DESCENT OF THE DANUBE,
FROM
RATISBON TO VIENNA,
DURING THE
AUTUMN OF 1827.
WITH
ANECDOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS,
_HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY_,
OF THE
TOWNS, CASTLES, MONASTERIES, etc., UPON
THE BANKS OF THE RIVER,
AND THEIR INHABITANTS AND PROPRIETORS, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
+By+ J. R. PLANCHE,
AUTHOR OF “LAYS AND LEGENDS OF THE RHINE,” “OBERON,” AN OPERA, etc.
Ye glorious Gothic scenes! how much ye strike
All phantasies, not even excepting mine:
A grey wall, a green ruin, rusty pike,
Make my soul pass the equinoctial line,
Between the present and past worlds, and hover
Upon their airy confine, half-seas-over.
+Don Juan+, Canto X.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JAMES DUNCAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
MDCCCXXVIII.
[Illustration:
_On Stone by L. Haghe._ _W. Day Lithog. 17 Gate St._
SCHLOSS BÖSENBEUG.
The Summer Residence of the Emperor of Austria and the Town of Ips on
the Danube.]
LONDON:
Printed by +William Clowes+,
Stamford Street.
TO
SAMUEL RUSH MEYRICK,
_OF GOODERICH COURT, HEREFORDSHIRE,_
ESQUIRE,
LL.D., F.S.A., etc. etc.
THIS VOLUME
IS INSCRIBED
BY HIS VERY SINCERE AND MUCH OBLIGED FRIEND,
J. R. PLANCHE.
_Brompton-Crescent, July 1, 1828._
PREFACE.
It appears rather surprising that, while our printshops teem with
views on the Rhine, and the shelves of our booksellers groan with
the weight of Tours in its neighbourhood, no English pen or pencil
should have been hitherto employed in illustration of the magnificent
Danube. Captain Batty, it is true, in his beautiful work entitled
“German Scenery,” has three or four views upon the river, and one or
two modern tourists have slightly mentioned a town or so, which, lying
on the post-road to Vienna, as well as on the banks of the Danube,
they have passed through on their way to the Austrian capital. But,
with the exception of the translation of Baron Riesbeck’s travels in
Germany, published in the fifth volume of Pinkerton’s collection,
which contains a very brief but faithful description of the river from
Passau to Vienna, I am aware of few works in our language from which
the slightest idea of its beauty and interest can be drawn, and of
none absolutely dedicated to its history and illustration[1]. That the
Danube should be so little known to our rambling countrymen is the more
remarkable, as Vienna--voluptuous Vienna! is one of the points to which
it leads, and the ease, pleasure, and velocity with which its stream
may be descended, render, in commonly fair weather, the passage by
water considerably preferable to the journey by land, though performed
in the traveller’s own post-chariot; and as by land he _must_ return,
he thus secures to himself the advantage of entirely new scenery, even
if compelled by time or circumstances to retrace his line of route.
The road from Frankfort to Ratisbon is replete with interest--the
beautiful banks of the meandering Mein; the battle-field of Dettingen;
the fine chateau and gardens of Aschaffenburg; Wurtzburg with its
splendid palace, its rich conservatories and rock-throned citadel;
Nürnberg, the birthplace of Albert Durer, with its fantastic
buildings, and gorgeous cathedral, all tempt the wanderer on to the
heights of Hohen-Schambach, where the plain of the Danube bursts upon
his view. The return from Vienna, by Salzburg and Munich, or through
the Tyrol to the Lake of Constanz, and _so down the Rhine home_, leaves
nothing to be wished for in point of scenery; while six weeks or two
months, provided the traveller be not ensnared by the gaieties of
Vienna, are amply sufficient, in fair weather, for the whole of the
journey.
Having sought in vain, on my departure from England, for a book which
would serve me as a guide and companion down the Danube, I was induced
to take a few notes and sketches during my little voyage, in the hope
that, when thrown, at my leisure, into something like a readable shape,
they might become useful to future travellers, by at least standing
in the gap till some abler hand should supply the desideratum. In
the pursuance of this object, I was greatly assisted by a copy of
Professor Schultes’ Donau-Reise[2], the best foreign guide down the
Danube; but which is yet incomplete, and suppressed in Austria on
account of its political and religious opinions. At the same time,
however, that I acknowledge my obligations to this work, from which
I have gleaned much information on points that could only have been
explained by a native, or one long resident in the country, I must take
the liberty of expressing my objection to its style, which renders
its perusal a task to Germans themselves, and must make it almost a
sealed book to a foreigner. Herr Schultes’ prolixity, and love of
inversion, are enough to drive an English reader crazy. The latter,
indeed, he carries to such an extent, that the waggish description of
“the-in-general-strewed-with-cabbage-stalks-but-on-a-Saturday-night-
lighted-up-with-lamps-market of Covent Garden” must hide its
diminished head. The learned Professor sometimes keeps his inquisitive
victim on the rack for pages, before he deigns to disclose the word
which solves the enigma of his apparently interminable sentence. He
seems to glory in this species of mystification, and, like poor dear
innocent Dogberry, were he “as tedious as a king,” he would “bestow
it all upon your worship.” Still, however, “there is matter in this
madness,” and the Professor has been a diligent digger. The list of
German authors, both ancient and modern, who have written upon the
antiquities, history, and natural productions of the towns and shores
of the Danube, was invaluable to a stranger like myself, as it enabled
me at once to lay my hands upon authorities ‘pour vérifier les dates,’
etc. ‘Die Burgvesten und Ritterschlosser der Oestreichischen Monarchie,
4 T. Brunn, 1820,’ is another work, which has afforded me much curious
legendary material; as have also the ‘Taschenbuch zur Geschichte
verfallener Ritterburgen,’ etc., Wien, 1826, and other similar
publications.
