He Is
Far More Careful Of His Horses Than Of His Passengers.
This I however
excuse; but it is of the frequent stoppages and bad arrangement of them
that I complain.
Instead of stopping at some town for one whole night or
two whole nights out of the five, they stop almost at every town for three,
four and five hours; so that these short stoppages do not give you time
enough to go to bed and they are besides generally made in the day time or
early in the morning and evening. We passed thro' the following cities and
places of eminence, viz., Lutzen; the spot where Gustavus Adolphus was
killed is close to the road on the left hand with a plain stone and the
initials G.A. inscribed on it. Weimar is a very neat city and where I
should like much to have staid; but I had only time to view the outside of
the Palace and the Stadthaus. Erfurt and Gotha are both fine looking
cities. In Gotha I had only time to see the outside of the Residenz
Schloss or Ducal Palace, which is agreeably situated on an eminence, and
to remark in the Neumarkt Kirche the portrait of Duke Bernard of Saxe
Weimar and the monuments of the princes of that family. At Erfurt there is
the tomb of a Count Gleichen who was made prisoner in the Holy Land, in the
time of the Crusades, and was released by a Mahometan Princess on condition
of his espousing her. The Count was already married in Germany and there he
had left his wife; but such was his gratitude to the fair Musulmane, that
he married her with the full consent of his German wife and they all three
lived happily together. Fulda, where we stopped four hours, appears a fine
city, and is situated on an eminence commanding a noble view of a very
fertile and extensive plain. The Episcopal Palace and the churches are
magnificent, and the general appearance of the town is striking. The
Bishopric of Fulda was formerly an independent ecclesiastical state, but
was secularised at the treaty of Luneville and now forms part of the
territory of Hesse-Cassel.
The Feld-zeichen of Hesse-Cassel is green and red. After passing thro'
Hanau, where we halted three hours, which gave me an opportunity of viewing
the field of battle there, we proceeded to Frankfort and arrived there at
twelve o'clock the 12th of March. I put up at the Swan inn. In summer
time the country about Fulda and in general between Fulda and Frankfort
must be very pleasing from the variety of the features of the ground. We
lived very well and very cheap on the road. The price of the diligence from
Leipzig to Frankfort was eleven Reichsthaler.
After remaining three days to repose at Frankfort I took my place to
Mayence and from thence to Metz and Paris. In the diligence from Mayence
and indeed all the way to Paris I found a very amusing society.
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