The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel Burton — John Shaqi
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel BurtonBurton, Isabel, Lady
History
The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, volume 2 (of 2): By His Wife, Isabel Burton
Burton, Isabel, Lady
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Scholars -- Great Britain -- Biography
From here I went quietly on to Würzburg, and thence to Munich, where
I was enchanted with the Hôtel des Quatres Saisons. I enjoyed the
winding river, and the Forest of Spessart (the remnant of the great
primeval Hercynian Forest described by Cæsar and Tacitus), the Spessart
range of hills wooded to the top, the wild country with a few villages.
I thought the rail along the river-side ascending amongst the wooded
hills, crossing the stream of the Laufach, very beautiful, and the
entrance to Würzburg reminded me of Damascus and its minarets. Here
I called on the famous Dr. Döllinger. I went to see Steigenwald's
Bavarian glass, and the porcelain with the Old Masters painted on it,
ascended to the top of the Cathedral tower to see the view, and went
to every museum and picture-gallery in the place, and thought, as most
people do, I imagine, that the City was very pretty, but the Art was
very new.
I then went on quietly to Innsbrück. The scenery is magnificent along
the banks of the river Inn, through the Tyrolese mountains, capped
with snow, wooded, dotted with villages, and with cattle on the
mounds, and churches and chapels with delicate spires. I liked the
exhilarating air, and especially the valley of Zillerthal, and seeing
the fine Tyrolean peasants. The best thing to see at Innsbrück is
the Hof-Kirche, or Court Church. There are statues in bronze of all
the great Emperors of Austria, and one or two Empresses; they stand
in two lines down the church, all in armour and coats of mail. The
moment I went into the centre, between these imperial lines, I singled
out one of them, exclaiming, "There is a gentleman and a knight,
from the top of his head to the sole of his foot;" and I ran up to
see who he was. He was labelled, "King Arthur of England." All that
day we were crossing the Brenner Pass. The scenery is splendid, with
snowy peaks, wooded mountains, waterfalls, and rivers (the Eisach and
Adige), torrents and boulders, porphyry rocks, villages, fortresses,
convents and castles, churches and chapels with slender red or green
steeples. I arrived at Trent, where I found nothing to stay for; so
went on to Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Venice, and landed at the Hôtel
Europa--which I had inhabited long ago, in 1858, when I was a girl,--in
time for _table d'hôte_. It was fourteen years since I had seen Venice,
and it was like a dream to come back again. It was all to a hair as
I left it, even, I believe, to the artificial flowers on the _table
d'hôte_ table. It was just the same, only less gay and brilliant--it
had lost the Austrians and Henri V.'s Court; and I was older, and all
the friends I knew were dispersed.
[Sidenote: _We meet by accident in Venice and go to Trieste_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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