The Danube, whose waves have witnessed the march of Attila, of
Charlemagne, of Gustavus Adolphus, and Napoleon; whose shores have
echoed the blast of the Roman trumpet, the hymn of the Pilgrim of
the Cross, and the “wild halloo” of the sons of Islam, whose name
is equally dear to history and fable; to him who, in fancy, sees
the lion-hearted Richard of England languishing for his native
land, or follows the beautiful widow of Siegfried to the “rich King
Etzel’s court,”--that such a theme was worthy of being treated by
the first writers in our language, was an awful consideration for
one of the humblest; that it had not been touched upon by any was
the only encouragement. “You have often scribbled successfully for
the stage,” said my friend ----, “why should you fear to write for
the passage-boat?” The joke was a vile one, but the argument was
conclusive. Gentle reader, this is my first appearance in the character
of a tourist. I have taken the part at a short notice, no one else
having appeared to sustain it, and respectfully solicit the usual
indulgence.
FOOTNOTES (PREFACE)
[1] While this volume was passing through the press, “A Summer’s Ramble
amongst the Musicians in Germany” appeared, in which pleasant book, a
dozen pages are allotted to an equally brief and spirited notice of
the banks of the Danube from Passau to Vienna. Upwards of one hundred
years ago, Lady M. W. Montague descended the Danube from Ratisbon to
Vienna, a voyage of which she dismisses her account, in a dozen lines.
“We travelled by water from Ratisbon,” says the fair writer, “a journey
perfectly agreeable down the Danube, in one of those little vessels
that they very properly call wooden houses, having in them all the
_conveniences of a palace, stoves in the chambers, kitchens_, etc.” (I
do not know what exertions might have been made for the accommodation
of a British Ambassador, his Lady and suite, but the Danube, I suspect,
has not seen such another boat during the last century.) “They are
rowed by twelve men each, and move with such incredible swiftness, that
in the same day you have the pleasure of a vast variety of prospects;
and within the space of a few hours, you have the pleasure of seeing a
populous city, adorned with magnificent palaces, and the most romantic
solitudes which appear distant from the commerce of mankind, the banks
of the Danube being charmingly diversified with woods, rocks, mountains
covered with vines, fields of corn, large cities, and ruins of ancient
castles.”--_Letter to the Countess of Mar_, dated Vienna, September
18th, o. s. 1716.
[2] Ein handbuch für Reisende auf der Donau. Von J. A. Schultes, M. Dr.
etc. Wien, 1819. Stuttgart, 1827.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page
First View of the Danube and Ratisbon--Description of Boats on the
Danube--The City of Ratisbon--The Cathedral--The Heide Platz--Church
of the Scotch Benedictines--The Bridges--The Rath-haus--The Abbey of
St. Emmeram--Story of Frederick von Ewesheim--Church of the Dominicans
--The Neue-Pfarre-Kirche--Ober and Nieder Münster--Karmeliten Kloster
--The Horses’ Church--The Promenades--Unterhaltungs Haus--Maximilian
Joseph Gasse--David and Goliath--Embarkation--Wörth--Donaustauf--The
Dunkel-boden--Sossau
1
CHAPTER II.
Straubing--The Bridge--The Hauptstrasse--The Stadtthurm--The
Pfarr, or Collegiat Kirche--Story of Agnes Bernauer--The
Ramparts--The Atzelburg--Ober Altaich--Bogenberg--Kloster
Metten--The Natternberg--Deggendorf--The Gnade Zeit--Confluence
of the Isar and the Danube--Rafts from Munich to Vienna--Nieder
Altaich--Hengersberg--Osterhofen--Hoch-winzer--Hofkirchen--Kinzing--
Hildegartsberg--Vilshofen--Collegiat Stift--The Sandbach--New Road
to Passau--Maximilian Joseph I., late King of Bavaria--Louis I., the
present Monarch--Statue of a Lion--Approach to Passau
32
CHAPTER III.
Passau--The Inn-stadt--The Fair--The Cathedral--The
Bridge--Fortress of Oberhaus--Celebrated View--Mariahilf--The
Ilz-stadt--The Sword Cutlery--Present Manufactures and Commerce
of Passau--Talismans--Goitres--Excursions into the Environs of
Passau--Confluence of the Inn and the Danube--Krempenstein--Hafner
Zell--Its Manufactories--Fichtenstein--The Jochenstein--The Ruin of
Ried
77
CHAPTER IV.
Engelhard’s-zell--Rana-riedl--Marsbach--Wesen
Urfar--Waldkirche--Hayenbach--The Schlägen--The Rhine and the
Danube contrasted--Ober Michl--Neuhaus--Aschach--The paper-money of
Austria--Castle of Schaumberg--Environs of Aschach--Ober Walsee--Story
of Hans von Eschelberg--Sketch of the Insurrections in the Seventeenth
Century
96
CHAPTER V.
Efferding--Ottensheim--Kloster-Willering--Linz--The Platz--The
Landstrasse--The Schlossberg--The Landhaus--The Theatre--The
Bridge--The Pöstlingberg--View on leaving Linz--Steyereck--The
River Traun--Ebelsberg--Luftenberg--Monastery of St.
Florian--Tillysburg--Spielberg--Mauthausen--Ens--Origin and History of
the City--Antiquities discovered in its neighbourhood
137
CHAPTER VI.
