Read Ebook: Journal of a Tour in the Years 1828-1829 through Styria Carniola and Italy whilst Accompanying the Late Sir Humphry Davy by Tobin J J

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e distant Vogesian mountains, bounds the view in the west.

Heidelberg contains about 12,000 inhabitants, and has of late years become a favourite resort of strangers. The university library is considered to be one of the richest in Europe in ancient manuscripts, and were the sovereign of the state a more liberal patron than he is of learning and science, doubtless the museums and public institutions would be more liberally endowed than they are; there is, however, an excellent anatomical museum in the school for medicine, and so long as such names as those of Thibaut, Tiedemann, Gmelin, Schlosser, and various others whose works evince their talent, shall be found amongst the list of its professors, so long must Heidelberg hold a deservedly high rank in the learned and scientific world, and open a wide field of advantage and instruction to all young men anxious to avail themselves of such opportunities; nor will any impartial judge deny, that amongst its students many highly honourable examples of talent and application are found.

"Wer sagt mir an wo Weinsberg liegt Soll seyn ein wack'res St?dtchen," &c. &c.

the story of which is founded on the following fact:--During the time of the deadly feuds between the houses of Hohenstaufen and Guelph, about the year 1140, Weinsberg was besieged and taken by the Emperor Conrad. The town and castle had excited his high displeasure for having afforded an asylum to his enemy Guelph, and he determined to destroy them with fire and sword, and said he would only allow the women to depart, and take any treasure with them.

We did not reach Oehringen till eight o'clock; and then found the only decent inn in the town in great confusion, owing to the exhibition of a cabinet of wax-work, which had attracted all the waiters and chambermaids, so that it was with great difficulty I could obtain even hot water to make our tea.

The whole country through which we have passed appears very populous, but the peasantry look wretchedly squalid and poor, and an English eye is much struck by seeing the women constantly at hard work in the fields, and apparently performing a much greater share of the laborious part of their employment than the men.

When all was put to rights we set off for Landshuth, and soon caught a transient glimpse of the snowy Alps, rising out of the distant horizon like clouds into the clouds. The Isar, on which Landshuth is situated, exceeds even the Danube in rapidity, and well may Campbell call it

"Isar rolling rapidly."

We had hardly entered the inn when we were visited by a heavy thunderstorm, accompanied by tremendous hail.

On leaving Landshuth we ascended a very long and steep hill, and on arriving at the top we saw the Austrian Alps, at a distance of seventy or eighty miles, bounding the whole horizon with a line of shining white, and here and there broken by a dark shade of grey; whilst some single perfectly white and shining peaks shone high above the floating clouds, whose white colour appeared tarnished when compared with that of the eternal snow. We drove the greater part of the day through pine forests, up hill and down hill; now perfectly losing sight of the Alps, then again from the summit of the next hill catching sight of them, apparently not more than ten miles off, so distinctly could we trace the vallies between the different mountains. We stopped to dine at the post-house at Neumarkt, a small village, where I could get nothing but a pigeon dressed in garlic, and some sausage. Leaving this village, we descended from the mountains, amid which we had been travelling, into the plain which separates them from the Alps, and found ourselves, as it were, in front of this colossal chain, now brightly illuminated by the glowing sun. Towards evening I had hoped to have seen the rosy tinge upon the Alps, caused by the reflection of the sunbeams upon the snow of the summits, but I was disappointed, for they faded away into the grey clouds of evening as we drove up a very steep but short hill into Neu-?tting, a neat little town, in the streets of which we saw many pretty women and girls knitting before their doors; on the whole, the people are much handsomer here than in the country we have hitherto passed through. About two miles further on we reached Alt-?tting, where we were very well lodged at the post-house. Our hostess, a young lass of only seventeen or eighteen, spoke very good French, and seemed intelligent and active in the direction of her household.

In the evening Sir Humphry determined not to remain at the baths of Ischl, about twenty miles distant, as he had intended doing, but to proceed to Laybach, three hundred miles off, as he thought the snipe-shooting, which he much wished to enjoy, would not yet be over there.

