CH. in " HEIDELBERG DU FEINE " 45 



usually serious duel, that it occurs to them that there 

 exists in the town a curious kind of institution called a 

 German university. 



Several friends joined us for the tour up the Rhine. 

 We left by the " Baron Osy " one Sunday in August 

 1853, and on the following morning arrived at Antwerp, 

 a city which from its picturesqueness and individuality 

 was then one of the best that could be chosen for the 

 first visit of an Englishman to the Continent. 



We journeyed by boat slowly up the Rhine, stopping 

 at the places which were still old-fashioned, our only 

 alternative to the steamer being the lumbering diligence. 



Arrived at Heidelberg and having presented our 

 letters of introduction to Professor von Mohl and 

 others, our first object was to secure a domicile. This 

 we obtained in the house of a typical old South- 

 German woman, Frau Frisch, near the Karlsthor, and 

 here we established ourselves, my mother, my sister, 

 myself, and my cousin Enfield Dowson, a boy of about 

 sixteen, who had come with us to go to school in 

 Heidelberg and learn German. Everything was new 

 to us, and we all entered into the spirit of the thing. 



I had time to get up my German before the lectures 

 began, and with the help of an old pedagogue and that 

 of our maid Gretchen, and by attending service in the 

 German church on Sundays (a practice which I did 

 not continue long), I got my ear pretty well accus- 

 tomed to the language and was able to make myself 

 understood. 



The Mohls were a charming family, and the pro- 

 fessor a polished man of the world, totally unlike the 

 usual English idea of a German professor. His family 

 consisted of his wife, two daughters, and two sons, 

 with all of whom we became intimate. He had three 

 brothers Hugo von Mohl, the celebrated professor 