Nieder-Walsee--Castles of Clam and Kreuzen--Ardagger--Grein--The
Strudel and the Wirbel--Mistakes of various Authors concerning
them--St. Nikola--Sarblingstein--Freystein--Hirschau--The
Isper--Bösenbeug--Story of Bishop Bruno and the Lady
Richlita--Ips--Gottsdorf
180
CHAPTER VII.
Marbach--Maria-Taferl--Pechlarn--Wiedeneck--Mölk--Lubereck--The Valley
of the Wachau--Schönbühel--Aggstein--The Teufel’s Mauer--Spitz, and
the Ruin of Hinterhaus--Church and Village of St. Michel--Castle of
Dürrenstein--Narrow escape of Marshal Mortier during the Campaign of
1805--Mautern--Stein--Krems--Kloster Göttweih--Trasen-Mauer--Arrival
at Tuln
217
CHAPTER VIII.
Tuln--Langenlebern--Greifenstein--Story of Etelina--Korneuberg--The
Bisamberg--Kloster Neuburg--Leopoldsberg, and the Khalenberg--A
glimpse of the capital--Nussdorf--Arrival at Vienna--Bird’s-eye View
and Description of the Environs from the Temple of Glory in the Brühl
267
[Illustration: A MAP +_OF THE_+ DANUBE +_FROM_+ RATISBON +_TO_+
VIENNA.]
[Illustration: Common passage-boat from Ratisbon to Vienna.]
CHAPTER I.
First View of the Danube and Ratisbon--Description of Boats on the
Danube--The City of Ratisbon--The Cathedral--The Heide Platz--Church
of the Scotch Benedictines--The Bridges--The Rath-haus--The Abbey of
St. Emmeram--Story of Frederick von Ewesheim--Church of the Dominicans
--The Neue-Pfarre-Kirche--Ober and Nieder Münster--Karmeliten Kloster
--The Horses’ Church--The Promenades--Unterhaltungs Haus--Maximilian
Joseph Gasse--David and Goliath--Embarkation--Wörth--Donaustauf--The
Dunkel-boden--Sossau.
I believe it is Doctor Clarke who advises travellers never to see a
mountain without going to the top of it. I should rather say, never see
a river without following the course of it. One very extensive prospect
too nearly resembles another, particularly in the same country, to
give additional gratification, and I have not unfrequently, like
the celebrated King of France, “marched up a hill, and then marched
down again,” to about as little purpose. But never did I follow the
course of a stream, however insignificant, without being surprised and
delighted. Without water, the loveliest prospect is incomplete. Lakes
and rivers are the eyes of the earth; the want of them cannot be atoned
for by the beauty of its other features, however exquisite.
The formidable account of some friends who had made the voyage, backed,
as it seemed to be, by a twaddling notice in a German Guide-Book, had
nearly dissuaded me from descending the Danube to Vienna. But the first
glimpse of its magnificent flood, rolling through the broad and fertile
plain, in the centre of which the ancient city of Ratisbon rears its
sombre cathedral, and winding away into the horizon amongst the shadowy
mountains of the Böhmer-wald, renewed my original determination; and my
first care, on finding myself safely deposited in the excellent hotel,
Das Goldene Kreutz, on the Heide Platz, was to make the necessary
inquiries how, when, and where I should embark on the “thundering
river[3].”
The regular passage-boat from Ratisbon to Vienna was to start on the
following morning at eight o’clock, and for the very moderate sum of
five florins, not quite ten shillings English, would have landed me
in the Austrian capital in about five or six days, according to the
weather. But as neither I nor my companion was willing, for a slight
pecuniary consideration, to risk a serious diminution of the pleasures
of the voyage by a crowded deck, a filthy cabin, bad company, and
miserable fare, I applied to a Schiffmeister of Stadt-am-hof, the
little fauxbourg of Ratisbon, on the left bank of the Danube, who
agreed to furnish us with a boat, steersman, and crew for the sum of
twenty ducats, about ten pounds sterling, and to assure our arrival at
Vienna in four days, or four and a half at farthest.
The boats on the Danube, though of various names and sizes, are nearly
all of one shape. That which I hired is called, in the peculiar patois
of the Bavarian boatmen, a Weitz-zille, and is the sort of conveyance
particularly appropriated to private travelling. It is about forty
feet long, and composed of rough deal planks, nailed rudely together,
the ribs being of natural branches, and caulked with moss. In the
centre is a kind of awning, or rather hut, of the same unpretending
materials. It is flat-bottomed, as are all the craft upon this
river, and, in short, is little more than a large rude punt. Sails
are unknown upon the Danube; it is therefore rowed by two men, and
steered by a third, with long clumsy-looking paddles, tied to upright
posts, upon which every now and then water is flung to make them work
easy, and avoid ignition. The Coche d’eau, or common passage-boat,
is rather larger, and is called a Gamsel, or a Kellhaimer. Those
used for the conveyance of merchandise, are known by the names of
Hochnauen, Klobzillen, (facetiously termed vessels of the line by
Professor Schultes,) Nebenbeys, Schwernmern, etc., all of the same
fashion, keelless, sailless, their plain deal sides daubed with broad
perpendicular stripes of black paint, their only ornament. Some of the
larger are nearly one hundred and fifty feet long; and, in ascending
the river, are towed, four or five together, by from thirty to forty
horses. The drivers are called Jodelen, and a more singular set of
beings can scarcely be imagined. In appearance they are something
between the English dustman and drayman, but the lowest of either of
those worthies might pass for a scholar and a gentleman by the side of
a real Jodel. From the moment the Danube becomes navigable, till it is
again chained up in ice, these fellows never enter the humblest hovel,
or mix with men of other callings, but even sleep upon the river’s bank
beside their horses. A miserable superstition exists amongst them. They
believe that some of their number must every year be sacrificed to the
Spirit of the Waters, and, consequently, when an accident occurs, they
all scramble for the drowning man’s hat, but never think of stretching
out a finger to save him, whom they look upon as a doomed and demanded
victim. Professor Schultes declares that he once saw five jodelen,
with their horses, precipitated into the river, when their companions
hastily cut the ropes, to prevent the rest of the team from following,
and drove on, leaving the poor wretches to their fate.
