"Hans Sachs war ein Schuh- Macher und Poet dazu," is a fair example of the roughness of his versification. Hans Sachs is buried in St. John's Churchyard, and what is shown as his grave is numbered 503. But whether that is actually his grave seems to be somewhat uncertain. On the whole, literature was far behind art in Nuremberg. But we must not pass over the institution of the _Spruchsprecher_, the poet laureate of the town. He was a speciality of Nuremberg, and had to deal in rhyme with the occasion of all weddings and festivals, when called upon. He rejoiced in a special dress, and was invented, it seems, about the middle of the fifteenth century. One other Nuremberg poet is worth mentioning--Johann Konrad Grübel, "the Nuremberg Philistine," as Goethe called him in compliment. A comic, dialect poet of the people, he was first-rate of his kind. He died in 1809, and a statue of him by Professor Wanderer adorns a little fountain near the house of Hans Sachs. CHAPTER IX _The Churches of Nuremberg_ Der Kirchen act sind in dem Ort Darin man predigt Gottes Wort. --HANS SACHS. Nuremberg is rich in churches, those sermons in stones so much more eloquent than any words that ever fell from the lips of the preachers. The Gothic style has been finely called the true architectural expression of Christianity. In her churches Nuremberg possesses some of the finest specimens of the pure German Gothic style. They exhibit, it is true, the common failing of German architecture. Exquisite, though sometimes extravagant, in detail, they fall far below the masterpieces of the French architects in the proportionment of the whole. St. Sebald, the patron saint of Nuremberg, affords one more proof of the fact that a prophet is not without honour save in his own country. It is, indeed, not even known what his country was. His history and even his name are so unfamiliar to any but Nurembergers that it will be of interest if I add here the record of his life from the account written by an eleventh-century (?) monk.[52]