Why, Tourist, why
To old Colonia's walls?
Sure, to see a Wrenish Dome,
One needn't leave St. Paul's.20
T. Hood.
COLOGNE
In Köhln, a town of monks and bones,
And pavements fanged with murderous stones,
And rags, and hags, and hideous wenches;
I counted two and seventy stenches,
All well defined, and several stinks!5
Ye Nymphs that reign o'er sewers and sinks,
The river Rhine, it is well known,
Doth wash your city of Cologne;
But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine?10
S. T. Coleridge.
THE PURSUIT OF LETTERS
The Germans for Learning enjoy great repute;
But the English make Letters still more a pursuit;
For a Cockney will go from the banks of the Thames
To Cologne for an O and to Nassau for M's.
T. Hood.
FROM 'DOVER TO MUNICH'
Farewell, farewell! Before our prow
Leaps in white foam the noisy channel;
A tourist's cap is on my brow,
My legs are cased in tourist's flannel: