COLOGNE.

From Neuss hither we passed through a deep, sandy road, that sometimes

wound near the Rhine, the shores of which were yet low and the water

tame and shallow. There were no vessels upon it, to give one ideas

either of the commerce, or the population of its banks.

The country, for the greater part of twenty miles, was a flat of corn

lands; but, within a short distance of Cologne, a gentle rise affords a

view of the whole city, whose numerous towers and steeples had before

appeared, and of the extensive plains, that spread round it. In the

southern perspective of these, at the distance of about eight leagues,

rise the fantastic forms of what are called the Seven Mountains;

westward, are the cultivated hills, that extend towards Flanders; and,

eastward, over the Rhine, the distant mountains, that run through

several countries of interior Germany. Over the wild and gigantic

features of the Seven Mountains dark thunder mists soon spread an awful

obscurity, and heightened the expectation, which this glimpse of them

had awakened, concerning the scenery we were approaching.

The appearance of Cologne, at the distance of one, or two miles, is not

inferior to the conception, which a traveller may have already formed

of one of the capitals of Germany, should his mind have obeyed that

almost universal illusion of fancy, which dresses up the images of

places unseen, as soon as much expectation, or attention is directed

towards them. The air above is crowded with the towers and spires

of churches and convents, among which the cathedral, with its huge,

unfinished mass, has a striking appearance. The walls are also high

enough to be observed, and their whole inclosure seems, at a distance,

to be thickly filled with buildings.

We should have known ourselves to be in the neighbourhood of some

place larger than usual, from the sight of two, or three carriages, at

once, on the road; nearly the first we had seen in Germany. There is

besides some shew of labour in the adjoining villages; but the sallow

countenances and miserable air of the people prove, that it is not a

labour beneficial to them. The houses are only the desolated homes of

these villagers; for there is not one that can be supposed to belong

to any prosperous inhabitant of the city, or to afford the coveted

stillness, in which the active find an occasional reward, and the idle

a perpetual misery.

A bridge over a dry fossé leads to the northern gate, on each side

of which a small modern battery defends the ancient walls. The city

is not fortified, according to any present sense of the term, but is

surrounded by these walls and by a ditch, of which the latter, near the

northern gate, serves as a sort of kitchen garden to the inhabitants.

Before passing the inner gate, a soldier demanded our names, and we

shewed our passport, for the first time; but, as the inquisitor did

not understand French, in which language passports from England are

written, it was handed to his comrades, who formed a circle about our

chaise, and began, with leaden looks, to spell over the paper. Some

talked, in the mean time, of examining the baggage; and the money,

which we gave to prevent this, being in various pieces and in Prussian

coin, which is not perfectly understood here, the whole party turned

from the passport, counting and estimating the money in the hand of

their collector, as openly as if it had been a legal tribute. When this

was done and they had heard, with surprise, that we had not determined

where to lodge, being inclined to take the pleasantest inn, we wrote

our names in the corporal's dirty book, and were allowed to drive,

under a dark tower, into the city.

Instantly, the narrow street, gloomy houses, stagnant kennels and

wretchedly looking people reminded us of the horrors of Neuss. The

lower windows of these prison-like houses are so strongly barricadoed,

that we had supposed the first two, or three, to be really parts of

a gaol; but it soon appeared, that this profusion of heavy iron work

was intended to exclude, not to confine, robbers. A succession of

narrow streets, in which the largest houses were not less disgusting

than the others for the filthiness of their windows, doorways and

massy walls, continued through half the city. In one of these streets,

or lanes, the postillion stopped at the door of an inn, which he

said was the best; but the suffocating air of the street rendered it

unnecessary to enquire, whether, contrary to appearances, there could

be any accommodation within, and, as we had read of many squares,

or market-places, he was desired to stop at an inn, situated in one

of these. Thus we came to the Hotel de Prague, a large straggling

building, said to be not worse than the others, for wanting half its

furniture, and probably superior to them, by having a landlord of

better than German civility.

