lar, well-built town, but
rather of a sombre melancholy appearance and is only remarkable for its
university. Science could not chuse a more tranquil abode. This University
has been ameliorated lately by its present sovereign the King of Prussia.
It was not the interest of Napoleon to favour any establishment on the
right bank at the expence of those on the left, the former being out of his
territory. At Neuwied I took leave of my agreeable fellow travellers, as
they intended to remain there and I to go on to Ehrenbreitstein. An
opportunity presented itself the same afternoon of which I profited. I met
with an Austrian Captain of Infantry and his lady at the inn where I
stopped who were going to Ehrenbreitstein in their _caleche_, and they were
so kind as to offer me a place in it. I found them both extremely
agreeable; both were from Austria proper. He had left the Austrian service
some time ago and had since entered into the Russian service; from that he
was lately transferred, together with the battalion to which he belonged,
into the service of Prussia and placed on the retired list of the latter
with a very small pension. He did not seem at all satisfied with this
arrangement. He had served in several campaigns against the French in
Germany, Italy and France, and was well conversant in French and Italian
litterature.

We stopped _en passant_ at a _maison de plaisance_ and superb English
garden belonging to the Duke of Nassau-Weilburg. The house is in the style
of a cottage _orne_, but very roomy and tastefully fitted up; but nothing
can be more diversified and picturesque than the manner in which the garden
is laid out. The ground being much broken favours this; and in one part of
it is a ravine or valley so romantic and savage, that you would fancy
yourself in Tinian or Juan Fernandez. We arrived late in the evening in the
Thal Ehrenbreitstein, which lies at the foot of the gigantic hill fortress
of that name, which frowns over it and seems as if it threatened to fall
and crush it. My friends landed me at the inn _Zum weissen Pferd_ (the
White Horse), where there is most excellent accommodation. Just opposite
Ehrenbreitstein, on the left bank, is Coblentz; a superb flying bridge,
which passes in three minutes, keeps up the communication between the two
towns.

Early the next morning, I ascended the stupendous rock of Ehrenbreitstein,
which has a great resemblance to the hill forts in India, such as Gooty,
Nundydr