A tour through Holland

I have before mentioned the excellent accommodations which I have every where experienced at the different towns we stopped at. Although at the last place where we slept there were not above three or four houses, and we were not expected, we had an excellent supper, and clean comfortable beds. After our repast, as we were drinking some excellent hock, many of the company present communicated the object of their voyage, and amongst the rest an elegant young Frenchman, about nineteen, who had charmed us all the way by his politeness and inexhaustible flow of spirits, told us, to my no little surprise, that the object of his excursion would not admit of his returning when he pleased, for he was on his way to join part of the French army at Maynz, or Mayence, as a conscript; for which he had been drawn; and as his father who was a man of fortune at Aix-la-Chapelle, but was very fond of his money, would not put himself to the expense of paying the substitution money for him, “par conséquence,” said he with a smile of good humour, “il me faut aller en personne.” He told us that he had no hopes of raising himself from the ranks but by good conduct and equally good fortune, although his uncle was a general in the service, and commanded that part of the army into which he was soon to be incorporated. Whenever we stopped, he bestowed his money with liberality to beggars and chambermaids, alleging, that as he was about to be a soldier, he ought to live, when he became one, on a soldier’s pay, and that to have more till he was promoted, would only make him uncomfortable; adding, that on his arrival at head quarters, he should order a noble dinner, and give his clothes to the waiters, and surrender himself up to the captain of his company. He neither blamed the cruelty of his father, the tyranny of the conscription, nor repined at his unlucky fate, but filling a bumper, exclaimed, “Tout ce qu’il me faut maintenant, c’est, de devenir bon soldat.” “All that I have to do is to make myself a good soldier.” I never saw a point more easily and comfortably settled in my life. Our young conscript had the best wishes of us all, for his happiness and speedy promotion. This elastic spirit of vivacity seems to be the common property of every Frenchman, and never did it appear more striking than in the following circumstance: upon an English surgeon some years since visiting a hospital at Paris, he saw in one of the wards three Frenchmen who had received some very severe contusions by the fall of a scaffold a few days before, lying in bed; upon approaching them he found one dead, another dying, and the one in the middle sitting upright in the bed, fiddling to several invalids, who were dancing at the foot of it as well as they were able.

After a refreshing sleep we were called, upon the first intimation of the day’s approach, and early in the morning arrived at St. Goar, after passing by the ancient gothic tower of Welmich, the white and venerable palace of Thurnburg, crowning the mountain behind it, and through most delicious and romantic scenery, every where profusely embellished with the hoary remains of piety and war, under the various tints of progressive day. In a minute after the boat had stopped, all the passengers disappeared to attend matins, it being Sunday, and left me to gaze in amazement upon the stupendous rock of Rheinfels, or the rock of the Rhine, which rises most majestically behind the town, and supports the remains of a vast fortress which bears its name, and which the French demolished in the last war. This fortress was next in strength to that of Ehrenbreitstein; it was in the year 1245 converted from a convent to a fortress, by Count Diether le Riche. In 1692 the Hessians, who were in possession of it, made a gallant defence, headed by Colonel Goerz, against the French, who were in superior force under the command of the celebrated Mareschal de Tallard, who was compelled to give up the siege. In the last war it experienced a different fate: the French troops took quiet possession of it, and though it ranked next to Ehrenbreitstein in strength and advantage, it partook not of the glory of a similar resistance. At the foot of this enormous rock is a large barrack lately built, but now deserted. There was also a flying bridge here, but it has been removed.

In a bay of the river a little before we approached Oberwesel, there is a vast rock, which the passengers on the river never fail to address, for the purpose of hearing their own voices very closely imitated by its echoes. Almost all the way from St. Goar to Oberwesel, we were environed by enormous dark rocks covered with shattered fragments, impending over and embrowning the face of the river with their awful shadows. The gloom of the scene was enlivened only by a few fishermen’s huts here and there interspersed, protected from the intense heat of the sun retained by and reflected from the rocks rising above them, by the foliage of scanty groups of trees. This melancholy defile prepared us for Oberwesel, a venerable city, filled with the solemnity of ancient churches and deserted convents. In the time of the Emperor Henry the Seventh, this city was an imperial one; afterwards, and till the French seized it, it was in the possession of the Elector of Treves. The church of the Minorites had once a fine copy of Rubens’ Descent from the Cross, by a disciple of his, which upon inquiry I found had been removed. Nothing can exceed the beauty of the situation of this town; the scenery to the south of it is luxuriant and romantic beyond imagination. Close to it, rising from an avenue of stately walnut-trees, is a prodigious rock, supporting the celebrated chateau de Schoenberg, which gave birth to the illustrious and ancient family of the name of Belmont, afterwards changed for the German name of Schoenberg or Beaumont: this place and the neighbourhood abound with slate quarries. Immediately opposite, on the eastern bank, lofty mountains clothed with hanging vineyards, and attended by the usual association of mural ruins perched upon their pinnacles, and of monastic buildings projecting from their sides, or rising from their base, presented their majestic forms to the Rhine. From Oberwesel we crossed over to Kaub, a fortified town a little way further to the south. Previous to this we had kept, during the whole of the passage, on the left bank. In crossing the river we passed close to a large massy fortified tower, or fort, standing in the middle of the Rhine upon a rock, called the Pfalz or Palatinate. In distant times the Countesses of the Palatinate, when they were far advanced in that state which

