394 University q/' Bonn. ApniL, 



a pale complexion, and his yellow hair fell in ringlets down his neck, 

 according to the fashion. He wore a cap for hats here are unknown* 

 and smoked one of the German pipes which you have seen : the bowl of 

 it was ornamented with the portrait of a lady-fair, and with two broad 

 stripes of black. This latter mark, he told me, was to denote that he 

 was a Prussian : for the Prussian students consider their presence an 

 honour to the Rhine University, and look down on their brethren who 

 live in this neighbourhood. He proposed a walk to Creuzberg, and we 

 proceeded through the wood till we reached the summit, on which stands 

 a pretty church, belonging to the demolished convent of the Servitians. 

 Here the view was really magnificent : the seven hills ( Sieben-gebergen} 

 to our right reared their heads in a regular line : the prospect extended 

 along the right bank of the river to Cologne, whose spires and towers, 

 glittering in the distance, in the midst of the plain, formed a striking 

 contrast to the hills to our right. The student and I had, by this time, 

 become intimate, and as he knew French enough to help out when my 

 German failed, we conversed without difficulty. He told me that his 

 period of study was the happiest that he expected in life, and seemed to 

 feel none of that joy which we anticipate, when, having taken our 

 degree, we say 



" Post tot naufragia tutus sum 

 Buccalaureus artium." 



On the contrary, the prospect to a German of entering a profession, or 

 of becoming one of the literati, or, in other words, journeymen writers, 

 is gloomy enough ; for the field is full. I have seen an advertisement 

 from the rector of the University of Heidelberg, published at the desire 

 of the Grand Duke of Baden, cautioning parents from sending their sons 

 into the medical classes, they being already too crowded to admit of any 

 hope of success in that profession. We need not wonder then that London 

 abounds with literary Germans, as well as English, who live by their 

 wits, and that so poor a living they make of them. 



My friend the student has since introduced me to one of the drinking 

 parties, the nature of which is pretty well known from the accounts of 

 other travellers. The quantity of the thin white Rhine wine consumed 

 was enormous : three bottles a man was thought nothing of and yet 

 they seemed to stand it stoutly. It was, indeed, a saturnalia ! At first 

 one of the party acted as king of the symposium, and parts were 

 assigned to the rest ; but, latterly, it was nothing but the clash of six 

 voices singing and roaring at once. Some of the songs were witty and 

 pointed, and I regret the confusion left my recollection of them so indis- 

 tinct. One of them celebrated the superior happiness of the free burschen 

 (students) over any monarch living ; and it accordingly went through a 

 catalogue of the powers of Europe thus : " The grand seignor is a very 

 good fellow but he has no wine. The pope is also a very good fellow 

 but he has no women. But how much happier are the burschen, who 

 have both wine and women !" &c. &c. I could not prevail on my friend 

 to give me copies of the choicest songs, as he seemed to consider it a 

 sort of breach of confidence : he, however, handed me the following, 

 which, though of no very high flight, may serve as a specimen of a 

 German drinking song : 