Having counted from our windows the spires of ten, or twelve churches,

or convents, we were at leisure to walk farther into the city, and to

look for the spacious squares, neat streets, noble public buildings

and handsome houses, which there could be no doubt must be found in an

Imperial and Electoral city, seated on the Rhine, at a point where the

chief roads from Holland and Flanders join those of Germany, treated

by all writers as a considerable place, and evidently by its situation

capable of becoming a sort of _emporium_ for the three countries. The

spot, into which our inn opened, though a parallelogram of considerable

extent, bordered by lime trees, we passed quickly through, perceiving,

that the houses on all its sides were mean buildings, and therefore

such as could not deserve the attention in the Imperial and Electoral

city of Cologne. There are streets from each angle of this place, and

we pursued them all in their turn, narrow, winding and dirty as they

are, pestilent with kennels, gloomy from the height and blackness of

the houses, unadorned by any public buildings, except the churches,

that were grand, or by one private dwelling, that appeared to be

clean, with little shew of traffic and less of passengers, either

busy, or gay, till we saw them ending in other streets still worse, or

concluded by the gates of the city. One of them, indeed, led through

a market-place, in which the air is free from the feculence of the

streets, but which is inferior to the other opening in space, and not

better surrounded by buildings.

"These diminutive observations seem to take away something from the

dignity of writing, and therefore are never communicated, but with

hesitation, and a little fear of abasement and contempt."[2] And it

is not only because they take away something from the dignity of

writing, that such observations are withheld. To be thought capable

of commanding more pleasures and preventing more inconveniences than

others is a too general passport to respect; and, in the ordinary

affairs of life, for one, that will shew somewhat less prosperity than

he has, in order to try who will really respect him, thousands exert

themselves to assume an appearance of more, which they might know can

procure only the mockery of esteem for themselves, and the reality of

it for their supposed conditions. Authors are not always free from a

willingness to receive the fallacious sort of respect, that attaches

to accidental circumstances, for the real sort, of which it would be

more reasonable to be proud. A man, relating part of the history of

his life, which is always necessarily done by a writer of travels,

does not choose to shew that his course could lie through any scenes

deficient of delights; or that, if it did, he was not enough elevated

by his friends, importance, fortune, fame, or business, to be incapable

of observing them minutely. The curiosities of cabinets and of courts

are, therefore, exactly described, and as much of every occurrence as

does not shew the relater moving in any of the plainer walks of life;

but the difference between the stock of physical comforts in different

countries, the character of conditions, if the phrase may be used, such

as it appears in the ordinary circumstances of residence, dress, food,

cleanliness, opportunities of relaxation; in short, the information,

which all may gain, is sometimes left to be gained by all, not from the

book, but from travel. A writer, issuing into the world, makes up

what he mistakes for his best appearance, and is continually telling

his happiness, or shewing his good-humour, as people in a promenade

always smile, and always look round to observe whether they are seen

smiling. The politest salutation of the Chinese, when they meet, is,

"Sir, prosperity is painted on your countenance;" or, "your whole air

announces your felicity;" and the writers of travels, especially since

the censure thrown upon SMOLLET, seem to provide, that their prosperity

shall be painted on their volumes, and all their observations announce

their felicity.

[2] Dr. Samuel Johnson.

Cologne, though it bears the name of the Electorate, by which it is

surrounded, is an imperial city; and the Elector, as to temporal

affairs, has very little jurisdiction within it. The government has an

affectation of being formed upon the model of Republican Rome; a form

certainly not worthy of imitation, but which is as much disgraced

by this burlesque of it, as ancient statues are by the gilding and

the wigs, with which they are said to be sometimes arrayed by modern

hands. There is a senate of forty-nine persons, who, being returned

at different times of the year, are partly nominated by the remaining

members, and partly chosen by twenty-two tribes of burgesses, or

rather by so many companies of traders. Of six burgomasters, two are

in office every third year, and, when these appear in public, they

are preceded by LICTORS, bearing _fasces_, sur-mounted by their _own

arms_! Each of the tribes, or companies, has a President, and the

twenty-two Presidents form a Council, which is authorised to enquire

into the conduct of the Senate: but the humbleness of the burgesses

in their individual condition has virtually abolished all this scheme

of a political constitution. Without some of the intelligence and

personal independence, which are but little consistent with the general

poverty and indolence of German traders, nothing but the forms of any

constitution can be preserved, long after the virtual destruction of it

has been meditated by those in a better condition. The greater part of

these companies of traders having, in fact, no trade which can place

them much above the rank of menial servants to their rich customers,

the design, that their Council shall check the Senate, and the Senate

direct the Burgomasters, has now, of course, little effect. And this,

or a still humbler condition, is that of several cities in Germany,

called free and independent, in which the neighbouring sovereigns have

scarcely less authority, though with something more of circumstance,

than in their own dominions.

