winding up the dry footpaths, among the
vineyards of this neighborhood, we were yet more delighted with the
general beauty of the scenery, and with the wild-flowers which every
where adorned the hanging cliffs and warm waysides. The marjorum stood
in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds,
that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson
pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow
flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple,
handsomer than any English one; a thistle in the dryest places,
resembling an eryngo, with a thick, bushy top; mulleins, yellow and
white; the wild mignonnette, and the white convolvulus; and clematis
festooning the bushes, recalled the flowery fields and lanes of England,
and yet told us that we were not there. The meadows had also their moist
emerald sward scattered with the grass of Parnassus, and an autumnal
crocus of a particularly delicate lilac.

At the inn, at the mouth of Birkenau Thal, we proposed to take the
eilwagen as far as Auerbach, but that not arriving, we availed ourselves
of a peasant's light wicker wagon. The owner was a merry fellow, and had
a particularly spirited black horse; and taking leave of our friends,
after a delightful day, we had a most charming drive to Auerbach, and
one equally amusing, from the conversation of our driver.

After tea we ascended to Auerbach Castle, which occupies a hill above
the town, still far overtopped, however, by the height of Melibocus. The
view was glorious. The sunset across the great Rhine plain was
magnificent. It diffused over the whole western sky an atmosphere of
intense crimson light, with scattered golden clouds, and surrounded by a
deep violet splendor. The extremities of the plain, from the eye being
dazzled with this central effulgence, lay in a solemn and nearly
impenetrable gloom. The castle in ruins, seen by this light, looked
peculiarly beautiful and impressive. In the court on the wall was an
inscription, purporting that a society in honor of the military career
of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, in whose territory and in that of
Baden the Odenwald chiefly lies, had here celebrated his birthday in the
preceding July. Round the inscription hung oaken garlands, within each
of which was written the name and date of the battles in which he had
been engaged against the French. An altar of moss and stones stood at a
few yards' dis