principally to German history. Some of them had been previously transferred to Paris from the Vatican by the French army. It is related, that Tilly, being in want of straw after taking the castle, littered his cavalry with books and MSS. from the library of the Elector, at that time one of the most valuable in Europe.

The curiosities of this collection as it at present stands are, a codex of the Greek Anthology, XIth century; MSS. of Thucydides and Plutarch of the Xth and XIth, and many autographs of remarkable persons; Luther's MS. translation of Isaiah; his exhortation to prayer against the Turks; and a copy of the Heidelberg Catechism, annotated by him; the prayer-book of the Electress Elizabeth (James I.'s daughter); a mass book, ornamented with miniatures, by John Dentzel of Ulm, 1499. library is freely open to all persons for 2 hours daily, except on Sundays. The Anatomical and Zoological Museums are placed in a building in the suburb, formerly a Dominican con

vent.

The

Several professors have good Private Collections; the best are Creuzer's cabinet of antiquities; Leonhard's fossils and minerals, particularly rich in specimens illustrative of the geology of this part of Germany; and Professor Bronn's fossils of the neighbourhood of Heidelberg. There is also a dealer in minerals, the produce of the neighbouring district, at No. 211, Schiffgasse.

The Museum Club (§ 40.) contains reading, ball, and concert rooms; and a restaurant for members.

Neither the public nor private buildings in the town are at all remarkable in an architectural point of view, chiefly owing to the destruction caused by repeated sieges. One house however survives, which, in the richly decorated façade ornamented with

statues, coats of arms, &c. may give some notion of former splendour: it is the inn called Zum Ritter, from the figure of a knight on the top: it was built in 1592. It stands in the marketplace, near the Church of the Holy Ghost, in which many electors and counts palatine were buried. Their fine monuments were destroyed by the French in 1793, when neither reverence for the dead nor the sacredness of the building prevented it becoming the scene of slaughter and sacrilege. The church is divided by a partition wall between the Catholics and Protestants, and the two services are performed under the same roof. The resistance of the townspeople to one of the electors, who wanted to deprive the Protestants of their half of this church, occasioned him to remove the Electoral court from Heidelberg to to Mannheim in 1719, 20.

The Church of St. Peter's is remarkable as being the oldest in the town, and because Jerome of Prague, the companion of Huss, attached to its door his celebrated theses, which he maintained, at the same time expounding the reformed doctrine, to a large multitude of hearers assembled in the adjoining church-yard. Here also is the single tomb cf Olympia Morata, who combined the feminine grace and beauty of a woman with the intellect and learning of a man. Persecuted as a heretic in Italy, the land of her birth, she was forced to fly, along with her husband, a German, and at length settled at Heidelberg, where she delivered lectures to a large and admiring audience. Her extraordinary acquirements in learning, her beauty, misfortunes, and early death, shed a peculiar interest upon her grave.

The objects of greatest interest here are the Castle and the views of the Rhine and Neckar valley.

a a a. Footpath leading up to the Castle. b. Carriage Road.

c. Platform or Terrace.

d. Building of Frederick IV. (1607). The statues in the façade are ancestors of the reigning house of Bavaria, from Charleinagne and Otho of Wittelsbach.

e. Cellar containing the Tun. f. Entrance to it.

g. Building of Otho Henry, or Ritter Saal, begun 1549, finished 1559. This is the finest portion of the Castle; it is in the best style of Italian architecture, and the sculpture with which it is decorated is of high merit.

h. Octagon Tower (1525), first struck by the lightning which finally consumed the Castle in 1764.

i. Library Tower.

k. Frederick IInd's Buildings (1549). 7. Oldest part of the Castle, begun in 1300 by the Elector Rudolph.

m. Rupert's Building, begun 1400.

n. Well, under a Canopy supported by pillars brought from Ingelheim (of Odenwald granite).

0. Grand Gateway (1355), with Portcullis. p. The Blown-up Tower.

q. The Gate raised in honour of the English Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I.: her great-grandson was George I. r. The Garden.

s. The English building erected for the Princess Elizabeth by her husband the Elector Frederick (1612).

t. Tower built by Elector Lewis V. 1533. Its walls are 22 feet thick. It was destroyed by the French, 1689.

Its

THE CASTLE, anciently the residence of the Electors Palatine, presenting the combined character of a palace and a fortress, is an imposing ruin. The building displays the work of various hands, the taste of different founders, and the styles of successive centuries: it is highly interesting for its varied fortunes, its picturesque situation, its vastness, and the relics of architectural magnificence which it still displays, after having been three times burnt, and having ten times experienced the horrors of war. final ruin, however, did not arise from those causes; but after the greater part of the building had been restored to its former splendour in 1718—20,it was set on fire by lightning in 1764: and since the total conflagration which ensued, it has never been rebuilt or tenanted. It is at present only a collection of red stone walls, and has remained roofless for nearly a century. It is approached by a carriage-road from behind, and by a winding footpath on the side of the Neckar. The oldest part remaining is probably that built by the Electors Rudolph and Rupert. It has all the character of a stronghold of the middle ages, and the teeth of the portcullis still project from beneath the archway leading to it. The Friederichsbau, named from the elector, who built it in 1607, is distinguished by excessive richness of decoration: its façade to the south is ornamented with statues of ancestors of the electoral family from Charlemagne. The part of the building most deserving of admiration, for the good taste of its design, and the elegance of its decorations, is that which overlooks the river, and extends along the east side of the quadrangle (g in the plan), built by Otto Henry (1556), in the style called cinque cento, which is allied to the Elizabethan of England. The statues of heroes from sacred and profane history, which decorate the

are by no means contemptible as works of art.

