and again entered Wurtemberg, and after passing for several leagues over a highly improved country arrived at Tubingen. * * * * * CHAP. XV. Tubingen is a large and ancient town, containing about 5000 inhabitants: its situation is low, and it is chiefly worthy of notice, as being one of the most celebrated _universities_ of the south of Germany. I was informed by one of its members who travelled in the Diligence, that the number of students did not then exceed 250, but that he had no doubt it would increase as public affairs assumed a more settled appearance. Here is little of that academic discipline, which distinguishes our universities. There are no colleges, and the students live in private houses, according to their respective inclinations. There are eight professors, and an attendance on the lectures of such of them as the student may prefer seems to constitute the sum of his academic duty. There is a large botanic garden, which is kept in good order, and contains a long range of green-houses and stoves. I here agreed to accompany a gentleman of my acquaintance, who wished to _travel post_ to Frankfort: and had no reason to regret having left the Diligence, with the tediousness of which I was heartily tired. We set out accordingly in a sort of cabriolet, resembling a covered curricle, for Stutgard. We found much less delay at each post than we were led to expect; and part of the time was employed in greasing and examining the wheels of the carriage before starting: this custom prevents many accidents, for that operation for which no time is specified, is commonly neglected. The price of each station is regulated by government; and the postmasters and drivers are very civil and obliging; but the celerity with which every thing is procured at an English inn, is not to be expected here, as the Germans are habitually slow in all their movements. A German dinner is still more tedious than a French one, and it is perhaps yet more foreign to our taste. The custom of sleeping between _feather beds_, as it may be altered by the traveller, if unpleasant to him, cannot be considered as a _grievance_; but all who have been accustomed to the _social and companionable cheerfulness of a fire_, must regret that custom, which here substitutes for it, the _dull and unenlivening heat of a stove_. That fire-place, which is so essential to the comfort of our apartments, is by German taste placed in the passage and shut up, whilst heat is conveyed into their rooms by flues.