town between Rheims and Paris. I breakfasted at _Dammartin_. About mid-day
I entered Paris, and found the hostess of the _Hôtel des Colonies_, (who
had been apprised by letter of our intention of returning thither)
perfectly disposed to give me a cordial reception, after an absence of
about three months. Having settled my affairs, and enjoyed a short repose
at Paris of a fortnight, I returned with my companion, by the diligence, to
Calais; and landed at Dover within about six months, and a half of my
departure from Brighton to Dieppe. Although my tour was carried on in the
most favourable of seasons--and with every sort of comfort, and attention
arising from letters of recommendation, and hospitable receptions in
consequence--yet I had undergone, from a constant state of excitement and
occupation, a great deal of bodily and mental fatigue; and I question if
poor Park, ... had it pleased Providence to have allowed him to re-visit
his native shore... would have retouched BRITISH EARTH with greater joy
than I experienced, when, leaping from the plank, put out from the boat, I
planted my foot upon the shingles at DOVER ...
... _reddens landes Domino_.[188]
[157] The Emperor of Austria having stopped at this hotel, the landlord
asked his permission to call it from henceforth by his _Majesty's
name_; which was readily granted. There is an _Album_ here,
in which travellers are requested to inscribe their names, and in
which I saw the _imperial autograph_.
[158] Especially in the striped broad shoes; which strongly resemble those
in the series of wood-cuts descriptive of the triumphs of the Emperor
Maximilian.
[159] There is a lithographic print of it recently published, from the
drawing of Quaglio--of the same folio size with the similar prints of
Ulm and Nuremburg. The date of the _towers_ of the Cathedral of
Ratisbon may be ascertained with the greatest satisfaction. From the
_Nuremberg Chronicle_ of 1493 folio xcviii, recto, it appears
that when the author (Hartmann Schedel) wrote the text of that book,
"the edifice was yet incomplete." This incomplete state, alludes, as I
suspect, to the towers; for in the wood-cut, attached to the
description, there is a crane fixed upon the top of _one_ of the
towers, and a stone being drawn up by it--this tower being one story
shorter than the other. Schedel is warm in commendation of the
numerous religious establishments, which, in his time, distinguished
the city of Ratisbon. Of that of St. Emmeran, the following note
supplies some account.
[160] Lord Spencer possesses some few early Classics from this monastic
library, which was broken up about twenty years ago. His Lordship's
copy of the _Pliny of_ 1469, folio, from the same library, is, in
all probability, the finest which exists. The MONASTERY OF ST. EMMERAM
was doubtless among the "most celebrated throughout Europe." In
Hartmann Schedel's time, it was "an ample monastery of the order of
St. Benedict." In the _Acta Sanctorum, mense Septembris, vol. vi.
Sep_. 22, p. 469, the writer of the life of St. Emmeram
supposes the monastery to have been built towards the end of the VIIth
century. It was at first situated _without_ the walls,--but was
afterwards (A.D. 920) included within the walls. Hansizius, a Jesuit,
wrote a work in 1755, concerning the origin and constitution of the
monastery--in which he says it was founded by Theodo in 688. The body
of St. Emmeram was interred in the church of St. George, by Gaubaldus,
in the VIIIth century, which church was reduced to ashes in 1642; but
three years afterwards, they found the body of St. Emmeram, preserved
in a double chest, or coffin, and afterwards exposed it, on
Whitsunday, 1659, in a case of silver--to all the people.
[161] He died in April, 1820.
[162] [NOT so--as I understand. It is re-established in its previous form.]
[163] So I heard him called everywhere--in Austria and Bavaria--by men of
every degree and rank in society; and by _professional_ men as
frequently as by others. I recollect when at Landshut, standing at the
door of the hotel, and conversing with two gallant-looking Bavarian
officers, who had spent half their lives in the service: one of them
declaring that "he should like to have been _opposed_ to
WELLINGTON--to have _died_ even in such opposition, if he could
not have vanquished him." I asked him, why? "Because (said he) there
is glory in such a contest--for he is, doubtless, the FIRST CAPTAIN OF
THE AGE."
[164] Dr. Bright, in _Travels in Lower Hungary_, p. 90-3, has an
animated passage connected with this once flourishing, but now
comparatively drooping, city. In the _Bibl. Spenceriana_, vol.
iii. p. 261-3, will be found an extract or two, from Schedel's
_Nuremberg Chronicle_, fol. c., &c. edit. 1493, which may serve
to give a notion of the celebrity of Nuremberg about three centuries
and a half ago.
[165] Or rather, walls which have certain round towers, with a projecting
top, at given intervals. These towers have a very strong and
picturesque appearance; and are doubtless of the middle part of the
fifteenth century. In Hartman Schedel's time, there were as many of
them as there were days in the year.
[166] [A large and most beautiful print of this interesting Shrine has
been published since the above was written. It merits every
commendation.]
[167] This is a striking and interesting print--and published in England
for 1_l._ 1_s._ The numerous figures introduced in it are
habited in the costume of the seventeenth century.
[168] The author of this work was _Franciscus de Retz_. As a first
essay of printing, it is a noble performance. The reader may see the
book pretty fully described in the _Bibl. Spenceriana_, vol.
iii. p. 489.
[169] See p. 320 ante.
[170] See a copy of it described at Paris; vol. ii. p. 126.
[171] See p. 182 ante.
[172] [He is since DEAD.]
[173] Only three livraisons of this work have, I believe, been yet
published:--under the title of "_Gravures en Bois des anciens
maîtres allemands tirées des Planches originales recueillies par_
IULIAN ALBERT DERSCHAU. _Publiées par Rodolphe Zecharie Becker_."
