 |
| Bildunterschrift hinzufügen |
Descent of the Danube, from Ratisbon to Vienna During the Autumn of 1827: With Anecdotes and Recollections, Historical and Legendary, of the Towns, Castles, Monasteries, &c., Upon the Banks of the River, and Their Inhabitants and Proprietors, Ancient and Modern
James R. Planché
Duncan, 1828 - 320 Seiten
Beginnt mit Kapitel 1 über Regensburg
Hier ist mein Versuch, die Nur-Text-Blöcke aus google-books (automatische OCR-Texterkennung von google-books) zusammenzutragen:
First View of the Danube and Ratisbon—Description of .Boats on the Danube—The City of Ratisbon—The Cathedral——The Heide Platz—Church of the Scotch Benedictines—The Bridges—The Rath-haus—The Abbey of St. Emmer-am—Stor‘y of Frederick von Ewesheim—Church of the Dominicans—The Neue—Pfarre Kirche—Ober and Nieder Miinster — Karmeliten Kloster — The Horses’ Church—The Promenades—Unterhaltungs H aus—Maximilian Joseph Gasse—David and Goliath—Embarkation —W6rth—Donaustauf.—The Dunkel-boden—Sossau.
I BELIEVE it is Doctor Clarke who advisestravellers never to see a mountain without going to the top of it. Ishould rather say, never see a river without following the course of it. One very extensive prospect
too nearly resembles another, particularly B
in the same country, to give additional gratification, and I have not unfrequently, like the celebrated King of France, “ marched 11p a hill, and then marched down again,” to about as little purpose. But never did Ifollow the course of a stream, however insignificant, without being surprised and delighted. Without water, the loveliest prospect is incomplete. Lakes and rivers are the eyes of the earth; the want of them cannot be atoned for by the beauty of its other features, however exquisite. The formidable account of some friends who had made the voyage, backed, as it seemed to be, by a twaddling notice in a German Guide-Book, had nearly dissuaded me from descending the Danube to Vienna. But the first glimpse of its magnificent
flood, rolling through the broad and fertile
plain, in the centre of which the ancient city of Ratisbon rears its sombre cathedral, and Winding away into the horizon amongst the shadowy mountains of the Bohmer-Wald, renewed my original determination; and my first care, on finding myself safely deposited in the excellent hotel, Das Goldene Kreutz, on the Heide Platz, was to make
the necessary inquiries how, when, and where I‘ should embark on the “ thundering river*’.”
. The regular passage-boat from Ratisbon to Vienna was to start on the following
* Etymologists have squabbled as much over the name of the Danube, as geographers over its source, which some contend to be near the village of St. George, and others in the court-yard of the palace of the Prince of Fiirstenberg, at Donaueschingen. This mighty flood, the grandestin Europe, and the third in consequence in the Old World, was known to the Romans by the double name of the Danube, and the Ister. " Ortus hic in Germanize jugis montes abnobae ex adverso Raurici Gallite oppidi multis ultra alpes millibus, ac per innumeras lapsus gentes Danubii nomine, immenso aquarum auctu et unde primum Illyricum alluit Ister appellatus, sexaginta amnibus receptis, medio ferme numero eorum navigabili, in Pontum vastis sex fiuminibus evolvitur.”— ‘ Plin. Nat. Hist.’ iv. 24. The ancient Germans named it Done and Tona; the Sclavonians, Donava. The Hungarians call it Tanara, or Donara, and the Turks, Duna. Its modern German appellation is Donau. Some of the earlier writers would derive this name from Deus Abnobius, or Diana Abonbia, or Abnopa, to whom a temple was dedicated near the source of the river. Others deduce it from Thon, clay, and contend it should be written Thonau. Others again would find its origin in the words Ton, sound, or Donner, thunder; and Reichard, indeed, gives the latter as the received derivation. Breuninger, however, proposes Tanne, a fir, and speciously enough, the river rising in the Schwarz-wald, of which fir is the distinctive character, and its banks being clothed with forests of the same tree, along nearly the whole of its course; while Nikolai would have us seek it in the Keltic words Do, Na, which signify two rivers, and may either apply to its double name, ‘.‘ Binominem Istrum,” or to the two sources which dispute the glory of its birth.
