remarkable feature. Flanked by two Towers of enormous bulk, the hoary dignity of its general effect seems rather enhanced than impaired by their inadequate height. The whole façade is replete with that commanding force of Effect, whose accomplishment should ever be the principal aim of Cathedral piles. It is only so far too much dilated in its general grandeur that the graces of its beautiful detail are considerably obscured. On a nearer approach, however, that glorious eccentricity, the great triangular Porch, assumes the real proportions of its amazing height; and while lost in admiration of this pavillion and parterre of stone, you cannot but remark how greatly mediæval Architecture had the pas of medieval Sculpture. The imagery seems only subordinate to the general effect of the decoration. The tabernaclework, the foliature, the fruit, and the flowers, are of superlative delicacy: the Statues do not even pretend an approach to excellence. tures. The Interior achieves precisely what all such edifices should; it captivates the eye and smites the heart at a single glance! the Spirit of the Place at once overpowers and fills you with rapLess intricate and more entire in its magnificence than most Gothic Fanes, its mighty aisles, its superb Porch, and its array of painted windows, varnished with all the glories of the crucible, and redolent of Divine and Legendary Lore, constitute the chief distinction of the Dom Kirch THE GOLDEN CROSS. 253 of Regensberg, and you may see them almost at a glance. Instead of deep Recesses in the Aisles, this Church possesses the peculiarity of six projecting Shrines of tabernacle-work, each a Chapel in itself. Among these is the Font, a very remarkable construction of its kind. It is a huge polygonal draw-well, having sculptured pannels under a stately arch of tabernacles and imagery, flanked by two Gothic Basins of marble, each supported by a spiral column. These doubtless are accustomed to contain the Sacramental Element. I have never yet seen any thing resembling them. The Exterior is of great simplicity. They have evidently lavished all their luxuriance on that unparalleled West Front. Ah! the giant! the gloomy giant! with a miniature of beauty upon his breast! What a fortunate monster it is! That beloved, that genial old Hostel, the Golden Cross, the eldest and the best in all Regensberg, with its tall square Tower of countless stories, its up-and-down Façade, its Porch of the big and the little arch, its squadrons of Staircases, its labyrinth of useless Antichambers, shall not moulder unsung by me; for in the heart of that oldfashioned fabric, that turretted and gabled wilderness, that Golden Cross of Ratisbon, there glows 254 THE GOLDEN CROSS. -(like the unextinguishable benevolence of an aged man) there glows-the very best Kitchen in Germany! It was just such a building as this, where the Melancholy of superannuated wainscotts and tapestries is completely exorcised by the countercharm of Good cheer,—that must have reechoed these hospitable strains of the dead Landlord's Ghost to Dorilaus and Cleander in " The Lover's Progress." ""Tis late and cold, stir up the fire; BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. THE RATH HAUS. 255 RATISBON is a mean, ill-constructed town, consisting of a quagmire of winding streets, whose intricacy would require the Cretan Clue, and whose filth bids fair to emulate the Slough of Despond. She owes every thing to the Danube, the Domkirch, and that domicile of Imperial tyranny, her Rath Haus. The appearance of this last is exceedingly grand, and every way prepares you for a visit to those chambers, haunted as they are by that spectral masquerade of Power and Mystery, Dignity and Cruelty, Magnificence and Horror, with which history and tradition have colonized their dusky walls. The Great Porch, richly decorated, and ascending into a steep flight of stairs, with wheelwork balustrade, has the Shield of the Keys (oh, evil omen!) in the spandrils. The beautiful decorated Arch is surmounted by a broad Entablature, at each corner of which, as if from a window-frame, you see a grim but boldly executed bust of a man in the martial costume of the period, leaning forward in a menacing attitude, the one brandishing a monstrous Mace, the other poising a huge fragment of Stone, in the very act of dashing it down on the head of any intruder. I venture to advise all who may visit this venerable pile to notice these curious Effigies. The singularity of the design is quite equalled by 256 THE REICHSAAL. the spirit of its execution. The adjoining Façade is really perfect as an example of the Medieval style. The symmetry and dimensions of that pillared Oriel, embowered by tabernacle-work in the centre, leave one little to desire of antique gracefulness. The Reichsaal retains nothing of all its pompous maintenance except a plain Armchair, which, divested of its Vermillion Cloth of Gold, and even deprived of its emblazoned and crowned Canopy, remains perched in the centre of its elevated Dais, like "A clip-wing Griffin, or a molten Raven :" as melancholy, aye, and as musical too, if you presume to usurp its Sovereign Siege, which, creaking and whining piteously, complains of the profanation. And no wonder; for on this dismantled throne once sate the Cæsar of all Germany, predominating over that High Council, the Imperial Diet, which for centuries assembled in this vast and admirably proportioned Hall. The Chamber adjoining is distinguished by the title of the Electoral College. This is nearly as large as the Reichsaal, but square, and entirely covered with broider-work and dismal tapestry, which here, if any where, is undoubtedly -Goblin! It is all of highly creditable antiquity -antiquity guaranteed as strongly by the universal blackness and eclipse of worsted-work which overwhelms its reds, and greens, and yellows, as |