C28 Reflections on a Ramble in Germany. ^Dec. 



their being the descendants of the hardy followers of Arrainius. The 

 women, without being handsome, had an open, honest, and a frank 

 expression of countenance. 



During a ramble of several days, I had an opportunity of becoming 

 acquainted with the character and condition of the peasantry, which 

 travelling en paste could never have afforded me ; and the result of my 

 observations certainly improved my opinion of my fellow-man. 



Evening was fast closing around us ; the moon was struggling up 

 through the dense frosty vapours that enshrouded the landscape. As we 

 approached the small town of Horn, near the city of Padebom — " We 

 are treading on classic ground," said the professor, first breaking the 

 silence which had long prevailed, and given place to the more animated 

 converse of the morning. " Behold," he continued, " the grave of 

 imperial Rome — the immortal twin-sister of Cannae — the glorious field 

 of Wenfelt ! I know not if it be a natural feeling, or an illusion of the 

 imagination founded on habit, that we are more powerfully affected by 

 the sight of those places which have been the scene of splendid actions 

 than when we read their details in the page of history ; but as I stood, 

 by the pale light of the moon, on the grove of Vaus and his legions, ray 

 imagination was powerfully excited. Memory resorted to the fine descrip- 

 tion of Tacitus, the details of the fight, the solemn feeling that pervaded 

 the army of Germanicus on beholding the whitened bones of their coun- 

 trymen on the fatal plain ; while the frantic exclamation of Augustus — 

 ' Qitintilius Varus reddile mihi Lcgiunes' — appeared to float on the even- 

 ing breeze." 



The student stooped doA\ai, and devoutly kissed the earth ; and then 

 broke forth in a stanza from the Hermann's Schlacht : — 



" O Vaterland ! O Vaterland ! 

 Du warst him, mehr, als mutter, und Veib, und Brunt, 

 Mehr als ein bluhender sohn 

 Mit seiner ersten Waffen." 



On the following morning I bid adieu to my two travelling companions. 

 There was an originality of cast of thought and expression about both 

 f^ither and son that rendered, on my part, our separation one of deep 

 regret — a feeling that was still uppermost in my mind, when my pass- 

 port being demanded by a tall grenadier in a scarlet uniform at the gate 

 of Hanover, reminded me that I was once more in the dominions of 

 England. 



