Mayence has a very pretty entrance from the north, by a winding road through trees; but the town itself has very little attraction. To my eyes, too, it is a very grievous annoyance, that every fifth, literally every fifth man you meet is a soldier; there being six thousand troops quartered in a town of twenty-six thousand inhabitants.

We visited a gallery of paintings, which has some original pieces by the masters. “An Assumption of the Virgin," by Annibal Carracci, in which the Supreme Being is represented as a venerable man—a conception quite shocking indeed; but when you throw away that idea, which you may easily do, for it is difficult to retain it, the painting of that countenance is very fine; also, a

Mary presenting to a Carmelite the habit of his order," by Carracci. The upward, reverent gaze of the old man, the loveliness of the Virgin, were things to dwell upon for some moments at least. A very beautiful old painting of St. Appollonia, by Dominichino; a "Lot and his Daughters," by Michael Angelo-the fire, eagerness, and fondness of intoxication in the poor old man, with his hand outstretched towards the bowl, into which one of the daughters is pouring wine-and the beauty of the daughters, are the points of attraction; nor is the appearance of the outpoured wine to be forgotten.

FRANKFORT ON THE MAYN.

181

Jesus

A "Le Petit Jesus," by Jacques Jordan—i. e., I teaching in the temple-nothing good but the appearance of the Jewish doctors, and that was very striking; some of them, in the colouring of the flesh, by-the-by, singularly like those heads of Jews by Alston, exhibited a year or two ago at the Boston Athenæum.

FRANKFORT ON THE MAYN is worthy of its old fame, of its historical associations, and of being the seat of the Germanic Diet. Some of the streets are gloriously ancient in their appearance; and the modern ones have very good buildings, and all are very neat. There are fine seats, too, in the environs, reminding us for the first time of the neighbourhoods of our own cities. The walls, too, and fortifications, like those of Brussels, are levelled; but instead of being planted with regular rows of trees, they are laid out in winding walks, interspersed with shrubbery and trees. The cathedral, here, is a very ancient-looking pile, and the tower with its pinnacles is very grand; the style pure Gothic. There are some old houses here of a very extraordinary appearance. They are very small on the ground, and at the same time very lofty; and being covered entirely, not only on the roof, but the sides, with small, black, shining pieces of slate, they look like giants clad in ancient armour.

VOL. I.- Q

DARMSTADT-a beautiful town, with fine avenues through rows of linden trees, on the road to Mayence, and also southward. The chief attraction to us, however, was the gallery of pictures (six or eight hundred in number) in the palace of the Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. Some beautiful ruins and landscapes, by Schonberger; two admirable winter pieces, by Fosci; a striking portrait by Lanterre; animals, by Sneyder; a St. John, by Corregio. By Titian, "a Sleeping Venus"—the face particularly— the flush, the fulness of deep sleep-the something almost like delicate perspiration. By Dominichino, 66 a David and Nathan"- "Thou art the man!"

the prophet standing above the king, who shrinks back in his chair, with a fear-stricken aspect-the prophet's dignity and fixed eye. By Schmidt, "a Diana, and Nymphs bathing"-exquisite beauty of form and softness of outline-" Adam and Eve," also, by Schmidt—(German)—a painting of great power. Adam and Eve are flying from paradise; in the back ground, the sky lowers with a tempest, and lightning flashes vengeance across the dark cloud. Adam's countenance and brow especially are full of suppressed, sustained, and manly sorrow; Eve leans upon his breast, as they hurry along, with her face to the ground, and with such an expression of fear in the eye--of fear, not ago

1

nizing, but clear, bright, spirituelle, subdued, modest, feminine, as, I think, I can never forget. The contrast of manly strength and female loveliness, in the picture, is very striking. But last and greatest of all, is "Rembrandt's portrait of his second wife"-so beautiful, so natural, so speaking, so heavenly in the expression of the bright, calm, pure, and almost living eye, that I could have kneeled before it, as the Catholic does before the Virgin Mary.

HEIDELBERG. The situation very delightful, on the banks of the Neckar. The ruins of the castle, on the brow of the hill southward, are more beautiful far, than any castellated ruin I have seen in England; said by Scheiber's guide book to be also the most beautiful in Germany. The walls are standing, in very good preservation, and are ornamented, I should judge, with not less than eighty or one hundred statues, also very perfectly preserved. These, with the niches and canopies, and the work in and over the windows, together with many armorial bearings, present a vast proportion of sculpture, though the building is not Gothic. An immensely deep fosse surrounds the castle; there is a fine, paved esplanade in front, and another back of it, laid out with walks, and imbowered with trees; and the views, up the Neckar, through richly

wooded and vine-clad hills, and downward upon the town, and beyond, upon a broad and boundless plain, watered by the same river, also stretching towards the Rhine-are exceedingly fine.

HEPPENHEIM, on the road from Darmstadt and Heidelberg, is situated amid very charming scenery. The majestic ruin of Starkenburg Castle is on a neighbouring height. At Bensheim, not far from Heppenheim, we saw, for the first time in Europe, Indian corn.

OFFENBURG, SEPTEMBER 5. We are still in the valley of the Rhine, though at some distance from the river. The scenery for the last day or two more resembles that of our Connecticut river, than anything else; but the ruin of an old castle, now and then appearing on the neighbouring hills, is a feature which is never to appear in the landscapes of the Connecticut. The time of feudal sovereignties and castles has gone by in the civilized world. Princely dwellings, indeed, are built, and will be built; but they are no longer perched upon almost inaccessible crags and mountains, to be forsaken when the times of danger have passed away. The English castles now in ruins, were not indeed so inconveniently situated; but still they were built for defence, and not for comfort, and have been given up as much from their inconvenience as from their