and up the hill. They were all in black, for they were coming
from a funeral. In the churchyard below, near which a few houses
are clustered--the Inn of the Golden Lion parading itself in the
centre--they had just buried the widow of the clockmaker, Lenz of the
Morgenhalde, and all had a good word to say of the deceased, for each
individual felt they had lost a kind friend when the good woman quitted
the world.

The mourners seemed deeply affected, and sorrow was evident on every
face, for just as some fresh grief revives former ones, so those who
had just seen the earth scattered on the newly dug grave, had taken the
opportunity of visiting the graves of their own relations, shedding
tears over their silent resting place, and uttering fervent prayers.

We are in the district inhabited by the clockmakers of the Black
Forest, a wooded and mountainous tract of country, where its streams on
one side flow towards the Rhine, and on the other to the Donau, which
has its source not far from this. The men have a pious, composed air;
the number of women considerably exceeds that of the men, for a vast
proportion of the latter are dispersed through the world, pursuing
their traffic in clocks. Those who stay at home are generally pale,
bearing traces of their sedentary occupation; the women, on the
contrary, who work in the fields, are fresh coloured, and have a
quaint, original appearance from the broad black ribbons tied under
their chins, according to the fashion of the country.

The cultivation of land is however on a small scale, consisting
chiefly, with the exception of a few large farms, of gardens and meadow
land. In some spots, a narrow strip of plantation runs along the valley
down to the stream, and at intervals may be seen a solitary fir,
stripped of its branches to the crown, as if to show that both pasture
and arable land have been gained from the wood. The village, or rather
the district, is some miles in length, its cottages being scattered
along the valley and on the adjacent hills. The houses are built of
solid logs of wood, fitted together in cross beams--the windows are
placed in front in regular succession, a very bright light being
indispensable for the trade of clockmaking. The backs of the houses are
invariably sheltered from storms by a hill or a wood, and heavy
thatched roofs project far in front, as an additional defence against
wind and weather, harmonizing in colour with their background,--narrow
fo