A tour through Holland

by Sir John Carr

And, what an epicure will perhaps more regret, the whole vineyard of Hockheim was destroyed.

The French were highly indignant at the loss of so important a place, and resolved upon attempting the recovery of it from its victors, as soon as the mighty objects which claimed on all sides the activity and energy of their rulers and generals, were accomplished; and accordingly, in June 1795, the French army again blockaded this devoted city, during which it sustained a renewal of its suffering, from which it again was relieved by the successful operations of Mareschal Clairfayt, at the head of the Austrians against the revolutionary troops, who were attacked and routed upon the heights of Mornbach, when the Mareschal appeared before Mayence, attacked and carried the entrenched camp of the enemy, upon which the skill of their ablest engineers had been exerted for eleven months to render it invulnerable. General Schaal, who occupied this strong position, on the retreat of Jourdan, with fifty-two battalions of infantry and five regiments of cavalry, was obliged to retire with great loss in cannon, ammunition and men. In this bombardment some Tyrol sharp-shooters displayed their wonted skill in an amazing manner, by killing, from the banks of Cassel, several French officers with their rifle-pieces, who were walking on the ramparts on the opposite side of the river, the breadth of which I have already ascertained by the length of the floating bridge. In the beginning of the year 1797 a better destiny smiled upon the French arms in this region, and Moreau and Hoche made both sides of the Rhine resound with their victories, when the troops which garrisoned Mayence, to prevent the entire and unavailing demolition of the city, relinquished its possession, and the French remained masters of it.

Volumes have been written upon the superior pretension of Mayence to the original invention of the art of printing, and to transfer the honours of the discovery from Lawrence Coster of Haarlem to John Guttenburg, a citizen of this place. A vast deal of special pleading has been displayed on both sides; and, to use a jockey phrase, these racers for the merited gratitude and admiration of all who followed them, reached the goal almost “neck and neck,” but the majority of judgments given appropriate the glory to Coster: his mode was the simplest, and therefore thought to be the earliest; his moulds were made of wood and immoveable, and he stamped the paper only on one side: Guttenburg printed on both sides of the leaf with moveable metal types.

The extremity of the bridge towards Cassel, and all the ramparts and redoubts of the town, which are very strongly fortified, were occupied by French soldiers. With two German gentlemen and a Dutch officer, I set off for Francfort, distant eight stunder or hours, or four German miles, under a scorching sun, which did not seem to have any effect upon a large party of monks and priests, and followers, bearing the host, who were walking bare headed in procession to a monastery which we had just passed, near which I left the carriage to make a sketch of Mayence, upon a projecting bank of the river Maine, where I bade adieu to the Rhine. Our road lay through an avenue of walnut, apple, and pear trees, loaded with fruit, to which passengers helped themselves whenever inclination disposed them to do so; and part of the Hockheim hills, covered with the renowned vineyards, which produce what in England is called old hock. As many a saint, high in superstitious veneration, must have had at least ten skulls and one hundred toe nails, as if no illusion has been practised by those who have exhibited them to the credulous in different eras and various regions, so nothing short of the power of transmuting water into wine, could produce from these vineyards the immense quantity of wine which passes under the title of hock. Certain it is, that the greater quantity of wine honoured with that name, is from the grapes of both sides of the lower part of the Rhine. In the district where it is produced, very old genuine Hockheim wine is sold at the rate of three, and sometimes five, shillings a bottle.

At the first stage we stopped at a village where there is a noble building upon an eminence, commanding a beautiful prospect, which I at first took for a palace, but it proved to be a tobacco manufactory, warehouses, and the residence of the proprietor and his family; the front is five hundred feet long, and the whole exterior infinitely more princely than Buckingham-house. After passing this place the road became level, and the country presented corn-fields, pasture, and orchards in great abundance. For many miles round, this country had been often the theatre of hostilities; and though Nature had long since effaced their melancholy impressions from her fields by reviving verdure, yet prostrate cottages and battered convents displayed the march and ravages of the demon War! Happy, thrice happy my own country, where the sound of cannon is never heard but to announce a victory, or to augment the gaiety of some festive occasion!

The suburbs of Francfort are very delightful, and after passing over a draw-bridge, and through a deep, gateway, we entered the city, the streets of which are crowded and full of gaiety and bustle, in consequence of the great autumnal fair which was holding there. All the best inns were brimful, and with great difficulty the Dutch officer and myself procured a miserable double-bedded room, at an inferior inn, filled with petty merchants and their families, whom the spirit of traffic had led to this celebrated mart, and was half choked up with cases and boxes containing their merchandize. This town swarms with French soldiers, about thirty of whom slept in rooms adjoining to ours, where they deported themselves with great order. My companion had just returned from the Cape, in consequence of its surrender to the British arms. He spoke with liberal rapture of gallantry of the English troops. In Germany, as in Holland, time is taken by the forelock, and at six o’clock the stiefelputzer, or boot-cleaner, knocked at the door, followed by the chambermaid with a composition of frankincense and other gums of a pyramidal shape, and about an inch high, much used in Germany, called a Räucher-kerz, for perfuming rooms, which she placed upon our candlestick and left smoking. My Dutch companion annoyed me at this hour, first by begging that I would hear him read one book of Milton’s Paradise Lost, a little English edition of which he had in his pocket, which he achieved in an incongruous mêlange of various languages; and secondly, by begging me to lend him my tooth-brush for a few minutes, observing, that he preferred an English tooth-brush to any other, and at the same moment applying it to his teeth with equal alacrity and gratification. After he had paid such a compliment to English tooth-brushes, and had done me the honour of using mine, the least I could do was to beg that he would favour me with keeping it for my sake, with which he was much pleased, and accordingly introduced it to a party of combs and razors in his shaving-case. In all other respects he was an agreeable man, and I am sure a liberal-minded soldier. This city, which was till lately imperial, is one of the most ancient towns in Germany, and has several handsome streets and noble buildings: it is particularly celebrated for the splendor of its hotels, which are reported to be the most magnificent in Europe, particularly those called the Rothen Haus or Red House, and the Rörniskchen Kaiser or Roman emperor, where the King of Prussia lodged when he visited this town; and the Darmstadter Hof, in which Mareschal Augerau and his suite resided whilst I was at Francfort: so crowded was the city, that it was with great difficulty and some interest I procured apartments at the Weiden-hof, or Willow-Court, a second rate inn, but of great magnitude. Our table d’hote, at which between two and three hundred persons of respectability sat down every day, was held in a noble room; it was splendidly served, and an excellent band seated in an elevated gallery, performed during dinner. The principal houses are built of red and white stone: the cassino, to which I was admitted by a card of introduction from one of the principal bankers, is very elegant. There are also several other clubs and assembly rooms. The theatre is spacious and very handsome, the performers were good, and the band is large and select. Opposite to the theatre is a mall, formed by several rows of trees, which in the evening is much frequented, where many a lover may exclaim with Moore,

Oh, Rosa! say “good night” once more,

And I’ll repeat it o’er and o’er,

Till the first glance of dawning light

Shall find us saying still “good night.”