Before I step into my little bark, however, the old city of Ratisbon,
or, more properly Regensburg, claims a few moments’ attention. The
Regina Castra of the Romans has had twenty different names[4], and,
according to Günther, owes that of Ratisbona, or Ratispona, to its
convenience as a landing place.
“Inde Ratisbonæ vetus ex hoc nomen habenti
Quod _bona_ sit _ratibus_, vel quod consuevit in illa
_Ponere_ nauta _rates_.”
Near it, the little river Regen falls into the Danube, from whence
its German appellation of Regensburg. One of the chief towns on the
Illyrian frontier, here the Roman merchant traded for furs, and the
eagle of the “Legio tertia Italica” long glittered in the sight of the
humbled barbarians. From Regensburg the “furious Frank” rushed, beneath
the banners of Charlemagne, to his Pannonian victories. Under Arnulph
the Bastard, it became a flourishing commercial and manufacturing town.
In 1106, the unfortunate Emperor Henry IV. here resigned his crown and
sceptre to his unnatural son. In 1193, Richard Cœur de Lion was sent
hither a prisoner to the Emperor Henry VI., who re-delivered him to
his sworn foe and captor, Leopold Duke of Austria. Here, on the 12th
of October, 1576, expired the Emperor Maximilian II., in whose favour
Germany revived the surname of Titus, or the Delight of Mankind.
No stronger proof of his great and amiable qualities can be given,
than the concurring testimony of the historians of Germany, Hungary,
Bohemia, and Austria, both Catholics and Protestants, who vie in his
praises, and in representing him as a model of impartiality, wisdom,
and benignity[5]. “It excites a melancholy regret,” says Wraxall, “to
reflect that the reign of so excellent a sovereign as Maximilian was
limited to the transitory period of twelve years, while Philip II., the
scourge of his own subjects and of Europe, occupied the throne during
more than forty. The Romans might, with equal reason, have lamented
that the tyranny of Tiberius lasted above twenty years, when the benign
administration of Titus scarcely exceeded as many months[6].” In 1633,
Ratisbon was taken by Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and retaken by the
allied Bavarians and Austrians, commanded by Ferdinand King of Hungary,
in the following year. In 1641, the Swedes, under the famous General
Banner, cannonaded it; and on the 21st of April, 1809, it was taken by
the French, after a desperate conflict, being the fourteenth time, in
the course of nine hundred years, that this unfortunate city has been
visited by the united horrors of war.
Its grand but gloomy cathedral contains some curious sculpture, and
some richly painted windows, the blues in which are remarkable for
their brilliancy. The date, 1482, is upon the upper part of an angular
porch; but the façade of the building, the singular well, the richly
ornamented canopies on columns, in various parts of the interior,
and the equestrian statues of Saint Martin and another, are all of
an earlier period.[7] In the chancel, near the altar, is deposited
the heart of the Emperor Maximilian I.; and in a chapel on the south
side of the chancel, within a glass case, is the recumbent effigy, in
wax, of Saint John of Nepomuck, the celebrated confessor of the wife
of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who refusing to divulge the secrets
of his royal penitent was thrown into prison, tortured, and, finally,
flung over the bridge at Prague and drowned, by the king’s order. His
statue, in the habit of the Jesuits, is to be seen on nearly every
bridge in the south of Germany; he, who perished by water, being
curiously enough selected from the list of saints as the protector
of all who travel on that element. On an altar-tomb, in the nave, is
a splendid bronze effigy of a Bishop of Ratisbon and Duke of Bavaria
kneeling to a crucifix. On the Heide Platz, or Place of the Pagan, a
terrible combat is said to have been fought, between a gigantic Hun
named Craco, who had flung forty knights out of their saddles, and Hans
Dollinger, a valiant burgher of the town, during the reign, and in the
presence of Henry the Fowler. The emperor crossed the panting champion
twice upon the mouth, and to the virtue of these holy signs the defeat
of the Pagan is principally attributed[8]. Craco’s sword, measuring
nearly eight feet, and his ponderous helmet, hung for some time in
the choir of Nieder Münster. The sword is now at Vienna, whither it
was taken in 1542. On the side of a house, in the Kohlen-markt, is a
representation of this combat; and the square itself, I have little
doubt, formed originally part of the Heide Platz, from which it is
at present separated by a row of comparatively modern erections. The
church of the Scotch Benedictines, near the Jacobs-Thor, has a fine
portal, of apparently the twelfth century. There is a tragical story
told of its last abbot, Gallus, who was compelled to see a beloved
brother torn to pieces without daring to acknowledge him; but I was
not able to learn the particulars, though, Schultes says, they are
of general notoriety. The celebrated bridge across the Danube is a
clumsy-looking affair, and sadly disappoints the expectant traveller:
the honour of its erection is hotly disputed between Henry the Proud
and----the Devil[9]! Their imperial and satanic majesties have each
their zealous partisans, but the proofs are in favour of the earthly
potentate, who, in conjunction with the town of Ratisbon, commenced the
work A.D. 1135. It was finished in 1146. It is of free-stone, supported
by piles of oak driven to a considerable depth in the bed of the river,
