I was glad therefore to get some rest before we started; and threw myself on my bed, took out my pencil and book, and made my rough notes of what I had seen in the cathedral in the morning.

Whilst I was so engaged, my companions improved their acquaintance with the landlord and his brother. Both of these young men they said, were particularly obliging. One had been in England for a few months, and was not without a touch of the Anglo-mania. His brother was going there to improve himself in the same, and in the knowledge of the language.

Indeed, it might be called a colony of Anglomaniacs: the very waiter expressed a hope that the time might come when he also should follow the example of his master's visit to England, as well as his brother.

Our host recommended us strongly to go to the Crown at Schaffhausen, notwithstanding Murray's book had passed a censure on that house we were assured this was an error, and that we should find the Crown in every way satisfactory. We found afterwards, however,

that he was going to marry the landlord's sister, which may further account for this family compact of recommendation to the stranger.

I have now only to add, that our old voiturier gave the signal of departure; and after bidding adieu to the poet, wishing him all success in his double devotion to the Muses and the English, we speedily quitted Freyburg, and, under a broiling hot sun, once more commenced our journey, and soon arrived among scenes of so much grandeur and beauty, that to introduce them at the end of a letter would be unworthy the subject, or the notice they demand. I must reserve it, then, for my next, till when I remain,

as ever,

Your affectionate sister,

A. E. BRAY.

LETTER VIII.

TO A. J. KEMPE, ESQ., F.S. A.

Drive to the Hollenthal. Great Beauty of the Scenery: its Characteristics. — Spenser: his Lines on Trees. Reflections on Natural Scenery connected with Religious Feeling. The Hollenthal; its Magnificence. The Hollensteig. Prepare for the Ascent. Vorspanns. Summit of the Hollensteig. Distant Lake of Titi-See. Snow on a Mountain.- Beautiful Valley. Effect of Lightning. - Arrival at Lenzkirch.

My dear Brother,

THE drive from Freyburg to the entrance of the Hollenthal is one of great beauty, though you quit with regret the sight of the cathedral, its tall and fret-work spire, and the many objects of interest which abound in its vicinity." As you advance into the Black Forest, the heights on either side the road become more and more elevated: cottages now assume something of the Swiss character; fields with their flocks, and waving woods, enrich and diversify the landscape. At length you enter the Hol

lenthal, or Valley of Hell. But wherefore one of the finest scenes in Europe should be called by such a name, I cannot conjecture; unless it arise from the common practice of ascribing to the power of the devil, whatever in the world of nature is most replete with grandeur and sublimity; as, for instance, we have in Britain the Devil's Bridge, the Devil's Dyke, &c. But no evil spirit, I will venture to say, ever had any hand in producing such a scene as the Hollenthal. We all admitted that, hitherto, neither in our own nor in any other country had we ever seen any of a similar character that could even be named in comparison with this most wondrous pass amidst the rocks, woods, and mountains of the Black Forest; but though I was enraptured with it, and would most willingly make another journey from England to visit it and Freyburg cathedral again, yet I feel how impossible it is to give you any adequate idea of its beauty by mere description. Nothing but the pencil, or fifty pencils, each employed in different parts of the valley, could give you any notion of its magnificence. However, I must

say a few words on the subject, at least respect ing its general characteristics. Fine as the country is all the way, it is not till you are about nine miles distant from Freyburg that you can be said to have arrived at what is properly called the Hollenthal. There you enter a pass in the valley among the mountains; this ascends for a considerable distance, and gradually contracts till you are hemmed in at one sublime spot, between rocks towering to a vast height above your head; whilst the river, a pure mountain stream, roars over its bed of granite, under the narrow bridge over which you have to cross; and when upon it, the tumult of the rushing and foaming waters beneath gives an agitating character to a scene that would otherwise be one of the most profound stillness and solitude in nature. In the Hollenthal you look on rocks that seem as if they rose but as the pinnacles of those stupendous masses that form the foundations of the globe. Here are precipices where human foot never trod, and where no living thing but the bird of the forest can make its way. Height rises above height, rock is piled