indeed, an agreeable characteristic of t the company, who were mostly Germans. " Are you here for the cure ?" said an old gentleman who sat opposite me, and looked at my tankard of beer and salad with an air of surprise. "Are you not afraid ?' SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 75 My answer reassured him. Visitors who come to drink the waters are required by medical authority to conform to a simple regimen. To eat no salad, fruit, or vegetables — to drink no beer or wine — to eat no bread. The exceptional cases are rare; hence the pro- vision consists but of sundry preparations of meat, de- canters of water, pudding resembling boiled pound- cake, and baskets of small rolls. The latter, made of wheaten flour, are not recognised as bread, but come under the common term, Semmel — the simmel of which we read in descriptions of lordly banquets in our Plan- tagenet days. The term bread is confined to the large brown and black loaves made of rye meal, the staple of household diet in Bohemia ; and to Carlsbad patients this is forbidden. So Nature always goes on vindi- cating her simple laws, convincing mankind, in spite of themselves, of the wholesome effects of fresh air, daily exercise, plain food, and spring water ; and man- kind, returned to crowded cities and artificial plea- sures, go on forgetting a lesson which is as old as the hills. In the afternoon I mounted to the top of the Hirsch- sprung, and passed two or three hours on the jutting crags which overlook the town and a wide expanse of rolling fields and meadows towards Saxony. Stairs and fenced platforms on the outermost points enable you to survey in full security. The conformation of the crags is not unlike that which prevails in the Saxon Switzer- land. Here and there tablets in the rock record the visits of royal personages, and on the topmost, sur- mounted by a cross, is an inscription in Russian, and the name of Czar Peter, who included among his ex- 76 A JULY HOLIDAY IN ploits that of riding up the Hirschsprung on horseback in 1711. You cannot be long in Carlsbad without hearing a flourish of trumpets from the top of the Watch-tower, announcing the arrival of visitors. No sooner do the trumpeters spy a carriage approaching from their lofty station, than they begin to sound, and, in proportion to the appearance of the vehicle, so do they measure out their blast — most wind for the proudest. While" I was looking down, a sudden note, unusually prolonged, woke up the drowsy echoes, for rattling down the zig- zagged highway from Prague came his unenviable majesty, Otho of Greece, to undergo a course of the Sprudel — at least, so said the newspapers. Not till he had alighted at the hotel did the trumpeters cease their salute, for kings can pay well; but let a dusty-footed wayfarer, with knapsack on shoulder, come into the town, and not a breath will they spare to give him wel- come. At six in the evening — having surveyed Carlsbad from within and without, and from the highest points on either side — I started to walk to Buchau, a village about ten miles off— an easy distance before nightfall- The Morgenstern charged me two florins for my bed, and less than two florins for all my diet — supper, break- fast, and dinner; which, in one of the dearest water- ing-places in Europe, was letting me off on reasonable terms. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 77 CHAPTER VII. Departure from Carlsbad — Dreifaltigkeits-Kirche — Engelhaus — The Castle — A Melancholy Village — Up to the Ruins — An Imperial Visit — Bohemian Scenery — On to Buchau — The Inn — A Crowd of Guests — Roast Goose — Inspiriting Music— Prompt Waiters — The Mysterious Passport — The Military Adviser — How he Solved the Mystery — A Baron in Spite of Himself — The Baron's Footbath — Lighting the Baron to Bed. Some years ago Carlsbad was scarcely accessible by vehicles coming from the interior, so abrupt was the declivity of its western hill. Now the difficulty is over- come by the zigzags of an excellent road, such as Austrian engineers know well how to construct. Tl e shortest way out of the town for one on foot is up a street painfully steep, which brings you at once to an elevation, whence there is a view of the hills and hol- lows at the head of the valley. The zigzags are long, and there are no cut-offs, whereby you lose sight but slowly of the Valley of Springs. Once past the brow and a view opens over a hilly landscape in the opposite direction, repeating the cha- racteristics of Bohemian scenery — large unfenced fields, with clumps of firs and patches of forest on the highest swells, and the road, in long undulations, running be- tween rows of birch and mountain-ash. There is a mo- 78 A JULY HOLIDAY IN notony about it, varied only by the difference of crops, the rise and fall of the ground, or rags of mist,which, after a shower, hang about the dark sides of distant hills. By-and-by the ruined castle of Engelhaus, crowning a conical hill, peers up on the left, higher and higher as you advance, till at length it stands out a huge mass, looking grimly down on a village beneath. But now a low building on the right attracts your attention. It is a small, low, triangular church — Dreifaltigkeits-Kirche — in a narrow graveyard, where the few mounds and the low wooden crosses that mark them are scarcely to be seen for tali grass and weeds. The interior, so far as I could see through a chink in the rusty, unpainted door, contains nothing remarkable except a rude altar, and a small gallery in each angle. A chapel and arcades are built against two sides of the enclosing wall, and four life-size figures of apostolic aspect sit, recline, and kneel in front of a half-length figure, bearing a crucifix, placed in a recess. They seemed fit guardians of a place which wears an appear- ance of neglect. A little farther and there is a byeway, leading across the fields to Engelhaus, about a quarter-mile distant, and a very Irish-looking village it is ; squalid and filthy, built in what, to a stranger, appears a total disregard of the fitness of things. Here and there the noise of a loom — a noise which denotes a poverty-stricken exist- ence — sounded from some of the cottages, and the aspect of the villagers is quite in keeping with their environ- ment. And yet a wandering musician, who carried a trestle to rest his organ on, was trying to coax a few Kreutzers out of their pockets by airs most unmelodious; SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 79 as if the worst kind of music were good enough for folk so deficient in a sense of propriety. ■ The inside of the houses is no better than the outside. Seeing a pale, damp-browed weaver at a window, I stopped to put a question. He opened the casement, and out rushed a stream of air so hot, stifling, and malodorous as fully ac- counted for his abject looks, and made me content with the briefest answer. A steep path, completed in one place by a wooden stair, leacfs you up and along the precipitous side, of the hill to the principal entrance of the castle, an old weather- beaten arch bestriding the whole of the narrow way. Here a few tall trees form the commencement of an avenue, which the young trees planted farther on will one day complete, and increase the charm of the ancient remains. The path skirting the bold crags passes an old tower, and enters a court which, since the visit of the Emperor and Empress in 1854, is called the Kaiserplatz. Three young trees, supported by stakes painted black and yellow, and blue and white, are growing up into memorials of the incident, and dwarf-firs, set in the turfy slope, form the initials F i E — Francis Joseph, Elizabeth. A small pool in one corner reflects the dilapidated walls ; the mountain-ash, trailing grasses, and harebells grow from the crevices, trembling in the breeze ; and the place, cool, green, and sequestered, is one where you would like to sit musing on a summer afternoon. The steep and uneven ground adds much to the pic- turesque effect of the ruin. You make your way from court to court by sudden abrupt ascents and descents, protected in places by a fence — now under a broken 80 A JULY HOLIDAY IN arch, now creeping into a vault, now traversing a roof- less hall, climbing the fragment of a stair, or pacing round the base of the mighty keep. Loose stones lie about, bits of walls peer through the soil, or, concealed beneath, form grassy hummocks, showing how great have been the ravages of time and other foes. Here and there stands a portion of wall on the very brink of the precipice, and a railing stretched from one to the other enables you to contemplate the prospect in safety. The appearance of the country is such that the hill appears to be in the centre of a great, slightly-hollowed basin, which has a dark and distant rim. The basin is every- where heaving with undulations, patched and striped with firs and the lines of trees along the highways, while a few ponds gleam in some of the deepest hollows. A few widely scattered cottages, or the white walls of a farmstead, dot the green surface of the fields ; and such is the general character of the scenery all the way from the Erzgebirge, to Prague — indeed, all the central region of Bohemia. One league, with small differences, is but a repetition of the other. I prowled so long about the ruins, enjoying the lusty breeze that shook the branches merrily and roared through the crevices, that long shadows crept over the landscape, raising the highest points into bold relief, and veiling the remoter scenes before I descended. The sun, fallen below the Saxon mountains, lit up an immense crescent of angry clouds with a lurid glare, from which the twilight caught a touch of awfulness. The ponds shone with unearthly lustre for a few moments, and then lay cold and gray, and there seemed something spectral in the thin lines of firs as they rose against the glare. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 81 I returned to the road, and found the last two or three miles solitary enough, for not a soul did I meet, and the way lay through a forest where the only light was a faint streak overhead. It was near ten o'clock when I came to Buchau — a village of low houses built round a great square — in which stood some twenty or thirty laden wagons. The appearance of things at The Sun was not encouraging: a dozen wagoners in blue gaberdines lay stretched on straw in the sitting-room, leaving but a small corner of the floor vacant, where sat the host, who made many apologies for having to turn me away. I walked across the square, and tried Der Herrnhaus, and on opening the door met with a rare surprise. The large room was crowded with some three- score guests, including a few soldiers, seated at narrow tables along the sides and across the middle, every man with his tankard of beer before him. In one corner a party of gipsies played wild and lively music, making the room echo again with the sounds of flageolet, violin, and bass, and electrifying the company with their wizard harmo- nies. Some, unable to contain themselves, chanted a few bars of the inspiriting measure; others beat time with hands or feet, and joined in a whoop at the em- phatic passages ; and all the while a gruff outpouring of talk struggled with the bass for the mastery. There was a clatter of knives and forks, a rattling of pewter-lids by impatient tipplers, and hasty cries for pieces of bread. And over all hunfr a cloud of smoke, rolling broader and deeper as the puffs and swirls went up from fifty pipes. This scene bursting upon me all at once made me stand for a minute in doubtful astonishment, half dazzled by the sudden light, and half choked by the reeking G 82 A JULY HOLIDAY IN atmosphere, while I looked round to discover the trencher-capped Wirth. If The Sun had no room, what was to be hoped for here? However, the land- lord, after a consultation with his wife, assured me of a chamber to myself; and placing a chair at the only vacant end of one of the tables, professed himself ready to supply " anything " for supper. He rung the changes on beef, veal, and sausage, with interpolation of roast goose. The meats were good, but the goose was prime ; he could recommend that " vom Herzen," and he laid his hand on his heart as he said it. So I accepted roast goose ; and presently a smoking dish of the savoury bird was set before me, with cucumber salad and rye bread. The landlord had not overpraised his Bohemian cookery, for he gave me a most relishing supper. As my eyes became accustomed to the smoky atmo- sphere, the forms and features of the company came out more distinct than at first. Among the wagoners and rustics who made up the greater number, I saw two or three heads of a superior cast — unmistakable Czechish heads — in marked contrast to the rest. A gentleman with his wife and brother, travelling to their estates, preferred quarters in the Herrnhaus to a midnight stage, and sat eating their supper, apparently not less pleased with their entertainment than I was. By their side sat half a dozen tramping shoemakers, each busy with a plate of roast goose; and next to them, in the narrow space between the stove and the wall, lay a woman and her two children, sleeping on straw. The musicians came round for a largesse, and, reanimated by success, played a few tunes by way of finish, which made sitting still almost impossible. Every one seemed inclined to spring up and dance ; and the host and his servants ran SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AXD SILESIA. 83 to and fro quicker than ever, under the new excitement. No sooner was a tankard emptied, than, following the custom of the country, it was caught up by one of the nimble attendants and refilled, without any asking leave or any demur, except on the part of one of the guests. Trencher-cap would by no means believe that I could be satisfied with a single measure, and I had to com- promise for a glass of wine, which, when brought, he as- sured me proudly was genuine '34 Adelsberger. Whe- ther or no, it was very good. Presently he asked for a sight of my passport, that his son might enter my name with those of the other tra- vellers. I spread the document before him on the table; he bent down and examined it curiously, as an antiquary over a wormeaten manuscript, but with a look of utter bewilderment, for he had never before seen an English passport. He turned it upside down, sideways, aslant, back to front, every way, in short, in his endea- vour to discover a meaning in it; but in vain. He caught eagerly at the British Minister's eagle, and the German visas, yet found nothing to enlighten him therein. His son then took a turn in the examination; still with no better result; and the two looked at one another in blank hopelessness. Presently the father, recollecting himself, beckoned secretly to one of the soldiers, who came to help solve the mystery. Taking the passport, he held it at arm's length, turned it every way as the I Virth had done before, brought it close to his eyes; but could make nothing of it. Then, as if to assist his wit, he hooked one finger on the end of his nose, spread the mysterious document on the table, and p'ointing to the first para- G2 84 A JULY HOLIDAY IN graph, which, as tourists know, stands printed in good round hand, he began to read at all hazards : " Vill — Vill — Vill — yam. Ja, ja. Villyam. Ah! that's English!" Then he attacked the second word — " Fre—Fre — Fre — Fredrick. Ja,ja. That is English !" The next word, Earl, looked awkward, so, skipping that, he went on with many flourishes of his forefinger, il Cla — ren — don. Ja,ja. Clarendon. That's English!" Encouraged by success, he made a dash at the follow- ing word, "Baron" and stopped suddenly short, hooked his finger once more on his nose, stood for a minute as if in deep study, then repeating slowly, " Villyam Fred- rich Clarendon, Baron" he gave the passport back into the landlord's hands, and said in a whisper, pointing slily to me, " He's a Baron." Hereupon the son, with nimble pen, entered me in the book as " Villyam Fredrick Clarendon, Baron." "You have made a pretty mistake," I interposed. " See, that's my name, written lower down, quite away from the titles of our Foreign Minister." But it was in vain that I spoke, and argued, and protested, the oppo- site party would not be convinced, and Trencher-cap, folding up the passport, looked at me with that expres- sion which very knowing folk are apt to assume, and said, as he replaced it in my hand, " Ja,ja. We are used to that sort of thing. You wish not to travel in your real name. Yes, yes, we know. Herr Baron, I give you back your passport." I reiterated my protest, and vehemently; but all in vain. " Herr Baron" I had to remain for all the rest of the evening. Trencher-cap made a bow every time he addressed me, and went among his guests, telling them he had cashed an English Baron. One and another SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 85 came and sat near me for awhile, and talked with so much of deference, that at last I felt quite ashamed of myself — as if I were an accomplice in a hoax. The talk, however, was very barren ; the only items of real information it brought forth were, that a good many needles were made in the neighbourhood, and that Buchau could muster ninety-nine master shoemakers. " So it went on till eleven o'clock, when mine host, approaching with another bow, said, " Herr Baron, are you quite sure that it is a cold foot-bath you want ? " " Quite." " I told the maid so," he replied ; u but she says she cannot believe that a Herr Baron will have cold water, and thinks it should be lukewarm." Satisfied on this point, he summoned the incredulous maid to light me to bed. She stooped low with what was meant for a curtsey, and would on no account turn her face from me, but went backwards up the stairs, holding the candle low, and begging me at every step not to stumble. " Verily," thought I, " the whole household joins in the conspiracy." She carried the candlestick delicately, as if it were of silver and not mere iron, placed it on a little deal table in the bedroom with a ceremonious air, made another low curtsey, and retreated to the door. Then, with one hand on the latch, she said, after a momentary pause, u Herr Baron, I wish you a good night;" and withdrew, leaving me alone to sleep as best I might under the burden of an unexpected title. 