morning at eight o’clock, and for the very moderate sum of five florins, not quite ten shillings English, would have landed me in the Austrian capital in about five or six days, according to the weather. But as neitherl nor my companion was willing, for a slight pecuniary consideration, to risk a serious diminution of the pleasures of the voyage by a crowded deck, a filthy cabin, bad company, and miserable fare, I applied to a Schiifmeister of Stadt-am-hofi the little fauxbourg of Ratisbon, on the left bank of the Danube, who agreed to furnish us with a boat, steersman, and crew for the sum of twenty ducats, about ten pounds sterling, and to assure our arrival at Vienna in four days, or four and a half at farthest. The boats on the Danube, though of various names and sizes, are nearly all of one shape. That which I hired is called, in the peculiar patois of the Bavarian boatmen, a Weitz-zille, and is the sort of conveyance particularly appropriated to private travelling. It is about forty feet long, and composed of rough deal planks, nailed rudely together, the ribs being of natural branches, and caulked with moss. In the
centre is a kind of awning, or rather hut, of the same unpretending materials. It is flat-bottomed, as are all the craft upon this river, and, in short, is little more than a large rude punt. Sails are unknown upon the Danube; it is therefore rowed by two men, and steered by a third, with long clumsy-looking paddles, tied to upright posts, upon which every now and then water is flung to make them‘ work easy, and avoid ignition. The Coche d’eau, or common passage-boat, is rather larger, and is called a Gamsel, ora Kellhaimer. Those used for the conveyance of merchandise, are known by the names of Hochnauen, Klobzillen, (facetiously termed vessels of the line by Professor Schultes,) Nebenbeys,
-Schwernmern, &c., all of the same fashion,
keelless, sailless, their plain deal sides daubed with broad perpendicular stripes of black paint, their only ornament. Some of the larger are nearly‘ one hundred and fifty feet long; and, in ascending the river, are towed, four or five together, by from thirty to forty horses. The drivers are called J odelen, and a more singular set of beings can scarcely be imagined. In ap
pearance they are something between the English dustman and drayman, but the lowest of either of those Worthies might pass for a scholar and a gentleman by the side of a real J odel. From the moment the Danube becomes navigable, till it is again chained up in ice, these fellows never enter the humblest hovel, or mix with men of other callings, but even sleep upon the river’s bank beside their horses. A miserable superstition exists amongst them. They believe that some of their number must every year be sacrificed to the Spirit of the Waters, and, consequently, when an accident occurs, they all scramble for the drowning man’s hat, but never think of stretching out a finger to save him, whom they look upon as a doomed and demanded victim. Professor Schultes declares that he once saw five jodelen, with their horses, precipitated into the river, when their companions hastily cut the ropes, to prevent the rest of the team from following, and drove on, leaving the poor wretches to their fate.
Before I step into my little bark, how-‘ ever, the old city of Ratisbon, or, more
properly, Regensburg, claims a few mon ments’ attention. The Regina Castra of the Romans has had twenty different pamassia and, according to Giinther, owes that of Ratisbona, or Ratispona, to its convenience as a landing place.
“ Inde Ratisbonae vetus ex hoc nomen habenti
Quod bona sit mtibus, vel quod consuevit in ills.
Ponere nauta rates.”