The constitution of Cologne permits, indeed, some direct interference

of the Elector; for the Tribunal of Appeal, which is the supreme

court of law, is nominated by him: he has otherwise no direct power

within the city; and, being forbidden to reside there more than three

days successively, he does not even retain a palace, but is contented

with a suite of apartments, reserved for his use at an inn. That this

exclusion is no punishment, those, who have ever passed two days

at Cologne, will admit; and it can tend very little to lessen his

influence, for the greatest part of his personal expenditure must

reach the merchants of the place; and the officers of several of his

territorial jurisdictions make part of the inhabitants. His residences,

with which he is remarkably well provided, are at Bonn; at Bruhl, a

palace between Cologne and that place; at Poppelsdorff, which is beyond

it; at Herzogs Freud, an hunting seat; and in Munster, of which he is

the Bishop.

The duties of customs and excise are imposed by the magistrates of

the city, and these enable them to pay their contributions to the

Germanic fund; for, though such cities are formally independent of the

neighbouring princes and nobility, they are not so of the general laws

or expences of the empire, in the Diet of which they have some small

share, forty-nine cities being allowed to send two representatives,

and thus to have two votes out of an hundred and thirty-six. These

duties, of both sorts, are very high at Cologne; and the first form

a considerable part of the interruptions, which all the States upon

the Rhine give to the commerce of that river. Here also commodities,

intended to be carried beyond the city by water, must be re-shipped;

for, in order to provide cargoes for the boatmen of the place, vessels

from the lower parts of the Rhine are not allowed to ascend beyond

Cologne, and those from the higher parts cannot descend it farther.

They may, indeed, reload with other cargoes for their return; and,

as they constantly do so, the Cologne boatmen are not much benefited

by the regulation; but the transfer of the goods employs some hands,

subjects them better to the inspection of the customhouse officers,

and makes it necessary for the merchants of places, on both sides,

trading with each other, to have intermediate correspondents here.

Yet, notwithstanding all this aggression upon the freedom of trade,

Cologne is less considerable as a port, than some Dutch towns, never

mentioned in a book, and is inferior, perhaps, to half the minor

seaports in England. We could not find more than thirty vessels of

burthen against the quay, all mean and ill-built, except the Dutch,

which are very large, and, being constructed purposely for a tedious

navigation, contain apartments upon the deck for the family of the

skipper, well furnished, and so commodious as to have four or five

sashed windows on each side, generally gay with flower-pots. Little

flower-gardens, too, sometimes formed upon the roof of the cabin,

increase the domestic comforts of the skipper; and the neatness of his

vessel can, perhaps, be equalled only by that of a Dutch house. In a

time of perfect peace, there is no doubt more traffic; but, from what

we saw of the general means and occasions of commerce in Germany, we

cannot suppose it to be much reduced by war. Wealthy and commercial

countries may be injured immensely by making war either for Germany

or against it; by too much friendship or too much enmity; but Germany

itself cannot be proportionately injured with them, except when it is

the scene of actual violence. Englishmen, who feel, as they always

must, the love of their own country much increased by the view of

others, should be induced, at every step, to wish, that there may be

as little political intercourse as possible, either of friendship or

enmity, between the blessings of their Island and the wretchedness of

the Continent.

