chorusses were admirably performed, particularly that to the hunting song. The house, which was crowded, was the gloomiest I ever entered; not having before seen a German theatre, of which my friend informed me, that this was a tolerably fair sample. Among other peculiarities is a clock, which by means of a transparent dial, shews the hour from the top of the proscenium. And when the hand pointed to ten, the performances concluded and the curtain dropped.

Returning across the way to the public room of our inn, we found it filled with company from the opera,

"And lo! twelve dishes smok'd upon the board,"

to which ladies as well as gentlemen did the amplest justice. Talk of English folks consuming so much animal food-commend me to the handsome reception which hot suppers meet with at a German table-d'hote, for proof positive of the good appetites and strong digestive functions habitually displayed and exercised there by guests of both sexes.

23d.-The Church of St. Bartholomew owes the interest which it imparts to the mind of a stranger almost exclusively to the venerable character of its exterior associating itself with the history of the Carlovingian race of Frankish Kings, and to the circumstance of the Imperial Germanic coronations having until the period of the French Revolution been solemnized within its walls. This cathedral, founded it is said by Pepin le Bref, in 756, and embellished by his grandson Charlemagne, in 874, is still appropriated to the Catholic service. Its tower is of as late a date as the fourteenth century: the lantern with which it is surmounted was evidently intended

to have been carried higher: it has an unfinished appearance. The inside of the church, especially the choir, is in a very dirty and slovenly state.-Albert Durer's picture of the Virgin and Dead Christ enriches the high altar of the Lady Chapel; and a Crucifixion, by the same famous painter, is conspicuously placed in the nave. Some martyrdoms of the Patron Saint give you the horrors as you walk along the aisles. There is in one of the transepts a curious piece of very ancient sculpture. It represents the Death of the Virgin, whose couch is surrounded by the twelve Apostles: two figures of Angels on each side hang over the Holy Personage, as in the act of closing her eyes. In the design and execution of this high-relief much talent and skill are displayed, combined with evidences of chastened conception and good sense such as are seldom to be found in the more modern decorations of a Romish place of worship. The tomb of Holzhauren, the first Burgomaster of the city, inscribed with the date M.CCC; and the monument of the Naturalist Gunther were the only two that appeared particularly entitled to notice.

The streets in the neighbourhood of St. Bartholomew are narrow as well as crooked, and the houses very old. Among them we were shewn the Saalhof, said to have been a seat of royalty in the eighth century; but no architectural remains of any thing like so early an epoch are apparent in the present building, which is the property and residence of a merchant.-The Römer or Town-ball is in the heaviest stile of Gothic architecture. But both that and the Braunfelshof (or Exchange) were clogged not only with the edifices which at all times too closely surround it, but also with temporary booths and shops erected in

consequence of the approaching fair; the necessary pre parations for which were assigned as an excuse for our non-admission into the interior of the Hotel de Ville. We consequently did not see the Bulla Aurea, “the original Golden Bull" of Charles IV; nor the portraits of German Emperors painted in fresco.

The palace of Tour and Taxis exhibits a stile nearly contemporaneous with the Cathedral itself.-The church of St. Nicholas, in the place of the Hotel de Ville, (used by the Lutherans) is of great antiquity. The new Lutheran Church, built of red-stone, would have been a magnificent structure, had the design been carried only to the point of mere exterior completion.

The edifice erected on the noble quay of the Maine, since the restoration of the city to its independence, offers a façade every way worthy of the advantageous site which was chosen for it, and which for the prospect it commands, equally deserves its appellation of schönes aussicht or Belle-Vue. On the entablature of its Corinthian portico is the following appropriate inscription :- -STUDIIS LIBERTATI REDDITA CIVITAS. This building, begun in 1823, and now nearly finished, is, in its interior arrangements, well adapted to its three-fold purpose of a Repository for the works of Literature, for the illustrations of Natural Philosophy, and for the productions of the Fine Arts. The vestibule is lofty, spacious, and elegant. A handsome staircase (of marble if I rightly remember) leads to the principal rooms, into which the valuable collection of printed books and MSS. hitherto kept in the Town-house had just been removed, and the Librarians were busily employed in placing them on the shelves. One of the Gentlemen, however, was obliging enough to

leave his occupation for a few minutes, to shew me that celebrated rarity, the first edition of the Latin Bible, printed in civitate Moguntina per Johannem Fust el Petrum Schoiff her de Gernsheym, 1462-A copy on parchment, in excellent condition, of uncurtailed proportions, and, though so early a production of typography, a perfect mirror for pressmen, so sharp is the impression, and so even the colour.

The Cabinet of Natural History is rich in Ornithology: it also contains a splendid collection of butterflies et id genus omne; besides a numerous classification of other insects; and among the marine subjects some rare and singular specimens of the lobster and crab kind. The portraits of M M. Rupel and Huer are placed in this cabinet. Those enterprising young naturalists were then on their travels to procure fresh acquisitions of value to the collection.

The Picture Room, in the Hotel of the Court of England, contains several excellent works of the Old Masters, and also some highly creditable productions of the modern German pencil. Among the former, are Rembrandt's Saul listening to the harp of David; Card Players by Teniers; Rubens' First Wife, and other speaking proofs of Frank Hals' extraordinary talent as a portrait painter; displaying a free, bold, lively, and expressive pencilling; and a clear tone of faithfully natural colouring. There is the picture of a Horse and Man, by Jan Steen, full of vigour and animation; a Storm at Sea, by Aldret van Everdingen, a fine representation of violently agitated water, and of atmospheric phenomena. A delightful landscape of Elsheimer's-the exquisitely neat, the sweetly natural, the tasteful, spirited, and altogether admirable Elsheimer. A Landscape with cattle

feeding, by Paul Potter; a lovely, spirited production after Nature. Several church interiors, by (Old) Peter Neefs, models of perspective truth and of finished execution; on one I looked not a moment without recognising in its striking exactitude of resemblance the general character and ornamental details of Antwerp Cathedral. A boldly designed and strongly coloured picture of Lot and his Daughters, by Gerard Honthorst. A superb com position of Claude Lorraine's, which has a high tower and rocky shore in the fore-ground, ships at anchor in the second distance, and a grand effect of sun-set on the sea. Magdalen and other figures, are a choice testimony of Polidoro da Caravaggio's genius, judgment, and skill in drawing, grouping, and colouring. A small sized but very striking portrait of "Doctor Martin Luther," and some other fine heads by Holbein ; Boys and Grapes form a subject for the imitative accuracy, the expressive force, and fidelity of local colouring, which distinguish the compositions of the Spaniard Velasquez. There are some choice samples of the early German school, among which is a finely conceived and highly finished Ascension of Albert Durer's, with an Assumption of the Virgin, not less admirable, by the same great master; also of the early Venetian school, in the Entombing of Christ, by Giovanni Bellini, who lived between 1422 and 1512; it is a painting of uncommon merit for that century of art. Belonging to a later era of the same school, a noble production offers itself in the subject of Christ and St. Thomas, by the brilliant yet harmonious pencil of the correct and judicious Luca Giordano. Among the works of living artists, Henry Rieter's Cascade of the Giesbach, bearing the date of 1817, is beautifully finished and most satisfactorily correct.-This Gallery of