in half an hour our weary limbs were
stretched in delightful repose and we thanked Heaven more gratefully
than ever before, for the blessing of a good bed.

Next morning we ran about through the booths of the fair, and gazed up
from all sides at the vast Cathedral. The style is the simplest and
grandest Gothic; but the tower, which, to harmonize, with the body of
the church, should be 520 feet high, was left unfinished at the height
of 234 feet. I could not enough admire the grandeur of proportion in the
great building. It seemed singular that the little race of animals who
swarmed around its base, should have the power to conceive or execute
such a gigantic work.

There is an immense fortification now in progress of erection behind
Ulm. It leans on the side of the hill which rises from the Danube, and
must be nearly a mile in length. Hundreds of laborers are at work, and
from the appearance of the foundations, many years will be required to
finish it. The lofty mountain-plain which we afterwards passed over, for
eight or ten miles, divides the waters of the Danube from the Rhine.
From the heights above Ulm, we bade adieu to the far, misty Alps, till
we shall see them again in Switzerland. Late in the afternoon, we came
to a lovely green valley, sunk as it were in the earth. Around us, on
all sides, stretched the bare, lofty plains; but the valley lay below,
its steep sides covered with the richest forest. At the bottom flowed
the Fils. Our road led directly down the side; the glen spread out
broader as we advanced, and smiling villages stood beside the stream. A
short distance before reaching Esslingen, we came upon the banks of the
Neckar, whom we hailed as an old acquaintance, although much smaller
here in his mountain home than when he sweeps the walls of Heidelberg.

Delightful Wurtemberg! Shall I ever forget thy lovely green vales,
watered by the classic current of the Neckar, or thy lofty hills covered
with vineyards and waving forests, and crowned with heavy ruins, that
tell many a tale of Barbarossa and Duke Ulric and Goetz with the Iron
Hand! No--were even the Suabian hills less beautiful--were the Suabian
people less faithful and kind and true, still I would love the land for
the great spirits it has produced; still would the birth-place of
Frederick Schiller, of Uhland and Hauff, be sacred. I do not wonder
Wurtemberg can boast such glorious poets. Its lovely landscapes seem to
have been made expressly for