used to remove to this insulated spot of gloom for the purpose of lying-in; afterwards it was used as a state prison, and a place to watch the vessels ascending or descending the Rhine, to prevent their eluding the tolls; it is now disused, but not likely very soon to run to decay for want of inhabitants. Enthusiastically as I admire the scenery of this part of the Rhine, I think I never saw a place where man or woman would less prefer to be confined in, than the Pfalz.

At Kaub, a very ancient but neat town, which stands at the base of a lofty mountain, in a handsome inn close to the river, we tasted some delicious wine, the produce of the neighbouring vineyards, for which we paid about ten pence English the bottle: and we were regaled gratuitously with some of the finest grapes, which a pretty girl produced as naturally as pipes and tobacco are introduced in similar places in Holland. The vineyards of Oberwesel, Kaub, and Bacharach, and the two hills of Vogtsberg and Kühlberg near the last city, which abound with blue slate, produce a vine remarkable for its odour and muscadelle flavour, and form one of the distinguished vine divisions of this enchanting region.

Upon leaving the Kaub we proceeded through a scene of transcendent richness and beauty, where

Our ears were delighted with the solemn choruses of the inhabitants of the villages returning in large crowded boats from their churches, and the bells of the convents, while the shores on either side were enlivened by the peasants in their sabbath dresses going to or returning from their respective places of worship. At length the hoary battlements of Bacharach opened upon us; part of this town slopes from the vine-clad mountain behind it, and the remainder is close to the water. This town is also very ancient, and as a proof of its antiquity, derives its name from Bacchus, to whom tradition relates an altar was raised upon a rock in the centre of the Rhine. Indeed we might have supposed that he had been worshipped here in all the marvellous pomp ascribed to his original adoration, and that his priestesses, by striking the earth with their thyrsi, had caused rivers of milk, and honey, and wine to flow

This insulated rock was admirably adapted for bearing upon one of its trees, if ever one grew upon it, those little wooden or earthen images of Bacchus, which from the smallness of their mouths were called Oscilla, and were considered as so many watch towers, from which the god might look after the vines, to prevent their receiving injury. I know of no situation where he could have performed his tutelar duties better than in this very spot.

The vine here has been long celebrated for its excellence; the Emperor Venceslas preferred four fuder of this wine (a fuder is equal to three hundred and sixty gallons) to ten thousand florins offered to him by the inhabitants of Nuremberg, to redeem their sequestered privileges; and even Pope Pius the Second imported for his table a fuder of this wine annually. These are illustrious authorities in favour of the Bacharach wine, but the best is its flavour.

My laquais, a merry, good humoured fellow, and having no bad ear for music withal, announced our being opposite to Lorch, the first town where, in ascending the Rhine, the Rhingau commences, in which district the finest wines are produced, by singing a national song in honour of this vine-covered region, in which every person on board joined most cordially. It was a very long one, but the following stanzas will serve as a specimen of it.

Every child in this part of Germany knows this song by heart.

Fronting the august ruins of the castle of Sannek, the Rhine presents the appearance of an ample lake, and the mountains, which hitherto were numerous and lofty, recede as we approach the pretty village of Drgeckshausen, a little beyond which the river expands, and forms a noble curve near Asmanshausen, at the foot of a forest, celebrated for the convent of Aulenhausen, much frequented by devotees. Asmanshausen is known for the fine blecker which it produces.

Nearly opposite to Ruppertsberg the navigation of the Rhine becomes very much impeded, and rendered hazardous by some vast rocks which just raise their heads above the surface of the water, and which our boatmen informed us had frequently occasioned the loss of lives. Here the country again becomes rude and rocky, occasionally covered with forest oak, and profusely ornamented with dilapidated castles, where the steel-clad chieftains of other times used to blow their

A visible change in the scenery to which we had been accustomed, commenced as we approached Bingen: the hills retire farther from the banks of the river, more modern towns, yet occasionally chequered with the remains of antiquity, attract the eye, the trees of the forest succeed to the vines of the mountain, and in the room of stupendous rocks, rich meadows and corn-fields present their novel charms.