consists of fifteen arches, and is one thousand and ninety-one feet
in length. Of the three principal bridges of Germany, that of Dresden
is said to be the most elegant; that of Prague, the longest; and that
of Ratisbon, the strongest. Besides this stone bridge there are two
wooden bridges, one very small, connecting the stone bridge with a long
island in the middle of the river, and another of larger dimensions,
which leads from the island to the city near the Nieder Münster. In
the Kohlenmarkt stands the Rathhaus, or Hotel de Ville, where from
1662 to 1806 the diet was held. Justice and Fortune have inherited
the building. The Tribunal of Police is established in one part of
it, and the Lottery is drawn in the other. Its curious old gate and
bay-window are in excellent preservation. Their arches and crocketted
pinnacles are of the thirteenth century, and greatly resemble those of
the monument of our Edward I. at Westminster. The two figures above
the gate, one bearing a martel de fer, and the other in the act of
flinging a stone, are of the close of the fifteenth century: beneath
each is a shield with the arms of the city. The Abbey of Saint Emmeram
is now the residence of the Prince of Thurm and Taxis: his gardens
are kindly thrown open to the public from six in the morning to six
in the evening. Saint Emmeram was a Frenchman, a native of Poictiers,
who, having visited the court of Theodo, was suspected of an illicit
amour with the princess his daughter, and murdered by her brother at
Helfendorf, A.D. 652. In the vaults of this building lie Childeric,
the deposed king of France, the Emperor Arnulph, and his son Ludwig
IV., the celebrated historian John Aventine, Saint Wolfgang, and Saint
Dionysius, the Areopagite. The body of the latter saint is said to have
been purloined from the Abbey of Saint Denis, in France, in the year
893; and Pope Leo XI., in a particular bull, absolutely threatened
with excommunication all who dared doubt the genuineness of the holy
corpse[10]: “notwithstanding which,” says Keysler, “the monks of Saint
Denys, near Paris, insist that the body of that saint is actually in
their possession; and his head is shown in the third shrine of their
treasury. On the other hand, the monks of Saint Emmeram maintain, that
the only part wanting in their relique, is the middle finger of the
right hand. However, an entire hand of this saint is shown at a chapel
in Munich. His head is also devoutly worshipped in the cathedral of
Bamberg; and at Prague another head of that saint is kept in the Church
of Saint Vitus in the Castle[11].” This abbey formerly possessed an
altar of solid gold, a fine manuscript of the Gospels, written in gold,
the cover ornamented with precious stones, and presented by Charles
the Bald to the monks of Saint Denis; another copy, said to have been
written in 751 by a bishop, in the ninetieth year of his age, and
many other valuable curiosities. The MSS. are, I believe, still in
existence[12]. Gemeiner, in his chronicle, has a story connected with
the edifice, sufficiently illustrative of the period of its action to
merit insertion; besides which I doat upon old stories, and fairly warn
that “gentle reader,” who may not have the same predilection, to lay
down the book in time, as it is only when, like the Knife-grinder, “I
have none to tell,” that he has the slightest chance of escape from
them.
A certain worthy Bishop of Regensburg, not contented with fleecing
his flock, according to the approved and legitimate method, made it a
point of conscience to waylay and plunder his beloved brethren whenever
they ventured near the Castle of Donaustauf, in which he resided upon
the banks of the Danube, a little below the town. In the month of
November 1250, says the chronicle, tidings came to Donaustauf, that,
on the following morning, the daughter of Duke Albert of Saxony would
pass that way, with a gorgeous and gallant escort. The bait was too
tempting for the prelate. He sallied out upon the glittering cortege,
and seizing the princess and forty of her noblest attendants, led them
captives to Donaustauf. The astonished remainder fled for redress, some
to King Conrad, and others to Duke Otho, at Landshut, who immediately
took arms, and carrying fire and sword into the episcopal territories,
soon compelled the holy highwayman to make restitution and sue for
mercy. Conrad, satisfied with his submission, forgave him; in return
for which the Bishop bribed a vassal, named Conrad Hohenfels, to
murder his royal namesake; and, accordingly, in the night of the 28th
of December, the traitor entered the Abbey of Saint Emmerams, where
the king had taken up his abode, and stealing into the royal chamber
stabbed the sleeper to the heart; then running to the gates of the
city, threw them open to the bishop and his retainers, exclaiming that
the king was dead. The traitors were, however, disappointed. Frederich
von Ewesheim, a devoted servant of the king, suspecting some evil, had
persuaded the monarch to exchange clothes and chambers with him, and
the assassin’s dagger had pierced the heart, not of Conrad, but of
his true and gallant officer. The bishop escaped the royal vengeance
by flight; but the abbot of Saint Emmeram’s, who had joined the
conspirators, was flung into chains; and the abbey, the houses of the
chapter, and all the ecclesiastical residences, were plundered by the
king’s soldiery. The pope, as might be expected, sided with the bishop
and excommunicated Conrad and Otho; but the murderer Hohenfels, after
having for some time eluded justice, was killed by a thunderbolt!
