the corpulent
persons or the furs and cloaks of fellow-passengers. A bell-pull is
fixed in the interior of the carriage, so that each individual can give
the coachman a signal when he or she wishes to alight. These omnibuses
call at the principal inns, and wait for a moment; but the traveller who
is not ready in advance is left behind.

At half-past five in the morning it called at our hotel. I was ready and
waiting, and drove off comfortably to the railway. The distance from
Dresden to Leipzig is reckoned at fifty-six miles, and the journey
occupied three hours.

The first fourteen miles are very agreeable; gardens, fields, and
meadows, pine-forests in the plain and on the hills, and between these,
villages, farms, country-houses, and solitary chapels, combine to form a
very pretty landscape. But the scene soon changes, and the town of
Meissen (famous for its porcelain manufactory), on the right hand, seems
to shut out from our view all that is picturesque and beautiful.

From here to Leipzig we travel through a wearisome monotonous plain,
enlivened at long intervals by villages and scattered farms. There is
nothing to see but a great tunnel, and the river Pleisse--the latter, or
rather the Elster, is rendered famous by the death of Prince Poniatowski.
{9}

The town of Leipzig, celebrated far and wide for its fairs, and more for
its immense publishing trade, presents an appearance of noise and bustle
proportionate to its commercial importance. I found streets, squares,
and inns alike crowded. {10}

Perhaps there does not exist a town with its houses, and consequently its
streets, so disfigured with announcements, in all sizes and shapes,
covering its walls, and sometimes projecting several feet, as Leipzig.

Among the public buildings, those which pleased me most were the
Augusteum and the Burgerschule. The Bucherhalle (book-hall) I should
suppose indebted for its celebrity rather to its literary contents than
to its architectural beauty or its exterior. The hall itself is indeed
large, and occupies the whole length of the building, while the lower
story consists of several rooms. The hall, the chambers, and the
exterior are all plain, and without particular decoration. The Tuchhalle
(cloth-hall) is simply a large house, with spacious chambers, containing
supplies of cloth. The Theatre stands on a very large square, and does
not present a very splendid appearance, whether viewed from within or
from w