Near it, the little river Regen falls into the Danube, from whence its German ap-. pellation of Regensburg. One of the chief towns on the Illyrian frontier, here the Roman merchant traded for furs, and the eagle of the u Legio tertia Italica” long glittered in the sight of the humbled barbarians. From Regensburg the “ furious Frank” rushed, beneath the‘ banners of Charlemagne, to his Pannonian victories. Under Arnulph the Bastard, it became a flourishing commercial and manufacturing town. ln 1106, the unfortunate Emperor Henry IV. here resigned his crown and sceptre to his unnatural son. In 1193, Richard Coeur de Lion was sent hither a
* Vide ‘ Gemeinei-’s Reichs-stadt Regenburgische Chronik.' 4to. Regensburg, 1805.
prisoner to the Emperor Henry VI., who re-delivered him to his sworn foe and captor, Leopold Duke of Austria. Here, on the 12th of October, 157 6, expired the Emperor Maximilian II., in whose favour Germany revived the surname of Titus, or the Delight of Mankind. No stronger proof of his great and amiable qualities can be given, than the concurring testimony of the historians of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, and Austria, both Catholics and Protestants, who vie in his praises, and in representing him as a model of impartiality, wisdom, and benignity *. “ It excites a melancholy regret,” says Wraxall, “ to reflect that the reign of so excellent a sovereign as Maximilian was limited to the transitory period of twelve years, while Philip II., the scourge of his own subjects and of Europe, occupied the throne during more than forty. The Romans might, with equal reason, have lamented that the tyranny of Tiberius lasted above twenty years, when the benign administration of Titus scarcely exceeded as many
* Coxe’s ‘ Hist. of the House of Austria,’ 8vo. London, 1820, Vol. ii. p. 335.
months *.” In 1633, Ratisbon was taken by Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and retaken by the allied Bavarians and Austrians, commanded by Ferdinand King of Hungary, in the following year. In 1641, the Swedes, under the famous General Banner, cannonaded it; and 011 the 21st of April. 1809, it was taken by the French, after a desperate conflict, being the fourteenth time, in the course of nine hundred years, that this unfortunate city has been visited by the united horrors of war.
Its grand but gloomy cathedral contains some curious sculpture, and some richly painted windows, the blues in which are remarkable for their brilliancy. The date, 1482, is upon the upper part of an angular porch; but the fagade of the building, the singular well, the richly ornamented canopies on columns, in various parts of the interior, and the equestrian statues of Saint Martin and another, are all of an earlier period.+
* ‘ History of France,’ 8vo. Vol. ii. p. 146.
T From a wood-cut in the Nfirnberg Chronicle of 1493, it appears, however, that the towers were even at that time unfinished; one being represented a story shorter than the other, and with a crane upon it raising a stone. The author, Hartmann Schedel, in the text of the book, describes the edifice as “ yet incomplete.”
In the chancel, near the altar, is deposited the heart of the Emperor Maximilian I.; and in a chapel on the south side of the chancel, within a glass case, is the recum-.bent efligy, in wax, of Saint John of N epomuck, the celebrated confessor of the wife of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who refusing to divulge the secrets of his royal penitent was thrown into prison, tortured, and, finally, flung over the bridge at Prague and drowned, by the king’s order. His statue, in the habit of the Jesuits, is to be seen on nearly every bridge in the south of Germany; he, who perished by water, being curiously enough selected from the list of saintsas the protector of all who travel on that element. On an altar-tomb, in the nave, is a splendid bronze effigy of a Bishop of Ratisbon and Duke of Bavaria kneeling to a crucifix. On the Heide Platz, or Place of the Pagan, a terrible combat is said to have been fought, be.tween a gigantic Hun named Craco, who had flung forty knights out of their saddles, and Hans Dollinger, a valiant burgher of the town, during the reign, and in the presence of Henry the Fowler. The emperor
