"We were all very much taken with the town of Nuremberg, where we lay two nights ago; the houses, though old-fashioned, and of a grotesque figure, (having sometimes five or six stories of garrets,) yet are they solid, well built, complete, and cleanly. The people are handsome, well clothed, and well fed; an air of industry and contentment, without splendour, prevails through the whole. 'Tis a Protestant republic on the banks of a river, (whose name I have forgot,[255:1]) that runs into the Maine, and is navigable for boats. The town is of a large extent. On leaving Nuremberg we entered into the elector of Bavaria's country, where the contrast appeared very strong with the inhabitants of the former republic. There was a great air of poverty in every face; the first poverty indeed we had seen in Germany. We travelled also through part of the elector Palatine's country, and then returned to Bavaria; but though the country be good and well cultivated, and populous, the inhabitants are not at their ease. The late miserable wars have no doubt hurt them much. Ratisbon is a catholic republic situated on the banks of the Danube. The houses and buildings, and aspect of the people, are well enough, though not comparable to those of Nuremberg. 'Tis pretended that the difference is always sensible betwixt a Protestant and Catholic country, throughout all Germany; and perhaps there may be something in this observation, though it is not every where sensible. "We descend the Danube from this to Vienna; we go in a large boat about eighty foot long, where we have three rooms, one for ourselves, a second for the servants, and a third for our kitchen. 'Tis made entirely of fir boards, and is pulled to pieces at Vienna, the wood sold, and the watermen return to Ratisbon a-foot. We lie on shore every night. We are all glad of this variety, being a little tired of our berline." "_The Danube, 7th of April._ "We have really made a very pleasant journey, or rather voyage, with good weather, sitting at our ease, and having a variety of scenes continually presented to us, and immediately shifted, as it were in an opera. The banks of the Danube are very wild and savage, and have a very different beauty from those of the Rhine; being commonly high scraggy precipices, covered all with firs. The water is sometimes so straitened betwixt these mountains, that this immense river is often not sixty foot broad. We have lain in and seen several very good towns in Bavaria and Austria, such as Strauburg, Passau, Lintz; but what is most remarkable is the great magnificence of some convents, particularly Moelk, where a set of lazy rascals of monks live in the most splendid misery of the world; for, generally speaking, their lives are as little to be envied as their persons are to be esteemed.