Between Rothenmann and Gaishorn, at which latter village we passed the night, we saw a peat moor, a very rare thing in this country. I think I shall never forget the evening we spent here, in one of the most miserable dirty little village inns in Europe. When we drove up to the door we heard within the sound of loud and merry music, and the noise of a number of people dancing and clapping their hands; this all of a sudden ceased, and out rushed a whole troop of peasants of both sexes to see the strangers. The master of the inn, a young man, led us up a tumble-down staircase to the first and only story, where we found three rooms in no very inviting state: the walls were dirty, bare, and ragged; the beds almost as bad; the furniture looked as if it had been standing there for a hundred years, and every thing smelt of tobacco-smoke. Sir Humphry could scarcely make up his mind to remain in such a place, yet it was too late to attempt to proceed, as he did not like to travel after dark; so I was obliged to do my best, and arrange our accommodation for the night, I being the only one who could make myself understood, and this with no small difficulty, the people here speaking the most wretched Austrian dialect. When I had at last got dinner served, or rather supper, which we had luckily brought with us, and had ordered chickens to be killed to take with us to-morrow, got out sheets to be aired, &c. &c., none of which orders I could get attended to with any regularity, as every body was running off to the dance, which in the meanwhile had recommenced with as much noise as before, I attempted to read the "Arabian Nights" to Sir Humphry, but he found it impossible to hear, and was obliged soon to retire to his bed. Before I followed his example I went to take a peep at the dance, and asked the host what all this rout was about? He told me it was the conclusion of a wedding f?te which had been celebrated the day before, and his house having been engaged for the purpose, he could not put an end to their merriment. The dance which these peasants were enjoying, the national dance of Styria, was a slow waltz, not devoid of grace, with various tours performed by four couple, and which were always preceded by a loud clapping of hands and stamping with the feet. Had we arrived yesterday we should have seen the f?te in its glory, and all the guests in their gay and motley apparel, which would have been an entertaining sight, but the bride and bridegroom not being present this day, their friends were footing it merrily in their every-day dress. Having partaken of some of the remains of the wedding cakes, I retired to bed, but not to sleep, the party continuing their revels and noise till a very late hour.

Upon these Alps the varied progress of vegetation is distinctly marked; first appears the beech now just burst into leaf, reaching to a height of about 4000 feet; then follow the dark pine and fir, whose sombre tints contrast finely with the beautiful green of the lower woods; and again above these the lowly heath appears, bordering upon bare and rugged rocks, or upon fields of eternal snow.

On the road we met with very little snow, and this only near the summit of the pass; on arriving here our three extra horses were taken off, and locking both the hinder wheels, we began the descent; this is much steeper than the ascent from the other side, and from the top one sees terrace lying below terrace, till they reach the valley. We arrived safely at the bottom, having, however, with some difficulty avoided running over a drunken man, who was lying fast asleep in the middle of the road. We then drove on through the valley, always down hill, to Neumarkt, in Carniola, into which province we had entered on the summit of the L?bel; it is a small bourg, beautifully situated in a dell, and completely surrounded by mountains; it is the first station after leaving Kirschentheur, and we reached it at about two o'clock, so that we had occupied seven hours in the passage of the L?bel. After dining here we went on to Krainfurth, a pretty town, and of considerable size, on the river Save or Sau. The evening being fine, Sir Humphry went out to fish, but caught nothing.

The town of Laybach, though of a considerable size, and with a population of about 15,000 inhabitants, offers nothing interesting. It is divided into two parts by the river Laybach, a slow and usually turbid stream of no great breadth. Four or five wooden bridges unite the two parts of the town; they are broad and appear like the continuation of the streets, being shut in on both sides by rows of shops, so that the passenger is not aware that he is crossing the river. The streets are generally narrow and dark, and of the churches, which are numerous, the episcopal church is the first. On a hill above the town are the remains of the ancient citadel, now only used as a prison. The view from hence is fine and extensive, overlooking a vast plain, bounded on one side by the lofty chain of the Carinthian Alps, and on the other by lesser mountains, covered with one continuous and immense wood, the ancient Hyrcinian forest, which stretches on almost to the frontiers of Turkey; nearer to the town are a great number of marshes, the theatre of Sir Humphry's daily sport. The garrison is considerable, and both the officers and soldiers are fine men, and look very well in their white and light blue uniforms.

