40. CLUBS. In all the principal German towns, Societies corresponding nearly with a London club, and known by such names as the Casino, Museum Harmonie, or the like, are to be found. "They are very rational establishments, fitted up with a commodious elegance, which make their resources doubly attractive. The reading-rooms are stocked with a profusion of journals, reviews, and pamphlets, literary and political, from all parts of Germany; besides the French, and sometimes English and Italian newspapers. There is often a library of books of reference, and a conversation room, where talkative quidnuncs may be relieved from the silence prescribed in the reading-rooms, besides billiard-tables and card-rooms, and sometimes a good table-d'hôte provided by a restaurateur of the establishment. The assembly-rooms, which form part of the edifice, are only opened on occasions of balls, concerts, and evening societies: to these ladies are admitted, and they are kept sacred from the fumes of tobacco, which frequently perfume and tinge the other handsome apartments. The casinos are supported by subscriptions - noblesse and bourgeoisie, excluding common tradesmen, being alike members. A foreign traveller obtains easy access to them by means of his banker, and very often through the landlord of his hotel; and finds much sociable respectability, as well as convenience and resources in them." near the Rhine. 41. GERMAN BURIAL-grounds. Autumn One of the peculiarities which distinguish Germany from England is the different light in which the abodes of the dead are regarded by the living. Before a traveller completes his survey of a German town, it will be not unprofitable or uninteresting to visit the public burial ground—the "court of peace," or "God's Acre," to give the German names literally translated. In England, the churchyard is generally a small space in the precincts of the church, which is regarded as little else than a passage leading to it; or where it is separated, as happens in many of our populous cities, it is a large enclosure overgrown with weeds and rank grass, which would indicate that it was "by the world forgot," except for the high walls, which serve the double purpose of keeping out nightly depredators, (almost the only class who take an interest in its contents), and of screening the hateful object from the sight of the rest of the world. The French appear to introduce the national frivolity even in their burial grounds, and have given to Père la Chaise the air of a cimetière orné, which is hardly befitting the silent city of the dead. In Germany the public cemetery is a spot in which the community seems to take much interest. It is a place of public resort at all hours, its gates stand always open. It is planted with a few trees, so that its aspect may not be altogether cheerless; but it is more thickly planted with crosses, grave-stones, and monuments congregated together, thick as a forest, slowly advancing foot by foot, year after year, to occupy all the vacant space. The inventions of the mason and carpenter in fashioning a tomb-stone, rarely go beyond a cross or an urn, a broken pillar or stone sarcophagus; the grave of the soldier is sometimes marked by a sword or helmet; but there are other tokens of honour and respect which show a Gravestones of various continuance of attention on the part of the living. shapes, with lengthy epitaphs, are common among us: here, however, the more touching and trust-worthy symptoms of continued recollection are every newly dug, the basin of holy water, all placed by the side of the funereal hillock. At one end of the enclosure is usually a cloister or arcade, under which repose, beneath more sumptuous monuments, the rich and the noble. Communicating with it also is generally a building where the bodies of the dead are placed, in conformity with a police regulation adopted in most German towns, within twelve hours after death. At the appointed time, the deadcart calls at the door of high or low; and the only distinction made is, that the former repose in an apartment better fitted, hung with black, and lighted by a dismal lamp. In this dismal chamber, the dead bodies, deposited in their coffins, await the time appointed for interment. In many places, particularly at Frankfort, a peculiar precaution is adopted to guard against the accident of burial in cases of suspended animation. The fingers of the prostrate corpse are placed in the loops of a string or bell-rope attached to an alarm clock, which is fixed in the apartment of an attendant appointed to be on the watch. The least pulsation in the body would give the alarm, and medical aid would instantly be called in. It is melancholy, but impressive, to walk round the Friedhof until you come to the spot where the ground has been fresh turned up; for every inch is disposed of systematically, and the vacant space is encroached on only as it is needed. Here may be seen the fresh-painted, newly-gilt monument; then the grave on which the turf has been replaced, and has not united; beyond it the heap of bare mould, the grave of yesterday; and last of all, the open chasm with boards at its sides, gaping in readiness for those who are lying stiff hard by. 207 SECTION IV. PRUSSIA-NORTHERN GERMANY-THE RHINE, &c. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION. 42. Passports. 43. Custom Houses. 44. Prussian Money.-45. Travelling in Prussia-Roads.— 46. Schnellposts.-47. Posting.-48. Tolls. 49. Inns. ROUTES. (The names of places are printed in italics only in those Routes where they are described.) 286 XXXVI. Aix-la-Chapelle to Co logne XXXVII. The RHINE (C) Cologne to Coblenz XXXVIII. The RHINE (D) 229 Aix-la-Chapelle to XLIV. The Upper Eîfel - Spa Coblenz to Mayence 249 XLV. Bingen to Treves XXXIX. The Ahr valley-Bonn XLVI. to Ahrweiler and Adenau 268 42. PASSPORTS. 