The English traveller will view with some interest that part of the castle called the English palace (s), from its having been built for the reception of the Princess Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I., and grand-daughter of Mary Queen of Scots. The triumphal arch (q), having pillars entwined with ivy leaves, was erected by her husband, the Elector Frederick V., afterwards King of Bohemia, to celebrate their nuptials; it led to the flower-garden which he caused to be laid out for her pleasure, and it still goes by the name of Elizabethen Pforte.

- ay,

"When her husband hesitated to accept the crown of Bohemia, this high-hearted wife exclaimed, 'Let me rather eat dry bread at a king's table than feast at the board of an elector:' and it seemed as if some avenging demon hovered in the air, to take her literally at her word; for she and her family lived to eat dry bread and to beg it before they ate it; but she would be a queen."-MRS. JAMESON. The granite pillars supporting the canopy of the well (n) in the corner of the court of the castle are said by some to have been brought from Charlemagne's palace at Ingelheim, though they are undoubtedly derived from the quarry in the Odenwald. (See p. 471.)

In a cellar under the castle (e, f) is the famous Heidelberg Tun; it is the largest wine cask in the world, being capable of holding 800 hogsheads, 283,200 bottles, which is far less, after all, than the dimensions of the porter vat of a London brewer. In former days, when the Tun was filled with the produce of the vintage, it was usual to dance on the platform on the top. It has, however, remained empty since 1769, more than half a century.

One of the towers which formed

Gesprengte Thurm) (p), was undermined and blown up by the French; but so thick were the walls, and so strongly built, that though nearly the whole of one side was detached by the explosion, instead of crumbling to pieces, it merely slid down from its place, in one solid mass, into the ditch, where it still remains. Subterranean

passages, for the most part still preserved and accessible, extend under the ramparts.

The Gardens and Shrubberies round the castle, and the adjoining Terrace, to the eastward, afford the most agreeable walks and splendid points of view it is possible to conceive over the Neckar, issuing out of its vine-clad valley, and winding through a plain of the utmost fertility to join the Rhine, which appears here and there in distant flashes glittering in the sun. Spires and towers proclaim the existence of cities and villages almost without number, and the landscape is bounded by the outline of the Vosges mountains.

The best general view of the building may be obtained from the extremity of the terrace raised upon arches, and projecting over the Neckar. The castle, however, is so grand an object, and the surrounding country so exceedingly beautiful, that the stranger will hardly be satisfied with seeing it from one point. He should mount the heights on the right bank of the Neckar, either by a path leading from the end of the bridge, which is steep, or by a more gradual ascent from Neuenheim. An agreeable path, easily accessible, called the Philosopher's Walk, conducts along the slope of the hill fronting the town.

The

hill behind it, which stands in the angle between the valley of the Rhine and Neckar, called the Heiligeberg, presents a more extensive prospect. On the top are ruins of a castle and church of St. Michael, which succeeded to a Roman fort built on the spot. In 1391, the wild sect called Flaggellants made a pilgrimage to

this holy mountain, clad in black, and wearing a white cross in front and behind. In the Thirty Years' War, Tilly opened his trenches to bombard the town from this point.

About 50 yards above the bridge, on the right bank, in a solitary inn called Hirschgasse, the students' duels are fought. Four or five sometimes take place in a day; and it is no uncommon thing for a student to have been engaged in 25 or 30, as principal, in the course of 4 or 5 years.

The Konigstuhl, the highest brill in this district, lies behind the town and castle. The summit may be reached in 1, or 11⁄2 hour's walk, and the view is the most extensive in the neighbourhood.

A lofty tower has been erected for the convenience of visiters, who often repair hither to see the sun rise, and if possible to extend the limits of the panorama, which includes the valleys of the Rhine and Neckar, the Odenwald, Haardt Mountains on the W., the Taunus on the N. W., the ridge of the Black Forest on the S., with the castle of Ebersteinburg, near Baden, and the spire of Strasburg Minster, 90 miles off. Tilly bombarded the town from this hill, after his attack from the right bank had failed: remains of his trenches are still visible.

There is a small tavern near the top, called Kohlhof, where persons anxious to see the sun rise sometimes pass the night previously.

The banks of the Neckar above Heidelberg are very interesting, and afford many pleasant excursions. The course of the Neckar is described in the Handbook for Southern Germany.

A road, overlooking the Neckar, runs from the castle, along the shoulder of the hill to the Wolf's Brunnen, an agreeable walk of 2 miles. It is a pretty retired nook, named from a spring which rises there. There is a small inn close to it, famed for its trout. Here, according to tradition, the enchantress Jetta, who lived on the spot, and first foretold the great