MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



481 



littleness of mind which made the 

 good Boniface dignifiedly incom- 

 municative to all without badges 

 or titles ; and its contrast with the 

 promise of independence held out 

 by his broad rubicund face and 

 solid figure, gave it an air of the 

 ludicrous, which reminded of 

 Falstaff's solidity of person, 

 coupled with his milky heart. 



Baden presents in the season all 

 the usual resources of a German 

 watering-place ; a theatre, balls, 

 promenades, hazard, and rouge 

 et noir tables. Gaming, with the 

 exception, perhaps, of the great 

 capitals, appears exclusively con- 

 fined to the bathing places, where 

 it forms the pjjncipal resource of 

 all ranks ; and the sums lost in a 

 season by princes and other indi- 

 viduals would sound considerable 

 in countries where fortunes are 

 more colossal than in Germany. 

 With such distinguished patrons, 

 it is easy to conceive that the 

 government of Baden is more 

 ready to tax than to prohibit the 

 gaming establishments. They pay 

 a considerable duty for the benefit 

 of the poor, and almost as much 

 to the landlord of every bathing 

 house, where they set up their 

 bank ; in spite of which, three or 

 four banks find it a good trade, 

 and return every year. A dis- 

 tinguished Russian general whom 

 I knew at Carlsruhe, had been 

 stripped at the tables of Baden of 

 a small portion of the spoils which 

 his Cossacks had procured him 

 in the war. His propensity was 

 too inveterate to be cured by 

 experience. His debts had been 

 once paid, and his fortune aug- 

 mented by the Emperor of Aus- 

 tria, in reward for the dispatch 

 with which he had brought the 



Vol. LX. 



news of the birth of the young 

 Napoleon from Paris to Vienna 

 —a journey which the gallant 

 General performed on hoi-seback 

 in five days and nights. Sensible 

 persons complain loudly of the 

 efi'ects of these absorbing gaming- 

 tables on the society of Baden. 

 Ladies, as usual on the continent, 

 partake their enjoyments, to which 

 every other pursuit is sacrificed. 

 The agitation of the game coun- 

 teracts the benefit of the waters ; 

 and unfortunate players are often 

 obliged to shorten their stay, and 

 depart with their disorders un- 

 cured, and their bills unpaid. 



A principal table is in the old 

 Jesuit's Convent— «iow converted 

 into a Maison de Conversation — 

 the choir of the church unhal- 

 lowedly serving for a Salle ci 

 Manger. The" building stands 

 prettily on the edge of a sort of 

 cliff, planted with shrubs, up which 

 you ascend by some winding 

 rocky steps to the saloon. A cave 

 in the rocks below, which served 

 the Jesuit bons vivans for their 

 cellar now answers the same 

 purpose to the restaurateur of the 

 establishment. Here and at the 

 Promenade House the balls and 

 assemblies are held. Sunday is 

 the day when they are gayer and 

 more crowded than ordinary ; 

 and, of all others, the hours from 

 four to eight, immediately fol- 

 lowing dinner, are frequently se- 

 lected in the heat of summer for 

 the vigorous exertion of waltzing. 



The inhabitants of Baden are 

 principally Catholic; the Mar- 

 graviate of Baden-Baden, having 

 been a Catholic principality, now 

 devolved on the family ot Baden- 

 Durlach, who have long been 

 Protestants. 



2 1 The 