86 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER VIII. Dawn — The Noisy Gooseherd — Geese, for Home Consumption and Export — Still the Baron — The Ruins of Hartenstein — Glimpses of Scenery and Rural Life — Liebkowitz — Lubenz — Schloss Petersburg — Big Rooms — Tipplers and Drunkards — Wagoners and Peasants — A Thrifty Landlord — Inquisitorial Book — Awful Gendarme — Paternal Govern- ment—Fidgets—How it is in Hungary — Wet Blankets for Philoso- phers — An Unhappy Peasant. Neither nightmare nor anything else disturbed me till the wagoners, hooking on their teams amid noisy shouts, filed off in two directions from the square, at the earliest peep of dawn. The quiet that returned on their departure was ere long broken by a succession of wild and discordant cries, which, being puzzled to account for by ear, I got out of bed and used my eyes. The gooseherd stood in the middle of the square, calling his flock together from all quarters, with a voice, as it seemed to me, more expressive of alarm and anger than of invitation. However, the geese understood it, and they came waddling and quacking forth from every gateway and lane, and the narrow openings between the houses, till some hundreds were gathered round the herd, who, waving his long rod, kept up his cries till the last straggler had come up, and then drove them out to the dewy pasture beyond the village. A singular SAXOXY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 87 effect was produced by the multitude of long neck?, and the awkward movements of the snow-white mass, accom- panied as they were by a ceaseless rise and fall of the quacking chorus. Such a sight is common in Bohemia; for your Bohemian has a lively relish for roast goose, regarding it as a national dish; and mindful of his neighbours, he breeds numbers of the savoury fowl for their enjoyment. Walk over the Erzgebirr/e in September, and you will meet thousands of geese in a flock, waddling slowly on their way to Leipzig, and the fulfilment of their destiny in German stomachs, at the rate of about three leagues a day. I doubted not that when the landlord had a fair look at me by daylight, he would recall the title conferred amid the smoke and excitement of the evening before. But, no ! he met me at the foot of the stair with the same profound bow; hoped Herr Baron had slept well; and would Herr Baron take breakfast; all my remon- strances to the contrary notwithstanding. I drank my coffee with a suspicion that the sounding honour would have to be paid for; but I did the worthy man injustice, for when summoned to receive payment, he brought his slate and piece of chalk, and writing down the several items, made the sum total not quite a florin. Not often is a Baron created on such very reasonable terms. Even after I left his door, the host continued his at- tentions : he would 20 with me to the ed"e of the vil- lage, and point out the way to the castle, and the shortest way back to the main road. He must tell me, too, that the church was dedicated to St. Michael the Arch- angel ; and of a spring not far off, known among the visitors as the " iron spring." Then, as we shook hands 88 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and parted, he made another low bow, and hoped I would recommend all my friends to seek for entertain- ment under his sign. It would be ungracious not to comply with his wish ; so should any of my friends have the patience or courage to read these pages, and an in- clination to visit Buchau, I hereby counsel them to tarry at the Herrnhaus. The castle, or rather the ruin, rises on the summit of a rounded hill about a mile from the village. There is but little in them to charm either the eye or the fancy, for their name and place recall nothing that lingers in the memory. A few words suffice to tell that here once stood the castle of Hartenstein, otherwise Hungerberg, sheltering knights as lawless as any reiving Johnstone, till King George Podiebrad, intolerant of their wild ways, rooted them out in 1468, and knocked their stronghold to pieces. He showed them the less mercy, from having had, the year before, to lay siege for twelve weeks to a castle near Raudnitz, held by conspirators who set him at defiance. Engelhaus, as is believed, felt the first touch of ruin some fifty years later. Nevertheless, the half-hour spent in the excursion is not time lost, for the spiral path that winds round the hill is well-nigh hidden by wild flowers — a right royal carpet, and perfumed withal, swept by all the breezes. And then there is always the view while you scramble about among the broken walls and bits of towers, getting peeps at parts of the landscape framed by a shattered window. It is something to note how unvarying is the scenery: hills shaped like barn roofs; the same undula- tions; vast fields; a few ponds; dark masses of firs, lacking SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 89 somewhat of cheerfulness notwithstanding the sunshine; and the village in the midst of all, an irregular patch of gray and white. Far as eye can reach it is the same, and so shall we find it all the way to Prague. The wind increased mightily Avhile I was on the hill, and as it swept coldly over the broad slopes of grain and clover, the whole landscape seemed to become a great, green, rippling sea. My recollections of this day include — a flock of geese grazing on a bit of common about every league ; men leading oxen by a strip of hide to pasture on the road- side grass; women cutting fodder in nooks and corners; shepherds, whose booted legs gave them anything but a pastoral appearance ; rows of cherry-trees, and the guards in straw huts keeping watch over the fruit; and miles of road irksomely straight between plum-trees. Here and there you come to a homestead or Gasthaus t surrounded by a high and thick whitewashed wall, with one or more arched gateways, . as if the inmates could not give up the mediaeval habit of living within a fortress. On approaching Liebkowitz, the pale colour of the land changes to a warm red, and fields of peas which seem endless, and small plantations of hops, di- versify the surface, and contrast with the village, where the clean white pillars of the gateways, the red roofs, topped here and there with a purple ball, engage your eye. At Lubenz, where the main road, with its bordering of tall poles and telegraphic wire turns aside to the Saatzer Circle, I struck into the direct route for Prague, and keeping on at an easy pace, getting a passing view of Schloss Petersburg on the right — a factory-like build- 90 A JULY HOLIDAY IN ing — I came at eventide to the Gasthof zum Rose at Willenz. There is many a chapel in England smaller than the common room at the Rose, and the same may be said of nearly every roadside inn at which I stayed. Large as the rooms are, it is sometimes difficult to find a seat among the numerous guests ; and on Sundays especially they are overcrowded. Here in one corner stood the stove enclosed by a dresser, on which all the prepara- tions for cooking were carried on; and, in the opposite corner, the bar behind a wooden fence, running up to the ceiling. Bread, smoked sausage, schnaps, and li- queurs, are served from the bar ; beer is fetched directly from the cellar. The host was thrifty, and kept his four daughters busy in waiting on customers. The eldest presided at the stove, and the other three went continually to and fro, refilling the tankards of beer-drinkers, or dealing out delicacies from the bar. Comely damsels they were, dressed in purple bodices, and pink skirts that trailed on the floor in all the amplitude prescribed by the mil- liners at Paris. I could not fail to be struck by the fre- quency of their visits to the cellar to supply the demands of about twenty men, who, seated at one of the tables, appeared to have been making a day of it. Tankard after tankard was swallowed with marvellous rapidity, and still the cry was " more." For the first time, in my few trips to the Continent, I saw drunkards, and these were not the only sots that came before me during the present journey: all, however, within Bohemia. Casual customers would now and then drop in, call for beer, drink a small quantity, and leave the tankard SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 91 standing on the table and go away for half an hour, then return, take another gulp, and so on. One of the tables was covered by these drink-and-come-again tankards, and though all alike in appearance, I noticed that every man knew his own again. Among these bibbers by in- stalments the landlord was conspicuous, for he took a gulp from his tankard every five minutes, and never left it a moment empty. Now and then slouched in a troop of dusty-booted wagoners, who drank a cup of coffee, and went slouch- ing forth to their wearisome journey. At times a half- dozen peasants strode noisily in, and refreshed them- selves with a draught of beer for their walk home ; and sausage and little broils were in constant request. The host rubbed his hands, and well he might, for trade was brisk: and when he brought me a baked chicken — which, by the way, is another favourite dish in Bohemia — for my supper, and heard my praise of his beer, he told me that he brewed his own beer and grew his own hops. " You will see two big pockets of hops on the landing when you go to bed," he added, with the look of an innkeeper thoroughly self-satisfied. And then he sat down and gave his two sons a writing-lesson. After supper, one of the pink-robed damsels placed a wooden candlestick, nearly a yard in height, on the table, and brought the inevitable book — that miscellaneous col- lection of travellers' autographs, kept for the edifica- tion of the Imperial police. More inquisitorial than any I had yet seen, this book contained three columns, in one of which I had to note whether I was married or single; "Catholic or other beliefed;" acquainted with any one in any of the places I intended to visit, or not ! 92 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Having entered the required particulars, the damsel leaning over the page the while, I asked her what use would be made of them? " The gendarme comes to look at the book," she an- swered, " and if he found the columns empty, so would he blame my father sorely, and wake you up with loud noise to ask the reason. Ah ! sometimes he comes be- fore bedtime; sometimes not till midnight, when all folk are asleep. Then must doors be opened and ques- tions answered; and if he discovers some one in bed whose name is not yet in the book, then he makes great outcry, and my father must pay a fine, and the stranger must to the guard-house if he have not good passport. Truly, the law is strong over the book." Happy land ! Paternal government is so careful of the governed, so anxious to encourage sedentary virtues, that no one is allowed to go more than four hours, about twelve miles, from home without a passport or ticket of residence (Heimathscfiein); and should any one not quite so tame as his fellows wish to overpass the prescribed limit, paternal government not unfrequently keeps him waiting three days for the precious permit, or refuses it altogether. In a town which we shall come to by-and- by, I saw a poor woman, who begged leave to visit one of her children some fifteen miles distant, turned away with an uncompromising denial. Think of this, my countrymen ! — Islanders free to jaunt or journey whithersoever ye will: be ye mighty or mean — even ticket-of-leave holders. Whatever the cause, the regulations concerning pass- ports are in Bohemia very rigorous. It may be that the people have not forgotten they once had a king of their SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 93 own, or that a remarkable intellectual movement is taking place among the Czechs, or that a simmering up of Protestantism has become chronic within the ring of mountains; whatever the cause, the pressure of autho- rity's heaviest hand is manifest. For my own part — to mention a little thing among great things — I was more fidgeted about my passport in Bohemia than ever any- where else. It is worse in Hungary. In that province the burden of oppression is felt to a degree inconceivable by an Englishman. Passports for France or England were peremptorily refused to Hungarians of whatever degree during the year 1855; and in 1856, when the rigour was somewhat relaxed, leave was granted for three months only. And should any one be known to have paid a visit to Kossuth while in London, even though he might believe the exile to be a better orator than ruler, he would find the discipline of imprisonment await- ing him on his return home. Think of Albert Smith, or any other enterprising tourist, having to ask Lord Clarendon's permission to steam up the Rhine, ascend Mont Blanc, or travel anywhither ! 'Tis well the Magyars are not a hopeless race. The members of the Hungarian Academy at Pesth are not allowed to hold their weekly meetings unless an Imperial Commissioner be present to watch the proceed- ings, and stop the discussion of forbidden subjects. Not a word must be spoken concerning polities, or liberty in any form. History is tolerated only when she dis- courses of antiquities — urns, buildings, dress and man- ners, philology, or art. Science even must wear fetters, and preserve herself demure and orthodox. A specru- 94 A JULY HOLIDAY IN lative philosopher might as well attempt to utter high treason, as to read a paper demonstrating by geological proofs the countless ages of the earth's existence, or to quote a chapter from the Vestiges of Creation. This work is included among the prohibited books, of which a list is sent to the Academy once a week. One copy of the Times — a solitary feather from Liberty's wing — finds its way into Pesth: a rare indulgence for the Englishman who reads it. Imagine Sir Richard Mayne sitting at meetings of the Royal Society, with power to stop Sir Roderick Murchison in his Silurian evidences; or the Rev. Baden Powell in his speculations and infer- ences concerning the Unity of Worlds ; or the utterance of Professor Faraday's opinions concerning gravita- tion; and telling them they shall not read Hugh Miller's Testimony of the Rocks ! But to return. Among those who dropped in was a tall, grizzly peasant, who presently began a talk with me about what he called his sad condition. His lot was a hard one, because the country was kept down; and hoping for better times would be vain while France and England maintained their alliance. All who felt them- selves aggrieved — and their number was great — saw no prospect of redress but in a new outbreak of strife be- tween those two nations; let that only come, and from the Rhine to the Vistula all would be in revolution, wrong would be punished, and the right prevail. He knew many a peasant who was of the same way of thinking. Not being able to flatter him with hopes of a rupture between the Lion and the Cock, I suggested his taking the matter into his own hands, and making the best of SAXONY, BOIIEMIA, AND SILESIA. 95 present circumstances. Thrift and diligence would do him more good than a revolution. Whereupon he told me how he lived ; how hard he worked to cultivate his plot of ground; how rarely he ate anything besides bread and potatoes; and as for beer, it was never seen under his roof. " Do you think it fair, then," I rejoined, " to sit here drinking? Why not carry home a measure of beer, and let your wife share it ?" He made no answer ; but rose from his seat, shook me by the hand, and walked heavily away. 96 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER IX. The Village— The Peasant again— The Road-mender — Among the Czechs — Czechish Speech and Characteristics — Crosses — Horosedl— The Old Cook — More Praise of England — The Dinner — A Journey-Companion — Famous Files — A Mechaniker's Earnings — Kruschowitz — Rentsch — More Czechish Characteristics — Neu Straschitz — A Word in Season from Old Fuller — The Mechaniker departs. A hilly site, gardens, orchards, and green slopes, houses scattered at random among chestnuts and elders, and a general suspicion of Czechish carelessness, give to Willenz a touch of the picturesque : at least, when seen as I saw it, with the morning dew yet glistening on thatch, and flowers, and branches. Cherry-trees form a continuous avenue up the hill beyond, and here and there huts of fir branches were built against a stem, to shelter the guard set to watch the ripened fruit, and gatherers were busy aloft. You may pluck a cherry now and then with impunity ; but not from the trees marked by a wisp of straw twisted round a conspicuous branch, for of those the fruit is sold, and the watchman eyes them jealously. Coming to the brow of the hill, I saw what seemed a giant standing on a high bank above the road. It was the grizzly peasant magnified through a thin haze. As soon as he saw me he came plunging down the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 97 bank, gave me a cheerful " Gut Morgen" seized my hand, and said, " I have been waiting long to see you. I talk gladly with such as you, and could not let you go without asking whether you will come back this way. If so, then pray come to my house for a night. It is not far from Schloss Petersburg. We will make you comfortable." To return by the same road was no part of my plan, and when I told him so, the old man's countenance fell ; he pressed my hand tighter, and cried, with a tone of disappointment, " Is it true ? Ah ! my wife will be so sorry. I told her what you said, and she wanted to see you as much as I." As there was no help for it, we had another talk, he all the while holding my hand as if fearful I should escape. The burden of his discourse was "a good time coming," mingled, however, with a dread that when it came it would not be half so desirable as the good old times, and between the past and future his life was a torment. " Whether you shall be miserable or not," I answered, " depends more on yourself than on the rulers of Bohemia. Why should a man grumble who has a house, and food, and land to cultivate? Only carry your enjoyments home instead of consuming them by the way, and cheerfulness will be there to gladden your wife as well as you." " Yes; but in the old times " I bade him good-bye, and pursued my walk. Turn- ing round just over the brow of the hill, I saw him still in the same spot, gazing after me. "Farewell, good friend !" he shouted, and strode away. H 98 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Half an hour later I came to a road-mender, who told me he earned twenty kreutzers a day, and was quite content therewith. He had a wife and child; never ate meat or drank beer ; lived mostly on potatoes, and was, nevertheless, strong and healthy, and by no means inclined to quarrel with his lot. The road was a constant source of employment; and if at times bad weather kept' him at home for a day or two, his pay went on all the same. I mentioned my interview with the old peasant. "Ah!" he answered, laughing, "it is always so. No grumbler like a Bauer. All the world knows that peasants think everybody better off than themselves" — and down came his hammer with crashing force on a lump of granite. Wayside philosophy clearly had the best of it, and heartily approved the fable of the Moun- tain of Miseries which I narrated. Every mile brings us more and more among the Czechs. Oval faces and arched eyebrows become more numerous, and women's talk sounds shrill and shrewish, as if angry or quarrelsome, as is remarked of the women in Caernarvonshire; and yet it is nothing more than friendly conversation. To a stranger the language sounds as unmusical as it is difficult ; and to learn it — you may as well hope to master Chinese. Czechish names and handbills appear on the walls; the names of villages, with the usual topographical particulars, are written up in German and Czechish, of which behold a specimen : SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 99 Ort und Gemeinde. Misto a Obec. Horzowitz. Bezirk Jechnitz. Okres Jesenice. Kreis Saaz. Krai Zatec. Konigr. Bohrn. Krul: Czski. A In some of the villages no one but the landlord of the best inn can