Our inn had formerly been a convent, and was in a part of the town

where such societies are more numerous than elsewhere. At five

o'clock, on the Sunday after our arrival, the bells of churches

and convents began to sound on all sides, and there was scarcely

any entire intermission of them till evening. The places of public

amusement, chiefly a sort of tea-gardens, were then set open, and,

in many streets, the sound of music and dancing was heard almost as

plainly as that of the bells had been before; a disgusting excess of

licentiousness, which appeared in other instances, for we heard, at the

same time, the voices of a choir on one side of the street, and the

noise of a billiard table on the other. Near the inn, this contrast

was more observable. While the strains of revelry arose from an

adjoining garden, into which our windows opened, a pause in the music

allowed us to catch some notes of the vesper service, performing in a

convent of the order of Clarisse, only three or four doors beyond. Of

the severe rules of this society we had been told in the morning. The

members take a vow, not only to renounce the world, but their dearest

friends, and are never after permitted to see even their fathers or

mothers, though they may sometimes converse with the latter from behind

a curtain. And, lest some lingering remains of filial affection should

tempt an unhappy nun to lift the veil of separation between herself

and her mother, she is not allowed to speak even with her, but in the

presence of the abbess. Accounts of such horrible perversions of human

reason make the blood thrill and the teeth chatter. Their fathers they

can never speak to, for no man is suffered to be in any part of

the convent used by the sisterhood, nor, indeed, is admitted beyond

the gate, except when there is a necessity for repairs, when all the

votaries of the order are previously secluded. It is not easily, that

a cautious mind becomes convinced of the existence of such severe

orders; when it does, astonishment at the artificial miseries, which

the ingenuity of human beings forms for themselves by seclusion, is as

boundless as at the other miseries, with which the most trivial vanity

and envy so frequently pollute the intercourses of social life. The

poor nuns, thus nearly entombed during their lives, are, after death,

tied upon a board, in the clothes they die in, and, with only their

veils thrown over the face, are buried in the garden of the convent.

During this day, Trinity Sunday, processions were passing on all

sides, most of them attended by some sort of martial music. Many

of the parishes, of which there are nineteen, paraded with their

officers; and the burgesses, who are distributed into eight corps,

under a supposition that they could and would defend the city, if

it was attacked, presented their captains at the churches. The host

accompanied all these processions. A party of the city guards followed,

and forty or fifty persons out of uniform, the representatives probably

of the burgesses, who are about six thousand, succeeded. Besides the

guards, there was only one man in uniform, who, in the burlesque dress

of a drum-major, entertained the populace by a kind of extravagant

marching dance, in the middle of the procession. Our companion would

not tell us that this was the captain.

The cathedral, though unfinished, is conspicuous, amongst a great

number of churches, for the dignity of some detached features, that

shew part of the vast design formed for the whole. It was begun,

in 1248, by the Elector Conrad, who is related, in an hexameter

inscription over a gate, to have laid the first stone himself. In

1320, the choir was finished, and the workmen continued to be employed

upon the other parts in 1499, when of two towers, destined to be 580

feet above the roof, one had risen 21 feet, and the other 150 feet,

according to the measurement mentioned in a printed description. We

did not learn at what period the design of completing the edifice was

abandoned; but the original founder lived to see all the treasures

expended, which he had collected for the purpose. In its present state,

the inequality of its vast towers renders it a striking object at a

considerable distance; and, from the large unfilled area around it,

the magnificence of its Gothic architecture, especially of some parts,

which have not been joined to the rest, and appear to be the ruined

remains, rather than the commencement of a work, is viewed with awful

delight.

In the interior of the cathedral, a fine choir leads to an altar of

black marble, raised above several steps, which, being free from the

incongruous ornaments usual in Romish churches, is left to impress

the mind by its majestic plainness. The tall painted windows above,

of which there are six, are superior in richness of colouring and

design to any we ever saw; beyond even those in the Chapter-house

at York, and most resembling the very fine ones in the cathedral of

Canterbury. The nave is deformed by a low wooden roof, which appears to

have been intended only as a temporary covering, and should certainly

be succeeded by one of equal dignity to the vast columns placed for

its support, whether the other parts of the original design can ever

be completed or not.

By some accident we did not see the tomb of the three kings of

Jerusalem, whose bodies are affirmed to have been brought here from

Milan in 1162, when the latter city was destroyed by the Emperor

Frederic Barbarossa. Their boasted treasures of golden crowns and

diamonds pass, of course, without our estimation.

A description of the churches in Cologne, set out with good antiquarian

minuteness, would fill volumes. The whole number of churches, chapters

and chapels, which last are by far the most numerous, is not less than

eighty, and none are without an history of two or three centuries.

They are all opened on Sundays; and we can believe, that the city may

contain, as is asserted, 40,000 souls, for nearly all that we saw were

well attended. In one, indeed, the congregation consisted only of two

or three females, kneeling at a great distance from the altar, with an

appearance of the utmost intentness upon the service, and abstraction

from the noise of the processions, that could be easily heard within.

They were entirely covered with a loose black drapery; whether for

penance, or not, we did not hear. In the cathedral, a figure in the

same attitude was rendered more interesting by her situation beneath

the broken arches and shattered fret-work of a painted window, through

which the rays of the sun scarcely penetrated to break the shade she

had chosen.