290 Cologne to Frankfurt, by The Prussian minister in London rarely gives passports to any but Prussian subjects; but there is no difficulty in procuring one from the Prussian consul (see Introduction, d. PASSPORTS), which has this advantage over a French or Belgian passport, that it is not taken away and replaced by a fresh one on the frontiers. PASSPORTS are seldom demanded in the Prussian dominions except on the frontier, where travellers are required to present themselves in person, and to enter their names, ages, business, native place, in a book kept for the purpose at the police office. The arrangements of the passport department are such, that at whatever hour of day or night the traveller may arrive, his papers can be countersigned at once, without delaying him on his journey. Should the traveller be provided with any other than a Prussian passport, he should at least secure, in London or elsewhere, the signature of a Prussian minister or consul; the want of it may cause inconvenience and delay in crossing the frontier. On the whole, the police regulations are by no means so strict as in Austria or Bavaria. The stranger is not stopped and questioned at the gate of every town he enters, but gives his passport to the landlord of his inn to forward to the authorities. 43. CUSTOM-HOUSES. The one-headed black eagle, and the alternate black and white stripe on oll-bars, doors, and sentry-box, invariably announce the Prussian frontier, The The Prussian custom-house system, § 29, now prevails in the greater part of Germany, and is often administered by Prussian officials, even in the states of other princes. The examination is strict, without being vexatious. Prussian douanier (often an old soldier invalided) is above taking a bribe, or rather, government regulates matters so as to prevent his taking one; and strangers are treated with invariable civility, provided they conduct themselves becomingly. The Hanse Towns (excepting Frankfort), Hanover, Brunswick, and Mecklenburg, have not yet (1838) acceded to the Prussian tariff. 44. PRUSSIAN MONEY. The Prussian silver coins in use are: The Dollar (Thaler), containing 30 Silver groschen (S. gr.), or 24 gute (good) groschen, about 3s. English. = The dollar is divided into pieces of Accounts are usually kept in silver groschen (S. gr.), and care should be taken not to pay in gute groschen an account which may have been made up in Silver gr. The currency of Prussia not only goes in every part of the Prussian dominions, but through the whole of the North of Germany, and as far south as Frankfort and Nassau, where, though florins and kreutzers begin to be the common currency, Prussian coins are still current. The Northern States, finding the inconvenience of so many different kinds of money, have now begun to coin pieces of the same value as the Prussian; thus the Hessian, Hanoverian, and Brunswick new dollars all have the same value as the Prussian, and Gold coins, are, however, scarce in Prussia; but there is a paper currency, very convenient for carriage, but often very dirty, of Bank notes (kassenanweisungen), of the value of one, five, and fifty dollars each. "It may be useful to warn English travellers, that the values marked on German coins are very often not the true value by which the coin passes. Thus the double Friedrichs d'or, though worth 11 dollars 10 S. gr., are invariably marked X. THALER; and in Southern Germany the silver pieces marked 10 and twenty kreutzers are worth 12 and 24. This singularity has resulted from changes in the currency, but seems as if it were on purpose to deceive the traveller."-L. M. Value of foreign coins in Prussian dollars and S. gros. : Doll. S. gr. 45. TRAVELLING IN PRUSSIA. ROADS. In no country in Europe, probably, were worse roads to be found than in Prussia, twenty years ago. In that space of time an immense improvement has been effected; all the main roads have been macadamized for the greater part of their extent, and are almost equal to the best in England. Down to 1814, the only good road was that from Berlin to Magdeburg; every where else, the traveller was conducted through, rather than over, a wide, irregular tract of loose sand, which obtained the name of road merely because it was traversed by vehicles of all sorts, not because any thing had ever been done to fit it for their passage. Into this the carriage sunk at once up to the axle trees, and the postilion displayed less anxiety to advance than to make the wheels exactly fit the ruts of those which had preceded it. The present generation of travellers are relieved from this inconvenience, thanks to the adoption of a new system of ponts et chaussées, and to the activity of M. Von Nagler, the postmaster-general, a most enlightened minister. Under his judicious management, the macadamizing system has been carried to great perfection throughout the Prussian dominions, and between 1814 and 1827, 877 German miles of good macadamized roads, called Kunst Strassen, (i. e. roads made by art,) or Chausséen, were constructed, and as improvements in the highways are constantly proceeding, the number of miles of good road must by this time be one fourth greater. The principal routes, emanating from Berlin, and extending to the farthest corners of Prussia, are, 1, to Luxemburg by Halle, Cassel, Coblenz, Treves; 2, to Aix-la-Chapelle, by Halle, Cassel, Elberfield, and Cologne; 3, to Wesel, and the frontier of Holland, by Minden and Munster; 4, from Aix-la-Chapelle to Treves, and Saar Louis, along the Belgic frontier, which seems to have been constructed for military, rather than commercial objects; 5, to Konigsberg, on the way to St. Petersburg, at present undergoing great improvements, one of which has been to shorten the journey by 15 German miles; 6, to Posen, on the way to Warsaw, not yet finished. 46. SCHNELLposts. The Prussian mail-coaches are called schnellposts (§ 33.); they are generally well managed, being under the direction of the government, and the coachoffice and post-office are usually in the same building; they go at the rate of about six miles an hour on an average, and are on the whole roomy and comfortable vehicles. The usual cost of travelling by them is 9 or 10 S. gr. per German mile, including postilions and every thing else. It is entirely |
