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Young Americans Abroad

<h2>Letter 39.</h2> Cologne. Dear Charley:— We are strangely favored with weather; every day is fine; and we begin to think that the climate has been abused, for we have had an uninterrupted spell of bright, sunny weather. We started, after breakfast, for our journey to Cologne, and took the oars for Utrecht, which is twenty-three miles from Amsterdam. Our road was not one of much interest, beyond the pretty gardens of the suburban residences. Breukelen and Maarsen we thought pleasant little places. Utrecht is a large town, and has, I think, nearly sixty thousand inhabitants; and of these, one half are Catholics. It is rather on an ascent, and so is unlike any other place we have seen in Holland. The place is famous for the treaty of 1713. Here is a university, and some very fine private residences; and the fortifications have been laid out in fine walks. The Mall, or public walk, is a noble avenue of trees,—limes, I think,—and they are in six or eight rows. In this place is a cathedral, which we only saw. From its tower is the best view of the country; and it is said you can see more than twenty towns from it. From Utrecht we continued, by railroad, to Arnheim, a distance of thirty-three miles; and we saw more forest-trees than we had before noticed. In the cars were several Catholic priests, who smoked incessantly. Arnheim is on the banks of the Rhine, and is a pretty little place, of about sixteen thousand inhabitants. We were, of course, reminded by Dr. C. that here Sir Philip Sidney died, in 1586, of his wound received in the battle of Zutphen. The entire vicinity seemed to us a delightful spot, and we have seen no place where the houses appear so English and American. The scenery is very attractive; and we would have liked to stay over a day, but the steamer for Ruhrort was ready to start, and we had only time to get our tickets and go on board. We found a neat, comfortable boat, and met pleasant society. The Rhine here is bounded by flat shores, and has no points of interest, and affords no promise of what it is so soon to be. We entered Prussia at Lobith, and had a very thorough examination of our trunks by officers who came on board. At Wesel—a town, I think, of some twelve thousand inhabitants, and having a very strong fortress—we stopped half an hour, and a crowd came round the boat. Rapin, who wrote the History of England, lived here while engaged in the task. How singular it is that all the histories of England, of any note, have been written by men not born in England! They have been French, Scotch, Irish, &c. We reached Ruhrort in the afternoon, and left the boat. This is the great central depot where the coal of the Ruhr is deposited. Here we crossed in a ferry boat, rode a mile or two in an omnibus, and then took the cars for Cologne, after waiting some hour or two, in consequence of a delay—the first we have met with on any railroad on the continent. It was dark when we passed through Dusseldorf; and we felt sorry not to stay here and see the water-color drawings that remain in this collection, once so famous; but we were told at Paris that the best of the drawings and pictures have gone to Munich. In the cars we met a gentleman and his lady who were evidently Americans. We entered into conversation, and found they were from Nashville, Tennessee. They bad been travelling very extensively in Europe, and had been through Egypt, crossed the desert, and visited Syria and the Holy City. I quite respected a lady, Charley, who had travelled hundreds of miles upon a camel. The journey had been very beneficial to her health. We reached Cologne at about ten o'clock, after crossing over a bridge of boats fourteen hundred feet long, and went to the Hotel Holland, on the banks of the river, and found it a very good house, with a grand view of the Rhine; and the chambers are as good as can be desired. Few places are more fruitful in the reminiscences which they furnish than this old city. Cologne has a Roman origin, and was settled by a colony sent by Nero and his mother, who was born here, in her father's camp, during the war. It still retains the walls of its early fortifications, built as long ago as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In Cologne Caxton lived, in 1470, and learnt the new art of printing, which he carried to England and introduced there. Its present population is about ninety thousand, having increased latterly, and, no doubt, will rapidly increase, in consequence of its connection with Paris, Strasburg, Berlin, Antwerp, and other cities, by railroads. We turned our steps very early to the Cathedral, and here we expected nothing less than a treat; but much as we had heard of it, and often as the doctor had described it, we found it far beyond all our anticipations. The church was commenced in 1248, and is still far from completed. It is always thought to be one of the grandest Gothic piles in the world. The name of the architect is not known. Gerhard is the earliest builder whose name is associated with this church, in 1252. The plan was to build the two towers five hundred feet high; but the loftiest has only attained the height of about one hundred and eighty-five feet. Much of the external work is in decay; but great pains and cost have been given to repair the stone work, and the work is going on with vigor and success. It is supposed that it will require three millions of dollars to carry out the design. The form of the church is a cross, and "the arches are supported by a quadruple row of sixty-four columns; and, including those of the portico, there are more than one hundred. The four columns in the middle are thirty feet in circumference, and each of the one hundred columns is surmounted by a chapiter different from the others." On one tower still exists the old crane which raised the stones that came from Drachenfels. The only part of the cathedral yet finished is the choir. This is one hundred and sixty-one feet high; and, whether you look at it outside, or gaze on its interior, you are lost in admiration. The stained windows are really beyond all others I have seen. All round the choir stand colossal statues of the Apostles, the Virgin, and the Savior. In a chapel not far from the altar is the renowned shrine of the Three Kings, or Magi, who came from the East with gifts to the infant Savior. These bones once rested at Milan; but Frederic Barbarossa, in 1162, gave them to an archbishop of Cologne. So here they are in a case, silver gilt, and arcades on pillars all round; and, inside the pillars, little gold prophets and apostles. The jewelry at this shrine has been formerly valued at six millions of francs; but in some of its transportations in troublous times, it has met with spoliations; but it is still radiant with gold and pearls, and gems of all descriptions. The restoration of the shrine is going on, and costly offerings are frequently made in aid of the undertaking. The skulls of these worthies are crowned with gold, and look ghastly enough, in spite of diamonds and rubies. Their names are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. We paid a heavy fee to see the rare show; but it is well enough to understand the mummery that there is in the world. We went the entire round of the little chapels, and saw some fine monuments to the great ones of church and state. I was much pleased with a bronze statue of Archbishop Conrad, of Hocksteden, who died in 1261, and some exceedingly old paintings. We also saw the library and sacristy, and the sacred vestments, some of which were splendid enough. Here we saw a bone of St. Matthew some saint's shrine in silver, and the state cross of the archbishop, with several of the very finest ivory carvings that we have fallen in with. A look at the vast workshop where the stone carvings for restoration are made was quite interesting. While wandering through the aisles of the Cathedral, we met with a very pleasant family from New York; and, after introduction, we agreed to make the passage of the Rhine together; and, as there are young people in the party, this will be very agreeable to us. We have rather a limited time to pass here, and so have concluded to neglect the Virgin's bones, at St. Ursula's Church, of which we have read all the legends. Men and women trained up to worship these odds and ends are the people who are flocking by thousands to our country; and there is a great deal for such folks to learn before they will value and understand our privileges. We next turned our steps to St. Peter's Church, where Rubens was baptized; and we saw the brass font, which is still there, and also his father's tomb. It was to this church that the great painter presented his famous Crucifixion of Peter, which he thought the best he ever painted; but artists differ with him in this estimate. The picture now exposed to view is only a copy, which was made in Paris when the original was in the Louvre; but the man in charge turns the picture, which is on a pivot, and you have the original before you. Peter's head is very fine, and much more striking than the rest of the body. The little garden in the cloisters of this church is very sweet, and there are some good bits of sculpture. The beautiful Church of the Apostles we could not see, excepting outside, and its appearance is quite singular. The styles of architecture I thought strangely mixed up. Of course, we got some cologne water at the genuine fountain head in Julich's Place; and in the evening we made an examination of a curiosity shop, where we found a fine old engraving of Rubens's head, and two excellent engravings of Ostades's interiors. They are gems in their way, and, though very old, are perfect. We saw the house where the unfortunate Queen of France died, in 1644, respecting whose last days so interesting a fiction has been written; and we were told that it was also the very house in which Rubens was born. At all events, it is a very plain establishment for such celebrity as it possesses. We have also seen a military review here; but the discipline was poor, and only the music good. A gentleman here from America, engaged in the wine trade, has amused us all by his facts in relation to champagne, which is here manufactured in large quantities, and is fabricated from a mixture of some ten or twelve different wines. A very superior brand is the result, which the good people of America will pay well for, with an appropriate brand duly furnished to order. On the roof of our hotel is a sort of room, or garden, called the Belvedere. In it are a variety of fine plants, in healthy condition. The roses were very fragrant. The view across the river from this place is charming; and the village of Deutz looks prettily, with its large hotel and plenty of smaller houses of resort. To-morrow we go up the Rhine; and we are all hoping for a fine day, and then we expect a pleasant one. Yours truly, james. <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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