From Zurich to Basle: Arrival in Basle: Our Hotel: Our visit to the Rhine
Bridge: “The Watch on the Rhine”: The Market: The Cathedral and its
sculpture, etc.: Erasmus: The Museum: The Zoological gardens: Leaving
Basle: Arrival at Belfort: Belfort besieged.
As we journeyed from Zurich, we felt we were leaving behind us sights we
might never see again. A certain poet’s words came to my memory:
“Beautiful world,
Though bigots condemn thee:
My tongue finds no words
For the graces that gem thee!
Beaming with sunlight,
Beautiful ever,
Streaming with gay delight,
Full as a river.
Bright world! Brave world!
Let cavaliers blame thee,
I bless thee and bend
To the God that did frame thee.”
Between Zurich and Basle we contrived to get a little relief from the
excitement of new scenes. We had really been surfeited almost with the
richness and beauty of our surroundings for so long a time that it was a
relief to allow the train to speed on, and to get into a corner and
contemplate and rest. We arrived at Basle in the afternoon, and found it
a great railway centre, and indeed, a very important town, both for
commercial men and for pleasure seekers. It is a great centre for
cyclists, as there are at least forty castles to be seen within a radius
of fifty miles. You can be in Germany in about twenty minutes. From the
north, east and west, a number of the most important lines of central
Europe are focussed here, and swelling to a mighty mass, branch off again
in every direction to the interior of Switzerland. Thus inner
Switzerland is laid open to the world’s traffic and pleasure. The
surroundings of the city are very pretty, and we saw it when it was most
charming, i.e., when the autumn tints are seen. Here we see field and
forest around this grand old city in all the glory of the season’s
attractions. We were advised by the manager of our hotel in Lucerne, to
go to the Hotel Victoria in Basle, so we secured the usual fakeno to
carry our luggage across, for it is only about two hundred yards from the
station. We were, however, disappointed in the hotel and its management.
They were neither obliging nor scrupulously true or honest, the very
worst treatment we met with in all our travels.
[Picture: The Rhine Bridge, Basle]
However, our stay was short, so we determined to make the best of it, the
bedroom was good; and, although close by the station, we slept well. We
decided to see the city the day following; and going out, we soon found
it to be a great centre of commerce. It has a population of about one
hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants. Great silk factories rear their
heads in the centre of this great city. There are also manufacturies of
chemicals, tobacco, machinery, etc.; also some very large breweries. It
is said to be the wealthiest town in Europe, measured by its population.
It has plenty of open-air spaces, as parks, gardens and monuments; cool
avenues and well trimmed gardens are plentiful in the suburbs. We went
to see the wonderful Rhine which flows through Basle, and we stood on
that wonderfully constructed bridge of which the poet writes:
“A voice resounds like thunder peal
Mid dashing waves and clang of steel:
The Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine!
Who guards to-day my stream divine?
Dear fatherland, no danger thine,
Firm stand thy sons to watch the Rhine!
They stand a hundred thousand strong,
Quick to revenge their country’s wrong;
With filial love their bosoms swell,
They’ll guard the sacred land, mark well.
While flows one drop of German blood,
A sword remains to guard thy flood.
While rifle rests in patriot’s hand,
No foe shall tread thy sacred strand!
Our oath resounds, the river flows,
In golden light our banner glows,
Our hearts will guard thy stream divine;
The Rhine, the Rhine, the glorious Rhine!”
For some time we stood and watched the rolling river flow by until tired
of watching, we left after I had taken a snap-shot, and retracing our
steps to the market, a place of peculiar interest, as everything seems
different from our English ways. The stalls are set out differently, and
their fruits, vegetables, pots, flowers and shoes, indeed almost
everything you can need, we saw in the great space of the market here in
Basle. The curious customs, dresses, language and money were all
strange; and we thought the dress of the country folk was very quaint and
queer. We spent sometime in looking over this great place, so many
things offer attractions; without however, making any purchases save a
few post-cards and a little fruit for our immediate use. We strolled on
to the principal streets to note some of the very fine buildings that
adorn the city. The Post Office is an imposing building, I should say it
was partly ancient and partly modern. It is a Gothic building and seems
to be well suited for, and capable of dealing with the work it has to do.