speak German, and you have only your eyes by which to study the natives and their ways. For my own part, my Czechish vocabulary being foolishly short, I could not ask the villagers why they preferred sluttishness to tidiness, though I longed to do so. It comprised three words only : Piwo, Chleb, Mdslo — Beer, Bread, Butter. Crosses are frequent, erected at the corners where bye- roads branch off. Not the huge wooden things you see in Tyrol; but light iron crucifixes, graceful in form and brightly gilt, and mounted on a stone pedestal. Nearly all have been set up by private individuals to commemorate some family event : By the married Pair, you may read on one; Dedicated to the Honour of God, by two Sisters, on another; In Memory of my Daughter, by Peter Schmidt, Bauer, on a third — all apparently from some pious motive. While eating a crust under the pretentious sign, Stadt Carlsbad, at Horosedl, I saw how the dowager hostess practised her domestic economy. She was pre- H2 1 00 A JULY HOLIDAY IN paring dinner for the family, after her manner, drawing her hand repeatedly across her nose, for the stove was hot and the day sultry. She sliced cucumbers with an instrument resembling a plane, sprinkled the slices with salt, then squeezed them well between her hands, and exposed them to the sun in a shallow basket, one of five or six which, woven almost as close and water-tight as calabashes, served her as dishes. Then she grated a lump of hard brown dough, and used the coarse grains to thicken the soup — a substitute for vermicelli common among the peasantry. The hostess, meanwhile, chatted with me and set the table. She professed to admire the English, and thought it an honour that an Englishman had once slept a night in her house, " although he had to look into a book for all he wanted to say." She coincided entirely in the Saxon schoolmaster's opinion, that all best things came from England. As the clock struck eleven in came half a dozen serving men and maidens, and sat down to dinner with the master and mistress. The dowager supplied them with soup, beef, a mountain of potato-dumplings, and cucumber salad, and ate her portion apart with un- doubting appetite. An old beggar crept in and stood hat in hand imploring charity for God's sake! She scolded him for his intrusion, and then gave him a smoking hot dumpling and a word of sympathy, which he received and acknowledged with humble thanks and the sign of the cross. It is a relief along this part of the road to see fre- quent hop plantations, and here and there rocks as richly red as the crimson cliffs of Sidmouth, while at rarer intervals a pale mass of sandstone on a distant SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 101 hill-slope puts on the appearance of an enormous ante- diluvian fossil. I was pacing briskly along, enjoying a fresh breeze that had sprung up, when I heard a voice behind me : " Ac/i I at last. I saw you from far, and said to myself, Perhaps that is a journey-companion — let me overtake him." Immediately a man, who walked as if he enjoyed the exercise, and wore what looked like his Sunday suit, came up to my side, and proposed to join company, so as to shorten the way with talk. We soon got through the preliminaries, and started topics enough to last all the rest of the day. The stranger notified himself as a Mechaniker from Neudeck, going to Prague on business for his master. He, too, had much to say in praise of England. He had once worked with an Englishman, a certain James, or Ya-mes, as he pronounced it, and had ever since held him in the highest esteem and admira- tion. " That was a man !" he exclaimed; " if all Eng- lishmen are the same, no wonder their nation is so great." English files also were not less praiseworthy — a fact of which Sheffield ought to be proud, seeing that her handicraft has often been reproached of late. " To dance," said the Mechaniker, " is not more pleasure than to file with an English file. How it bites, and lasts so long ! Even an old one that has been thrown away for months is better than a German file. One is honest steel — the other is too much like lead." Some folk will, perhaps, feci surprised by this scrap of experimental testimony in favour of Hallamshire. We talked about wages. The Mechaniker' s earnings were six hundred florins a year; a small sum, as it seems, to English notions for a skilled workman in 102 A JULY HOLIDAY IN machinery — one held in high consideration by his. master. Ordinary workmen get one-third less; he was, therefore, well content, and told me he could spare some- thing for the savings bank, but not so much as formerly, owing to the increased price of provisions. So with sundry discourse we came to Kruschowitz, where we dined, looking out on thick belts of fruit- trees, that embower the village, and relieve the pale green of little plantations of acacias that show here and there among the bright-red roofs. Most of the houses exhibit the Czechish style, which shuns height and dis- penses with an upper story. Then we went on at an after-dinner pace to Rentsch, where, striking into the old road to Prague, now but little frequented, we shortened the distance by four or five miles. All Czechish now, both to eye and ear. A difference is perceptible in the fields, the implements, sheds, and vehicles ; they are not so neat or workmanlike in appearance as in the German districts, and yet the broad crops of wheat, already turning yellow, betoken glad abundance. Now we found pleasant footpaths through the beech- woods that border the road, and enjoyed the cool shade and the sound of rustling leaves. The men we met had a slouching gait, and the women, wearing coarse, baggy cotton stockings, and flimsy cotton gowns, and shabby kerchiefs on their heads, were unmistakable dowdies — an appearance which has come to be consi- dered essentially Celtic. However, they failed not to salute us with their " dobrytro" (good day) as we passed. The aspect of Neu Straschitz, the next village on our way, shows how we are getting into the heart of the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 103 country — the land of the Czechs. Wide streets, which make the low whitewashed houses look still lower than they are ; a great, uneven square, patched here and there with ragged grass, bestrewn with rough logs of timber, ornamented at one side by a row of saplings, un- happy looking, as if pining for the rank of trees; on the other by a statue of St. John Nepomuk. Very lifeless ! No merry noise of children in summer evening gam- bols ; no fathers and mothers chatting in the cool lengthening shadows. The only living creatures are a man, a woman, and a dog, all three as far apart as possible. There is nothing stirring even around the Bezirksamt or the church. Glazed windows are few: an opening in the wall, with a hinged shutter, suffices for most of the houses. And for door they have a big archway closed by heavy wooden gates, looking very inhospitable. Here and there one of these gates stands a little open, and you may get a peep at the interior, a square court, enclosed by stable, barn, and dwelling, heaped with manure and ugly rubbish. No notion here, you will say, of the fitness of things. Look at the wagon — a basket on wheels — the wheelbarrow, the rakes, huddled away anyhow, as if they were just as well in one place as another. Perhaps they are. Quaint old Fuller says of the Devonshire cotters of his day, " Vain it is for any to search their houses, being a work beneath the pains of a sheriff, and above the power of any con- stable." You will, perhaps, say the same here. Look in-doors ! the same slovenliness prevails. The room would be just as comfortable, or rather uncomfortable, if chairs and table changed places; if the higgledy-piggledy at 104 A JULY HOLIDAY IN one end were shifted to the other. The condition of the utensils is by no means unimpeachable ; and repelled by the pervading odour, you will not be less thankful than proud that your lot is not cast among the Czechs. The inn is an exception, and has the appearance of being too good for the village. The Kellnerinn told us we could have as many bedrooms as we chose, for they were all empty. I was content with my day's walk, about twenty-five miles ; but the Mechaniker, impatient to arrive at Prague, resolved to travel two hours farther; so, after he had finished his tankard of beer, we shook hands, and he went on alone, the Kellnerinn assuring him as he departed that he would find good sleeping quarters almost every half-hour. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 105 CHAPTER X. A Talk with the Landlord— A Jew's Offer— A Ride in a Wagen— Talk with the Jew — The Stars — A Mysterious Gun-barrel — An Alarm — Stony Ammunition — The Man with the Gun — The Jew's opinion of him— Sunrise— A Walk— The White Hill— A Fatal Field— Waking up in the Suburbs — Early Breakfasts— Imperial and Royal Tobacco — Milk.folk— The Gate of Prague— A Snappish Sentry— The Soldiers— Into the City — Picturesque Features and crowding Associations — The Kleinseite — The Bridge — Palaces — The Altstadt — Remarkable Streets —The Teinkirche— The Neustadt— The Three Hotels. The landlord came in a few minutes afterwards, and, to encourage me to tell him all he wished to know about myself, declared himself a German. That he should ever have been so stupid as to tempt fortune at Neu Straschitz was a mistake haunting and vexing him con- tinually. A living was not to be got in such a miserable village, and among such miserable people, and he meant to migrate as soon as he could find some one more stupid than himself to take the inn off his hands. I had seen two or three German names in the street, and asked him if they were of long standing. " Not very." And he went on to say that the Stock-Bohe- mians, as the Czechs are called, arc perpetually en- croached on, pressed within narrower limits by the Ger- man element. Though a good deal was said about Czech- ish vigour and intellectuality, some folk thought that the language would at no distant day cease to be spoken. 106 A JULY HOLIDAY IN As for the character of the Czechs, there was scarcely a German who did not believe them to be sly, false, double-faced. And what says the proverb? — Dirt is the offspring of Lying and Idleness. For his part, he knew the Czechs were dirty, but he didn't quite know whether, in other respects, they were worse than their neighbours. Any way, he rather liked the thought of removing from among them. After all this, mine host thought he had a fair claim on me for a sight of an English gold coin, and answers to all his questions concerning England. I was doing my best to satisfy him, when the Kellnerinn called my attention to a Herr who was going to start with his Waff en in the course of the evening for Prague ; and she suggested, very disinterestedly as it seemed to me, that the opportunity was too good to be lost. Wagon is as comprehensive a word as our "convey- ance :" the Herr looked like a man who might be going to Prague in a carriage, so, as he promised plenty of room, and asked no more than a florin for the twenty miles, I accepted his offer. Having yet business to settle, he went out, and promised to call for me at nine o'clock. He had no sooner left the room, than the landlord said, " He is a Jew; but you need not be afraid of him. He is a very honest fellow, and comes here often." I saw no reason to be afraid, and when the Jew came back at the appointed hour was ready to accompany him. He led the way to a back street, where we waited in front of one of the low, undemonstrative houses. Presently the big gate swung back, and out came the Wagen — one of the four-wheeled basket wagons, drawn by a single horse pulling awkwardly at one side of the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 107 heavy pole. I had imagined something a little better than that; however, as the wagon was half full of new hay, with a comfortable back-cushion of clover, I scrambled in on one side while the Jew did the same on the other, and the driver, a Czech, perched himself uncomfortably on a bar in front. The wagon was just wide enough for two ; and, what with the elastic sides and soft hay, there was no painful jolting. The west shone gloriously with the golden arch of sunset as we drove out of the village and entered on a bad road winding across the open fields; and Twilight came on so softly that you might have fancied Day was lingering to lend her his palest rays. The Jew was disposed to talk, and betrayed no little curiosity on the subject of travelling. Was it not very irksome to be away from home ? was it not very expensive? and how much money did one need to carry? was there no danger? and so forth. But what interested him most was the question as to the money: he returned to it again and again. Next, he had much to ask concerning London — the sort of business transacted in the great city — the rate of profit — in short, he put me through a whole social and commercial catechism, from which he drew a conclusion that London would not be an undesirable place of re- sidence. So it went on, interrupted only by his saying a few words now and then to the driver in Czechish, until my turn came, and I opened my questioning about Prague. The Jew, however, was readier in asking questions than in answering; indeed, he was stingy in reply, as if words were worth a florin the dozen. 108 A JULY HOLIDAY IN As the stars brightened the night became cold, and set me shivering. The Jew brought two cloaks out of a bag, and, wrapped in one of these, I lay on my back looking up at the sky, thinking of home-scenes and home-friends as my eye wandered from one bright spot to another ; and solemn was the impression made on me by the sight of the glorious handiwork. " For the bright firmament Shoots forth no flame So silent, but is eloquent In speaking the Creator's name." I could not fail to note that astronomers have reason for telling us that meteoric phenomena are more com- mon on any night than would be believed by those not accustomed to observe the heavens, for I saw twelve shooting-stars within two hours. As we went on, the lights in the public-houses be- came fewer, and ere long disappeared, and the silence was only disturbed by the fitful barking of dogs in the distance, and the slow noise of the wheels. Our horse dropped into a walk, and the driver off to sleep, and I was still gazing at the stars when I heard footsteps near the side of the wagon. Turning my eyes, without rising, I saw the top of a gun-barrel about two yards off, apparently resting on some one's shoulder. The sound of the footsteps woke the driver, who immediately began to quicken the horse's pace, but very cautiously, as if to avoid suspicion. The Jew seemed uneasy, and muttered a word or two in a low tone; the whip was used, the horse broke into a trot, but the gun-barrel was not left behind ; I could still see it in the same place, keeping pace with the wagon. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 109 What did it mean? One time I fancied that perhaps the hay on which I lay so innocently was but a disguise for something contraband, whereof a cunning gendarme had gotten scent. Then I remembered the landlord's desire to see a gold coin, and the Jew's curiosity as to the amount and quality of a traveller's money, and a faint suspicion of having fallen into a trap did occur to me. Meanwhile the horse trotted in earnest; the gun- barrel was left in the rear; then the whip was plied vigorously; the Jew spoke energetically; the driver jumped from his perch, picked up two big stones, threw them into the wagon, and drove quickly on again. " There is one for you, and one for me," said the Jew to me, in a loud whisper. u What do you mean ?" I asked. " The stones," he replied ; " one for you, and one for me, if we are attacked." " Attacked or not, we are three to one, and one of the three is an Englishman." The Jew did not answer, for the footsteps were again heard approaching at a run, and soon the gun-barrel appeared once more abreast of the wagon. The driver kept the horse up to his speed, the Jew fumbled about with his feet for the big stones, and the chase — if such it could be called — continued for about ten minutes. All at once the gun-barrel darted from the road-side towards the wagon. I immediately sat up, and found myself face to face, and but a few inches apart, with the bearer of the weapon — a wild-looking fellow, wearing a slouched cap and hunting-jacket. A faint exclamation of surprise escaped him, and, whether it was that he saw two persons in the wagon, besides the driver, or that we 110 A JULY HOLIDAY IN did not look worth his trouble, I know not, but he gradually dropped behind, and we lost sight of the gun- barrel. A minute passed. " Now," said the Jew, " we are rid of him." But scarcely had he spoken, than a shrill whistle sounded afar through the silence of the night, followed after a short interval by a whistle at a distance from the road. " Quick ! quick !" was now the word to the driver. " He is calling his comrades : they will be down upon us. Quick! quick!" The Czech seemed well inclined to obey; the pace was quickened into a gallop, and, in about a quarter- hour, we came to a village, where, stopping in front of the inn, he filled the rack with clover from the wagon, and gave the horse to feed. The place with its littery appendages looked unked, lying half in deep shadow; the door was fast, and not a light shone from the windows, cheating my hope of a cup of coffee. The Jew now sat up, talked for awhile vehemently with the driver, then said, turning to me, " We have had an escape. That fellow meant nothing good — nothing good — nothing good. A real bad fel- low !" "Was he a robber?" u Perhaps worse. He meant nothing good. We are well out of it. I hope we shall not see him again." We did not; and by-and-by, as we went on again, and I lay looking up at the stars, they seemed to grow dim, then twinkle strangely, and at last they disap- peared. It may be that I slept, for when next I looked SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AXD SILESIA. Ill at the sky it was flecked by streams of rosy tints, the fields were covered with dew as a veil, and, by the timid chirping of birds, and other signs, the eye might note the preparations for lifting the veil at the approach of the sun. My sheltering cloak, my hair and eye- brows, were thickly covered with dew, cold as the brightening dawn. The Jew, similarly bepearled, lay sleeping soundly, the Czech nodded on his perch, and the horse, taking advantage of the slumber, was moving only at a sober walk. It was not yet five when I alighted about three miles from Prague, to get warm by walking the remaining distance. The Jew took his florin with much demon- stration of thanks, horse and driver roused up, and the wasfon was soon out of sisjht. A few minutes brought me to the Weissenberg — White Hill — a battle-field not less fatal than famous. The road is bordered by ample rows of trees; woods thick with foliage clothe the neighbouring hollows and acclivities, and on the left, sloping gently upwards, with here and there a break, rises the hill. Here, then, was the scene of which I had often read, where Frederick of the Palatinate, who had married a princess of