Wurzen is a wretched little village, a collection of a few dozen of wooden huts, situated about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, at the foot of a pass which leads from Carniola into Carinthia, similar to that of the L?bel, but by no means so elevated. The post-house is tolerable, and the view from the windows magnificent, so much so, that Sir Humphry requested me to take a sketch of it for Lady Davy. The master of this inn is so remarkably civil that Sir Humphry has determined to stay for a day or two, and to make an excursion to the source of the Isonzo, which we are told is about twenty miles from Wurzen. In the afternoon Sir Humphry went out to fish, and I to examine the source of the Wurzen-Save, which rises about two miles above the village, and is of a character very different from the Savitza, or source of the Wochain-Save. The river here flows from a large pond, which appears perfectly insulated, lying in the midst of fields, at the end of a dry water-channel coming from one of the lateral vallies. The water in the pond is exceedingly clear, and at the bottom towards the centre, one discovers a number of very large holes, through which the water rises mixed with a great quantity of air, producing a constant ebullition on the surface of the middle of the pond, the water of which is perfectly cold. After leaving the pond, the Wurzen-Save winds through the valley as a beautiful clear mountain stream, passing by Kronau, Assling, and Radmansdorf, where it receives the Wochain-Save, flowing from the lake of Wochain. These united branches are then called the Save, and the river flows on through the valley of the same name to Krainburg; it afterwards passes near Laybach, where it receives the river of that name with many other smaller streams, and rolls on, already a considerable river, through Carniola, passes by Agram, traverses Croatia, and then forms the boundary between Austria and Turkey till it reaches Belgrade, where it mixes its mighty and rapid waters, swollen to a great size by a hundred tributary streams, with those of the Danube, and rolls with it into the Black Sea.

Sir Humphry was sadly disappointed and very angry with the postmaster, who had assured us at Wurzen that he was well acquainted with the source. We had however enjoyed some very fine wild scenery, and had seen many beautiful small cascades leaping from the mountains. On our road we passed a knoll of ground where the grass grew more luxuriantly than any where else, and we learnt that this spot had been the grave of some hundred Austrians, who had bravely defended a small fort which stood here, against the French; of the whole garrison three or four only escaped the slaughter. At that time the French had possession of the whole surrounding country, and had thrice sent to the Austrians a flag of truce, assuring them that resistance was vain. The inhabitants of Raibl still speak with horror of this action, in which the Austrians fought with desperate enthusiasm, led on by their commander, Major Hermann, who, it is said, wished for death, and if so he could scarcely have found a more wildly romantic spot in which to have parted with life.

On our return we made a slight detour to see the Raibl-See, a small, wild and highly romantic lake, from out of which flows the Raibl-bach, the stream which runs through the valley of Raibl. Sir Humphry began to fish in the lake whilst I attempted to sketch, but the clouds of evening, which had already begun to overspread the summits of the Alps, gathered so fast around us, as soon to compel us to return to our inn at Raibl.

Another of our trips was to the Lower Oden-See, about four miles on the other side of Aussee. This is a small lake, very different in character from the Gr?ndtl-See and T?plitz-See: the shores, though not exactly flat, are formed of slightly varied hills covered with wood. Sir Humphry had excellent sport, and caught a great many small trout in the little stream which flows from this lake.

In the morning he begged me to order horses to leave Ischl, but consented to my looking at some of the lodgings before we set off. I found one which, from its convenience and pleasant situation, I thought would suit him, and on his going with me to see it he was so pleased with it, that he relinquished his intention of leaving Ischl, and took it for a week, and we entered into it the same afternoon, causing a great bustle to its inmates, who were not accustomed to prepare so quickly for their lodgers. It is a very good large house, standing quite alone on the top of a grassy mound, with a large garden in front and fields behind, at a short distance from the baths, and within a few steps of the little town. The only persons who inhabit it are the owner, an elderly man, formerly bailiff of the district, with his housekeeper and a servant, so that Sir Humphry is certain of enjoying the quiet and tranquillity which are so necessary to him.