crossed the panting champion twice upon the mouth, and to the virtue of these holy signs the defeat of the Pagan is principally attributed*. Craco’s sword, measuring nearly eight feet, and- his ponderous helmet, hung for some time in the choir of Nieder Munster. The sword is now at Vienna, whither it was taken in 1542. On the side of a house, in the Kohlen-markt, is a representation of this combat; and the square itself, I have little doubt, formed originally part of the Heide Platz, from which it is at present separated by a row of comparatively modern erections. The church of the Scotch Benedictines, near the Jacobs-Thor, has a fine portal, of apparently the twelfth century. There is a tragical story told of its last abbot, Gallus, who was compelled to see a beloved brother torn to pieces without daring to acknowledge him; but I was not able to learn the particulars, though, Schultes says, they are of general notoriety. The celebrated bridge across the Danube is a clumsy-looking affair, and sadly disappoints the expectant traveller: the honour of its erection is hotly disputed between Henry the Proud and —— the Devil*! Their imperial and satanic majesties have each their zealous partisans, but the proofs are in favour of the earthly potentate, who, in conjunction with the town of Ratisbon, commenced the work A. D. 1135. It was finished in 1146. It is of free-stone, supported by piles of oak driven to a considerable depth in the bed of the river, consists of fifteen arches, and is one thousand and ninety-one feet in length. Of the three principal bridges of Germany, that of Dresden is said to be the most elegant; that of Prague, the longest; and that of Ratisbon, the strongest. Besides this stone bridge there are two wooden bridges, one very small, connecting the stone bridge with a long island. in the middle of the river, and another of larger dimensions, which leads from the island to the city near the Nieder Miinster. In the Kohlenmarkt stands the Rathhaus, or Hotel de Ville, where from 1662 to 1806 the diet was held. Justice and Fortune have inherited the building. The Tribunal of Police is established in one part of it, and the Lottery is drawn in the other. Its curious old gate and bay-window are in excellent preservation. Their arches and crocketted pinnacles are of the thirteenth century, a11d greatly resemble those of the
* Vide ‘ Ausfiihrliche relation desjenigen wunderthtitigen Kampfes, welcher anno 930, den 23 J anuar, zu Regensburg
zwischen Hannss Dollinger einem Burger daselbst und einem
unglaubigen hunnischen Obristen Craco, vorgegangen.’ 4t0 Regensburg, 1710.
* The legend tells us, that the Infernal Architect was sadly worried, during his labours, by a cock and a dog. A cock and a bull would have figured with more propriety in such a
story.
. monument of our Edward I. at Westminster.
The two figures above the gate, one bear-ing a martel de fer, and the other in the act of flinging a stone, are of the close of the fifteenth century: beneath each is a shield with the arms of the city. The Abbey of Saint Emmeram is now the residence of the Prince of Thurm and Taxis: his gardens are kindly thrown open to the public from six in the morning to six in the evening. Saint Emmeram was a Frenchman, a native of Poictiers, who, having visited the court of Theodo, was suspected of an illicit amour with the princess his daughter, and murdered by her brother at Helfendorf, A. D. 652. In the vaults of this building lie Childeric, the deposed king of France, the Emperor Arnulph, and his son Ludwig IV., the celebrated historian John Aventine, Saint Wolfgang, and Saint Dionysius, the Areopagite. The body of the latter saint is said to have been purloined from the Abbey of Saint Denis, in France, in the year 893; and Pope Leo XI., in a particular bull, absolutely threatened with excommunication all who dared doubt the
genuineness‘ of the holy corpse*: “not?
withstanding which,” says Keysler, “ the monks of Saint Denys, near Paris, insist that the body of that saint is actually in their possession; and his head is shown in the third shrine of their treasury. On the other hand, the monks of Saint Emmeram maintain, that the only part wanting in their relique, is the middle finger of the right hand. However, an entire hand of this saint is shown at a chapel in Munich. His head is also devoutly worshipped in the cathedral of Bamberg; and at Prague another head of that saint is kept in the Church of Saint Vitus in the Castle 1'.”
* ‘ Des Churbayer Atalantis, von A. W. Ertel.’ 8vo. Numberg, 1815.