The House of Parliament, or shall I say Government House, in the great
market square, to look at it, it seems to rise terrace-like, up to the
Martin’s Grasse; in the centre of each terrace is a court, round which
the halls and the various offices are grouped. There is a fine statue
close by the stairs representing a Roman pro-Consul, who had to do with
the founding of the city. Of course, we must see the Cathedral. In all
the continental cities there is a Duomo or Cathedral, and many of them
are well worth a visit. The Cathedral of Basle stands on an elevation
and consequently shows itself well. It has two steeples, not very lofty
but very pretty. It dates from the year 1010, but has been restored and
very nearly re-built, as there was a great fire which destroyed a large
part of it in the year 1185. Again, in the year 1356, there was an
earthquake, so serious that the vault of the central nave fell in, and
the upper portion of the choir was thrown into the Rhine. Over the
entrance is a fine stone gallery, and above this a very large window,
with Madonna and Child in fine colours. There are several fine pieces of
statuary inside. The Emperor Henry II. and his Consort Kunigundi, in
colossal figures. To the left of one of the steeples is St. George in
the act of killing the dragon. To the right, or St. Martin’s steeple, is
a figure of St. Martin sharing his cloak with a poor beggar. On the side
of the nave are some very fine works of art in sculpture, such as four
life-size figures of the “Four Evangelists”; there is St. Peter and St.
Paul; “The Seven Wise and Seven Foolish Virgins”; “Christ, as Judge of
the World”; “John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.” Above these are
seen angels blowing their trumpets; the dead arising from their graves
and preparing for judgment; over the doorway inside, “The Wheel of
Fortune.” There is an absence of the confessional, the Holy Water and
other symbols of the weakness of the faith of the Roman Catholics. We
were greatly interested with our visit to this, one more of the
Continental Cathedrals, and especially so as one of the men who played
some part in the great reformation lies buried here, I refer to Erasmus.
He was a learned divine of the fourteenth century. He published some
very fine pastorals and works of theology, that even now are considered
worthy of reading. It does not seem that he ever joined Martin Luther in
his crusade against the Pope and Popery in general, but he became a
staunch protestant. It is said that King Henry VIII. offered him a
church in Oxford. He travelled much, visiting Rome, Venice, England and
Paris. He ended his days here in Basle, and in the sacred precincts of
the Cathedral his dust reposes. The “blue house” is an attractive
building; it was the residence of the Emperor and Empress of Austria
during the war of liberation, at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
It has a fine front and commands a full view of the river Rhine. The
museum is one of the quaintest and strangest I have ever seen. It is
said to be the most interesting museum in Switzerland. I cannot pretend
to tabulate all there is to be seen here, only indicate some of the most
curious: “The dance of death,” “Tankards,” “Bowls,” “Carved Altars of
curious designs,” but very costly; the gold and silver plate belonging to
the Cathedral, many trophies taken in war and weapons also. There are
ancient household implements; also several important heirlooms of
Erasmus; some fine figures of Samson and Delilah are to be seen at the
entrance.
“The Strassburg Monument” in the Elizabeth Gardens, close to the Central
Railway Station, is a fine sculpture in white marble (I took a snap-shot)
by Bartholdi, and was presented to the city by Baron Herve de Gringer, in
commemoration of the assistance given by the Swiss in 1870, to the
citizens of Strassburg when sorely pressed by the enemy. The Zoological
Gardens of Basle are very extensive, and so far as I know, are the only
gardens of this description in Switzerland. The way to it is full of
beauty and interest. There is also another place some people might think
important, we did not—that is the Crematorium. Many other places of
interest in and around this fine old city, we had not time to visit, our
time being limited. We could not help being struck with the fact that
the ancient landmarks of this old world city are fast disappearing, and
old buildings being pulled down and new palatial ones being erected on
all hands. The crumbling walls of the middle ages are fallen; the moats
are all filled in; narrow streets and alleys are being swept away in the
onward march of time; and the broad squares and commodious dwelling
houses are being put up. The beauty after all, is the rolling river
Rhine. We closed our account at the hotel, wrote up our journals and
prepared to leave this interesting old city. We left our hotel early in
the morning, and were soon seated in a train for Belfort, in France. We
had to cross the Rhine over a fine railway bridge, and as we crossed it
we had a good view of the river as it rolled past. It comes through
Alsace and Lorraine, the territory ceded by France to Germany after the
great victory achieved by the latter, in the year 1870. The scenery,
since leaving Switzerland, is less rugged and mountainous, but the
foliage, in its autumn colours, is very pretty. A couple of hours
brought us to the town of Belfort. It has now a population of about
thirty thousand. We could see first of all, it was well fortified. The
castle has a fine appearance in the distance, as it stands on a rocky
eminence; something like our castle here in Nottingham. There is a fine
old parish church (the religious element is well represented wherever we
find ourselves). It is a manufacturing centre, especially for mats, but
also wax tapers. There are several large breweries. This town was
surrounded by the Germans in the great Franco-German war of 1870. But
month after month it bravely, resolutely withstood all their attempts at
capture; and although both food and ammunition became scanty, they still
held on, until by sheer force of lack of provisions, they capitulated in
February, 1871, to the great satisfaction of the Germans, and to the
chagrin of the proud French. The Germans, in their generosity, and as a
recognition of the bravery of the French soldiers, allowed them to march
out of the town with full military honours. It is one of the towns that
closely border Alsace and Lorraine of the Haut Rhin that was left to the
French at the annexation in February, 1871.