This is the first town of the Palatinate, on arriving from the north;
and it bears marks of the devastation, inflicted upon that country, in
the last century, more flagrant than could be expected, when the length
of the intervening time, and the complete recovery of other cities from
similar disasters, are considered. Louis the Fourteenth's fury has
converted it from a populous city into little more than a picturesque
ruin. It was burned in 1668; and the walls, which remain in double, or
sometimes in treble circles, are more visible, at a distance, than
the streets, which have been thinly erected within them. Above all,
is the _Landscroon_, or crown of the country, a castle erected on an
eminence, which commands the Rhine, and dignifies the view from it, for
several miles. The whole city, or rather ruin, stands on a brow, over
this majestic river.
The gates do not now open directly into streets, but into lanes of
stone walls between vineyards and gardens, formed on the site of
houses, never restored, since the fire. The town itself has shrunk
from its antient limits into a few streets in the centre. In some of
the interstices, corn grows up to the walls of the present houses. In
others the ruins of former buildings remain, which the owners have not
been tempted to remove, for the sake of cultivating their sites. Of the
cathedral, said to have been once the finest on the Rhine, nearly all
the walls and the tower still exist; but these are the only remains
of grandeur in a city, which seems entirely incapable of overcoming in
this century the wretchedness it inherits from the last.
Had the walls been as strong as they are extensive, this place might
not improbably have endured a siege in the present age, having been
several times lost and regained. It was surrendered to the French,
without a contest, in the campaign of 1792. After their retreat from
Worms, and during the siege of Mentz, it was occupied by the Prussians;
and, in December 1793, when the allies retired from Alsace, the Duke
of Brunswick established his head-quarters in it, for the purpose of
covering the fortress. His army ovens remained near the northern gate,
in July 1794, when we passed through it. In October of the same year it
fell again into the hands of the French.
No city on the banks of the Rhine is so well seated for affording a
view of it as this, which, to the north, overlooks all its windings
as far as Mentz, and, southward, commands them towards Worms. The
river is also here of a noble breadth and force, beating so vehemently
against the watermills, moored near the side, that they seem likely to
be borne away with the current. A city might be built on the site of
Oppenheim, which should faintly rival the castle of Goodesberg, in the
richness, though not in the sublimity of its prospect.
From hence the road leads through a fertile country of corn and
vines, but at a greater distance from the river, to Worms, five or
six miles from which it becomes broad, straight, and bordered with
regularly-planted trees, that form an avenue to the city. Soon after
leaving Oppenheim, we had the first symptom of an approach to the
immediate theatre of the war, meeting a waggon, loaded with wounded
soldiers. On this road, there was a long train of carriages, taking
stores to some military _depôt_. The defacement of the Elector's arms,
on posts near the road, shewed also, that the country had been lately
occupied by the French; as the delay in cutting the ripe corn did, that
there was little expectation of their return.