Several of the chapels are not much larger than an ordinary apartment,

but they are higher, that the nuns of some adjoining convent may have a

gallery, where, veiled from observation by a lawn curtain, their voices

often mingle sweetly with the choir. There are thirty-nine convents of

women and nineteen of men, which are supposed to contain about fifteen

hundred persons. The chapters, of which some are noble and extremely

opulent, support nearly four hundred more; and there are said to be,

upon the whole, between two and three thousand persons, under religious

denominations, in Cologne. Walls of convents and their gardens appear

in every street, but do not attract notice, unless, as frequently

happens, their bell sounds while you are passing. Some of their female

inhabitants may be seen in various parts of the city, for there is an

order, the members of which are employed, by rotation, in teaching

children and attending the sick. Those of the noble chapters are

little more confined than if they were with their own families, being

permitted to visit their friends, to appear at balls and promenades,

to wear what dresses they please, except when they chaunt in the

choir, and to quit the chapter, if the offer of an acceptable marriage

induces their families to authorise it; but their own admission into

the chapter proves them to be noble by sixteen quarterings, or four

generations, and the offer must be from a person of equal rank, or

their descendants could not be received into similar chapters; an

important circumstance in the affairs of the German noblesse.

Some of these ladies we saw in the church of their convent. Their

habits were remarkably graceful; robes of lawn and black silk flowed

from the shoulder, whence a quilled ruff, somewhat resembling that

of Queen Elizabeth's time, spread round the neck. The hair was in

curls, without powder, and in the English fashion. Their voices were

peculiarly sweet, and they sung the responses with a kind of plaintive

tenderness, that was extremely interesting.

The Jesuits' church is one of the grandest in Cologne, and has the

greatest display of paintings over its numerous altars, as well as of

marble pillars. The churches of the chapters are, for the most part,

very large, and endowed with the richest ornaments, which are,

however, not shewn to the public, except upon days of fête. We do not

remember to have seen that of the chapter of St. Ursula, where heads

and other relics are said to be handed to you from shelves, like books

in a library; nor that of the convent of Jacobins, where some MSS. and

other effects of Albert the Great, bishop of Ratisbon, are among the

treasures of the monks.

Opposite to the Jesuits' church was an hospital for wounded soldiers,

several of whom were walking in the court yard before it, half-clothed

in dirty woollen, through which the bare arms of many appeared.

Sickness and neglect had subdued all the symptoms of a soldier; and

it was impossible to distinguish the wounded French from the others,

though we were assured that several of that nation were in the crowd.

The windows of the hospital were filled with figures still more

wretched. There was a large assemblage of spectators, who looked as if

they were astonished to see, that war is compounded of something else,

besides the glories, of which it is so easy to be informed.

The soldiery of Cologne are under the command of the magistrates, and

are employed only within the gates of the city. The whole body does not

exceed an hundred and fifty, whom we saw reviewed by their colonel, in

the place before the Hotel de Prague. The uniform is red, faced with

white. The men wear whiskers, and affect an air of ferocity, but appear

to be mostly invalids, who have grown old in their guard-houses.

Protestants, though protected in their persons, are not allowed the

exercise of their religion within the walls of the city, but have a

chapel in a village on the other side of the Rhine. As some of the

chief merchants, and those who are most useful to the inhabitants,

are of the reformed church, they ventured lately to request that they

might have a place of worship within the city; but they received the

common answer, which opposes all sort of improvement, religious or

civil, that, though the privilege in itself might be justly required,

it could not be granted, because they would then think of asking

something more.

The government of Cologne in ecclesiastical affairs is with the

Elector, as archbishop, and the Chapter as his council. In civil

matters, though the city constitution is of little effect, the real

power is not so constantly with him as might be supposed; those, who

have influence, being sometimes out of his interest. Conversation,

as we were told, was scarcely less free than in Holland, where there

is justly no opposition to any opinion, however improper, or absurd,

except from the reason of those, who hear it. On that account, and

because of its easy intercourse with Brussels and Spa, this city

is somewhat the resort of strangers, by whom such conversation is,

perhaps, chiefly carried on; but those must come from very wretched

countries who can find pleasure in a residence at Cologne.

Amongst the public buildings must be reckoned the Theatre, of which we

did not see the inside, there being no performance, during our stay,

except on Sunday. This, it seems, may be opened, without offence to

the Magistrates, though a protestant church may not. It stands in a

row of small houses, from which it is distinguished only by a painted

front, once tawdry and now dirty, with the inscription, "_Musis

Gratiisque decentibus_." The Town-house is an awkward and irregular

stone building. The arsenal, which is in one of the narrowest streets,

we should have passed, without notice, if it had not been pointed out

to us. As a building, it is nothing more than such as might be formed

out of four or five of the plainest houses laid into one. Its contents

are said to be chiefly antient arms, of various fashions and sizes, not

very proper for modern use.