The last, however, is of the date of 1816--and as the publisher has
now come down to wood-blocks of the date of 1556, it may be submitted
whether the work might not advantageously cease? Some of the blocks in
this third part seem to be a yard square.
[174] They are now in the library of Earl Spencer.
[175] I will describe this singular specimen of old art as briefly and
perspicuously as I am able. It consists of an impression, in pale
black ink--resembling very much that of aquatint, of a subject cut
upon copper, or brass, which is about seventeen inches in height (the
top being a little cut away) and about ten inches six-eighths in
width. The upper part of the impression is in the shape of an obtusely
pointed, or perhaps rather semicircular, gothic window--and is filled
by involutions of forms or patterns, with great freedom of play and
grace of composition: resembling the stained glass in the upper parts
of the more elaborated gothic windows of the beginning of the
fifteenth century. Round the outer border of the subject, there are
seven white circular holes, as if the metal from which the impression
was taken, had been _nailed up_ against a wall--and these blank
spots were the result of the aperture caused by the space formerly
occupied by the nails. Below, is the subject of the crucifixion. The
cross is ten inches high: the figure of Christ, without the glory, six
inches: St. John is to the left, and the mother of Christ to the right
of the cross; and each of these figures is about four inches high. The
drawing and execution of these three figures, are barbarously puerile.
To the left of St. John is a singular appearance of the _upper_
part of _another_ plate, running at right angles with the
principal, and composed also in the form of the upper portion of a
gothic window. To the right of the virgin, and of the plate, is the
"staggering" date abovementioned. It is thus: M.cccc.xxx. This date is
fixed upon the stem of a tree, of which both the stem and the branches
above appear to have been _scraped_, in the copper, almost
_white_--for the sake of introducing the inscription, or
_date_. The date, moreover, has a very suspicious look, in regard
to the execution of the letters of which it is composed. As to the
_paper_, upon which the impression is taken, it has, doubtless,
much of the look of old paper; but not of that particular kind, either
in regard to _tone_ or _quality_, which we see in the prints
of Mechlin, Schoen, or Albert Durer. But what gives a more "staggering
aspect" to the whole affair is, that the worthy Derschau had
_another_ copy of this _same_ impression, which he sold to Mr.
John Payne, and which is now in the highly curious collection of Mr.
Douce. This was fortunate, to say the least. The copy purchased by
myself, is now in the collection of Earl Spencer.
[176] I should add, that the _dotted_ manner of executing this old
print, may be partly seen in that at page 280 of vol. iii. of the
second edition of this work; but still more decidedly in the old
prints pasted within the covers of the extraordinary copy of the
_Mazarine Bible_, UPON VELLUM, once in the possession of Messrs.
Nicol, booksellers to his late Majesty, and now in that of Henry
Perkins, Esq.
[177] _Travels in Lower Hungary_, 1818, 4to. p.93.
[178] _Buchhandler_ is bookseller: and _Antiquar_ a dealer in
old books. In Nuremberg, families exist for centuries in the same
spot. I.A. ENDTER, one of the principal booksellers, resides in a
house which his family have occupied since the year 1590. My
intercourse was almost entirely with M. Lechner--one of the most
obliging and respectable of his fraternity at Nuremberg.
[179] [Now of Henrietta Street Covent Garden. As is a sturdy oak, of
three centuries growth, compared with a sapling of the last season's
transplanting, so is the business of Mr. Bohn, NOW, compared with what
it was when the _above_ notice was written.]
[180] It is either 1607, or 1609.
[181] The reputation of the University of Heidelberg, which may contain
500 students, greatly depends upon that of the professors. The
students are generally under twenty years of age. Their dress and
general appearance is very picturesque. The shirt collar is open, the
hair flowing, and a black velvet hat or cap, of small and square
dimensions, placed on one side, gives them a very knowing air. One
young man in particular, scarcely nineteen from his appearance,
displayed the most beautiful countenance and figure which I had ever
beheld. He seemed to be _Raphael_ or _Vandyke_ revived.
[182] See note at page 49-51.
[183] Since March 1819, called the firm of ARTARIA and FONTAINE.
[184] Among the prints recently imported from the _latter_ place,
was the whole length of the DUKE OF WELLINGTON, engraved by Bromley,
from the painting of Sir Thomas Lawrence. I was surprised when M.
Artaria told me that he had sold _fifty copies_ of this print--to
his Bavarian and Austrian customers. In a large line engraving, of the
Meeting of the Sovereigns and Prince Schwartzenberg, after the battle
of Leipsic--from the painting of P. Krafft--and published by Artaria
and Fontaine in January 1820--it is gratifying to read the name of our
SCOTT--as that of the engraver of the piece--although it had been
_previously_ placed in other hands.
[185] [It was brought to England about three years ago, and is YET, I
believe, a purchasable article in some Repository. It should at least
be _seen_ by the whole tribe of COGNOSCENTI in Pall Mall.]
[186] See page 439.
[187] The town is said to abound with Roman antiquities; among which is a
triumphal arch of the time of Augustus, and an arcade called the
_Romulus_. It was at Rheims where the holy _ampoule_, or
oil for consecrating the Kings of France was kept--who were usually
crowned here. A Jacobin ruffian, of the name of _Ruht_, destroyed
this ampoule during the revolution. This act was succeeded by his own
self-destruction.
[188] CHRISTMAS CAROL: printed by Wynkyn De Worde, 1521, 4to. see
_Typog. Antiquities_, vol. ii. p. 251.
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICOL, AT THE
Shakspeare Press,
Cleveland Row, St. James's.