OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 467 



The * balde ruhest duauch ' had but a sentimental vsilue 

 for me at the time.' The field of hope and action, which 

 in all likelihood lay between me and it, deprived the 

 idea of the definition which it sometimes possesses now. 



From Nassau, I passed through Ems to Niederlahn- 

 stein, where the little Lahn which trickles from the 

 earth in the neighbourhood of Siegen (visited in 1850 

 by Hirst and myself) falls into the broader Rhine. 

 Thence along the river, and between the rocks of the 

 Lurlei, to Mayence ; afterwards to Frankfort and Heidel- 

 berg. I reached my proposed terminus on the night of 

 the 22nd, and early next morning was among the castle 

 ruins. The azure overhead was perfect, and among the 

 twinkling shadows of the surrounding woods, the thought 

 of Switzerland revived. ' How must the mountains 

 appear under such a sky ?' That night I slept at Basel. 

 In those days it was a pleasure to me to saunter along 

 the roads, enjoying such snatches of scenery as were 

 thus attainable. I knew not then the distant mountains; 

 the attraction which they afterwards exercised upon me 

 had not yet begun to act. I moreover did not like the 

 diligence, and therefore walked all the way from Basel 

 to Zurich. I passed along the lake to Horgen, thence 

 over the hills to Zug, and afterwards along the beautiful 

 fringe of the Zugersee to Arth. Here, on September 

 26, I bought my first alpenstock, and faced with it the 

 renowned Rigi. The sunset on the summit was fine, 

 but I retain no particular impression of the Rigi'a 

 grandeur ; and now, rightly or wrongly, I think of it as 

 a cloudy eminence, famous principally for its guzzling 

 and its noise. 



I descended the mountain through a dreamy opal- 

 escent atmosphere, but the dreaminess vanished at 

 Weggi's as soon as the steamer from Lucerne arrived. 

 I took the boat to Fltiellen. My journal expresses 