Looking back we saw down into many a dark valley, out of which rose numberless snow peaks, and high above the rest the majestic Schneeberg, with its eternal glaciers, and at a yet greater distance the still more lofty peaks of the Salzburg chain; but the reflection of the sun from the vast and glaring fields of snow was so strong that the eye could scarcely bear to look at them, and turned with delight to the green woods and lakes below. Having spent an hour in the pure air of these upper regions, we began to descend by a very different road to the one we had chosen in ascending, which, though better and not so rocky, was in many parts so steep, that we were in continual danger of pitching forwards, and were therefore obliged to seat ourselves each upon a stout branch of a fir-tree, and thus ride down. Having traversed two snow fields, we came to some as yet uninhabited huts, about half-way down the mountain, from whence a good sheep path conducted us into a valley. Here we got some milk in one of the dairy huts, and then made the best of our way towards Ischl, as a thunderstorm, which we had for some time seen approaching, was now fast gathering round us, and the peasants advised us to hasten as quickly as possible, but long before we could reach home it burst over us with tremendous violence. The rain came down in such torrents, that in five minutes the road was more than ankle deep in water, but it soon changed into hail, like a shower of nuts, accompanied by the loudest thunder and most vivid lightning. Thus, soaked but much refreshed, we reached Ischl about eight o'clock in the evening.

Esp?rance d'un meilleur sort Toujours renaissante et trahie, Voila l'histoire de ma vie; Il n'est rien de vrai que la mort!

Est elle donc vraie cette mort tant souhait?e? N'est ce pas na?tre ? une plus mauvaise vie? Ne dirais tu pas dans l'?ternit?, La mort que j'ai desir? m'a trahie?--

Whilst waiting for the fisherman, I asked the Commissary if I could not see the salt works; he said certainly, and that he should be happy to show them to me, and I accordingly accompanied him thither, and found them to be on a very large scale. There are several evaporating pans, much larger than the one at Ischl, and immense reservoirs for the salt water are kept constantly by three pipes, through which it is conducted from Hallstadt, more than twenty-seven miles distant. These pipes, the master of the works told me, are always running, and should any accident happen to either of them, it can be easily repaired, in spite of the great distance they traverse, there being, at very short intervals, places where the pipes may be uncovered and examined. From the reservoirs the water is conducted into the pans, and the salt produced by the evaporation is taken out twice every day, and put into large conical baskets to drain, after which it is pressed into conical six-sided forms, of various sizes, from twenty to a hundred pounds each. These pyramids are then placed, some thousands at a time, in the baking rooms, where they are exposed to a very high temperature, which renders them quite firm and hard, after which they are carried into the store-houses, from whence the salt is sent to all parts of Austria. The quantity produced in this part of the country, in these salt-works, in those of Ischl, Aussee, Hallstadt, &c., must be immense, for I understand that from the warehouses of Ebensee alone, upwards of 25,000 tons of salt are sent annually across the lake of the Traun.

Upon the arrival of the fisherman we found the case to be as the Commissary had supposed, and the man pleaded in his defence that it was allowed to take away both rod and fish from any one so offending. The Commissary, however, told him he ought to have warned Sir Humphry of this. The poor man said he had done so, but they would not understand him, and in spite of his defence, the Commissary compelled him to deliver up the rod and basket, with which I returned to Ischl.

Having wandered through these gloomy abodes of silence and night for some time, we ascended the stairs, the ladies resumed their seats in the barrows, and the procession returned as it had entered. To save my head from additional thumps to the many it had received on entering, I took the place of one of the pushers, and after a merry drive of about twenty minutes we again saw daylight, like a distant star, increasing in size till we reached the entrance of the mine. We here unspectred ourselves, and returned home in our usual terrestrial appearance, and a merry party we were.

In the afternoon I read to him "Salmonia," in which he immediately began to make corrections and additions in preparation for a second edition.

"Conditur hic Philippus Theophrastus insignis medicinae doctor, qui dira illa vulnera, lepram, podagram, hydropsin, aliaque insanabilia corporis contagia mirifica arte sustulit, ac bona sua in pauperes distribuenda collocandaque honoravit.

