_11th._ Quitting Mayence, we drove on along the flat and sandy banks of the Rhine, through Oppenheim to Worms, from the time of Charlemagne and the Frankish kings, till the days of Luther, the scene of brilliant _fêtes_, princely tourneys, and solemn diets of the empire,--now a dismal mass of ruin and desolation. The lofty nave and the four steeples of its ponderous gothic cathedral, when seen from a distance, rise with an imposing grandeur in the level plain of the Rhine; but, on a nearer survey, the church itself offers nothing of interest. We dined at Frankenthal, a neat and clean little town in Rhenish Bavaria, and then drove on through Oggersheim to Mannheim, where we crossed the Rhine over a fine bridge of boats. The streets of this town are remarkably broad and clean; the houses are lofty, and being built in small compact squares, all the streets meet at right angles, and generally afford at their openings a very pretty peep at the distant country, so that one imagines the surrounding scenery to be finer than it really is. The _Planken_, or chief street, traverses the town in a straight line from gate to gate, and forms a fine wide walk between two rows of acacias, which is chained in from the carriage road on each side. The four leagues from Mannheim to Heidelberg are through a country, not one spot of which is uncultivated; this is backed by the finely wooded mountains of the Odenwald, on which are still visible the remains of some of the many castles which formerly crowned the different heights. We reached Heidelberg towards evening, and as soon as I had seen Sir Humphry comfortably lodged in the hotel of the Prince Carl, immediately under the imposing ruins of its far-famed castle, he begged me to go and see my mother, he being too fatigued to accompany me; and on my doing so, I found that my letter, which should have informed her of my approach, had not yet reached her.