Baden-Baden. 239 



There were, first of all, about twenty or thirty Russians, including- 

 the Princess Lieven, the wife of the late ambassador at our court, 

 and no less than four other princesses, whose names I heard, but if 

 I even could pronounce them, I certainly could not spell them now. 

 Poles there were without end. One, a beautiful girl, with black 

 eyes and black hair, excited universal admiration. About fifty or 

 sixty, or perhaps a hundred Germans of the different nations, 

 dutchies, margravates, electorates, were it not treason I should be 

 almost inclined to say provinces of the Germanic Confederation. 

 There were several Frenchmen, many of them of the ancient 

 regime ; a son of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, a very gentlemanly 

 young man ; Louis Buonaparte, the hero of the recent events at 



Strasburg ; Mr. L'A , whom I have before mentioned, and 



many others. Of French women I scarcely saw any, with the 

 exception of three or four "dames de compagnie " from Frescati's. 

 Added to all these, about five hundred Englishmen : our countrymen 

 mustering about double the number of all the other countries put 

 together. Naturally out of the five hundred there were some, nay, 

 perhaps many, who were not quite the klite of this country a few 

 perhaps who came from behind the counter for the first time in their 

 lives, might give themselves certain airs ; but I must say I saw very 

 little of that sort of thing either at Baden or at other places I visited 

 in the course of the summer. John Bull is gaining experience, and 

 is now perfectly aware that, at the same time that he is generally 

 liked and respected on the continent, he is not to ride rough-shod 

 over all the natives of foreign parts. The author of " Richelieu" 

 says that an Englishman, under all circumstances, keeps the distance 

 of two yards between him and a stranger ; but, notwithstanding this, 

 we became acquainted, and, for the time being at least, one might 

 almost say intimately acquainted, with many of our compatriots, of 

 our own as well as of the fairer sex, without any further introduc- 

 tion than that of being shut up together in a dungeon, of being 

 wetted by the spray of the same waterfall, of contemplating the same 

 scenes from the top of a tower, or of being boxed up for eight-and- 

 forty hours together in a small steam-boat. 



Baden, not satisfied with its own intrinsic resources to gratify its vi- 

 sitors, has a number of delightful environs wherewith to amuse them ; 

 and parties, varying in number from two or three to fifteen or 

 twenty, are daily formed to explore their beauties. But before I 

 speak of them, I must give a short description of the town itself. 

 The very name of the place obliges us, in the first instance, to speak 

 of the springs ; but really, were it not for that name, a person who 

 is not an invalid might almost forget that such is the nominal 



magnet that annually attracts thousands to Baden. Mr. P , an 



Englishman, who had been there a week when I arrived, and was 

 going to leave the next day, had never seen or even heard of the 

 Roman bath, or place where invalids go to drink the waters. You 

 enter into a small but lofty room, open on the side of the street and 

 supported by pillars, having to all intents and purposes the appearance 

 of a small chapel. This is called " Hell," whether from the heat of 

 the subterraneous strata, or from whatever cause, I know not. Once 

 safely landed in this pandemonium, some saltish water, hotter than 