In the church of the Dominicans is a chapel where Albertus Magnus,
Bishop of Ratisbon, the successor of his unworthy namesake, is said
to have given his lectures. This great philosopher and excellent
prelate is reported by the ancient chroniclers to have possessed
the accommodating but rather extraordinary faculty attributed to the
Irishman’s bird, viz. that of being in two places at once. It is
asserted that, at the very moment he was holding forth to his attentive
pupils from the chair still exhibited in the chapel, he was to be seen
busily employed in his study at Donaustauf, about twelve miles off. For
despatch of business this must have been an invaluable accomplishment,
and accounts most satisfactorily for the magnitude and research of his
literary and scientific labours. The Neue-Pfarre-Kirche was formerly
famous for a shrine of the Virgin called the Schöne Maria, to which
from ten to twelve thousand pilgrims frequently repaired at a time from
different parts of Bavaria. The Ober Münster and the Nieder Münster
were both convents, the abbesses of which alone were obliged to take
the vow of chastity. Otto II. and his Empress Adelheid are buried in
the latter, which was founded in the tenth century by Judith, daughter
of Arnold, Duke of Bavaria, and wife of Duke Henry I. The Ober Münster
was founded by Hemma, Queen of Louis the German, who is buried here.
The Karmeliten Kloster, founded by the Emperor Ferdinand in 1641, is
now the custom-house and the town-jail. In Ratisbon, formerly, even
the horses went to church! On Saint Leonard’s Day the peasantry of the
neighbourhood brought their whole stud gaily caparisoned, and indulged
each animal with a peep into the Maltheser-Kirche, a pious precaution,
which was supposed to preserve them the year round from the staggers,
and indeed every other disorder that horse-flesh is heir to.
I had nearly forgotten the promenades. They are pretty, and run all
round the town. The remains of an old cross are pointed out in them, as
having once been the centre of the city. In another part is a temple
to the memory of Keppler, the astronomer, who died here in 1630, and
of whom, says Prof. Schultes, it may be said as of our English poet
Butler, “He asked for bread, and they gave him a stone.” A monument
has also been erected to a M. Goertz, “parcequ’il étoit assez riche,”
said our domestique de place, an excellent reason, and one which
has justified many a more extraordinary proceeding. Then there are
the Unterhaltungshaus, (a handsome building, which combines the
theatre, the assembly-rooms, and heaven knows what besides)--the new
Maximilian-Joseph-Gasse, which has risen upon the ruins of 1809, and
the nearly effaced figures of Goliath and David upon the wall of a
house, the work apparently of the sixteenth century.
And now farewell, old Regensburg! The Roman, the Vandal, the Frank and
the Hun, the Bohemian, the Austrian, and the Swede, the ancient and
the modern Gaul, have, by turns, besieged, stormed, plundered, and
burnt thee. Thy air of gravity becomes a city that hath suffered and
survived so many disasters; and the antique gold and silver coifs that
glitter on the braided locks of thy fair daughters, harmonize well
with the Gothic glories of thy cathedral and the romantic interest
of thy Turnier-Platz. I confess it grieves me to notice the gradual
disappearance throughout the Continent of those distinctions of dress
which have hitherto seemed, as strongly as language and countenance, to
mark out the natural boundaries of nations and provinces: but I console
myself with the hope, that Europe may, with its old habits, fling off
its old prejudices, and that its millions will finally become as much
like one great family in affection, as they promise to look, shortly,
from the uniformity of their costume.
* * * * *
On Monday, September 9, about eight in the morning, having completed
our simple preparations, and safely stowed away under the benches
of our little cabin a hamper containing some eatables and a few
bottles of excellent Rhenish and Austrian wines, we stept into our
weitz-zille, which awaited us just above the stone bridge, and having
shot through an arch of it where there is a fall something like that
at old London at half-flood, and struggled a few moments with a strong
eddy, occasioned by an island and some corn-mills, we passed under
the wooden bridge, and commenced our voyage, a strong wind blowing
unfortunately right in our teeth. The sky was however cloudless, and
the day, as it advanced, proving exceedingly warm, the wind was only
unwelcome as it threatened to retard, in some measure, our progress,
and prevent our making the proposed landing and resting-places in due
time. The average depth of the Danube between Donauworth and Passau,
according to H. von Riedl, is ten feet; near Regensburg it is about
eleven feet deep, and something broader than the Thames at Putney.
The right bank of the river, nearly all the way to Straubing, is low,
sedgy, and Dutch like. St. Niklas, Einhausen, Irl, Ober, and Unter
Bärbing or Barbling, are the names of the little old villages that are
scattered along it; but, on the left bank, the eye is soon attracted
by the bold mountains which, abruptly rising behind the villages of
Regenhausen, Weichs, Schwabelweiss, and Dergenheim, or Tegenheim,
follow the windings of the flood in an almost unbroken chain to within
a few miles of Vienna. The ruins of the castle of Donaustauf, cresting
a round, bluff rock, having at its foot the little market-town of
the same name, are the first interesting object that presents itself
on approaching them. The great strength and commanding situation of
this fortress, anciently called Toumstouphen, rendered it an object
of considerable importance during the middle ages; and many are the
tales of the “Battles, sieges, fortunes, _it hath_ past.” Henry the
Proud having taken it from the cathedral and chapter of Regensburg
in 1132, the citizens invested it in the following year so closely,
that the garrison, driven to extremities by hunger, set fire to the
building, and sallying forth, cut their way through the besiegers.
