We reached Colmar about seven o’clock, where we rested three hours, after which we travelled all night, arriving at Strasburg at four o’clock in the morning, and taking up our quarters at the Maison Rouge. After dinner we walked to a bridge of pontoons over the Rhine, about a league distant from the city, which we crossed, to the gates of the small town of Kehl; on our way back, we found the bar of a bridge over one of the tributary streams to the Rhine closed; our passage was thus obstructed, but we got over it without difficulty, an offence for which we only escaped arrest by pleading, as strangers, our ignorance of the regulation. On our arrival at Strasburg, also, we were but just in time to enter before the gates were shut; had we been a little later, we must inevitably have been excluded for the night.
On the next day, Sunday, we visited the noble Gothic cathedral, which possesses the highest and finest steeple in the world, the summit being five hundred and seventy-four feet from the ground. This we ascended, and I had the temerity to mount some feet higher than my companions, which procured me a severe lecture; I had no small difficulty to convince them that the sense of touch, on which I depended, was less likely to deceive than the eye, when the dizzy height would make the
“⸺brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.”
This cathedral is remarkable for the numerous allegorical figures about it, intended to expose the licentious and crafty characters of the Monks of former times. We had the works of the renowned clock, once one of the wonders of Europe, laid open to us, and which describes the various revolutions of the heavenly bodies.
On our return, we found a military parade in the place where our hotel stood, the band of which played a variety of fine airs.
On inquiring respecting conveyances down the Rhine, they informed us, that the Coche d’Eau, which only goes once a week, had unfortunately set out the morning of our arrival; and as the diligence goes but twice a week (on Mondays and Thursdays) we lost no time in securing our places for the morrow, as far as Spire, being led to hope that we should find water conveyance, from that place to Mayence.
We might indeed have gone down the river in a trading boat, numbers of which are frequently going from, or passing by Strasburg; but the accommodations are not to be depended upon, and there was some uncertainty in their arrival and departure.
In the evening, after securing our places, we walked into the public gardens, from whence a balloon was sent off, and which was constructed in the shape of a wine cask, with a Bacchus astride it. This was succeeded by a display of fire-works, with music and dancing.