Bonn is a fine town: the palace there has no uniformity of defign: the chief façade is at one end the gardens are gay, and decorated with efpalier orange-trees, and a variety of fine plants: the terras in front commands, very beautifully, the bold fweeps of the Rhine, which, with the gradual declivities covered with vineyards that recede from its banks; the fummits of hills, covered with caftles and towers, and the lofty fpiral tops of diftant mountains, form a wonderful fcene. The duke of Marlborough never took poffeffion of a more beautiful town. The present elector of Cologne, who refides here, is brother to the emperor of Germany he obtained his election fomewhat informally, by pecuniary intrigue: his revenues and territory are not large: he is obliged, by the German confederacy, to maintain 800. foldiers. About four miles beyond Bonn we quitted the road, in order to visit a mineral spring not far diftant, which, if I mistake not, is called Newth. It is fituated amidst some beautiful hills, on one of which are the picturesque ruins of an old caftle. A good inn is established there; and the adjacent grounds are t laid out, by the elector, with that attention to nature, which, to the honor of our nation, is characterised every where as the English tafte. The water, which resembles that of Spa, though it is not fo ftrong, is faid to be very efficacious in fimilar cafes. The place will, doubtless, be much resorted to; and if beauty of fituation, by enlivening the mind, contributes to health, every advantage may be derived from the neighbouring fcenes. From hence we drove through a most enchanting country by the fide of the Rhine, between mountains perpetually varying and richly cloathed. The beautiful river winds very gracefully between banks, above which appear, as in the defcription given by Aufonius, of fome neighbouring fcenes; "Culmina villarum pendentibus edita ripis Towns which o'er hanging banks their fummits rear, The houfes and frequent towns, delightfully * Aufonius Mosella, 1. 20, 21. of of corn, intermixed with the vineyards, fpread a glad appearance of plenty around them. A fine fpiral hill crowned with a rocky, caftle-like building, forms a noble object for many miles. The whole ride to Andernach is one of the most beautiful in Europe: it runs along a road which was made, as an infcription informed us, under the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in 162, and repaired and widened by Theodore, elector of Bavaria, in 1768. We flept at Andernach, where the master of the post-house, and his two pretty daughters, detailed to us, very feelingly, the circumstances of the king of France's re-capture at Varenne. We lamented that the unhappy king had not escaped from infult and degradation; but if he had displayed his standard, what fatal effects must instantly have followed! The preparation for civil war was already commenced, and we should have foon. had "Plains with flaughter cover'd o'er, "And rage unknown to civil wars before *." *The writer could not then foresee that an uncontrolled and ferocious phrenzy would produce effects in France more dreadful than any civil war at that period could have occafioned. Ander Andernach was one of the seven ports which Julian built after the deftruction of the barbarians. From this town to Coblence, the country is inferior only to that which we had paffed the preceding day. The pofition of the city on the Rhine, at the mouth of the Mofelle, is remarkably fine. The new part of the town is well built; the new palace is handfome, but the fituation is by no means to be compared with that of the old one, which stood at the foot of the noble fortrefs of Elthrenherstein, facing the Moselle. The whole town is now filled with the troops of the comte D'Artois. The Mofelle, which here pours its yellow ftream into the Rhine, would fuffer much, notwithstanding the defcription of Aufonius, on a comparison with the Thames. Of the Rhine one can never profess fufficient admiration; it has every beauty that poetical defcription hath attributed to it, though it seems indeed to have lost some of its powers; for Claudian, in conformity with a popular fuperftition, confiders it as capable of ascertaining the legitimacy of fufpected offspring; "Et "Et quos nafcentes explorat gurgite Rhenus." And those whofe birth the whelming Rhine explores. It being cuftomary, as Gregory Nazianzen has remarked, to make this ordeal trial *. One wishes, it is true, to fee more veffels on the Rhine; but its navigation is impeded by heavy and injudicious taxation. The current is likewise extremely rapid, and vessels afcend with the greatest difficulty; but large rafts of timber float down and give a peculiar character to the river. Instead of proceeding by Mayence to Franckfort, we unfortunately took the road by Montabuer, Limbourg, and Konigstein, and were jumbled over a continuation of rocky ftones, to the imminent hazard of diflocating our bones and breaking our carriage. We were obliged to fleep at Konigstein at a wretched inn, which, however, we exchanged next morning for the red house at Franckfort, one of the best in Europe. Franckfort affords little gaiety to the ftranger except at a coronation, or during the time of the fair, when the mornings are * Ες νόθον ευγενεοις ρηνε κριθέντα ρεέθροις. enlivened |