T" Travels through Germany, &c.’ 4 vols. 4to. London,
This abbey formerly possessed an altar of solid gold, a fine manuscript of the Gospels, written in gold, the cover ornamented with precious stones, and presented by Charles the Bald to the monks of Saint Denis; another copy, said to have been written in 751 by a bishop, in the ninetieth year of his age, and many other valuable curiosities. The MSS. are, Ibelieve, still in existence *. Gemeiner, in his chronicle, has a story connected with the edifice, sufliciently illustrative of the period of its
action to merit insertion; besides which
I doat upon old stories, and fairly warn that “ gentle reader,” who may not have the same predilection, to lay down the book in time, as it .is only when, like the Knifegrinder, “ I have none to tell,” that he has the slightest chance of escape from them. A certain worthy Bishop of Regeneburg, not contented with fleecing his flock, according to the approved and legitimate method, made it a point of conscience to waylay and plunder his beloved brethren
1757, vol. iv. p. 212. The saint must surely have been like Mrs. M.alaprop's Cerberus—“ Three gentlemen at once." * Yet I do not find them noticed by Mr. Dibdin, in his
curious ‘ Bibliographical Tour.’
whenever they ventured near the Castle of Donaustauf, in which he resided upon the banks of the Danube, a little below the town. In the month of November 1250, says the chronicle, tidings came to Donaustauf, that, on the following morning, the daughter of Duke Albert of Saxony would pass that way, with a gorgeous and gallant escort. The bait was too tempting for the prelate. He sallied out upon the glittering cortege, and seizing the princess and forty of her noblest attendants, led them captives to Donaustauf. The astonished remainder fled for redress, some to King Conrad, and others to Duke Otho, at Landshut, who immediately took arms, and carrying fire and sword into the episcopal territories, soon compelled the holy highwayman to make restitution and sue for mercy. Conrad, satisfied with his submission, forgave him; in return for which the Bishop bribed a vassal, named Conrad Hohenfels, to murder his royal namesake; and, accordingly, in the night of the 28th of December, the traitor entered the Abbey of Saint Emmerams, where the king had taken up his abode, and stealing into the royal chamber stabbed the sleeper to the heart;
then running to the gates of the city, threw them open to the bishop. and his retainers, exclaiming that the king was dead. The traitors were, however, disappointed. Frederich von Ewesheim, a devoted servant of the king,‘ suspecting some evil, had persuaded the monarch to exchange clothes and chambers with him, and the assassin-’s dagger had pierced the heart, not of Conrad, but of -his true and gallant oflicer. The bishop escaped the royalvengeance by flight; but the abbot of Saint Emmeram’s, who had joined the conspirators, was flung into chains; and the abbey, the houses of the chapter, and all the ecclesiastical residences, were plundered by the king’s soldiery. The pope, as might be expected, sided with the bishop and excommunicated Conrad and Otho; but the murderer Hohenfels, after having for some time eluded justice, was killed by a thunderbolt!
In the church of the Dominicans is a chapel where Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Ratisbon, the successor of his unworthy namesake, is said to have given his lectures. This great philosopher and excellent pre
late is reported by the ancient chroniclers C
to have possessed the accommodating but rather extraordinary faculty attributed to the Irishman’s bird, viz. that of being in two places at once. It is asserted that, at the very moment he was holding forth to his attentive pupils from the chair still exhibited in the chapel, he was to be seen busily employed in his study at Donaustauf, about twelve miles off. For despatch of business this must have been an invaluable accomplishment, and accounts most satisfactorily for the magnitude and research of his literary and scientific labours. The Neue-Pfarre Kirche was formerly famous for a shrine of the Virgin called the Schone Maria, to which from ten to twelve thousand pilgrims frequently repaired at a time from different parts of Bavaria. The Ober Miinster and the Nieder Munster were both convents, the abbesses of which alone were obliged to take the vow of chastity. Otto II. and his Empress Adelheid are buried in the latter, which was founded in the tenth century by Judith, daughter of Arnold, Duke of Bavaria, and wife of Duke Henry I. The Ober Munster was founded by Hemma, Queen of Louis the German, who
is buried here. The Karmeliten Kloster, founded by the Emperor Ferdinand in 1641, is now the custom-house and the town-jail. In Ratisbon, formerly, even the horses went to church! On Saint Leonard's Day the peasantry of the neighbourhood brought their whole stud gaily caparisoned, and indulged each animal with a peep into theMal~ theser-Kirche, a pious precaution, which was supposed to preserve them the year round from the staggers, and indeed every other disorder that horse-flesh is heir to.