In 1146 it was again taken; and in 1159 again besieged. In 1250 it
was the scene of that outrage which has already been related in the
story of Frederich von Ewesheim. After the death of Albertus Magnus,
who, in 1260, succeeded his notorious namesake, and here pursued his
studies, Donaustauf was again snatched from its holy masters, and once
more restored to them, through the assistance of Bavaria, in 1343. In
1355 it was pledged to the counsellor Ruger Reich for eleven thousand
eight hundred and thirty-five florins, and sold afterwards to Charles
IV. of Bohemia for five thousand. In vain did the holy fathers protest
against the sale, and denounce spiritual as well as temporal vengeance
against the purchaser. Charles was too shrewd and too powerful to fear
either; and so long as he lived, Donaustauf remained the barrier of
Bohemia. Under his feeble successors, however, the chapter recovered
its fortress, and in 1486 it was again pledged to Bavaria. Bernhard,
Duke of Saxe-Weimar, took it, and reduced it to its present condition
in 1634. The Prince of Thurm and Taxis, who bought the lordship
of Worth, in which it is situated, keeps, if I may be allowed the
expression, the ruin in repair, and bestows some care on the gardens,
which clothe the eastern side of its mountain seat. From the ramparts,
the view extends eastwards over Wörth to Straubing and Bogen; and
westward, over Ratisbon, to the mountains of Abach. On either side, the
eye traces the bright Danube, now flowing majestically right onwards,
now boldly sweeping round some rocky point, or gracefully winding
amidst large tracts of meadow land--here almost doubling itself by a
sudden and unexpected curve, and, lost for a short time amongst groves
and hamlets, glittering again like a broad lake, where it resumes its
eastern course far in the blue distance. Directly beneath lie the
little market-town of Donaustauf; the church of Saint Salvator, which
was built, according to Schultes, in expiation of the crime of some
soldiers who dishonoured the Host; the wooden bridge, said to be one of
the longest on the river, and which is partially destroyed every year
in order to give passage to the ice; and below it, on the left bank,
numberless gardens and vineyards, spotted with the white villas of the
wealthy citizens of Regensburg, who, escaping from commercial cares,
on a fine summer Sunday evening, look back through the smoke of their
pipes upon the dusky towers of their cathedral with, no doubt, similar
feelings of satisfaction to those with which the London tradesman
observes from his retreat at Highgate, or Hornsey, the distant dome
of Saint Paul’s rising above the smother of our huge metropolis.
Leaving Donaustauf, we passed the small village of Sulzbach, Demling,
Bach, (celebrated for the mines in its neighbourhood,) Frenkhofen,
Krukenberg, Oberach, Kirchkirfen or Kirfen-holz, and Wisent, on the
little stream of that name, on the left bank; and those of Sarching,
Friesheim, Ilkhofen, Auburg, Eltheim, Saissling, and Seppenhausen,
on the right, some of them consisting of scarcely half a dozen
houses, their humble, white-washed churches roofed with shingles, and
the little Kremlin-looking cupolas of their steeples painted a deep
red. We now rapidly approached Wörth, the chateau of the Prince of
Thurm and Taxis, which had been visible from the time of our passing
Kirfenholz, but, from the extraordinary sinuosities of the river,
appeared, at one moment, to have been left entirely behind us. The
exterior is anything but prepossessing, recalling to the mind of a
cockney, like myself, the dead walls and extinguisher-capped towers
of the Penitentiary at Milbank. The dark firs that rise beside it,
and the rich meadows that gently slope from its terrace wall to the
water’s edge, are, it must be confessed, infinitely more romantic and
ornamental than the rows of cabbages and stunted willows that form the
foreground to its inglorious likeness,--still the idea of a prison
would, I think, be with any stranger the predominant one. Wörth is,
however, a palace, and, no doubt, handsome enough when you are in it.
It has been, like most of the castles and palaces in this part of the
world, bought and sold, pledged and redeemed for all sorts of sums
by all sorts of people. Those who wish to know the exact number of
florins it was valued at during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
will find them scrupulously set down by Prof. Schultes; but, as no
matters of historical or romantic interest are connected with its
various transfers, I shall content myself by merely stating, that
it was anciently the property of the bishops of Ratisbon, and came
to Bavaria in 1809, shortly after which period it was bought by its
present possessor. Nearly opposite Wörth, upon the right bank, is the
small town of Pfätter, or Pfada, as it is called in the dialect of
the country, the first post-station from Ratisbon. A little streamlet
of the same name falls into the Danube beside it. A dozen small
villages, remarkable only for appellations that would cost an untutored
Englishman as many teeth to speak them--Gmünden, Tiefer-thal, Hochdorf,
Stadeldorf, Niederachdorf, Sinzendorf, Hünthofen, Kirchenroth, Ober
and Unter Motzing, Kessnach, Hartzeitdorn, etc., are scattered along
the banks, both now exceedingly flat and uninteresting, the mountains
on the left having retreated from the river, which here winds and
doubles like a hunted hare. My companion and I therefore landed, and
leaving the boat to thread the mazes of this watery labyrinth, strode
forward at a good round pace across the fields towards Straubing,
the tin-capped steeples of which were flashing back the rays of the
setting sun. The great plain extending from the gates of Ratisbon,
as far as Pleinting, is supposed to have been once a large morass,
which, on being drained, has left a rich black soil several feet deep
(the celebrated Dunkelboden.) The peasantry of this favoured district
are exceedingly proud, and fond of all kinds of finery. The finest
Swiss and Dutch linen, silk and satin kerchiefs of the gayest hues,
Brabant lace, and gold and silver stuffs of all descriptions, are in
constant requisition. The men wear gold rings, and generally two gold
watches. The black velvet or embroidered silk boddices of the women
are laced with massive silver chains, from which hang a profusion of
gold and silver trinkets, hearts, crosses, coins, medals, etc. The
custom of tying a black silk handkerchief round the neck, with the bow
behind, and the ends hanging down the back, is, I think, peculiar to
Bavaria. A wedding here is a scene of great extravagance and uproar;
many tables, accommodating at least a dozen persons each, are set
out with all manner of good things, and the feasting continues for
several days, all day long. Ignorant, however, as they are wealthy and
luxurious, few even of the most respectable amongst them can either
read or write, and are therefore, says Schultes, entitled in every
respect to the appellation by which they are generally distinguished,
i. e. “Bauern vom Dunkelboden”--“Peasants of the dark earth.” Sossau,
on the left bank, shortly after you enter the Landgericht of Straubing,
is celebrated for a picture of the Virgin, which, in 1534, the angels
brought here in a boat, from a village where the doctrines of Luther
had taken root, to the great indignation of the holy portrait. Those
who are sufficiently sceptical to doubt the veracity of this story, may
consult the account of the monks of Kloster Windberg[13], (to which
Sossau belonged,)printed “cum licentia superiorum,” and illustrated by
a fresco-painting on the walls of their house at Straubing. The whole
angelic crew are there to be seen equipped in sailors’ dresses, tugging
away with “a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together,” (the
last pull, by the way, must have been an extra miracle on the Danube,
the advantage of such unanimity never entering the heads of the honest
boatmen), and having on board not only the offended picture, but the
outraged church itself!--I have heard of a worthy enactor of old
Capulet, who, by a curious transposition of his prepositions, commanded
the astonished Juliet to prepare
To go _to_ Paris _with_ St. Peter’s church.
Now, however extraordinary this paternal injunction might appear
to a modern heretical London audience, it is obvious, upon due
consideration, that the speech, being placed in the mouth of a Roman
Catholic of the sixteenth century, was not so much out of character as
might be imagined at the moment. The chapel of Loretto and the church
of Sossau had set a noble example of locomotion, and Saint Peter’s of
Verona could have no rational reason for refusing to follow it upon a
proper occasion.
Ainhausen, the property of Count Liebelfing, on the high road to
Rinkheim and Kagers, an old village from which the Lords of Kagers
formerly took their title, are the last villages on the right bank of
the river before you arrive at Straubing, the first town of consequence
on the Danube after leaving Ratisbon.
FOOTNOTES (CHAPTER I.)
[3] Etymologists have squabbled as much over the name of the Danube, as
geographers over its source, which some contend to be near the village
of St. George, and others in the court-yard of the palace of the Prince
of Fürstenberg, at Donaueschingen. This mighty flood, the grandest in
Europe, and the third in consequence in the Old World, was known to the
Romans by the double name of the Danube, and the Ister. “Ortus hic in
Germaniæ jugis montes abnobae ex adverso Raurici Galliæ oppidi multis
ultra alpes millibus, ac per innumeras lapsus gentes Danubii nomine,
immenso aquarum auctu et unde primum Illyricum alluit Ister appellatus,
sexaginta amnibus receptis, medio ferme numero eorum navigabili, in
Pontum vastis sex fluminibus evolvitur.”--‘Plin. Nat. Hist.’ iv. 24.
The ancient Germans named it Döne and Tona; the Sclavonians, Donava.
The Hungarians call it Tanara, or Donara, and the Turks, Duna. Its
modern German appellation is Donau. Some of the earlier writers would
derive this name from Deus Abnobius, or Diana Abonbia, or Abnopa,
to whom a temple was dedicated near the source of the river. Others
deduce it from Thon, clay, and contend it should be written Thonau.
Others again would find its origin in the words Ton, sound, or Donner,
thunder; and Reichard, indeed, gives the latter as the received
derivation. Breuninger, however, proposes Tanne, a fir, and speciously
enough, the river rising in the Schwarz-wald, of which fir is the
distinctive character, and its banks being clothed with forests of the
same tree, along nearly the whole of its course; while Nikolai would
have us seek it in the Keltic words Do, Na, which signify two rivers,
and may either apply to its double name, “Binominem Istrum,” or to the
two sources which dispute the glory of its birth.
[4] Vide ‘Gemeiner’s Reichs-stadt Regenburgische Chronik.’ 4to,
Regensburg, 1805.
[5] Coxe’s ‘Hist. of the House of Austria,’ 8vo.
London, 1820, Vol. ii. p. 335.
[6] “History of France,” 8vo. Vol. ii. p. 146.
[7] From a wood-cut in the Nürnberg Chronicle of 1493, it appears,
however, that the towers were even at that time unfinished; one being
represented a story shorter than the other, and with a crane upon it
raising a stone. The author, Hartmann Schedel, in the text of the book,
describes the edifice as “yet incomplete.”
[8] Vide ‘Ausführliche relation desjenigen wunderthätigen Kampfes,
welcher anno 930, den 23 Januar, zu Regensburg zwischen Hannss
Dollinger einem Burger daselbst und einem unglaubigen hunnischen
Obristen Craco, vorgegangen.’ 4to Regensburg, 1710.
[9] The legend tells us, that the Infernal Architect was sadly worried,
during his labours, by a cock and a dog. A cock and a bull would have
figured with more propriety in such a story.
[10] ‘Des Churbayer Atalantis, von A. W. Ertel.’ 8vo. Nurnberg, 1815.
[11] ‘Travels through Germany, etc.’ 4 vols. 4to. London, 1757, vol.
iv. p. 212. The saint must surely have been like Mrs. Malaprop’s
Cerberus--“Three gentlemen at once.”
[12] Yet I do not find them noticed by Mr. Dibdin, in his curious
‘Bibliographical Tour.’
[13] Kloster Windberg was originally a castle belonging to the Counts
of Bogen. Albert of Bogen and Hedwig his wife founded the monastery in
1145. In the neighbourhood, two hermits are said to have resided, one
of whom murdered the other.