All our luggage—an immense number of packages—had to be taken out, and marked with our names. "The railway charges," Sir Moses says, "will be immense, but I must submit to the disappointments and vexations I am doomed to meet."
His servants made everything comfortable, but in order to be ready to start at two in the morning, Sir Moses did not go to bed at all. This was a peculiar habit of his which I noticed on all his journeys. However tired others around him may have been, he would sit up and write or arrange his numerous memoranda.
We left Calais on May the 17th, and proceeded viâ Cologne and Dresden to Prague, where we remained during the Pentecost festival, visiting the celebrated ancient Synagogue, known by the name of "Alt-Neu-Schul," the restoration of which, after a great fire, dates from soon after the year 1142, and the ancient burial ground, in which there is a tombstone bearing the Hebrew date of 4366 A.M., corresponding to 1280 of the Christian era.
The short stay of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore in that city was made particularly gratifying to them by the great number of deputations they received from communal, educational, and literary institutions.
The Rev. S. L. Rapoport, the spiritual head of the community, spoke to them on several occasions on the subject of the Holy Land, and the necessity of securing protection to its Hebrew inhabitants.
May 25th.—We left Prague for Kolin, where we attended the examination of the pupils of the Hebrew Communal School under the direction of the eminent Chief Rabbi Frank; and Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, as a token of their satisfaction with the teachers and pupils, left a sum of money with the school committee for the purpose of having a medal struck, with their Chief Rabbi's name on it, to be given as a prize to the best scholar.
We left Kolin early in the morning, and reached Vienna the next day.
Monday, 28th.—Baron Anselm de Rothschild called. He conversed with Sir Moses on the subject of the journey, and offered his services. Lord Westmoreland invited Sir Moses to dinner. The representatives of the Hebrew community and most of their members came to pay their respects, and expressed their wishes for a happy and successful journey.
We remained in the Austrian Metropolis three days, and then proceeded viâ Laibach to Adelsberg, making a halt in the latter town for two days, for the purpose of visiting the famous grotto, which, in honour of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, was illuminated by one thousand candles.
The formations produced here by the union of the stalactites and stalagmites are of the most picturesque beauty and effect, and the guides have a variety of names for them. One they call "the throne," another "the altar," and a third they call "the Synagogue."