On my return I passed by the house in which he died, and on the outside of it there is still a painting of him, and a nearly obliterated inscription. From hence I went to the church of St. Peter, in the old town, to see the tomb of Haydn; but unfortunately found the church closed, and could not see the monument.

The cathedral church of St. Rupert is a fine building in the Italian style of architecture. It is built partly of free-stone and partly of marble. The streets of Salzburg, with the exception of the chief street, are narrow and generally ill paved, but the houses are clean and neat, and of a great height. The palace of the former archbishop is a spacious and magnificent building, and before it is a beautiful fountain. Besides its public buildings, Salzburg has many large and elegant private houses.

On my return to the inn I found Sir Humphry already there, and that he had dined; and he asked me to accompany him to Aigen, a beautiful villa, about two miles from Salzburg, the seat of Prince Schwarzenberg. From the gardens of this villa the view of Salzburg and the whole chain of Alps is most magnificent, but we could not enjoy it completely, as the summits of the mountains were mostly veiled in cloud, thus mingling as it were with the heavens, and only here and there a dark brown peak was seen piercing through the white shroud, which every now and then passed over it like the foaming wave over a rock, leaving it for some moments invisible. We strolled for some time through the gardens, Sir Humphry on his pony, and then returned to the city.

At this spot the rocks form a wide and massive arch, on which the tall pines and other trees stand firmly rooted. Beneath this arch, rude blocks are tumbled one upon another in wild confusion, through which the water of the upper fall forces its way to the lower one. Above the arch which nature has thus formed, a slight wooden bridge is built, so that two openings are thus formed, the one above the other, through which the water is seen descending in a broad sheet of foam. Standing at the foot of this cascade, it is first seen gushing forth from the rock amongst the trees immediately above the wooden bridge; between this and the natural arch it again appears, and is for the third time seen below the arch, closing the opening between it and the rocks beneath like a white curtain. The rainbow was seen beautifully shadowing the spray wafted from the fall, which was itself in a dark recess of the mountain, and the sun tipped the tops of the surrounding trees with a brilliant light, whilst now and then a single ray shot through the leaves and fell upon the white fall. It was a scene before which a painter might have sat for hours.

We afterwards went upon the bridge, from whence we had a view of the whole fall, looking down into the basin which receives it. A little footpath leads from the bridge to the spot where the water issues as clear as crystal from the rock, in the same manner as that of the Savitza in Wochain. After taking one or two rapid sketches, I returned with my little guide to Golling, which Sir Humphry soon after left for Werfen, and we turned into the mountains, passing through a magnificent defile where the Salza is quite hemmed in by rocks, through which this foaming river forces its way with irresistible violence.

The Salza in its whole course is a muddy river, which considerably detracts from the beauty of the scene. Towards evening we arrived at Werfen, a small insignificant town with an ancient fort on the hill above it, and passed the night at a tolerable inn.

At nine o'clock we left Werfen, and crossing the Salza drove on through some very pretty villages to Itan, a little hamlet, where we had to wait a considerable time for horses, the Archduke John having passed through but a few hours before, on his road from the baths of Gastein to Gr?tz. From Itan we proceeded to Radstadt, and from thence along our former road to Unter-Tauern.

On arriving at Auf-dem-Tauern, the little village near the summit of the pass, we found the fields and the greater part of the surrounding Alps, which when we passed the first time were hidden as far as the eye could reach in snow, now richly clad with fine grass and alpine flowers. The road descending to Tweng is formed of white primary marble, mixed with mica-schist. At Tweng we struck into a cross road to Tamsweg, a large village lying in a fine broad valley, in the middle of which runs a branch of the Murr, which we have followed from the very peak of the Tauern. The inn here was very bad. In the evening I went to the village doctor for some medicine for Sir Humphry, who told me that this valley was one of the highest in Austria, the village itself lying three thousand and twenty-two Paris feet above the level of the sea, and that the pass of the Tauern was rather more than two thousand feet higher.

The year was either never mentioned, or has been rubbed out.

After the whirl of my brain had passed away, I found, with the exception of some light bruises, that I had not injured myself, as the rocks were very smooth and round. Having reascended, we left the cave, and I sat for a long time in the fresh air as I felt very sick. The guide and the boy had been exceedingly terrified, and still looked as pale as I think I must have done myself; nor shall I soon forget the shriek they uttered when they saw me falling. After a draught of water that was very refreshing, though from a dirty pool in the field, and paying the man and boys who had been in the grotto with me for upwards of two hours, I returned to Trieste, where the tailor and a good dinner set every thing to rights again.

Sir Humphry had just received two living torpedos, and made some experiments with them upon the power and effect of their electricity, which he seemed inclined to think of a peculiar kind. These finished, he determined to quit Trieste to-morrow, and to return to Laibach.

The country between Padua and Monselice, an insignificant little town where we stopped to bait, is pretty. Crossing the Adige by a flying bridge, we drove on to Rovigo; a town with about eight thousand inhabitants, but with apparently nothing remarkable in it.

In the afternoon I walked through the old, deserted, and often grass-grown streets of the town. In the Piazza Ariostea stands a fine old column, and the church in the great square is a fine building externally, the front consisting of numerous rows of arches one above the other. This and the ancient castle or palace of the house of Est?, a large moated brick building, with numerous square towers, in one of which the dungeon of Tasso is still shown, are all that is worth seeing here.

"A mirror and a bath for Beauty's youngest daughters,"

for every plant and leaf at the bottom, seems as if viewed through a clear and spotless crystal. A little above the source of this river, stands the temple of its god, of small and delicate proportions. The front is still in good preservation, but the roof is covered with tiles, and the sides are patched with bricks; and it is now apparently used as a stable or pig-sty, and the waters of the stream are polluted by ass-drivers and water-women.

We are now driving over roads once covered with the Carthaginian legions led on by Hannibal, rushing in all the fire of conquest from the field of Thrasymene; and in the evening we arrived at Spoleto, the town which offered him such stout resistance, when on his march to Rome, and before which he lay a fortnight. It lies on a hill, which renders the streets exceedingly steep; and besides this, they are narrow, dark and dirty. The only remarkable object in it is the gate called Hannibal's Gate, which is very ancient, and bears the following inscription on a marble tablet, celebrating his defeat and retreat from this town.

HANNIBAL CAESIS AD THRASYMENUM ROMANIS INFESTO AGMINE URBEM ROMAM PETENS AD SPOLETUM MAGNA STRAGE SUORUM REPULSUS INSIGNE PORTAE NOMEN FECIT.

So much for the days of old! A battalion of French troops would however now hardly allow themselves to be repulsed by the descendants of these victors of Hannibal.

Between Terni and Narni, we entered upon a wide and open though still hilly country, through which the Velino winds slowly along. Narni is certainly the most beautifully situated town that I have seen in the Appenines, lying at the side of a hill, at the foot of which the green waters of the Nera roll through a deep romantic glen, out of whose wooded sides gigantic masses of rock are seen to rise, in and upon which many old dwellings, now uninhabited, are discovered. The road from hence to Lavenga is fine and hilly, and between this latter and Otricoli, the mountains open, and show us in the distance Mount Soracte,

the Tiber winding slowly along, and, still further, another chain of distant mountains. The inn at Otricoli was the worst of the many bad ones we have met with among the Appenines, for there was literally nothing to be had in the house; and the only waiter who was to be seen was drunk.

Quitting this mighty ruin, which, together with the arch of Titus, the Popes have been, and still are, engaged in patching up with bricks and mortar, thus destroying the harmony and beauty of the ancient architecture, I returned to Serny's through the ancient Roman Forum, where lie the chief relics of the former grandeur of the queen of cities. Here are the arches of Constantine, of Titus, and of Septimus Severus; the ruins of temples, baths, and imperial palaces; ruins which have afforded to antiquarians so much matter for research and for dispute, and which are regularly described in the works of every modern traveller in Italy.

The daily drive on the Corso is now often enlivened by many gay equipages and servants in splendid liveries, the gayest of which are those of the Russian Archduchess Helena, and the King of Bavaria. I have been twice to the theatre; there are several, and they all opened on the 7th of January. The two principal ones, Argentina and Valle, are small, and by no means striking.

V'? chi a Todini oppone La morte di Leone; Roma per? sostiene Ch 'egli ? operato bene.

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