tables in great crowds. The mall was
full. Here was Eugene Beauharnois, drawn in a carriage by four black
steeds, with traces of an unusual length between the leaders and wheel
horses. A grand Duke was parading to the right: to the left, a Marchioness
was laughing _a pleine gorge_. Here walked a Count, and there rode a
General. Bavarians, Austrians, French, and English--intermixed with the
tradesmen of Baden, and the rustics of the adjacent country--all,
glittering in their gayest sabbath-attires, mingled in the throng, and
appeared to vie with each other in gaiety and loudness of talk.

We gained a more private walk, within a long avenue of trees; where a small
fountain, playing in the midst of a grove of elm and beech, attracted the
attention both of the Professor and ourselves. "It is here," observed the
former--"where I love to come and read your favourite Thomson." He then
mentioned Pope, and quoted some verses from the opening of his Essay on
Man--and also declared his particular attachment to Young and Akenside.
"But our Shakspeare and Milton, Sir--what think you of these?" "They are
doubtless very great and superior to either: but if I were to say that I
understood them as well, I should say what would be an untruth: and nothing
is more disgusting than an affectation of knowing what you have,
comparatively, very little knowledge of." We continued our route towards
the convent, at a pretty brisk pace; with great surprise, on my part, at
the firm and rapid movements of the Professor. Having reached the convent,
we entered, and were admitted within the chapel. The nuns had just retired;
but we were shewn the partition of wood which screens them most effectually
from the inquisitive eyes of the rest of the congregation. We crossed a
shallow, but rapidly running brook, over which was only one plank, of the
ordinary width, to supply the place of a bridge. The venerable Professor
led the way--tripping along so lightly, and yet so surely, as to excite our
wonder. We then mounted the hill on the opposite side of the convent; where
there are spiral, and neatly trimmed, gravel walks, which afford the means
of an easy and pleasant ascent--but not altogether free from a few sharp
and steep turnings. From the summit of this hill, the Professor bade me
look around, and view a valley which was the pride of the neighbourhood,
and which was considered to have no superior in Suabia. It was certainly
very beautiful--luxuriant in pas