open ground
beyond the town, where there is room for gardens and walks, and raised
terraces around them,--are palaces in comparison with the dwellings of
the inhabitants. And well they may be, for the villagers are almost all
laborers of a very humble class--boatmen, who get their living by plying
boats up and down the river; vinedressers, who cultivate the vineyards
of the neighboring hills; or hostlers and coachmen, who take care of the
carriages and of the horses employed in the traffic of the river. A
great number of horses are employed; for not only are the carriages of
such persons as choose to travel on the Rhine by land, or to make
excursions on the banks of the river, drawn by them, but almost all the
boats, except the steamboats that go up the river, are _towed_ up by
these animals. To enable them to do this, a regular tow path has been
formed all the way up the river, on the left bank, and boats of all
shapes and sizes are continually to be seen going up, drawn, like canal
boats in America, by horses--and sometimes even by men. Once I saw some
boys drawing up a small boat in this way. It seems they had been going
down the stream to take a sail, or perhaps to convey a traveller down;
and now they were coming up again, drawing their boat by walking along
the bank, the current being so rapid that it is much easier to draw a
boat up than it is to row it. The boys had a long line attached to the
mast of their boat, and both of them were drawing upon this line by
means of broad bands, forming a sort of harness, which were passed
over their shoulders.

[Illustration]

Now, the small villages that I was speaking of are formed almost
exclusively of the dwellings of the various classes which I have
described, while the hotels or inns that are built on the margins of
them are intended, not as they would be in America, for the
accommodation of the people of the same class, but for travellers of
wealth, and rank, and distinction, who come from all quarters of the
world to explore the beauties and study the antiquities of the Rhine.
Thus the inns, however small and secluded they may be, and however
retired and solitary the places in which they stand, are always very
nice, and even elegant, in their interior arrangements. The chambers are
furnished and arranged in the prettiest possible manner. Handsome open
carriages and pretty boats are ready to convey visitors on any excursion
which they may desire to make in the neigh