136 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



Roman, style. Farther on may be seen, at about 

 the same distance on the same decHvity, a roughly 

 walled prominence on which an old lime tree has 

 grown, where, in a niche of this wall, a Holy 

 Virgin is placed after the old Catholic custom,' 

 and a resting-place offered, and the prospect of 

 the other world is allegorically represented by 

 one of the finest views on earth looking toward 

 the evanescent hills melting in pale blue distance. 



On the plateau behind these various town build- 

 ings and as though belonging to them, the race- 

 course is situated, to which I shall return later. 



This whole long chain of hills, as I have 

 already said, presents analogous conditions and 

 constitutes the only view toward the west from 

 the old as well as the new and now inhabited 

 castle. 



After the little town had been built on the 

 river, under the protection of the feudal owners, 

 the times, as they became more peaceable and 

 easy, permitted the stern lords on the heights to 

 leave the comfortless castle and settle in more 

 companionable surroundings ; at least, the so- 

 called old castle was as a fact built in the fourteenth 

 century in the valley, and now serves as a court- 

 house for the magistrates. Its characteristics have 

 been carefully preserved, only its gables and old 

 armor have been restored and the statue of the 

 ancestor of our family, famous in the "Nibel- 



' This figure of the Virgin is a very remarkable statue, found not 

 long ago, carved in petrified wood. It is attributed to the thirteenth or 

 fourteenth century. 



