Baden-Baden. 237 



or Cour de Zeringue, and there obtained a very nice little lodging, 

 consisting of three bed-rooms and a sitting-room, very neatly fur- 

 nished, at the rate of four florins (about 6s. 8d.) a day not a 

 knight's fee, but a lawyer's fee. Besides the two hotels I have 

 mentioned, there are several others of noted celebrity, such as the 

 " Sonne," the " Salmeri," the Hotel d'Angleterre, and many others. 

 The one we were at is one of the first, and its " t table d'hote" is 

 decidedly the best, with the exception perhaps of the Salmen, which 

 is more plentifully supplied with game, from the circumstance of the 

 host being a great sportsman himself. In fact, if you go to his hotel 

 he is always willing to take you out to his " campagne,"'arid give 

 you as good a day's shooting as you can expect in a country that is 

 not preserved. His "turn-out" is well known to all visitors of 

 Baden, alow phaeton, with a pair of very small though excessively 

 fast mules. As possibly many of my readers have no idea what a 

 German " table d'hote " dinner is, I will describe one we had at the 

 Zoringhe. " Ex uno disce omnes." Soup and bouilli,then carp and 

 pike, with cream sauce, followed by stewed " hure de sanglier," 

 sweat-breads, fried potatoes then sponge-cake, with custard, and 

 ditto with jelly after which roast chevreuil (roe-buck), roast fowl, 

 and salad, the whole being followed by plain boiled trout, by way 

 of a finish! ! The whole of this moderate meal, followed by dessert, 

 cheese, &c., accompanied by a pint of " vin du pays," is to be had 

 for one shilling and eight-pence a head. But then, to be sure, one of 

 the residents told me that in general it was not so dear ! " Que 

 voulez-vous, monsieur, dans la saison tout est cher." The dinner I 

 have mentioned is in no ways exaggerated, the only irregularity 

 was serving fish directly after the soup and bouilli, but that I believe 

 was in compliment to English taste. 



The first thing to mention at Baden is the " Conversation House." 

 You approach it by well kept gravel walks that wind through a 

 shrubbery along the Oelbach. The principal part of the building 

 consists of a lofty saloon, one hundred feet long and forty in width, 

 containing a roulette table at each end. The entrance to it is under 

 a magnificent portico, supported by columns of the Corinthian order. 

 Tables and chairs are placed under this portico, as well as on the 

 esplanade in front of it, where the visitors come and sit, and enjoy 

 the cool summer evening, sipping coffee and ices, and listening to 

 the music of an excellent band. I think that, standing under that 

 portico of a bright moonlight night, the view of the town, sur- 

 rounded by the dense forests, through which you can scarcely 

 distinguish the well-known " felsen" with the Mercuriesberg threat- 

 ening in the distance, surpassed any piece of scenery I ever witnessed 

 in Europe. But to return to the "Maisonde Conversation." On 

 the grand saloon is an elegantly furnished drawing-roorn, where 

 half-dress balls are held twice or three times a week, to which you 

 may subscribe by the month or week, or to which you may at any 

 time be admitted by paying forty kreuzers, about one shilling and 

 a penny. The ladies just walk in, in their bonnets, dance a waltz or 

 a gallop, and go out again, without the least fuss or ceremony what- 

 ever. On the other side of the saloon is perhaps the most serious 

 place of amusement in Baden : I mean the " Rouge et Noir " room. 