England, daughter of James I., lost the crown of Bohemia. Not long had he worn it — indeed, some of his contem- poraries called him the Winter King — when he was forced to flee, with his wife and children, among them the infant Rupert, who afterwards won renown as chief of the Cavaliers in England. Treachery, as late re- searches show, aided the combined forces of Ferdinand of Austria and Maximilian of Bavaria, and from that day Bohemia ceased to be an independent monarchy, 112 A JULY HOLIDAY UN" and became a province of the Austrian Empire, a loss yet mourned by many, who join in the poet's lament: " 5ld) ®cttl 5te SBetJTcnberger ©<&la<&t ©rrciaV roo&l Dfirolcnfa'l Xraucr Un5 5te fcarauf erfolgt 5te 5Rad)t £ot frufcere oil ©ibiricnl <5cr>auer." Terrible, indeed, was the night that followed ! And when one reads of Ferdinand's faithlessness and cruelty, his murderous vengeance on the chiefest of the con- quered people, the wonder is not that Bohemia should have revolted, but that she did not reconquer her birth- right. Thoughts of the past came crowding through my mind as I paced across the ground, and presently pur- sued my walk. I was approaching a city remarkable in itself, and in its historical associations, but for the mo- ment my attention was drawn to immediate objects. As I went on down the now continuous descent, the tops of towers and spires came into view in the distance below, and on either hand appeared indications that a metropolis was not far off. Early folk were opening the booths, shops, and public-houses, which, scattered among the trees, presented ere long an unbroken line on both sides of the road. Cooling drinks were set out on tables, and many a shutter invited the passer-by to Beer and Brandy, in various phrase. Now stalls covered with cherries and currants alternate with piles of bread, hard- boiled eggs, cheese, and smoked sausages; and working people stop to eat their earliest breakfast. Every few yards sits a woman with a basket of fresh, tempting Semmel— fancy bread, as we should call it — most of the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 113 little loaves thickly sprinkled with poppy-seeds, dear to the native palate. And here and there stands what looks like a roomy sentry-box, painted yellow, and adorned with the Austrian blazon — an Imperial and Royal Booth for the sale of Tobacco. Already the road is alive with vehicles, for from every lane and byepath speed dog-carts, or little wagons on two wheels, or large wagons on four wheels, all laden with tin cans of milk for the city. How the dogs pant, and the horses snort ! for the driver, and his or her two or three companions, keep the animals at full speed, sparing neither lash nor voice. Long before they come into sight you can hear their shrill chatter, mingled with merry laughter, and, as they burst into view, a shout from all the others adds excitement to the race, and away they go, each trying to be first. Half a mile farther, and I overtake many of them at the turn of the road, where the women are sitting on the bank, putting on stockings and shoes. Some re- mount the wagons; others walk quietly onwards, show- ing a neat ankle and clean white leg to the morning sun. Now the city wall frowns towards you, and, once round the turn, there is the gate — Reichsthor — a few soldiers hanging about, and many persons passing to and fro, while the curious towers of the Strahow mo- nastery, where Rupert was born, peer above trees and vine-slopes on the right. I passed through the gloomy arch unchallenged by any of the guards, and had got some distance down the steep street, when a man made me aware that shouts in the rear were intended for me. I turned : a soldier, who had come a few yards from the cavern-like gate, was making very peremptory use of his I 114 A JULY HOLIDAY IN voice, and, as soon as I saw him, lie beckoned with angry gestures. I retraced my steps, but at too slow a pace to satisfy the Imperial functionary, for he turned again and again, each time with the same impatient gesture. No sooner did I come within earshot, than he cried, snap- pishly, " Why did you not give me your passport?" " For two reasons," I answered, with a laugh ; " this is my first visit to Prague, and I have not yet learnt your regulations; and secondly, why did you let me go by without asking me for it?" The lounging group of soldiers laughed as this was spoken, and my questioner having led the way to his darksome den, built at the elbow of the arch so as to command both approaches, took my passport and gave me the official receipt without further parley. As I emerged again into the sunshine, one of the soldiers said, "Do you know what? When any one goes away into the city without stopping at the guard- house, he must always come back to the gate where he entered, and give up his passport." I thanked him for his information, and took my way once more down the street. It was just six o'clock : all the shops were open ; working people thronged the foot- ways ; heavy teams toiled slowly up the hill towards the gate ; the milk-folk hurried down with noisy clatter, while men wearing glazed hats and a canvas uniform swept the streets. Signs of early rising everywhere. The peculiar features of the city multiply as you ad- vance. High on the left, its cathedral tower springing above the rest, appears the Hradschin — an imposing mass of building in the factory style of architecture, stretch- ing, as one might guess, for half a mile along the bold SAXONY, BOnEMIA, AND SILESIA. 115 eminence, commanding the country for miles around- You can count four hundred windows. There, as every- one knows, the Thirty Years' War began, by certain angry Bohemian nobles pitching two Imperial commis- sioners and their secretary out of one of the windows. Little did the haughty ejectors think of the conse- quences of their exploit — that before thirty years were over, 30,000 villages and more than a million men would be destroyed by war ! Being very hungry, I was fain to drink a draught of milk and eat one of the poppy-seeded loaves at the door of one of the little shops, looking round all the while on curious gables, panelled fronts, ancient gate- ways, more numerous as we descend. Lower down, we are in the oldest part of the city, among the palaces of the great nobles whose names figure in history — Kol- lowrat, Lobkowitz, Wallenstein, and others. Massive edifices, whereby your eye and steps are alike arrested. And on every side are narrow lanes and courts, some nothing but a steep stair, and these, winding in and out, increase the charm of the ornamented architecture, and produce wonderful bits of perspective. Such effects of light and shade, and glorious touches of colour ! • Then a church crowded with carvings; old women sitting on the steps, young women and matrons going in to the early mass, of which, as the doors swing to and fro, you hear the loud notes of the organ. Then a square, and tall obelisk, and arcaded houses; and turning a corner there rises the bridge tower, strikingly pictu- resque. As my eye caught sight of its graceful roof and slender finials, I could not repress an exclamation of surprise and pleasure. Then through the narrow arch, 12 116 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and we are on the ancient bridge, looking down on the broad stream of the Moldau, flowing with noisy rush through the sixteen arches built 600 years ago; at houses, palaces, and churches rising one above another in the Kleinseite through which we have just passed, and in the Altstadt on the opposite side ; at the mosaic pavement ; at the gigantic statues which terminate every pier, noteworthy saints from the Bohemian calendar, chiefest among them St. John Nepomuk, who with his crescentic belt of five large ruby stars might be taken for another Orion. In no city that I have yet seen have I felt so much pleasure, or such varied emotions, as during my walk into Prague. Then we pass under the equally picturesque bridge tower of the Altstadt, and enter narrow streets lined with good shops, and full of bustle; and after many puzzling ins and outs, we emerge into the spacious area of the Ring — a lively scene, people crossing in all direc- tions, or sauntering under the arcades; here and there sentries pacing up and down, and small parties of sol- diers, in gay uniforms, marching away to beat of drum. And above the farther houses there shoot up the two towers of the Teinkirche — one of the most famous churches in Prague — which were built by George Podie- brad. The church itself is screened by the houses ; but, whenever you see those graceful towers, you recog- nise the site of the edifice which was one of the strong- holds of Hussite preachers, and where Tycho Brahe lies buried. More narrow streets ; across the end of a market- place, and passing under the arch of the ancient Powder Tower, we enter the broad streets of the Neustadt. The SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 117 Bohemian professor at "Wiirzburg had recommended me to lodge at the Blaue Stern, so to the Blue Star I went, and asked for a room. " Quite full," said the Kellner, at the same time sur- veying me inquisitively from head to foot. Two doors off was another hotel, where the answer, accompanied by a similar inquisition, was, " Nothing empty." A third replied, " Perhaps, to-morrow." I began to fancy that my not having been in bed all night — boots still dusty, and a few stalks of hay clinging to my coat — might have something to do with these denials. However, hotels are thickly grouped in this quarter of the city, and not many yards farther the Schivarzes Ross, in the Kolovirat-strasse, gave me quar- ters as comfortable as could be wished. 118 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER XI. The Hausknecht — A Place to Lose Yourself— Street- Phenomena — Book- shops — Glass-wares — Cavernous Beer-houses — Signs — Czechish Names — Ugly Women — Swarms of Soldiers — A Scene on the Bridge — A Dratenik— The Ugly Passport Clerk — The Suspension-bridge — The Islands — The Slopes of the Laurenzberg — View over Prague — Schools, Palaces, and Poverty — The Rookery — The Hradschin — The Courts— The Cathedral— The Great Tomb— The Silver Shrine— Relics — A Kissed Portrait — St. Wenzel's Chapel — Big Sigmund — The Loretto Platz— The Old Towers— The Hill-top and Hill-foot. I had not been many minutes in my room when the Hausknecht — the German boots — brought me a printed form, in which, besides the inevitable particulars, I had to state the probable duration of my stay in Prague. For three days' residence the police authorities charge no- thing, but if you enter on a fourth day you must pay two florins for a permit to reside. I escaped the tax by not having more than three days to spare. The day was ail before me, and I made haste to " go lose myself, And wander up and down and view the city." Losing one's-self is not difficult in Prague — easier, in- deed, than in any city I have yet visited; for the Altstadt so abounds in queer nooks and corners, narrow streets and lanes all crooked and angular, running hither and thither in such unexpected directions, or coming to SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 119 a sudden stop, as completely to puzzle a stranger. Even my organ of locality well-nigh failed me in the intricate maze. Among all these zigzags you discover the leading thoroughfares only by the busy appearance, the con- tinuous stream of citizens going and coming, straggling all across the narrow roadway, now darting aside to escape a passing carriage, or slowly giving place to a long lumbering dray that rolls past with deafening rumble, the horses clattering on shoes with tall calkins that put you in mind of pattens. Here, too, are the best shops, displaying attractive wares behind coarse and uneven panes. The booksellers' windows exhibit a good variety of standard books, of maps and engravings, de- noting the existence of a wholesome love of literature ; very different from what is to be seen in the southern states of the empire. Some shops display none but Czechish books, and if you glance over the title-pages, you will discover that topography of their own country, and descriptions of the beautiful city Praha — as they call Prague — are favourite subjects with the Czechs. There is no uniformity. Next door to a cabinet- maker's, whose large-paned window exhibits a variety of tasteful furniture, you will see a cavern-like grocery without any window, and the wares all in seeming con- fusion. Next, beyond, is a shop resplendent with Bo- hemian glass, elegant forms in ruby, gold, and azure, each one a triumph of art and industry. England is a generous customer for these fragile articles, as may be seen any day in some of the best shops in London. Then comes a sullen-looking front, with grim grated window, showing no wares, and looking as if it had not cared 120 A JULY HOLIDAY IN about customers since the days of King George Podie- brad. Then a smirking coffee-house, with muslin curtains and touches of gilding. A little farther, and there is a great open arch, running far to the rear — a beer-house — the space between the street and the bar filled with tables bearing brown loaves cut in quarters, Semmel, and corpulent sausages. Turn which way you will, you find an endless diversity. " Gluck avfV writes up a little trader. " Here are best Coals. Radnitzer Coal." People who live on the upper floors hang a small wooden cruciform sign from their windows by a long string, low enough to catch the eye and strike the heads of those walking be- neath ; and on these dangling crosses, when they are not spinning round in the wind, you may read that a Den- tist, Shoemaker, or Teacher aloft in his garret would be happy to supply your wants on reasonable terras. Judging from the number of queer-lookir.g names over the doors, Prague must be the head-quarters of the Czechs, and yet one meets comparatively few ex- amples of the fine intellectual brow and handsome features of which I had seen noble specimens in the villages. Most of the faces struck me as cf a very common cast; and as for the gentle sex, never have I seen so many ugly women as in Prague. Those of the working classes are very dowdies, not to say sktterns, in many cases ; and the rows of market-women squatting by their baskets resemble so many feather-beds tied round the middle, in a flimsy cotton dress, ar.d crowned by a red or yellow kerchief pinned under the chin. Even among the graceful and gaily-dressed kdies I saw but very few pretty faces. Perhaps I expected too much, SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 121 or it might be, as I was told, that all the pretty women had gone away to the watering-places ! Surprising to a stranger is the number of soldiers, sauntering among the other pedestrians, in uniforms blue, green, gray, or white ; or marching in short files at a brisk pace behind a corporal. Not once did I take a walk in Prague without seeing three or four of these little troops stepping out towards one or other quarter of the compass. What is there to be kept down that can need such an imposing force? At all events, it heightens the picturesque effect of the streets. Stand for half an hour on the bridge and you will see, while noting that scarcely any besides boys and priests take off their hats to St. John of the five stars, how great is the proportion which the army and the church bear to the rest of the inhabitants. At times the black and the coloured uniforms appear to have the best of it. All besides may be divided into two classes — the well-dressed and the shabby — for nothing appears between the two. There are, however, but few of those very miserable objects such as haunt the streets of large towns in England. Now a man hurries past carrying a tall circular bas- ket filled with piled-up dinners in round dishes ; now another wheeling bundles of coloured glass rods ; now another with a barrow-load of bread, and many a slice will you see sold for a noonday repast. Then comes a troop of lawless-looking street-musicians ; then beggars grinding out squeaky music from tinkered organs ; then a girl carrying a coffin, painted black and yellow, under her arm, which bears a cross on its gabled lid. And now and then, among all these, your eye is arrested 122 A JULY HOLIDAY IN by a singular, wild-looking figure, whom you will think the strangest of all. He has lank black hair hanging to his shoulders from under a fluffy, round-crowned, broad-brimmed hat — of the fashion still worn by a few old Quakers in out-of-the-way places. He disdains a shirt, and wears a tight jacket and hosen of whitey-brown serge. He goes barefoot, walking with long, stealthy strides, looking,- so you guess, furtively around. On his shoulder he carries a coil of fine iron wire, and in his hand a broken red pan or stone pitcher. Wild, how- ever, and out of place as he looks, he is only a Walla- chian plying his honest calling. He is a Dratenik — or Drahthinder (Wirebinder), as the Germans call it — going about to mend broken pans and pitchers by bind- ing the fractures together with wire ; a task which he performs with neatness and dexterity. I went to the Polizeidirection to reclaim my passport. About a dozen persons were waiting. To some who looked poor and timid the clerk spoke roughly, assuming beforehand a something " not regular." One might fancy that his ungracious occupation had told upon his looks, for he was the ugliest man I ever saw, and, un- like the women, who gave themselves airs in the streets, he seemed to be aware of Nature's unkindness towards him. When my turn came, he asked, "Where are you going ? " " To the Riesengebirge." " So ! But we can't sign a passport for the moun- tains. You must tellus the name of some town." "Make it Landeshut, if you will; or any frontier town in Silesia." " Can't do that. We must have some town on this side the mountains." SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 1 23 " I don't yet know which of three routes I shall take. Say some town nearest to the mountains. Does it make any difference?" " Schbn ! You can come back here when your mind is made up." And with this rejoinder, Ugly turned away to consider a timid lady's request for permission to go a journey of fifteen miles. There was time enough, so I strolled away to the suspension-bridge — Kaiser Franzens Br'ucke — which, more than 1400 feet long, crosses the Moldau and the Sckiltzcn Inset, a short distance above the stone bridge. The view midway will make you linger. On the right bank, Franzens-quai, stretching from one bridge to the other, forms a spacious esplanade, in the centre of which, surrounded by gardens, rises the monument erected by the Estates of Bohemia to the honour of Francis I. Beyond and on either side the towers and palaces are seen in a new aspect, differently grouped from our early morning view. Those of the Kleinseite, backed by the leafy slopes of the Laurenzberg, while immediately be- neath your eye rests on the green sward and shady groves of three or four islands. The river rushing past to the dam makes a lively ripple, imparting a sense of coolness enjoyed by the visitors who throng the islands during the summer season. The Sophien Insel, named after the Archduchess Sophie, the emperor's mother, with its pleasure-grounds, dancing-floors, orchestras, re- freshment-rooms, and baths, is the chief resort, espe- cially on Sundays. The large bail-room was the scene of noisy public meetings in '48 ; the Sclave Congress was held there, followed by a Sclavonic costume ball. These islands are a pleasing feature in the view, and, with their shady bowers and the noise of the water 124 A JULY HOLIDAY IN mingling with strains of music, contrast agreeably with the matter-of-fact of the city. The Schiitzen Insel is re- sorted to by rifle companies, and you may hear a brisk succession of shots from the practice that appears to be always going on. During the outbreak of June, 1848, the floor of the bridge was taken up, and the passage across completely interrupted for some weeks by the military. And it was to Prince Windischgratz's demonstrations during the same month that the inhabitants were indebted for an extension of their handsome quay. An old water- tower, and sundry ricketty wooden mills that stood at the end of the stone bridge, were set on fire by a shell from the prince's artillery, and the space cleared by the flames was taken into the newly-formed area. Passing from the bridge through the Aujezder Thor, you come to the pleasant slopes and gardens of the Laurenzberg, a hill that overlooks the city and country around. Winding paths agreeably shaded lead up- wards, until you are stopped on the summit by massive fortifications; the great "Bread-wall," or "Hunger- wall " — for it is known by both names — which Karl IV. built all round the city five hundred years ago to give work to the citizens in a season of distress. From a buttress which projects clear of the trees, that cover all the hill-side with a broad mass of foliage, you have a wide prospect. Greater part of the city from the Jews' quarter to the Wissehrad lies beneath the eye as a panorama. The Moldau — breaking from between low hills, with here and there a Kahn floating, or a long, narrow raft drifting to the gap in the dam — flows past in a grand curve between towers and palaces, wretched SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 125 hovels and stately churches, and onwards round the hills below to join the Elbe. The islands are open as a map, and you see the puffs of smoke from the rifles on the Schiitzen Insel. It is a striking but disap- pointing view, for notwithstanding the ancient gables and various towers that shoot aloft, the city has some- what the aspect of a collection of factories, so mono- tonous are the long lines of white, many-windowed wall, bearing their long slopes of bright red roof. Street after street stretching away, all of the same cha- racter, and scattering on the outskirts into a tame country, cruelly disappoint your expectations of the picturesque. Here and there arc large patches of green among houses, and rows of poplars shooting up. Yet, after all, there is something in the view which makes you linger. In some of its architectural forms and features it partly realizes your mental pictures of the East, and your imagination flies back to the remote days when the Czechs left their far-away home towards the sunrise, and wandered on till their leader, looking down from the hills on the valley of the Moldau, deter- mined that here should be the seat of his empire. I sat for an hour on the rough coping of the buttress looking down on the scene, while the leaves rustled cheerfully in a cooling breeze, and the sunbeams glistened and flashed from a thousand windows, and gilded weather- cocks, and the lively ripples of the muddy stream. If inclined for a quiet stroll, you may wander among the trees and rocks on the crown of the hill, or visit the church of St. Lawrence, from whom the hill takes its name. From the highest summit, in very favourable weather, it is possible to see St. Georgsberg, near 126 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Raudnitz, and peaks of the Mittelgebirge and Riesen- gcbirge — mountains on the Saxon and Silesian frontier. On coming down from the hill, I prowled for awhile about the Kleinseite, where, besides the anti- quities and rare old palaces, you are struck by the num- ber of schools and institutions for education. Strange groupings indeed in this quarter of the city ! Palaces as rich in treasures of art and .literature as in historical associations, side by side with miserable hovels and narrow, crooked streets, where poverty lurks in rags and squalor. Little bits of architecture, that are a delight to look on, catch your eye in unexpected places, peering out in some instances from among things that delight not the eye. But the schools are close by, and innovation creeps slowly on though few perceive it. You may mount to the Hradschin by some of these byeways, where you will see how many windows have inner gratings, and how here and there the prison-like aspect is relieved by plants and flowers that screen the iron bars; and by these signs may you know where honest poverty dwells. In the Holder Weg and Neue Welt you have specimens of the Rookery of Prague. At length, after many ins and outs and bits of steep stair, you find yourself on the terrace in front of the Hradschin, and you will be tempted to pause on the steps and survey the view across the house-tops. The mass of buildings here is large enough, and shel- ters inhabitants enough to form a town. It includes a royal fortress — the archbishop's residence — a nunnery and monastery, a penal reformatory, besides lodgings of the official functionaries. A considerable portion of the huge pile is now used SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 127 as barracks for infantry and cavalry, and things military abound within its courts. There are sentries on duty, and soldiers off duty lounging about the guard-house, while their muskets lean against a rail painted black and yellow. But you pass unchallenged, and while crossing the quadrangle may see the word SALVE in large characters in the pavement. In the third court you come to the cathedral, an un- finished edifice dedicated to St. Vitus, still showing marks of Hussite mischief, and of the Great Frederick's cannon-balls. It covers the site of a church built in 930 in honour of the same saint by Wenzel the Holy — he who planted the first vineyard in Bohemia, on the eastern slope of the Hradschin hill. The foundation- stone of the present structure was laid by Charles IV., during the lifetime of his father John; and although .the building went on for forty-two years, it was never completed. In 1673 Leopold I. made an attempt to finish it according to the original plan; but he did nothing more than build a few columns in different styles, which stood in the fore-court until 1842, when they were pulled down, as the beginning of a new effort for completing the structure. Stimulated by the zeal of Canon Pesina, a Prague Cathedral Building Union was founded, with Count Francis Thun for chief; and pre- parations were made for the work, and for raising a million florins to pay for it, when the troubles of 1848 — fatal to so many hopes and noble purposes — put a stop to the proceedings. If the outside disappoint you by sundry additions and contradictory ornaments, which spoil the pure effect of the original Gothic, you will find cause enough for 128 A JULY HOLIDAY IN astonishment inside. At the western end of the nave stands the richly-carved mausoleum, erected in 1589 by Kollin of Nuremberg, at the cost of Rudolf II. It is of Carrara marble, and in magnitude and beauty of sculp- ture may well vie with Maximilian's tomb in the Court Church at Innsbruck. Royal dust is plentiful in the vault beneath, for therein lie, besides Rudolf himself, Charles IV. and his four wives, Wenzel IV., Ladislaus Posthumus, George von Podiebrad, Ferdinand I. and his wife Anna, Maximilian II., and the Archduchess Maria Amelia, who was buried in 1804. From ad- miring the manifold carvings, which show the touch of the true artist, you will perhaps look next at the tomb of St. John Nepomuk, on the right near the altar. Surely no other saint, or living bishop, even in this age of testimonials, ever had such a service of plate presented to him as that ! It is a small mountain of silver. On . high, silver angels hold a canopy over a silver shrine, which, borne aloft by angels, life size, contains the martyr's body in a crystal coffin, set off by shining statues, glittering ornaments, bas-reliefs, and tall candle- sticks, all alike made of silver. If current testimony may be relied on, there are nearly two tons of the pre- cious metal therein dedicated to the holy Johannes. No wonder that you see the saint's statue on so many bridges in Bohemia, and even for a few miles beyond the frontiers. The curiosities of the church are more than can be examined in a brief visit. There are twelve chapels ranged about the nave — the last fitted up as an oratory for the Imperial family. In one of them you may see the foot of a candlestick, which, according to tradition, SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 129 was one of those made for Solomon's Temple, from whence it was conveyed to Rome, and afterwards to Milan, where Wladislaus I. seized the precious relic, and he brought it to Prague. At all events, the workmanship shows signs of great antiquity. And near the western end there hangs a " true image" — a head of Christ, the holy placid features showing a trace of sadness, the e} r es looking at you with an earnest, though pitying expres- sion. It is a remarkable specimen of early art ; much venerated by the devout, who would soon obliterate it by kisses were it not protected by gla§s. A mous- tachioed man came up, and, taking off his hat, pressed his lips upon the sacred mouth while I was still looking at the painting. Frescoes bordered by gems adorn the walls of St. Wenzel's chapel; and here are preserved the saint's helmet and coat of mail, a brass ring to which he clung when he fell murdered by his brother's hand, and other relics. Here also the Bohemian regalia are kept in rigorous security under seven locks : St. Wenzel's sword is among them, and with this, after his coronation, the monarch creates knights of St. Wenzel's order. The verger gives you his cut-and-dry description; but, as he may omit to tell you a little bit of history, it would be well to remember that in this chapel the Arch- duke Ferdinand was chosen King of Bohemia in 1526, whereby the kingdom has ever since belonged to the house of Hapsburg. Further concerning statues, lamps, tombs, and paint- ings, and the organ, with its 2831 pipes, the treasure- chamber, where, among other things, are sixteen leaves of St. Mark's Gospel in the hand of the Evangelist — the K 130 A JULY HOLIDAY IN rest said to be at Venice — the trinary chapel, and the seven bells in the tower, among which " Big Sigmund" weighs thirteen tons, and the octagon chapel, and the pulpit in the fore-court, may be read in guide-books. Go next to the Loretto Platz, and look at the palace which once belonged to Count Czernin, and at the Loretto chapel — an exact copy of the far-famed Holy House in Popedom. Or perhaps you will take more interest in remembering that in a house near this chapel Tycho Brahe made the observations from which he and Kepler produced the Tabulce Rudolphince — a work well known to astronomers; perpetuating in its title the name of their munificent patron. As old engravings testify, the Hradschin once looked picturesque when its twenty-two high-roofed towers were all standing. Of these only four remain; and in the Black Tower you may see fearsome specimens of mediaeval dungeons. If those grim walls could speak, the fate would be known of some of Bohemia's worthiest, who, within a year after the battle of the White Hill, suddenly disappeared from among their families and friends, and were never more heard of. You may end your exploration by crossing to the opposite side of the hill, and taking a view of the great range of buildings from the Staubbruche, which crosses the Hirschgrabeji, and commands a prospect over the north-western environs of the city, and of the contrasts between the palace on the hill-top and the frowsy haunts at the foot. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 131 CHAPTER XII. The Tandelmarkt — Old Men and Boys at Rag Fair — Jews in Prague — The Judenstadt — Schools and Synagogues — Kemote Antiquity — Ducal Victims — Jewish Bravery — Removal of Boundary Wires. From the Hradschin, with its imperial associations, living and dead, to an Old Clothes Market, is a change over which you may laugh or lament, according to your mood. If you have seen Rag Fair in London, you can form a weak notion of what I saw in the Tan- delmarht at Prague on my return to the Altstadt from the palatial hill. For, besides the difference of archi- tecture, which heightens the general effect, foreign Jews, whether in consequence of shabbier clothes or dirtier habits, have always a more picturesque appear- ance than their brethren in England. What a gabble ! accompanied by gesticulations so violent that you would think the traders were coming to blows. Old men bent by age, of venerable aspect and beard patriarchal, stand chaffering as eagerly for cast-off garments as if they had Methuselah's years before them in which to enjoy the proceeds. u It is naught," argues the buyer; and the graybeards whine over their frippery, and turn it about, and display it to the best advantage, and reply in a tone that extorts at last the reluctant coins from the customer's pocket. K 2 132 A JULY HOLIDAY IN Look at the boys ! How they ply nimbly hither and thither, picking up stray bargains: adepts already in the craft of their grandsires. Look at their fathers ! No whining in their traffic; but hard altercation, in which patient subterfuge proves more than a match for vehemence. Here and there, however, a cunning Czech, by sharp practice with his tongue, and a timely exhibition of his money, succeeds in carrying off a blouse or hosen on his own terms; and the Hebrew, while pouching the coins, sends after him low mutter- ings, which forebode ill to the next customer. As you wander among the stalls, and push between the busy groups, noting how much of the merchandise appears utterly worthless, you will find cause enough for laughter and for lamentation. According to the census of 1850, the number of Jews in Prague is about nine thousand, of whom nearly eight thousand are natives. Besides these, there are many resident in some of the neighbouring villages; but the number is less now than formerly. Daily per- ambulations of the city with the old, familiar, dingy bag on shoulder, in quest of " clo," and the trade of the Tandehnarkt, are the resources to which most betake themselves. The place assigned for their residence, known as the Judenstadt (altered of late years to Josefstadt), is a few acres of the Altstadt, lying between the Grosser Ring and the river: by far the most densely populated part of Prague. It is crowded with houses: traversed by narrow streets not remarkable for cleanliness, and has altogether an uninviting aspect. Your sanitary reformer would here find a strong case of overcrowding: two or SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 133 three families in one room, and a dozen, and, in some instances, more than twenty owners for a single house. The number of faces of men, women, and children at the windows, and the many comers and goers along the devious ways and in and out of the darksome passages, leave you no reason to doubt the fact. And in these miserable tenements dwell some of the chiefest men of the community — men appointed to places of trust and honour, who sit in the old Jewish council-house, and officiate in the synagogue. But even here the ancient complexion and character are changing. New and commodious houses built in a few places are a standing reproach to the rest of the neighbourhood, and to the partisans of dirt. And while prying about you will hear the voices of children in sundry schools, where the teachers talk and work as if they were in earnest. Nor is spiritual culture neglected, for you will see some four or five synagogues, and a Temple of the Reformed Israelitish GocVs-icorship. In Prague, the manners and customs of the Jews are said to retain more of their primeval characteristics than in any other place out of Asia; the chief cause being the bitter persecutions to which the race, as everywhere else, were subjected. Some accounts assign their first settlement here to the fabulous afjes of historv, and make it seventy-two years earlier than that of the Czechs, or in the year 462 of the present era. And the tradition runs, that on the ground now occupied by the Judenstadt, and on part of the Kleinseitc, the first build- ings were erected. In the early days the Jews lived in whatever quarter of the city suited them best; but, in consequence of 134 A JULY HOLIDAY IN many corrupt practices, Duke Spitignew II. banished them all from Bohemia in 1059. Eight years later, Duke Wratislaw II., moved to pity, granted leave for their return, though not on compassionate conditions. Besides doubling their former amount of yearly tax, they were to pay an annual fine of two hundred silver marks, to purchase twelve houses near the river in the Kleinseite for their residence, and to wear a yellow cloak as a distinguishing garment. Their number was never to exceed one thousand ; but in a few years it had grown to five thousand, whereupon the surplus were banished ; and, to check smuggling among the re- mainder, they were removed from the Kleinseite to their present quarters. The yellow cloak having fallen into disuse, Ferdi- nand II. revived the regulation with sharp severity in 1561. From the Second Ferdinand (in 1627) the Jews obtained important privileges, in consideration of a yearly gift of forty thousand gulden : liberty to choose their own magistrates and judges, to establish schools, and multiply in numbers without limit. In 1648 they took a valiant part in the defence of Prague against the Swedes, and the banner won by their bravery is still preserved in the old synagogue. In 1745 they were once more banished, but had permission to return the following year. Joseph II. placed them on an equality with other citizens, and allowed them to buy land, and dress as they pleased. In the good old times, whenever any turbulence oc- curred in Prague, it was always made the excuse for plundering or persecution of the Jews; and in this par- ticular their history accords with that of their brethren SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 135 in all other cities of Europe. They did but barely escape in the memorable '48. Their town once had nine gates, which were shut at nightfall; and subse- quently, wires stretched across the streets, marked the boundary between Hebrew and Christian: these were removed in the year last mentioned, and have not since been replaced. 136 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER XIII. The Jewish Sabbath — The Old Synagogue — Traditions concerning it — The Gloomy Interior — The Priests— The Worshippers and the Worship —The Talkers— The Book of the Law— The Rabbi— The Startling Gun — A Birth at Vienna — Departed Glory. My second day in Prague being a Saturday, I went to see the Jews at worship in their synagogue. The Josef stadt was comparatively quiet; but few persons in the streets, and those dressed in their best; the boys carrying prayer-books, and the men with what looked like an apron rolled up under their arm. On entering the synagogue, I found that the apron was a white scarf {talis), with blue striped ends, which each man put on across his shoulders before taking his seat. But first, a few words about the building itself. On approaching it along the narrow Beleles-gasse, you are struck at once by its appearance of great antiquity — visibly the most ancient among buildings decrepid with age. It is sunk low in the ground, down a flight of some ten or twelve steps, as if the first builders, wor- shipping, in fear, had sought concealment. Of architec- tural display there is none. "Walls blackened by the dust and storms of centuries, with two or three narrow- pointed windows, looking so much more like a bride- SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 137 well than a temple of the living God, that not till I had seen the steady procession of men and boys to the door could I believe it to be really the synagogue, No wonder that its foundation is referred back to days ere Europe had a history. One tradition says, that no sooner was the Temple at Jerusalem destroyed, than angels immediately set about building this syna- gogue on the bank of the Moldau. According to another, certain people digging in a hill which once covered the spot, came upon a portion of a wall, and, continuing their excavation, cleared away the hill, and found a synagogue built already to their hands. And, as before mentioned, there is the tradition which dates it seventy-two years earlier than the arrival of the Czechs. It was a remarkable sight that met my eyes as I descended into the building. If the outside conveys an impression of extreme age, much more does the inside. The deep-sunk floor, the dim light, the walls and ceiling as black as age and smoke can make them, are the features of a dungeon rather than of a place of thanksgiving. The height, owing to the low level of the floor, appears to be greater than the length, and, looking up, you can easily believe that cleansing has never been attempted since the first prayer was offered. Old-fashioned brass chandeliers han£ from the ceilimr, and here and there a brazen shield on the wall. The almemmar, or rostrum, occupies the centre of the floor, and in the narrow space on either side and at one end are the seats and stools for the congregation, with numerous reading-stands crowded between. These stands have a shabby, makeshift look, no two being 138 A JULY HOLIDAY IN alike in height or pattern, as if each man had con- structed his own. Hence a general look of disorder as well as of dinginess. The doorkeeper requested me to keep my cap on ; and I saw that all present sat covered. Even the officiating priests wore their hats, and in dress and appearance were in no way different from the hearers. Every man had his talis on, and was continually fidgetting and shrugging to keep it on his shoul- ders, and his Hebrew prayer-book from slipping off the stand. The priests walked restlessly up and down the almemmar, but whether they were praying or ex- horting I could not tell, for all sounded alike to me — a glib and noisy gabble. And all the while the men on the darksome seats under the gallery kept up a murmur of talk in twos and threes, in a way that sounded very much like a discussion of questions left unfinished on the Tandelmarkt. Now and then a " Hush ! Hush !" was impatiently ejaculated by one of the devout who sat near with eyes fixed on his book ; but the back seats took no heed, and, though in the temple, ceased not to talk of merchandise. Very few were they who maintained a fixed attention ; a ceaseless rocking of the body to and fro, as, with half-closed eyes, they went through their recitations, distinguished them from the rest. Now and then the priests paused in their uneasy walk, drew together, and had a little bit of quiet talk among themselves, seasoned by a pinch of snuff all round. Then they separated, and one, pacing from side to side, gave repeated utterance to a short phrase, in a wailing, sing-song tone, while the others went behind the SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 139 veil, and presently came forth again, one bearing what at first sight looked like a thick double roll surmounted by two silver candlesticks. It was the Book of the Law; and no sooner did the bearers appear than a cry of joy was set up by the whole assembly. A shabby wrapper and the silver ornaments were taken off, and then the sacred parchment was seen wound on two cylinders, so that as a portion was read from one it might be rolled up on the other. The scroll was laid on the table with some formal ceremony, and the priests, unrolling a part, began to read, but in such a snuffling tone and careless manner as indicated but little reverence. After each one had snuffled in turn, the old rabbi, wearing a long gown and fur cap, was assisted on to the almemrnar, and, bending low over the scroll, he read a few passages solemnly and impressively, though in a voice weak and tremulous with age : audible to all, for the talkers under the gallery held their peace. His task finished, he was led back to his seat : the roll was wound up, and, with the wrapper and ornaments replaced, was returned to its place behind the veil. The monotonous murmur was renewed : one of the priests commenced a recitation, but he had scarcely opened his lips than the report of a cannon boomed loudly from the Hradschin, startling all within hearing, and making the streets echo again. " Ah ! " cried the talkers, " that's for the empress. Is it prince or princess this time?" The priest halted in his recitation as the thunderous shocks succeeded — one, two, three, and so on, up to twenty-five — when, after another pause of listening 140 A JULY HOLIDAY IN expectation, " Ah ! " cried the talkers again, " 'tis only a princess ;" and they took up once more the thread of their murmur. Then followed more gabbling and snuffling from the rostrum ; and, as I listened and looked round from face to face, noting the expression, something like sadness came over me ; for were not those slovenly utterances a hopeless lamentation over the glory that had departed ? Was it clean gone for ever? Did no trace remain of that solemn and gorgeous ceremonial, instituted when the glory came down and filled the house in the presence of the king, and of the Levites and singers " arrayed in white linen, having cymbals, and psalteries, and harps ;" and of the people? When the king prayed, " Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into Thy resting- place, Thou, and the ark of Thy strength: let Thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness." An hour passed, and still the recitations and murmur went on. I had seen enough, and thought, as I stepped forth into the daylight, that the cry, " His blood be on us, and on our children ! " had been fearfully avenged. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 141 CHAPTER XIV. The Alte Friedhof— A Stride into the Past— The Old Tombs— "Vegetation and Death — Haunted Graves — Ancient Epitaph — Babbi Low — His Scholars— Symbols of the Tribes — The Infant's Coffin— The Play- ground — From Death to Life. The old synagogue and old Jewish burial-ground (Alte Friedhof) are but a few yards apart. On my way from one to the other I passed sundry groups, chiefly women, talking with animation about the in- teresting event signalized from the Hradschin. And more than one expressed a wish that a prince and not a princess had been born to the House of Hapsburg. The angle of a wall, overtopped within by foliage, marks the site of the burial-ground. The doorkeeper unlocked the gate, and, passing in, I felt as if, instead of merely stepping across a threshold, a long stride had been taken back into the Past. The living world is all shut out, and you are alone with the dead — the dead of long ago. Beth Chaim, or the House of Life, is the name in Hebrew ; but there is no life save that of gnarly elder- trees, gooseberry-bushes, and creeping weeds that strug- gle up into a wild maze from among the overcrowded 142 A JULY HOLIDAY IN tombs and gravestones. The stones, thick and massive, are so incredibly numerous, that they are wedged and jammed together in most extraordinary confusion. Some lean on one side ; some forwards, some back- wards, and many would fall outright were they not propped up by others standing near. Hence all sorts of curious holes and corners, in which grow choking weeds and coarse grass, hiding the inscriptions, and producing a strange impression of neglect and decay. With this impression comes a sense of the mysterious, heightened by the nature of the ground, which, irregular in outline and very uneven, confines your view to but a small portion at once. Though the enclosure takes up about one-twelfth of the Judenstadt, your idea becomes one of a succession of patches of tangled foliage droop- ing over mouldering tombs. Now the path mounts a broken slope ; now dips into a narrow way between the walls of encroaching streets and houses ; now enters a widening area, where the fragrant blossoms and branches of the elders droop gracefully over the ancient memorials — or comes to an end in some out-of-the-way nook. Thus you are led on pace by pace, always wondering what will appear at the next turn. And there is something mysterious in the associations of the place. Tales are told of ghosts that haunt the tombs; unhappy spirits bringing terror and doom to the living, or goblins playing gruesome tricks. And again in its antiquity : anticipating by a hundred years the building of Prague, as proved by a date on a tomb- stone. No wonder that the ground is heaped high, and full of ups and downs ! Thousands of Jews have turned to dust beneath the surface. SAXONY , BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 143 Something, however, must be deducted from its antiquity. If, as careful investigation gives reason to believe, the old synagogue was built in the thirteenth century, we may suppose the opening of the burial- ground to have taken place within the same period. The notion arose from misreading the stone, whereby one thousand was subtracted from the date. The in- scriptions are in the Hebrew character, and, for the most part, deeply cut. The stone in question is inscribed : In Elul (August) the 22nd day: lamentation . . . was the ornament of our head snatched away. Sara, whose memory stands in high praise, wife of Joseph Katz, died. She was modest ; and readied out her hand to the poor. Her speech was mild and agreeable, with- out shame or vice. Her desire was after the house of the Creator. She gave herself up to whatsoever is holy, and continued steadfast. She trained up her children accord- ing to the law of God. One of the most remarkable tombs is that of Rabbi Low (or Lyon) — a handsome temple-formed sarcopha- gus, distinguished by a sculptured lion, and the beauty of its workmanship. The rabbi himself was a remark- able man in his day ; eminent for nobleness of mind and great learning ; and it is recorded of him that he was honoured by a visit from the Emperor Rudolf II. in his own house. He lies here in good company ; for on both sides of his tomb extends a row of gravestones, thirty-three in number, marking the resting-place of thirty-three of his favourite scholars ; and not far off a taller stone shows the grave of his son-in-law. On many of the slabs you will see curious devices deeply cut, and figures resembling a coat-of-arms. These 144 A JULY HOLIDAY IN indicate the tribe, or family or name of the deceased. There lies one of the house of Aaron, as shown by the two hands; a pitcher denotes the tribe of Levi; and Israel is signified by a bunch of grapes. The name Fischeles or Karpeles is symbolised by a fish ; Lyon by the royal quadruped; and Halm by a domestic fowl; and so forth. All these and many other noteworthy objects will you see while wandering about this mortal wilderness ; and the doorkeeper, if in the mood, will tell you many a legend, and point out the tombs of Simeon the Just, and Anna Schmiedes, concerning whom something might be said should the humour serve. No burials have been permitted since the reign of Joseph II. ; and from that date, except that the path is clean, the whole place appears to have been abandoned to the influence of the seasons. Many of the stones are broken; here and there the slabs of the tombs are crumbled away, leaving large holes through which you may look and see green stains and patches of dark mould. In a dry spot at the foot of a wall I saw a bundle nailed up within rough staves of fir ; it was a still-born infant in its coffin ; and perhaps for such a little hole may still be dug in the ancient ground. Notwithstanding that the backs of a few old houses look down on the graves, they fit in with the scene, and your impression of deep loneliness remains undis- turbed, except in one corner, where the surface is clear and level. It is used at times as a playground for the children, whose voices you hear from the open windows of the schoolroom that encloses one side. Painter and poet might alike make a picture of childhood, full of SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 145 mirth and happiness, playing in the sunshine; and in the background, all too near, the haunted tombs of their forefathers. A few years ago the Jews, finding their quarter much too small for commodious or decent habitation, peti- tioned the authorities for leave to widen their bounda- ries, and in answer were recommended to destroy their venerable Friedhof, and build houses upon the ground. No willingness has yet been manifested to adopt the recommendation. As on entering, so on departing, are you aware of a strange impression; from the field of death, from silence and solitude, you pass at once to the noisy life of the streets, and the spell wrought upon you by the brief saunter where sits " The Shadow cloak'd from head to foot Who keeps the keys of all the creeds," is broken with a shock. And by-and-by, when in the noisier thoroughfares, vague fancies will come to you of having had a sepulchral dream. 146 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER XV. The Kolowratstrasse — Picolomini's Palace — The Museum — Geological Affluence — Early Czechish Bibles — Rare Old Manuscripts — Letters of Huss and Ziska — Tabor Hill — Portraits — Hussite Weapons — Antiques — Doubtful Hussites in the Market-place — The Gluckliche Entbindung — A Te Deum — Two Evening Visits — Bohemian Hos- pitality — The Gaslit Beer-house. The Kohwratstrasse is one of the finest streets in Prague. It is broad, straight, and well paved ; contains the best hotels, the most elegant coffee-houses, the handsomest shops, and a palace or two. It was always known as the Graben ; for here once flowed the ditch separating the Alt and Neustadt, and Graben it still remains, the folkname prevailing over that of the Im- perial minister after whom it was named some twenty years ago. One of the palaces formerly belonged to Wallenstein's opponent, Count Octavio Picolomini ; the other now contains the Bohemian Museum/ which, an honour to the city, is a praiseworthy example of the intellectual movement among the natives. The Museum Company, formed in 1818, to collect works of art, natural pro- ductions of the country, curiosities, and antiquities, ap- pointed a committee in 1830 to promote a scientific cul- tivation of the Czechish language and literature, and to create a section of archseology and natural history. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 147 Under the designation Matice ceskd (Bohemian Mother), a fund was established and vigorously maintained, out of which the desired objects were accomplished; par- ticularly as regards the literature. To call Palackyinto activity — a historian of whom Bohemia is justly proud — was no trifling achievement. Up to 1847 the col- lections were kept in the Sternberg Palace at the Hradschin ; but in that year they were removed to their present more convenient and accessible quarters. Later in the day I went to the Museum : I wished to see with what sort of carnal weapons the Hussites had gained so many victories over their fellow-countrymen. First you enter the department of geology and mine- ralogy, the richest and most important of the whole col- lection. The specimens are well arranged, and among them you may see minerals and fossils which give a special interest to the geology of Bohemia. Concerning these fossils, the late Dean of West- minster says, in his Bridgewater Treatise : u The finest example of vegetable remains I have ever wit- nessed, is that of the coal mines of Bohemia. The most elaborate imitations of living foliage upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces bear no comparison with the beauteous profusion of extinct vegetable forms with which the galleries of these instructive coal-mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion of its surface. The effect is heightened by the contrast of the coal-black colour of these vege- tables with the light groundwork of the rock to which they are attached. The spectator feels himself trans- • L 2 148 A JULY HOLIDAY IN ported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of another world; he beholds trees of forms and characters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, presented to his senses almost in the beauty and vigour of their primeval life; their scaly stems and bending branches, with their delicate apparatus of foliage, are all spread before him, little impaired by the lapse of countless ages, and bear- ing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation, which began and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible historians." If you care but little for botany and zoology, with plants, fossils, and creatures from before the Flood, the attendant will lead you at once to the archaeological department, and uncover the glass-cases containing rare old manuscripts. Among them are a poem of the ninth century about Libussa, a somewhat mythical Queen of Bohemia, from whom Palacky has cleared away the fable ; the Nicbelungenlied in Czechisli ; a Latin Lexicon with Bohemian gloss, date 1102; seven edi- tions of the Bible in Czechish, all translated before Luther's, show how the Bohemians profited by the read- ing of WyclifFe's books which were sent to them from England; and a remarkable hymn-book, written at the cost of different guilds, each of whom ornamented their portion with exquisite paintings in miniature ; specimens of the earliest representations of musical notes ; and the first book printed in Bohemia, Historia Trojanska y 1468. You will look with interest at the letters by Huss, and the challenge which he hung up on the gate of the University, declaring his religious opinions, and his readiness to maintain them by argument against all SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 149 comers : Latin documents, in a stiff, formal hand. Equally stiff is a letter written by Ziska, dated from the Hussite camp at Tabor; but there is a world of sug- gestion in those hard characters. That rusty