I had nearly forgotten the promenades. They are pretty, and run all round the town. The remains of an old cross are pointed out in them, as having once been the centre of the city. In another part is a temple to the memory of Keppler, the astronomer, who died here in 1630, and of whom, says Prof. Schultes, it may be said as of our English poet Butler, “ He asked for bread, and they gave him a stone.” A monument has also been erected to a M. Goertz, “ parcequ’il étoit assez riche,” said our domestique de place, an excellent reason, and one which has justified many a more extraordi
nary proceeding. Then there are the Un
terhaltungshaus, (a handsome building, which combines the theatre, the assemblyrooms, and heaven knows what besides)-— the new Maximilian-Joseph-Gasse, which has risen upon the ruins of 1809, and the nearly effaced figures of Goliath and David upon the wall of a house, the work apparently of the sixteenth century.
And now farewell, old Regensburg! The Roman, the Vandal, the Frank and the Hun, the Bohemian, the Austrian, and the Swede, the ancient and the modern Gaul, have, by turns, besieged, stormed, plundered, and burnt thee. Thy air of gravity becomes a city that hath suffered and survived so many disasters; and the antique gold and silver coifs that glitter on the braided locks of thy fair daughters, harmonize well with the Gothic glories of thy cathedral and the romantic interest of thy Turnier-Platz. .I confess it grieves me to notice the gradual disappearance throughout the Continent of those distinctions of dress -which have hitherto seemed, as strongly as language and countenance, to mark out the natural boundaries of nations and provinces: but I console myself with the hope, that Europe
may, with its old habits, fling ofl" its old prejudices, and that its millions will finally become as much like one great family in affection, as they promise to look, shortly, from the uniformity of their costume.
On Monday, September 9, about eight in the morning, having completed our simple preparations, and safely stowed away under the benches of our little cabin a hamper containing some eatables and a few bottles of excellent Rhenish and Austrian wines, we stept into our weitz-zille, which awaited us just abovethe stone bridge, and having shot through an arch of it where there is .a fall something like that at old London at half-flood, and struggled a few moments with a strong eddy, occasioned by an island and some corn-mills, we passed under the wooden bridge, and commenced our voyage, astrong wind blowing unfortunately right in our teeth. The sky was however cloudless, and the day, as it advanced, proving exceedingly warm, the wind was only unwelcome as it threatened to retard, in some measure, our progress, and prevent our making the proposed landing and resting
places in due time. The average depth of the Danube between Donauworth and Passau, according to H. von Riedl, is ten feet; near Regensburg it is about eleven feet deep, and something broader than the Thames at Putney. The right bank of the river, nearly all the way to Straubing, is low, sedgy, and Dutch like. St. Niklas, Einhausen, Irl, Ober, and Unter Barbing or Barbling, are the names of the little old villages that are scattered along it; but, on the left bank, the eye is soon attracted by the bold mountains which, abruptly rising behind the villages of Regenhausen, Weichs, Schwabelweiss, and Dergeuheim, or Tegenheim, follow the windings of the flood in an almost unbroken chain to within a few miles of Vienna. The ruins of the castle of Donaustauf, cresting a round, bluff rock, having at its foot the little market-town of the same name, arethe first interesting object that presents itself on approaching them. The great strength and commanding situation of this fortress, anciently called Toumstouphen, rendered it an object of considerable importance during the middle ages; and many are the tales of the “ Battles, sieges, fortunes, it hath past.” Henry the Proud having taken it from the cathedral and chapter of Regensburg in 1132, the citizens invested it in the following year so closely, that the garrison, driven to extremities by hunger, set fire to the building, and sallying forth, cut their way through the besiegers. In 1146 it was again taken; and in 1159 again besieged. In 1250 it was the scene of that outrage which has already been related in the story of Frederich von Ewesheim. After the death of Albertus Magnus, who, in 1260, succeeded his notorious namesake, and here pursued his studies, Donaustauf was again snatched from its holy masters, and once more restored to them, through the assistance of Bavaria, in 1343. In 1355 it was pledged to the counsellor Ruger Reich for eleven thousand eight hundred and thirty-five florins, and sold afterwards to Charles IV. of Bohemia for five thousand. In vain did the holy fathers protest against the sale, and denounce spiritual as well as temporal vengeance against the purchaser. Charles was too shrewd and too powerful to fear either; and so long as he lived, Donaustauf
