Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/268

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NOTES AND QUERIES. pa s. i. APRIL i, me.

Company's Dock and magnificent ware- houses aroused the travellers' keenest in- terest, and after four days spent in exploring the city they resumed their journey by boat to Utrecht, which at that time was noted chiefly for its supply of nonconformist ministers to England. Nimuegen was reached by post-wagon on March 29, and lodgings were procured at the Red Lion; and on March 31 the travellers arrived at Cologne. Here "at y e very gates " the authorities were so uncivil as to search the travellers' portmantles,

" notwithstanding the pass under King W ms owne hand, w h both here and at all other Places of Note afforementioned was immediately demanded, and was no small occasion of y e Civill Treatment we mett with thro' all Germany except this place,"

the people constantly speaking of his Majesty as " Father of their Country and Preserver of y e Empire." Cologne itself, with its mean houses and narrow streets, did not greatly attract the travellers. Chiswell mentions the Dom and the Jesuits' College, and was much interested in certain " Mills* artificially framed of wood and moored in y e middle of the River," which were worked by the current.

At Cologne the travellers hired a boat somewhat bigger than the barges plying between London and Gravesend, and were drawn up the stream, at times by men, at other times by horses, and the same evening they reached Bonn. Here they were miser- ably lodged, having only two small and very mean beds for five people. They could get no flesh, and the fish was so miserably dressed " with stinking Oyle " that the company preferred to sup on hard-boiled eggs and salad. Chiswell sustained himself with bread and wine, the former made into cakes and very white, the latter somewhat " small and eager " ; and the next day they continued their journey in the direction of Mainz, the stages being Coblenz, Caub, and a small village where " our bed was straw." At Mainz for some reason they were not allowed to enter the town, and after noticing

noted similar mills between Mainz and Oppen- heim : "we sawe uppon this ryyer .... certen gryste mylles to the number of ii which were buylded in a grete boote which went from place to place to grynde come, which went by the runynge of the ryver. Of these mylls ther ar dyvers uppon this ryver, they have uppon the oute sydes of the botes certen water whelles which are dryven by the course of the ryver, they lye at anker always when they grynde." Unton's at Borne,' vii. (1914), 102.
 * An earlier traveller, Sir Richard Unton(1563),
 * Diary,' printed in ' Papers of the British School

the bridge of boats across the river, they

took boat again up the Main to Frankfort.

Here

" in y e same Inn w th Our Selves Lodged y e Prince

of Dusseldorp &c. tiss called y 6 Rood House, and

for largeness, good order and handsome enter- -

tainment Europe does not afford its fellow."

While at Frankfort the travellers paid their respects to Mr. Stepney, the King of England's Envoy to the Elector of Saxony,, and visited Mr. Whitcomb, Mr. Sherrard, and Mr. Jollife, " our countrymen." A day was spent in sightseeing, but the houses are described as meanly built and ancient, and the public buildings are dismissed with the remark that they are not worth a " par- ticular description."

On April 8 coaches were hired for Venice at a cost of 81. per man, to include all expenses for provision and lodging by the way, and the same day they commenced their journey in the direction of Augsburg., The country did not make for good travelling, but it seems to have been slowly recovering from the effects of the Thirty Years' War.. Sir John Reresby, passing that way in 1667, found desolation and ruin everywhere. Whole districts had been converted into deserts, villages and towns were uninhabited, , and a kind of hopeless depression had settled upon everything. Chiswell found the country to some extent under cultivation,, but the roads very dirty and stiff ; so that in the neighbourhood of Miltenburg Mr. Mandrell and Mr. Hill were overturned in a deep slough, " but not being hurt afforded great diversion. ' ' The peasants were settling down once more in the villages, and at this time were busy with their Easter festivities.. The travellers were advised not to travel on Easter Day, as the Lutherans were strict observers of that festival, but in due course they continued their journey, and the next day arrived at Dinkelsbiihl. They lodged that night at "another town" where the holiday season enabled them to see the " German Commonalty's way of Dancing, w h is so rude, noisy and w tb out Order y* we were quickly tyred and wished Our selves farther of."" The journey was continued without delay, , by bad roads, through cornfields and woods, , to Donauworth, and on April 14 the travellers reached Augsburg.

Here good entertainment was found at the Bunch of Grapes. The magnificent houses and clean large streets gave the travellers considerable pleasure :

" I should prefer this city [writes Chiswell]; for my residence before all others abroad. It* gives place to no Citty in Germany nor possibly in Europe for its bigness,"