224 GEEMANY. 



house of Waiblingen or Hohenstaufen. Gmiind (12,838 inhabitants), the chief 

 town of the valley, engages in the manufacture of jewellery. A railway runs up 

 the valley as far as Aalen (5,928 inhabitants), a town of iron works. 



The Neckar, below its junction with the Rems, flows past Marhach (2,241 

 inhabitants), the birthplace of Schiller, whose house has been converted into a 

 Schiller Museum. Near it the Murr joins the Neckar on the right, the principal 

 town on it being Backnang (4,923 inhabitants). Besigheim (2,441 inhabitants), 

 believed to be of Roman origin, is situate at the mouth of the Enz, which rises in 

 the Black Forest. The hot springs of JFildbad (2,700 inhabitants) rise in the 

 main valley of the Enz, whilst Leonherg (2,231 inhabitants), the native town of 

 Schelling, and Weil der Stadt (1,765 inhabitants), that of Kepler, occupy side 

 valleys. Freudenstadt (5,237 inhabitants), farther to the south, is the only town 

 of Wiirttemberg which lies beyond the watershed separating the basin of the 

 Neckar from that of the Rhine. It was founded in the sixteenth century by 

 Austrian and Moravian refugees. Maulbronn, with its famous abbey, lies on the 

 hills between the Neckar and the Rhine. Near it are several colonies of French 

 refugees, who settled in the country in 1698 and 1699. 



At Lanffen (3,418 inhabitants), thus named after the rapids formed by the 

 Neckar, that river emerges upon the plain in which rise the houses and factories 

 of Heilhronn (21,208 inhabitants), the largest town of Northern Wiirttemberg. 

 The ancient city owes its name of " Healing Burn " to a spring over which a 

 church has been built. It is a busy manufacturing centre, with sugar-mills, 

 paper-mills, iron works, and jewellers' shops. Much of the wine produced in the 

 vicinity is converted into "champagne." Weinshcrg (2,186 inhabitants) is near 

 it. Heilbronn is famous for its fine trees and flowers, and much of the produce 

 of its market gardens is exported. Quarries and salt works are near it, but the 

 most productive brine springs of Wurttemberg are those of Hall (8,430 inhabit- 

 ants), in the valley of the Kocher. 



Mergentheim (4,021 inhabitants), in the valley of the Tauber, which is tributary 

 to the Neckar, recalls the glories of the Teutonic knights, whose property 

 Napoleon confiscated in 1809. 