remained the barrier of Bohemia. Under his feeble successors, however, the chapter recovered its fortress, and in 1486 it was again pledged to Bavaria. Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, took it, and reduced it to its present condition in 1634. The Prince of Thurm and Taxis, who bought the lordship of Worth, in which it is situated, keeps, if I may be allowed the expression, the ruin in repair, and bestows some care on the gardens, which clothe the eastern side of its mountain seat. From the ramparts, the view extends eastwards over Worth to Straubing and -Bogen; and westward, over Ratisbon, to the mountains of Abach. On either side, the eye traces the bright Danube, now
flowing majestically right onwards, now ‘ boldly sweeping round some rocky.point,.
or gracefully winding amidst large tracts of meadow land--here almost doubling itself by a sudden and unexpected curve, and, lost for a short time amongst groves and hamlets, glittering again like a broad lake, where it resumes its eastern course far in the blue distance. Directly beneath lie the little market-town of Donaustauf; the church of Saint Salvator, which was built,
according to Schultes, in expiation of the crime of some soldiers who dishonoured the Host; the wooden bridge, said to be one of the longest on the river, and which is partially destroyed every year in order to give passage to the ice; and below it, on the left bank, numberless gardens and vineyards, spotted with the white villas of the wealthy citizens of Regensburg, who, escaping from commercial cares, on a fine summer Sunday evening, look back through the smoke of their pipes upon the dusky towers of their cathedral with, no doubt, similar feelings of satisfaction to those with which the London tradesman observes from his retreat at Highgate, or Hornsey, the distant dome of Saint Paul’s rising above the smother of our huge metropolis. Leaving Donaustauf, we passed the small village of Sulzbach, Demling, Bach, (celebrated for the mines in its neighbourhood.)Frenkhofen, Krukenberg, Oberach, Kirchkirfen or Kirfen-holz, and Wisent, on the little stream of that name, on the left bank; and those of Sarching, Frieshcim, Ilkhofen, Auburg, Eltheim, Saissling, and Seppenhausen, on the right, some of them consisting of scarcely
half a dozen houses, their humble, whitewashed churches roofed with shingles, and the little Kremlin-looking cupolas of their steeples painted a deep red. We now rapidly approached Worth, the chateau of the Prince of Thurm and Taxis, which had been visible from the time of our passing Kirfenholz, but, from the extraordinary sinuosities of the river, appeared, at one moment, to have been left entirely behind us. The exterior is anything but prepossessing, recalling to the mind of a cockney, like myself, the dead walls and extinguisher-capped towers of the Penitentiary at Milbank. The dark firs that rise beside it, and the rich meadows that gently slope from its terrace wall to the water’s edge, are, it must be confessed, infinitely more romantic and ornamental than the rows of cabbages and stunted willows that form the foreground to its inglorious likeness,—still the idea of a prison would, I think, be with any stranger the predominant one. Worth is, however, a palace, and, no doubt, handsome enough when you are in it. It has been, like most of the castles and palaces in this part of the World, bought and sold, pledged and re