Bingen, which I visited upon my return, stands at the base of a lofty mountain, on the summit of which the ancient castle of Klopp is erected: the river Nohe disembogues itself by this city into the Rhine, over which there is a handsome stone bridge, called Druses, from its having the reputation of having been constructed by Drusis Germanicus: this confluence of the two rivers enables Bingen to carry on a considerable trade in Rhenish wines, grain, and timber.

As the shades of evening descended, we passed Ehrenfels, and a little before nine arrived at Rüdesheim, where we supped at a very handsome hotel, and drank copiously of its wine, which is said to be superior to every other part of the Rhingau. Very early in the morning I visited the remains of a magnificent castle, which has the appearance of a Roman origin: this opinion is countenanced by the strong evidences of the same character which attach to the antiquities to be found in towns within the Rhingau. The situation of this august ruin, which is close to the river, is commensurate to its grandeur: the town of Rüdesheim is large, clean, and cheerful, and has few of those features of awful gloom which characterise several of the cities on the lower sides of this river, which here widens to a great breadth, and is dotted over with luxuriant little islands. Upon quitting this town we were more frequently retarded than we had been before, by the obstructions which terraces projecting into the river, and islands, offered to our towing horse, who, with the driver, was frequently belly deep in the water, which often forced our boatmen to the tedious application of their poles. The towns of Geisenheim, St. Bartholomaï, and Winkel, presented the same sprightly and agreeable aspect as Rüdesheim. I have observed that many towns in the Rhingau are of Roman derivation, in corroboration of which, many of their names are unquestionably so: as Winkel from Vinicella; Eltivil, from Alta Villa; and Lorch, or as the Germans pronounce it, Lorricke, from Laureacum, &c.

After quitting Rüdesheim, the noble priority of St. Johannesberg, proudly placed upon the summit of a vast mountain, surrounded with villages, hamlets, convents, nunneries, and other stately buildings, and having a back ground of distant hills covered with vines, commanded the admiration of all on board. This priory was founded in 1102, by Ruthard, second archbishop of Mayence, and in the devastating war of thirty years under Gustavus Adolphus, was rased to the ground. The land was afterwards sold to the abbot of Fuld, who rebuilt it in its present modern style, and afterwards it was given to the late Prince of Orange as an indemnity, and now forms a part of the rich territory of the Prince of Nassau Usingen. In a cave or cellar belonging to the priory, several thousands of hogsheads of the choicest wines are kept. The red blecker of Johannesburg is celebrated all over the world, and is the juice of the vineyard of the priory only; but the finest produce of the Rhingau is from the grape of Asmanshausen; Ehrenfels, and Rüdesheim, and particularly of some very small vineyards contiguous to them, called Rodtland, Hauptberg, and Hinterhausen, which rank the highest; and in this class also are included the numerous vineyards on the steep hills of Bingen, on the opposite shore. The second class embraces the vines of Rothenberg, Geisenheim, and Kapellgarten. The third class includes the grapes of Johannesberg, and the Fuldische Schlossberg. The fourth, the vines of Hattenheim, and Marker Brunner. The fifth, those of the cloister of Eberbach. Sixthly, those of Kitterich and Grafenberg; and the seventh, those of Rauenthal, and the hills and spots adjacent. All these classes are included in the district of the Rhingau.

The celebrated hock, is the produce of the vineyards of Hockheim, or High-home, above Mayence, to the eastward. Of the grape, that called the Reislinge, the longest known to these regions, ranks the highest; the Orleans grape, the orange or red Burgundy, and the Lambert, occupy the next place in the public estimation; and the Muscadelle and Kleimberg, which are frequently cultivated in private gardens, the third.

We still continued our course on the left bank of the Rhine, and passed by many beautiful villages, and the handsome towns of Haltenheim, Erbach, Elfeld, Steinheimerhof, Nieder or Lower Wallauf, where ancient churches and convents are interspersed amongst many handsome modern houses. We reached Nieder Wallauf, the last town of the Rhingau to the east, and afterwards Schierstein, a pretty town where, as our progress was so frequently delayed by the numerous islands which lie close to the bank, in company with a very pleasant, intelligent German, I quitted the boat, and walked to Biberich: the day was remarkably fine, and our road lay through luxuriant corn and pasture fields, vineyards, orchards, every where profusely adorned with castles, religious houses, picturesque cottages, and beautiful chateaus, behind which the vast forest of Landeswald extends to an immense distance: at length the numerous spires, and the lofty towers and palaces of Mayence opened upon us, from the opposite side of the river, and had a very venerable, and majestic effect.