474 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



seems the peasant's natural colour. 

 The blood seems cold in their 

 veins — their animal life appears 

 dull — and they have none of that 

 over-flowing health natural to 

 their occupations, and which helps 

 to vivify character. 



Having refreshed ourselves Avith 

 some wine soup, and taken another 

 guide, we walked on another 

 league to Lindenfels, — The road 

 winds up to the village, at first 

 through well cultivated fields of 

 corn and vegetables ; afterwards 

 through a fine wood of beeches. 

 The women were working in the 

 fields, and the woods resounded 

 with the cracking whips of the 

 boys keeping their cows on the 

 sides of the hills. Lindenfels is 

 one of the most romantic spots in 

 the Odenwald — perched on the 

 apex of a conical hill, surrounded 

 on all sides by deep glens, their 

 sides covered with luxuriant 

 forests, sloping pastures, and 

 orchards of walnut and apple. 

 The hill by which you ascend 

 forms a sort of false breast-work 

 to Lindenfels itself. When you 

 are nearly on the summit of the 

 former, the castle «eems almost 

 within a stone's throw : but a few 

 minutes ascent discovers that Lin- 

 delfels is on a detached hill, sepa- 

 rated by a deep valley, round the 

 edge of which it is necessary to 

 wind half a mile to the village. 

 The old ruin of the Castle crowns 

 the highest part of the mountain, 

 above the little town. It is a mass 

 of rough wall, in which one 

 discovers vestiges of a large oc- 

 tangular tower, and an outer ram- 

 part. The village — like so many 

 others in the neighbourhood of 

 an equally picturesque exterior — 

 is dirty and miserable in the 



extreme. The amt-mann, or bai- 

 liff', lives in a large dismal house, 

 in a court-yard, with great gates : 

 his gardens sloping beautifully 

 down the sides of the hill. The 

 amt-mann is the Grand Seigneur 

 of the little district; and dis- 

 penses justiceamong the peasants, 

 and those who are not entitled by 

 birth to seek it at a higher source. 

 These offices, which are of some 

 emolument and influence, are 

 filled by men of no birth or 

 consequence, and who belong to 

 about the third ranks of the bour- 

 geoisie. Our long walk, and the 

 ascent of the mountain, disposed 

 us to be by no means fastidious 

 as to the accommodation of the 

 inn — a miserable black hole, full 

 of filth and wretchedness. It, 

 however, furnished a good supper 

 of milk, and bread, and butter ; 

 and beds, in which, though none 

 of the cleanest, we slept with all 

 the luxury of fatigue. 



The next morning early, under 

 the auspices of a nev/ bot, a neat 

 little peasant girl, with her trim 

 blue frock and straight combed 

 hair, we directed our course to- 

 wards the Berg-strasse, in order 

 to regain it near the Meliboeus 

 mountain. Our walk lay through 

 scenery of the same description 

 as the day before ; along a rough, 

 irregular path, ascending and 

 descending ; winding through 

 woods of beech, or rich orchards; 

 and at the brow of a hill occasion- 

 ally agreeably surprised by a 

 picturesque village lying immedi- 

 ately beneath us. The village 

 stream, after being conducted 

 with much management through 

 artificial sluices and troughs far 

 above its bed, frequently turns a 

 gigantic, rude mill-wheel, of a 

 construction 



