han beautiful. It
presents an excellent specimen of the kind of ecclesiastical architecture
in which the Slavonians of the middle ages delighted. Moreover the
Landhaus, or house of meeting for the estates of Moravia,--till the
times of Joseph II. a wealthy Augustinian convent,--may be visited with
advantage, as may also the Rath-haus and National Museum. Into the
citadel, on the other hand, no stranger can be admitted without an
order from the governor; and such order, unless the party applying for
it bring strong recommendations, is not easily procured.
The great lounge for the fashionables of Bruenn is termed the Franzes
Berg. It is a sort of table-land, on the side of that hill which the
cathedral and bishop's palace overtop; and is laid out in shady walks,
well-ordered terraces, and bowers of most umbrageous shelter. Thither,
in the cool of the day, that is, between the hours of six and nine in
the evening, the _elite_ of the inhabitants repair, that they may
enjoy the pleasures of a crowded promenade, enlivened by the strains of
one of the finest military bands to which I have ever listened. As may
be supposed, we did not fail to become partakers in the scene, or to
relish it greatly; for the music is superb, the view over the valley of
the Taia beautiful, and the bearing of the company at once decorous and
full of good humour. But having accomplished this, and wandered through
the greater number of the streets, having visited the public buildings,
and made more than half the circuit of the ramparts, we felt that our
business in Bruenn was completed. We accordingly returned to our hotel,
and being again refused by the police the coveted vise into Hungary, we
made up our minds to pursue our journey on the morrow towards Vienna.
I made numerous inquiries as to the condition of Protestantism in this
country, and received answers which were very little satisfactory. From
the effects of the persecution at the close of the Thirty Years' War,
it has never recovered. Toleration is, indeed, granted to Lutherans,
Calvinists, and Jews, under one or other of which denominations, all
dissenters from popery are classed; but of the Moravian brethren, not a
trace remains, either in the capital or elsewhere. Had I not previously
made myself acquainted with the history of this pious sect, the
circumstance of their total extirpation would have much surprised me;
because the error of the name which has somehow been applied to them,
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