A Week at a German Castle. 95 



berg. If you went up the hill at the back of 

 the castle, your eye ranged over an undulating 

 country of hedgeless fields of grass and corn, 

 much intermixed with clumps of dark fir-trees, 

 and sprinkled with solid - looking dwellings, 

 half farmhouses and half cottages, with cheer- 

 ful red roofs and white walls, and a square 

 bit of garden bright in September days with 

 phloxes and dahlias, among which rises a tall 

 pole surmounted by what seems to be a doll's 

 house. This is where the starling lives in 

 spring, ready to devour the insect known here- 

 abouts as the May-bug. These are the dwell- 

 ings of the freeholding farmers of Bavaria and 

 Wlirtemberg, who own nearly all the land, 

 and cultivate from twenty to sixty acres apiece. 

 The agricultural labourer, who exists only by 

 selling his labour, is unknown, for the larger 

 farmers employ their smaller brethren, and the 

 whole of the farmer's family toil in the fields. 

 You see a woman reaping whilst the husband 

 and children are making hay in the next field, 

 or a husband and wife managing an ill-matched 

 team in the shape of a leggy horse and a 

 small cow. When a farmer dies, his posses- 

 sions are equally divided ; but in practice, one 