leaf sets your memory recalling the events of five hundred years ago: the journey of Huss to face the wicked Council, and martyrdom at Constance, under a safe-conduct granted by the Emperor Sigismund, requiring all men to let the valiant preacher go and come, and tarry freely and unharmed; — the furious outbreak of the Protestants at the accursed condemnation of their teacher to the flames ; — their sanguinary battles, and fiery zeal, and avowed determination to root out their enemies, whereby for eighteen years the land was laid waste with fire and sword, and the name of Hussite became a very terror: — and their redoubtable leader, Ziska the one-eyed, stand- ing out from among them in bold relief, a captain most resolute and skilful, the instrument of righteous ven- geance upon the execrable Sigismund; who, though he lost that single flashing eye of his, yet never lost a battle, nor the confidence of his followers. We see him amidst his rough and ready fighting men in the camp, on the heights to which, in the pride of their hearts, they gave a name from Scripture ; and where they quenched their thirst in the water of Jordan, exulting, " What hill is like to Tabor hill in beauty and in fame ?" From the letter you turn to look at a portrait of the warrior. It is a miserable painting, very much in the signboard style, yet you can mark the breadtli of shoulder beneath the gleaming corslet, the oval face, aquiline nose, large bright eye, and lofty forehead, shaded 150 A JULY HOLIDAY IN by thick, black, curling hair, and picture to yourself a proper hero. There is another and a better portrait in the Strahow monastery, and by noting the best points of each you will improve your idea, though perhaps not to full satisfaction. The attendant, moreover, will call your attention to a portrait of Huss, whose features ex- press but little of the intellectual qualities and the stead- fastness by which he was characterized. A few paces farther, and there are the weapons with which the Hussites fought and won battles in the name of the Lord. Flails, shields, and firelocks of a very primi- tive construction. And such flails ! The short swinging arm is hung by strong iron staples to the end of a stout staff, about six feet in length, and is braced up in iron bands, which bristle with projecting points, the better to make an impression on an enemy's skull. Truly a for- midable weapon ! Try the weight. The arm must be strong that would wield it with effect; and mighty must have been the motive that sent whole ranks armed therewith rushing to the onslaught as to a threshing- floor. Looking at these things, you realize somewhat of the shock and storm of the events in which they were employed. Besides the stacks of weapons, the room contains in glass-cases round the walls numerous ivory carvings of singular merit and rarity, and other curiosities with which you may divert your thoughts. And in a neigh- bouring apartment there hangs an engraved view of Prague as it stood a few years before the fatal day of the "White Hill, well worth inspection. The Hradschin and Wysschrad, at opposite ends of the city, look really pic- turesque crowned with numerous towers. "Walking afterwards through the markets, and seeing SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 151 the dowdies sitting by their stalls under large red um- brellas, and the number of shabby men loitering about, I -wondered if they were indeed the descendants of those who, under Ziska's command, had wielded the flails. However, in 1848, the men proved that the fighting- blood still circulated in their veins. The authorities had lost no time, and on every corner placards were posted, announcing in loyal terms the " gliickliclie Entbindang " of the empress; but though crowds stopped to read, I saw no manifestations of joy. Great was the concourse, too, in the Grosser Ring, where a Te Dcum was offered with pomp and ceremony in presence of the city militia : close ranks of green uni- forms interposed between priests and people. The letter of the Wiirzburg professor opened for me the hospitable doors of a pleasant house on a hill-slope beyond the city. Father, mother, and the two daughters joined in showing kindness to one who came to them with credentials from son and brother. The young ladies spoke English fluently, and while we sauntered between odorous flower-beds and under drooping cherry- trees, they took pleasure in exercising their acquirement. Then we had tea in a pretty garden-house, all open to the breeze and quivering sunbeams and rustling vespers of the leaves. A Bohemian tea — cutlets, potatoes, salad, cheese, and butter, bottled beer, Toleranz, and the fra- grant beverage itself poured from a real teapot. Tole- ranz was something new to me: it is a pungent, relishing preparation, in which horseradish is a principal ingre- dient, and at your first taste you will think it appropri- ately named. It was while chatting over this delightful repast that I was told all the pretty women had left Prague for the 152 A JULY HOLIDAY IN watering-places. Two at least were left behind. The conversation of the Czechish servants who waited on us, heard at a short distance, sounded like a screechy quarrel; and on my remarking that I had noticed similar discords during a ramble in Wales, one of the young ladies replied, in explanation, " Our friends often think we are scolding our servants, when all the while we are speaking to them in a quiet, natural tone. Your ear is deceived. There is nothing but good-humour among them." It was late each evening when I walked back across the fields to the city; just the hour, as it seemed, when the great arched beer-vaults in the Rossmarkt were in their prime. There was something striking in the long gas-lit vista viewed from the entrance, every table crowded with tipplers, dimly seen through tobacco- smoke; waiters flitting to and fro with tankards; the damsel at the sausage-stall trying to serve a dozen cus- tomers at once; while high above the rumbling, rattling din, sounded the liveliest strains of music. I sat for awhile on an upturned barrel watching the scene. Here workmen and labourers, and those of lower degree, the proletaires of Prague, were enjoying their evening — making merry after the toils of the day. These were the folk who would fight whether or no in 1848; whose bullet-marks are yet to be seen on many of the houses. Either the beer was strong, or they drank too deeply, for many staggered into the street, and went reeling homewards; conquered more hopelessly by their own hand than by Prince Windischgratz's bombardment. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 153 CHAPTER XVI. Sunday Morning in Prague — Gay Dresses — Pleasure-seeking Citizens — Service in the Hradschin Cathedral — Prayers and Pranks — Fun in the Organ-loft — Glorious Music — A Spell broken— Priests and their Robes — Osculations — A Flaunting Procession — An Old Topographer's Raptures — The Schwarzes Ross — Flight from Prague — Lobositz — Lost in a Swamp — A Storm — Up the Milleschauer — After Dark — The Summit — Mossy Quarters — The Host's Story. The streets were alive before the lazy hours approached on Sunday morning. Here and there the walls covered with handbills, red, blue, green, and yellow, presented a gay appearance. The Summer Theatre, in which you sit under the open sky and see plays acted by daylight, was open — Jubelfest! ran the announcements: Health and Prosperity to the House of Hapsburg. Music and a ball on the Sophia Island — music on the Shooting Island — music at Ylraba's Railway Garden — music at the Vstrossi- scher Garden — music at Podol — music at Wrssowitz — music at the Fliedermiihle — a military band at Bubencz — in short, music everywhere. And everywhere " Pilsen beer, in Ice." And so the streets were alive at an early hour with citizens going to an early mass that longer time might remain for pleasure, or starting for some of the neighbouring villages, or for the White Hill, where a saint's festival was to be celebrated — all dressed in their Sunday clothes, and looking as if they had made up their minds for a holiday. 154 A JULY HOLIDAY IN The morning is bright and the breeze playful, and the sober colours having all chosen to stay at home, there are none but the gayest tints abroad in the sun- shine. Pink appears to be the favourite. Pink skirts, pink scarfs, pink ribands, pink bonnets ; but no lack of all besides, and more than make up the rainbow. Not a work-a-day dowdy to be seen. Here come father, mother, and half a dozen children, the sire carrying a basket, and one or two of the youngsters a havresack, all eager with anticipated pleasure. Here half a dozen sweethearts going to make a day of it. Here a troop of lads nimble of foot, noisy in talk, and proud of their orange and purple decorations in waistcoat and necktie, while now and then a Fiaker trots past laden with a party who prefer a holiday on wheels ; and always there come the eternal soldiers, rank and file, or tramping at liberty. The spectacle is animated in the spacious area of the Grosser Ring, where the gay throngs mingle and tra- verse from all directions; entering or leaving the Tein- kirche, where service is performed in the Czechish tongue. Striking is the contrast between them and a group of sunburnt haymakers squatted in the centre, men and women in rustic garments, gazing wonderingly around from amid many-coloured bundles, piles of scythes, and scattered sickles. They look half amazed at finding themselves in a great city, and as if fearful of ever finding their way out again. All this and much more did I see while on my way to hear the service in the metropolitan church on the Hradschin. The steep stair- flights which, avoiding the narrow, crooked streets, lead directly up to the palace, SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 155 were all a-blaze with shining silks and satins, the wearers of which were mounting slowly upwards on dainty feet in the full glare of the hot sun. Already nearly every seat in the church was filled, and as the service went on the aisles were thronged, the women on one side, the men on the other, though with exceptions. The opportunity was favourable for seeing something of the better class of citizens, for of such the congregation appeared chiefly to be. Again I looked for pretty faces along the variegated aisle, and though there was no dearth of grace and animation, I was forced to believe that the beauties had not yet returned from the water- ing-places. Meanwhile the service went on ; three robed priests officiated at the altar, the little bell tinkled, the host was lifted up, every head was bowed, and in- cense floated around the cross, while the boys set to feed the censers pulled one another's hair on the sly, and played pranks in their corner. I crept quietly up to the organ-loft when the time for music was near, and saw seedy men take their post at the bellows, and in the front seat of the gallery a row of young men and boys tuning up their fiddles. The great height prevents the twang and scrape from beino- heard below, and affords, moreover, opportunity for fun, for as they screw and twang they reach across and tweak ears, or prod a cheek with the end of a bow, or bend down and tell some joke which well-nigh chokes them with suppressed laughter. At last the signal is given, and as if by one impulse they strike into a symphony, in which the organ joins at times with a sonorous note. I crept down to the aisle to listen. The harmonies, at first timid, grew gradually in volume 156 A JULY HOLIDAY IN and power, till at length they swelled into glorious music that filled the whole place, and held every ear en- tranced. Then the organ broke out with an exulting response, and all the echoes of the lofty roof and soar- ing arches repeated the sound, until there came a sudden pause, in which you presently heard the faintest of tones, like a plaintive wail, from the stringed instru- ments. Then strength came once more to the trembling notes, and again the strains which angels might have stayed to hearken to floated through the air. Where could such music come from ? I felt con- strained to go up again to the organ-loft. There sat the same boys carrying on their sports during the rests and pauses — the same seedy men at the bellows — earthly hands producing heavenly music which held the listeners spell-bound. For me the illusion was over, and I felt curious to see what sort of men they were who in stately robes had gone through the ceremonial at the altar. Surely they would exhibit signs of spiritual life. I placed my- self close to the door by which they would have to pass to the sacristy, and observed them as they with- drew. They were men of sluggish feature, lit by no gleam of spirituality, and walked as if released from a wearisome duty. And the robes which seemed rich and costly in the distance, showed faded and shabby near at hand — unworthy attire for priests of a church that boasts a silver shrine. Here, thought I, we must not look for the Beauty of Holiness. Many a kiss did I see imprinted on the sacred picture of Christ as the congregation departed; and then, as they streamed forth and dispersed in groups in many SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 157 directions, I hastened forwards to catch the view of the many-coloured procession as it descended the great stair, flaunting in the sun between the gray old houses. While crossing the ancient bridge for the last time, my impression was strengthened that from thence you get the best view of Prague — a view which conceals the damaging features seen from the hills. " Oh ! it is a ravishing prospect!" exclaims an old topographer; " your eye knows not whether it shall repose on the mighty colossus of stone which appears to bid defiance to the broad Moldau stream, or whether it shall pasture on that romantic slope, from the summit of which the huge imperial fortress, and the highly-famed cathedral church, together with many palaces and churches, shine down upon you. Surprise, wonder, and bewilderment overcome him who for the first time turns hither and thither to look at the sight." If your raptures rise not to this lofty pitch, you will hardly fail, even at your last view, to sympathise with the antiquated narrator's enthusiasm. The Schivarzes Ross has a worthy reputation, and deserves it, for the entertainment is good, the plenish- ing clean, and the beer excellent. Dinner is served, after the Carlsbad manner, at twenty or more small tables — an arrangement which favours conversation ; and after the soup has disappeared, the host enters with his best coat on — a plump man, whose appearance does honour to his own viands — and he makes a solemn bow to every table. I had the happiness of catching his eye on three successive days. It was not by enchantment — though it seemed like it 158 A JULY HOLIDAY IN — but by steam, that, four hours later, having lost the way, I was trudging about in swampy meadows at the foot of the Milleschauer. My mind was confused with pictures of Prague, with glimpses of the journey, and, unawares, I had wandered from the track. At two miles from the city our train was entered by two soldiers, one of whom stood guard at the carriage door, while the other went from passenger to passenger de- manding passports, that he might inspect the visas. This done, the Podiebrad — so the locomotive was named — hurried us past fruitful slopes, orchards, and poppy- fields; past bends of the river; between hills that come together in one place and form a glen, where tunnels pierce the projecting crags; across a broad plain, till at Raudnitz we saw the Elbe, and peaks and ridges in the distance, indicating our approach to the mountains. At Theresienstadt we stopped twenty minutes for the pass- ing of the train from Dresden, there being but a single line of rails, beguiling the time by looking at the rafts on the river, and the broken line of hills. Then to Lobositz, where the folk appeared less wise than at Prague, for the flour-mill and chicory-factory were rattling and roaring in full work. I left my knapsack at the Gasthof zum Filrst Schwar- zenberg, and started for the Milleschauer. Half an hour along the Toplitz road, bordered all the way by fruit- trees, and you come in sight of the mountain — a huge cone, two thousand seven hundred feet in height, one of the highest points of the Mittelgebirge. At the village of Wellemin you leave the road for an obscure track across uneven slopes; and here it was that, keeping too faith- fully to the left, according to direction, I lost the way. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 159 I -was trying back, when a fierce squall swept up from the west. The sky grew dark, the rain fell in torrents, the mountain disappeared shrouded in gloom, and from the woods that clothe its sides from base to cope, tor- mented by the cold wind, there came a roar as of the sea in a storm. I took shelter behind a thick-stemmed willow, and waited; but twilight crept on before the growl ceased. There were paths enough to choose from, too many, in fact, as there commonly are round the base of minor hills; however, by dint of making way upwards, through dripping copse and plashy glades, I came at last to a single track, completely hidden by the woods. It was part of a great spiral winding round the cone — now rising, now falling, but reaching always a higher elevation. The clouds still hung overhead; the sun had set, and under the trees I could see but a few yards ahead. I stopped at times to listen for some companion- able sound, but heard only the heavy drip-drip from the leaves, and melancholy sighs among the branches. A little higher, and there, in the beds of moss around the roots, gleamed the tiny lanterns of swarms of glowworms — more than ever I had seen before — and the way felt less lonely with the pale green rays in view. Moreover, holding my watch near one of the tiny lanterns, it was possible to see the hour — half-past nine. Farther on I came to a little wagon standing in a gap, and then the path became exceedingly steep and hard to climb, and scarcely discernible in the increasing darkness. Steeper and steeper grew the path, and with it the prospect of a bivouac, when the trees thinned away, and a dark barrier stopped further advance. It was a rough stone 160 A JULY HOLIDAY IN wall, along which I felt my way, and coming presently to a door, kicked upon it vigorously. A dog barked. Footsteps approached, and a man's voice asked : "Who's there?" " An Englishman." "Good," replied the voice; and forthwith the bolt was shot, and the door opened. A man, whom I could scarcely see in the darkness, took my arm and led me down a short steep path, and round a corner into a small gloomy room, dimly lighted by a single lamp. Presently he brought another lamp, and then I saw that the seeming gloom was an effect of colour only, for the low apartment was lined with dark brown moss; a settee, thickly covered with the same production, ran from end to end along each side ; and overhead you saw, resting on unhewn rafters, the rough underside of a mossy roof. To find such a sylvan retreat, comfortably warmed, too, by a stove, was an agreeable surprise. I stretched myself on the soft and springy couch, while the man went away to get my supper. He soon returned with a savoury cutlet and a pitcher of good beer; and while I enjoyed the cheer with an appetite sharpened by ex- ercise, he sat down to talk. The place, he said, be- longed to him. It comprised a group of huts, all built of poles and moss, in which he had often lodged sixty guests at once. There were a few sitting-rooms and many bedrooms, a garden, a dancing-floor, an oratory, a poultry-yard, pigeon-house, and other benevolent con- trivances, as I should be able to see in the morning. The wagon which I had seen at the foot of the steep belonged to him. It was hard work for a horse to drag SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. * 1G1 it up heavily laden; but harder still to carry the stores from thence on one's shoulder to the summit. He came up in May with his first load, and set to work to repair roofs, walls, and fences, to renew the moss and dry the beds, and then stayed till October busy with guests, who arrived by tens or twenties every day, chiefly from Tijp- litz, about ten miles distant. The voices we heard from time to time in an adjoining hut were those of a party of four, who had come from the fashionable spa to sec the sun set, and had been disappointed by the storm. Perhaps sunrise would repay them. They and I were, as it happened, the only guests this night, so the host had time to talk without interruption. Supper over, he went before me with a lantern through the cold night wind to a hut some yards distant, where, with a friendly " Gute Nacht" he left me. What a snug little mossy chamber! At one end two beds — thick piles of moss with plenty of blankets, and sheets as clean as pure water and mountain breezes can make them. At the other, two washstands, a looking-glass, and little window. I had it all to myself, and was soon sound asleep. M 162 A JULY HOLIDAY IN CHAPTER XVII. Morning on the Milleschauer — The Brightening Landscape — The Mossy- Quarters by Daylight — Delightful Down-hill Walk — Lobositz again — The Steam-boat — Queer Passengers — Sprightly Music — Romantic Scenery — Hills and Cliffs — Schreckenstein — How the Musicians paid their Fare — Aussig — The Spiirlingstein— Fairer Landscapes — Elbe versus Rhine — Tetschen — German Faces — Women- Waders — The Schoolmaster — Passport again— Pretty Country — Signs of Industry — Peasants' Diet- — Markersdorf — Rustic Cottages — Gersdorf — Meis- tersdorf — School — Trying the Scholars — Good Results — A Byeway — Ulrichsthal. Sunrise ! a bell rings loudly to waken the sleepers; and the host cries " Frisch avfV at the door of the hut. I was up as the first rays from the great luminary streamed across the landscape. Not a cloud dimmed the sky, and it was a grand sight to see the ruddy light kindle on all the lower hill-tops, tremble on the tall clumps of forest, and creep down the slopes, till field after field caught the beams, and ponds glistened and windows twinkled. And anon the thin veil of mist was lifted from the valleys, and farms and villages re- joiced in the new-born day. Every moment the great panorama revealed more and more of its features, and bits of cliff, and glenlike hollows, ruined towers, and miles of road emerged from the obscure. And while the light strengthened, there stretched to- wards the west the mighty shadow of the mountain SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 163 itself, eclipsing acres of the landscape, which lay dim between the streaming radiance rushing to an apex on either side. But the sun mounts apace, and the shadow grows shorter continually. The number of cone-like hills is remarkable, and here and there you see one of those circular, flat-topped ele- vations bristling with dark woods, which characterize much of Bohemian scenery along the Saxon frontier. While gazing on the singular forms, you may imagine them to be the crumbling remains of stupendous co- lumns erected by giant hands in the old primeval ages. In the distance you see the Elbe, a long, pale stripe, resembling a narrow lake, and you wish there were more of it, for the want of water is a sensible defect in the view. The region is fruitful and well peopled : had it a few large lakes besides, your eye would roam over it with the greater pleasure. The expanse is wide. In very clear weather, so mine host assured me, you can see Prague, and Schneekoppe in the Riesengebirge, each fifty miles distant. To enable you to get the view all round clear of the trees a circular wooden tower is built, from the platform of which you may gaze on far and near. Immediately beneath you look down into the walled enclosure, upon the huts, the flower-beds, the potato plot, the sheltering hazel copse, and all the ins and outs of the place. You sec mossy arbours open to the south, and little nooks where you may recline at ease and contemplate different points of the view. I was 2;lad after awhile to take refuge in one of these nooks, for the wind blew so strong and keen that my teeth chattered as I walked round the platform. How- 31 2 164 A JULY HOLIDAY IN ever, there is steaming coffee ready to fortify you against the influences which mar the poetry of sunrise. The garden, sheltered by its wall and screen of hazel, teems with flowers, a pleasing sight as you go and come in your explorations. I surveyed the whole pre- mises from the dairy to the dancing-floor; noted the inscriptions here and there with which the owner seeks to conciliate your good opinion ; looked at his bazaar, where you may buy Recollections of the Milleschauer , and so round to the little altar under the bell. Here the inscription runs: ftrifd) ouf ! 3ur Arbeit bran, ®ott fegne nuinc plan : fcenn Sin @offc$ ©egen 3ft 9Wc* Qdcgcn. Two hours passed. I took a farewell view under the broad sunlight, and then, having to meet a steamer at Lobositz, strode merrily down the hill. What a plea- sant walk that was! Once below the summit, among the trees, and the temperature was that of a summer morning; and the woods looked glorious, fringed with light reflected from millions of raindrops — memorials of the former evening's storm, now become things of beauty. Beech, birch, and hazel, intermingled with larch and fir, robe the hill from base to cope, through which the path descends with continued windings; an ever-shifting aisle, as it seems, overarched by green leaves, among which you hear the gladsome chirp and warbling of birds. All the breaks and hollows which SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 165 appeared so grim and gloomy the night before, the mouths of yawning caverns, now open as narrow glades or twinkling bowers, in which a thousand lights dart and quiver as the cheerful breeze sweeps through, caressing the leaves. Such a walk favours cheerful meditation, and prepares your heart for cloudy weather and dreary prospects; and in after days many a thought born within the wood flits back on the memory. It was like having been robbed of something to step out of the woods upon the rough grassy slopes at the foot of the hill, and presently to tramp along a hard, beaten road. However, there was the sight of the lofty cone rising in its forest vesture high into the sunlight for repayment; and the lively breeze ceased not to blow. The ill-favoured clerk at Prague had refused to ac- credit me beyond Lobositz, so here at nine o'clock I had to go to the Bezirksamt for another visa. Again did I request that the name of some place at the foot of the mountains, or beyond the frontier, might be inserted ; but no ! I was going a trip down the Elbe, with inten- tion to disembark at Tetschen, so for Tetschen the visa was made out, and the clerk, who was very polite, wished me a pleasant journey. I found a number of passengers waiting at the river side, reclining on the grass or strolling among the trees. Presently came a large flat boat and conveyed us all to an island, where, by the time we had assembled on the rude landing stage, the steamer Go-mania arrived and took us on board; not without difficulty, for the deck was literally choked with queer-looking people and rubbishy baggage. What could such a company be 166 A JULY HOLIDAY IN travelling for ? Wedged in among them sat a party of wandering musicians, men and women, with harps, guitars, fiddles, and flute : the space all too narrow for their movements. However, as soon as the vessel resumed her course down the rapid stream they began to play, and kept up a succession of airs that seemed to ■convert the exhilarating motion, the breeze and the sunshine into frolicsome music. I got a seat on the top of a heap of bundles, with clear outlook above the heads of the crowd. It was a delightful voyage, between scenes growing more and more romantic at every bend of the river. Now we shoot past scarped hills, split by narrow gullies dark with foliage, from whence little brooks leap forth to the light; now past sheltered coombs where rural home- steads nestle, and vines hang on the sunny slopes; now past variegated cliffs, all ochre and gray, that come near together, and compel the stream to swerve with boiling eddies and long trains of impatient ripples; now past fields and meadows where the retiring hills leave room for fruitful husbandry, and from far your eye catches the speck of colour — the red or blue petticoats of the women around the hay-wagons. And along the road which skirts the shore there go men and women, horses and vehicles, and there is always something strange to note in costume and appearance. And close by runs the railway, its course marked by the painted wicker balloons hanging aloft on the signal posts, and the bright colour of the jutting rocks through which the way is hewn, or by a train dashing past with echoing snort and tail of cloud. The hills crowd closer and higher at every bend. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 167 Here and there rises a cliff forming an imposing palisade of rock; then comes a wild mass of crags backed l>y woods that screen a little red-roofed chapel perched hi^h aloft : then the tower of Sckreckenstein comes into view, crowning a tall, gray buttress, which gives a finishing touch to the picturesque. My attention was diverted from the scenery by a leaf of music held out by one of the musicians. Who could refuse a fee for such strains as theirs ? Kreutzer after kreutzer, a few small silver coins, and two or three twopenny bank-notes were dropped into the receptacle, which was presently emptied into the ready hands of the fluteplayer. He counted, shook his head, and say- ing, "Not enough yet!" gave the signal for a fresh burst. Now came forth music singularly wild and inspiriting — the reserve, perhaps, for an emergency — and none within hearing could resist its influence. Had there been room, every one would surely have danced; as it was, eyes sparkled, heads wagged, and finders snapped, keeping time with the measure. There seemed something magical about the leader, and I could not help fancying that her fiddle began to speak before the bow had touched the strings. They speak wisely who bid us go to Bohemia for music. The leaf went round once more, and not in vain; but the fluteplayer still shook his head, whereupon a song and a duet were sung; and then the flute, brought to a conclusion with his cares, went to the little crib by the paddle-box and bought tickets for the whole party. Then Aussig came into sight, and I soon ceased to wonder whither the queer-looking crowd were going. It was to Aussig fair. Bundle after bundle was pulled 168 A JULY HOLIDAY IN so rapidly from the heap on which I reclined that I was quickly brought down to the level of the deck, and a scramble and hubbub arose easier to be imagined than described. The musicians made haste to put the leathern covers on their instruments, and along with her fiddle I saw that the leader buckled up a spare stay- bone and a few miscellaneous articles of her toilet. The women carried the harps, and the men huge knapsacks, stuffed with their wives' gear as well as their own, and with a thick-soled boot starinc; out from either end. Once at the landing, a few minutes sufficed to clear the deck, and no sooner had the vagabonds departed than a boy came with a broom, and all was presently made clean, as behoved in a vessel bound to Dresden. Half an hour's stay gives 3'ou time to look at Aussig, to admire its pleasing environment, its busy boat- builders, and gondola-like pleasure-boats floating on the stream, and to commend the good quality of its beer. Among the passengers who came on board were a party of students, certain of them wearing gowns not larger than a jacket — which, as some say, betoken learn- ing in proportion. Away we went again, and always with fairer land- scapes to greet our eyes. Past great high-prowed barges, towed slowly against the current by horses; past small barges, towed still more slowly by a dozen or twenty men. Past the Spurlingstein, and bastion-like cliffs, and hollows, beyond which you catch sight of far-away peaks. Then a village of timbered houses, the fronts showing broad lines of chequer-work and quaint gables, and every house standing apart in its SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 169 own garden, among hills hung with woods to the water's edge; and rocks peering out here and therefrom the shadow of the trees, shutting you in all round as in a lake. The sight of the varied features which open on you, increasing in beauty at every bend, will suggest fre- quent comparison. Here among the hills nature hems the Elbe in with loveliness, as if to prepare the great river for its long, dreary course from Dresden to the sea. You see not so many castles, but more variety than on the Rhine ; more of untamed scenery, and less of mono- tonous vine-slopes ; and perhaps you will incline to agree with those who hold that from Leitmeritz to Pirna the Elbe excels the far-famed stream that flows past Co- logne. Beautiful is the view of Tetschen, backed by grand wooded hills; the river, spanned by a chain-bridge, making a sudden bend ; the castle looking down on the stream from a forward cliff. Though topped by a spire, the castle will inevitably remind you of a factory; and you will be constrained to look away from it to the tunnelled cliff through which the railway passes, and the noisy stream that tumbles in on the opposite side. It had just struck one when I landed. The passport office was shut for two hours, that the functionaries might have time to dine — a praiseworthy arrangement, though trying at times to a traveller's patience. I dined at the Golden Croicn, at one side of the great square, and regaled myself with a flask of Melniker—a. right generous wine. The inn is the starting place for some twenty coaches and vans, and, looking round on 170 A JULY HOLIDAY IN the numerous guests as they went and came, it was easy to see you had left the Czechish for the German part of the population — oval faces for round ones. In the centre of the square stands a building, which, in appearance a pedestal for a big statue, is a little chapel in which mass is said twice a day. I spent a few minutes in looking at it, then strolled to the castle garden and the bridge, from whence I saw carts backed axle deep into the river to receive cotton bales from a barge, and women loading a boat wading out above their knees with heavy sacks on their shoulders. Then to the school — a sight that gave me real pleasure, so spacious is the building, so numerous are the scholars, so earnest the master in his work. His discourse was that of one who has found his true vocation: he was seldom cast down, and felt persuaded that it was a master's own fault if he had no joy in his scholars. After our few brief words I thought the inscription at the door yet more appropriate : £>er ©dbulc @aot reift fur Sett un& (gftrigfett.* At three o'clock I sought out the passport clerk, and found him not a whit more willing to give a visa for the mountains, or a place over the border, than his fellows elsewhere. He admitted the argument that one of the pleasures of travel was an unrestricted choice or change of route, but " could not" do more ; so I looked at my map, and chose Reichenberg as my next point of departure, and the official stamp and signature were forthwith applied. But the gentleman discovered an * The school's seed ripens for time and eternity. SAXONY, BOHEMIA, AND SILESIA. 171 irregularity, and did not let me depart till it was rectified — that the leaves containing the visas and the passport were separate sheets. He fastened them to- gether with a broad seal and a loop of black and yellow thread, and then wished me a pleasant journey. The wish was realized, for the route lies through a pretty country, the most populous and industrious part of Bohemia. It is heavy uphill work soon after leaving Tetschen, but the view from the top over the valley of the Elbe repays the labour, and rivals that from the Milleschaucr. A little farther, and the prospect opens in the opposite direction, across a great wave, as it seems, of cones, ridges, scars, and rounded heights, sprinkled with spires and hamlets — a cheerful scene that invites you onwards. At every mile you see and hear more and more of the signs of industry. Men pass you wheeling barrows laden with coloured glass rods — material for beads and fragile toys, to be manufactured at home in their own little cottages, keeping up the olden practice. Now you hear the hiss and whiz of the polishing wheel ; now the rattle of looms, and the croak of stocking-weavers. And at times comes a man pushing before him a great barrowful of bread — large, flat, brown loaves — on his way to supply the off hamlets which have no bakery. And now and then old women creep by, bending under a burden of firewood. Two whom I overtook told me they walked three miles twice a week to fetch a bundle of sticks from the forest; and when I asked if they ate meat or cheese, answered with a " Gott bewahr ! never. Nothing but bread and potatoes." At Markersdorf I left the highway for a cross-road, 172 A JULY HOLIDAY IN leading through a succession of hamlets, so close to- gether that you can hardly tell where one begins and the other ends. Now the signs of labour multiply, and there is a ceaseless noise of the shuttle and polishing wheel. The little houses have a very rustic appearance, built of squared logs black with age, set off by stripes of white clay along all the joints, and a stripe of green paint around the windows. There is variety in their architecture: some imitate the Swiss style, with tall roofs and outside galleries; some exhibit dumpy gables and arched timbers along the lower story; and pretty they look in the midst of their poppy-strewn gardens and embowering orchards, watered by little brook?, which here and there set little mills a-clacking. Not a hamlet without its school; and you will see with pleasure how the importance of the school is recog- nised. Over the door of one at Gersdorf I read: Den ^fctnen mill btc (gcfculc frommcn D laf? fie alle, alle fommen.* At Meistersdorf, a furlong or two farther, on a little hill that overlooks miles of country, the school-house is one of the best buildings in the place. And here again a rhyming couplet, embodying a benevolent sentiment, crosses the lintel: &0mmt &ter ju mtr t&r $lctnen, D Ummt nut frommcn ©inn %