MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



487 



bold language on the subject of 

 the restoration of the States ; but 

 the students demanded their 

 liberation so vehemently, that the 

 Grand Duke, who is a weak man, 

 did not long detain them. 



No place can be more delight- 

 fully situated as a retreat of study 

 and science than Heidelberg, 

 enclosed as it is between pictur- 

 esque ranges of mountains ; the 

 majestic and placid Neckarin the 

 valley ; the castle ruins on the 

 declivities above the town which 

 are covered with the luxuriant 

 hanging gardens of the castle, 

 whose terraces, thickets, and 

 umbrageous walks afford solemn 

 and silent retreats for study, and 

 prospects over the Rhine and the 

 Neckar valley of the most ravish- 

 ing and varied beauty. The castle 

 is an immense mass of rambling 

 ruins, of architecture of different 

 centuries and descriptions, whose 

 mouldering remains rear their 

 ragged masses with a most striking 

 effect, overhanging the Neckar, 

 and embosomed in the wild shrub- 

 beries and woods which cover the 

 slope of the mountain. The town 

 is old, dark, and irregular, and 

 presents few traces of the conse- 

 quence it enjoyed till the early 

 part of the last century as the 

 residence of the splendid court 

 of the electors Palatine. A few 

 families of more consequence than 

 wealth still reside here, some of 

 whom we had the pleasure of 

 meeting at the house of the hos- 

 pitable Count . 



Manheim, the ci-devant capital 

 of the Electors Palatine, those 

 showy pillars in the old political 

 fabric of Germany, is now a 

 provincial town in the modem 

 Grand Duchy of Baden— like 



Mayence, Worms, and other 

 places in the neighbourhood, a 

 striking remnant of ancient splen- 

 dour humbled beneath a little 

 mihtary sovereign of yesterday. 

 Mayence and Worms are, how- 

 ever, filled with Catholic dirt and 

 decay — one has little regret at 

 their desertion — but Manheim is 

 still a modern elegant little city, 

 bespeaking, in its regular streets 

 and squares, its palace, walks, 

 and gardens, the taste and dignity 

 of its former princes. It does not, 

 however, possess any monuments 

 of architecture that stand out 

 very strikingly from the rest. 

 The Jesuits church, with its 

 slated dome and belfries, and its 

 rich fresco paintings in the inte-; 

 rior, is handsome and tasteful. — 

 The Kaufhaus, or building ef 

 commerce, in the central square, 

 with colonades filled with shops, 

 rears its tall quaint steeple above 

 the other buildings ; but its uni- 

 form respectability and neatness, 

 unmixed with meanness or decay, 

 gives to the town that air of 

 compact genteel superiority which 

 has acquired for it the name of 

 Berlin in miniature. A handsome 

 wide public walk, through double 

 avenues of acacias, called the 

 Plankcn, runs across the town, 

 forming a gay promenade chained 

 in from the carriage way on each 

 side. Baden officers, in blue uni- 

 forms and stuffed out breasts, a la 

 Prussieniic, and the young belles 

 of the town with their plaited 

 hair without bonnets (a common 

 coeffure, even in cold weather) 

 were parading under the trees. 

 A police, renowned for activity, 

 strictly keep out of sight all nui- 

 sances that might sully the de- 

 corous gentility of the town. 



The 



