"This is a very thriving well-built town, situated at the confluence of the Moselle and the Rhine, and consequently very finely situated. Over the former river there is a handsome stone bridge; over the latter a flying bridge, which is a boat fixed by a chain: this chain is fixed by an anchor to the bottom of the middle of the river far above, and is supported by seven little boats placed at intervals that keep it along the surface of the water. By means of the rudder, they turn the head of the large boat to the opposite bank, and the current of the river carries it over of itself. It goes over in about four minutes, and will carry four or five hundred people. It stays about five or six minutes and then returns. Two men are sufficient to guide it, and it is certainly a very pretty machine. There is the like at Cologne. This town is the common residence of the Archbishop of Treves, who has here a pretty magnificent palace. We have now travelled along a great part of that country, through which the Duke of Marlborough marched up his army, when he led them into Bavaria. 'Tis of this country Mr. Addison speaks when he calls the people-- Nations of slaves by Tyranny debased, Their Maker's image more than half-defaced. And he adds that the soldiers were-- Hourly instructed as they urge their toil, To prize their Queen and love their native soil. "If any foot soldier could have more ridiculous national prejudices than the poet, I should be much surprised. Be assured there is not a finer country in the world; nor are there any signs of poverty among the people. But John Bull's prejudices are ridiculous, as his insolence is intolerable." "_Frankfort, 28th March._ "Our road from Coblentz to this passes through a great many princes' territories; Nassau's, Hesse's, Baden's, Mentz, and this Republic, &c. and there is as great a diversity in the nature of the country. The first part of the road from Coblentz to Weis-Baden is very mountainous and woody, but populous and well-cultivated. In many places the snow is lying very thick. The road is disagreeable for a coach; sometimes you go along the side of a hill with a precipice below you, and have not an inch to spare; and the road hanging all the way towards the precipice, so that one had need to have a good head to look out of the windows. Nassau, the prince of Orange's capital, is but a village, and one of the most indifferent I have seen in Germany. Betwixt Weis-Baden and Frankfort we travel along the banks of the Maine, and see one of the finest plains in the world. I never saw such rich soil nor better cultivated; all in corn and sown grass. For we have not met with any natural grass in Germany.