deemed for all sorts of sums by all sorts of people. Those who wish to know the exact number of florins it was valued at during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, will find them scrupulously set down by Prof. Schultes; ‘but, as no matters of historical or romantic interest are connected with its various transfers, I shall content myself by merely stating, that it was anciently the property of the bishops of Ratisbon, and came to Bavaria in 1809, shortly after which period it was bought by its present possessor. Nearly opposite Worth, upon the right bank, is the small town of Pfatter, or Pfada, as it is called in the dialect of the country, the first post-station from Ratisbon. A little streamlet of the same name falls into the Danube beside it. A dozen small villages, remarkable only for appellations that would cost an untutored Englishman as many teeth to speak them—Gmi.1nden, Tiefer-thal, Hochdorf, Stadeldorf, Niederachdorf, Sinzendorf, Hiinthofen, Kirchenroth, Ober and Unter Motzing, Kessnach, Hartzeitdorn, &c., are scattered along the banks, both now exceedingly flat and uninteresting, the mountains on the left having re
treated from the river, which here winds and doubles like a hunted hare. My companion and I therefore landed, and leaving the boat to thread the mazes of this watery labyrinth, strode forward at a good round pace across the fields towards Straubing, the tin-capped steeples of which were flashing back the rays of the setting sun. The great plain extending from the gates of Ratisbon, as far as Pleinting, is supposed to have been once a large morass, which, on being drained, has left a rich black soil several feet deep (the celebrated Dunkelboden.) The peasantry of this favoured district are exceedingly proud, and fond of all kinds of finery. The finest Swiss and Dutch linen, silk and satin kerchiefs of the gayest hues, Brabant lace, and gold and silver stuffs of all descriptions, are in constant requisition. The men wear gold rings, and generally two gold watches. The black velvet or embroidered silk boddices of the women are laced with massive silver chains, from which hang a profusion of gold and silver trinkets, hearts, crosses, coins, medals, &c. The custom of tying a black silk handkerchief round the neck, with the bow behind,
and the ends hanging down the back, is, I think, peculiar to Bavaria. A wedding here is a scene of. great extravagance and uproar; many tables, accommodating at least a dozen persons each, are set out with all manner of good things, and the feasting continues for several days, all day long. Ignorant, however, as they are wealthy and luxurious, few even of the most respectable amongst them can either read or write, and are therefore, says Schultes, entitled in every respect to the appellation by which they are generally distinguished, i. e. “ Bauern vom Dunkelboden”—“ Peasants of the dark earth.” Sossau, on the left bank, shortly after you enter the Landgericht of Straubing, is celebrated for a picture of the Virgin, which, in 1534, the angels brought here in a boat, from a village where the doctrines of Luther had taken root, to the great indignation of the holy portrait. Those who are -sufiiciently sceptical to doubt the veracity of this story, may consult the account of the monks of Kloster Windberg*‘, (to which‘Sossau belonged,) printed “ cum licentia superiorum,” and illustrated by a fresco-painting on the walls of their house at Straubing. The whole angelic crew are there to be seen equipped in sailors’ dresses, tugging away with “ a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together,” (the last pull, by the way, must have been an extra miracle on the Danube, the advantage of such unanimity never entering the heads of the honest boatmen), and having on board not only the offended picture, but the outraged church itself !-—I have heard of a worthy enactor of old Capulet, who, by a curious transposition of his prepositions, commanded the astonished Juliet to prepare
* Kloster Windberg was originally a castle belonging to the Counts of Bogen. Albert of Bogen and Hedwig his
To go to Paris with St. Peter's church.
Now, however extraordinary this paternal injunction might appear to a modern heretical London audience, it is obvious, upon due consideration, that the speech, being placed in the mouth of a Roman Catholic of the sixteenth century, was not so much out of character as might be imagined at
wife founded the monastery in 1145. In the neighbourhood,
. two hermits are said to have resided, one of whom murdered
the other.
the moment. The chapel of Loretto and the church of Sossau had set a noble example of locomotion, and Saint Peter’s of Verona could have no rational‘ reason for refusing to follow it upon a proper occaS1011.
Ainhausen, the property of Count Liebelfing, on the high road to Rinkheim and Kagers, an old village from which the Lords of Kagers formerly took their title, are the last villages on the right bank of the river before you arrive at Straubing, the first town of consequence on the Danube after leaving Ratisbon
