endering it still more obnoxious to cold on
removal from a room to the open air. It has been remarked by a medical
author, in the Russian campaign in 1812, that the soldiers of the southern
nations and provinces, viz., Provencaux, Gascons, Italians, Spaniards, and
Portuguese, endured the cold much better and suffered less from it than the
Germans and Hollanders. The reason is sufficiently obvious: the former live
in the open air even in the middle of winter and seldom make use of a fire
to warm themselves; whereas the Germans and Dutch live in an atmosphere of
stove-heat and smoke and seldom like to stir abroad in the open air during
winter, unless necessity obliges them. Hence they become half-baked, as it
were; their nerves are unstrung, their flesh flabby and they become so
chilly, as to suffer from the smallest exposure to the atmosphere. In the
houses in Germany, on account of the stoves, the cold is never felt,
whereas it is very severely in Italy and Spain where many of the houses
have no fireplaces. On this account I prefer Germany as a winter residence,
for I think there is no sensation so disagreeable as to feel cold in the
house. In the open air I do not care a fig for it, for my cloak lined with
bearskin protects me amply. The climate here in winter is a dry cold, which
is much more salubrious and agreeable to me than the changeable, humid
climate of Great Britain, where, though the cold is not so great, it is
much more severely felt.

[126] Tacitus, _Germania_, C, VIII.--ED.

[127] Martin Sherlock (d. 1797), author of _Lettres d'un voyageur anglais_,
which were published in Paris 1779 and, the year after, in London.

[128] Matthew Gregory Lewis, 1775-1818, published _Ambrosio or the Monk_ in
1795.--ED.

CHAPTER XVIII

MARCH-APRIL 1819

Journey from Dresden to Leipzig--The University of Leipzig--Liberal
spirit--The English disliked in Saxony--The English Government hostile to
liberty--Journey to Frankfort--From Frankfort to Metz and Paris--A.F.
Lemaitre--_Bon voyage_ to the Allies--Return to England.

I left Dresden on the 2nd March, 1819. A _Landkutsche_ conveyed me as far
as Leipzig in a day and half, stopping the first night at Oschaly, where
there is a good inn. At Leipzig I put up at the _Hotel de Baviere_ and
remained five days. Leipzig is a fine old Gothic city. It is, as everybody
knows, famous for its University and its Fair, which is held twice a year,
in spring and in autum