COOPER IN GERMANY 



75 



a few stations bi\yond Aacbeii, lie is visited by Ibc post innslci- and 

 bis clerk, the latter asking bini il* be were tbe iiifiii w bo \\ rote 

 books! He is impressed with the lioniage Germans |)ay men ol" 

 letters, and in this connection relates an interesting incident con- 

 cerning the poet Tieck, which came to his notice while in Dresden.'' 

 The party advances to the borders of the Rbine and finally 

 enters Cologne. After the fashion of a modern tourist, Coopei* 

 visits the cathedral, the house in which Rubens was born, and the 

 relics of the eleven thousand virgins. Also he buys some Cologne 

 water. The city itself he finds "the dirtiest and most offensive we 

 have yet seen, or rather smelled in Europe. " The novelist continues 

 up the Rhine, speaks of the Drachenfels, relates the legend of 

 Nonnenwerth, and lodged for the night in the former convent 

 which had been converted into an inn. Here he experienced the 

 unique feeling of being called ' ' Herr Graf ! ' ' The party loitered 

 much on the w^ay to examine the ruined castles. A minute de- 

 scription of the Rheinstein, called the Ritterstein by Cooper, is 

 given. Also he gives an account of the halt at Riidesheim, wher.' 

 he tried a bottle of " Hinterhausen " to his dinner and imme- 

 diately became a convert to it. But he remarks, "one cannot 

 drink a gallon of it with impunity." He discourses at length 

 upon the qualities of the wines of this celebrated region. He 

 regrets not to find any traces of the ruins of Charlemagne's cas- 

 tle at Ingelheim and exclaims : ' ' Such is the difference between 

 the false and the true Roman ! ' ' From Biberich the journey con- 

 tinued to Wiesbaden, and thence to Frankfort on the Main. 

 Much of this ground Cooper seems to have covered the year 

 before when he sojourned for a longer time in Dresden, and his 

 accounts are therefore frequently somewhat brief. In Heidel- 

 berg the novelist revisits the castle, but has grown more critical, 



^' Cooper's sketches being- difficult of access, it may be permitted to quote tliis 

 incident at length : 'We had lodgings in a house directly opposite the one inhabited 

 by Tieck, the celebrated novelist and dram^atist. Ha^ang no proper means of intro- 

 duction to tliis gentleman, and unwilling to obtrude myself anywhere. I never muCc 

 his acquaintance, but it was Impossible not to know, in so small a town, where so 

 great a celebrity lived. Next door to us was a Swiss confectioner, with whom 1 

 occasionally took an ice. One day a young man entered for a similar purpose, and 

 left the room with myself. At the door he inquired if I could tell him in which of 

 the neignboring hotels M. Tieck resided. I showed him the house and paused a 

 mom'ent to watch his manner, which was entirely free from pretension, but which 

 preserved an indescribable expression of reverence. 'Was it possible to get a glim-pse 

 of the person of M. Tieck?' T feared not; some one had told me that he was going 

 to a watering-place.' "Could r tell him which was the window of his room?" This 

 I was able to do. as he had been pointed out to m'e at it a few days before. I "left 

 him gazing at the window, and it was near an hour before this quiet exhibition of 

 heartfelt homage ceased by the departure of the young man." (Vol. 2 of Part 

 Second, p. 199 f.) 



