and Design were continued it would be very handsome Before the Court stand five brass Statues The Park is pleasant with Trees set in order and adorned with Grotto's Fountains and Water-works which come very near the Italian one piece somewhat imitating Frascati in which all Musical Instruments are imitated and a perpetual motion attempted and on the Front of the Buildings stand the Caesars head But the Eccho is most remarkable which may perfectly be distinguished to ten or twelve Replies The greatest Church is that of St. Gudula in which is her Statua the Devil striving to blow out the Light of her Lanthorn Two Chappels therein are remarkable the one built by Leopoldus very fair on the outside the other towards the North hath been visited by five Kings in which is the Host which bled being stabbed by the Jews In the Dominican Church is the Monument of the Duke of Cleve and his Dutchess in Gorinthian brass But for a New Church that of the Begennes or Pious Maids is very considerable there being Eight hundred of them in this City who have a particular place allotted to them where they have built this milk white Church The Plague was much in this place at that time three hundred Houses being shut up and a Garland placed on the doors in the middle of which †was written IHS I saw the English Nunnery and other considerable Buildings And after I had refreshed my self at the Fish-Tavern which is worth the seeing especially for two Rooms in it furnished from top to bottom with very good Pictures I returned to Antwerp Octob. 4. I travelled through an open Country and lodged at Molin bruslè The Spanish Souldiers met us upon the Road this day some of them well mounted and armed and begged of us and were well satisfied with a small Benevolence The next day we entred the Country of Liege and passed great Heaths and on the Sixth in the morning arrived at Maestreicht Trajectum ad Mosam or Maestreicht is a strong Town seated upon the Maes four Leagues below Liege The Out-works are very considerable the Wall is old Towards the South-east lyeth a Hill which ariseth gently and overlooks part of the Town Under this Hill is one of the noblest Quarries of Stone in the World To secure the Town from the disadvantage it might receive from this Hill there was formerly a Fort built upon it but it hath been long since slighted and they have made out an Horn-work within Musket-shot of it and the Bastion answering to it is made very high to cover the Town On the other side of the River standeth Wicke very well fortified also and rather stronger than Maestreicht into which they might retire if the Town should be taken by Storm it being united to Maestreicht by a handsome Bridge over the Maes consisting of Nine Arches All about Wicke the Country is flat there are many Inhabitants in it and a handsome Glass house The private Houses of Maestreicht are generally covered with a black Slat or Ardoise otherwise not very beautiful The Town house is fair seated in one of the Piazza's built of white Stone it hath Nine large Windowes in a row on each side and within is very well painted by Theodorus van der Schuer who was Painter to the Queen of Sweden In another Piazza is a Fountain rows of Trees and the great Church This Town was besieged and taken from the King of Spain by the Confederate States in the year 1632. October the Seventh I dined at Gallop a small place and came that night to Aken Aix la Chapelle or Aquisgrane an ancient noble City the Inhabitants Courteous and much frequented by reason of its hot Baths of which I shall speak more particularly in my Journey from Colen to London Leaving Aken I travelled towards Juliers or Gulick but it being late before we arrived the Gates were shut up so as we went only under the Walls leaving it on our right hand Near unto Gulick runneth a shallow swift River called the Roer At the Mouth of it where it falleth into the Maes is seated a considerable Town called Roermonde through which I passed in the year 1673. when Sir Lionel Jenkins and Sir Joseph Williamson were sent Plenipotentiaries to Cologne in our Journey from Antwerp to that City We then passed the Country of Brabant by the way of Thornhaut Weert Roermonde and the next Night passing by Erkelens lodged at Castro or Caster in Gulickland where there are still the remains of an old Castle formerly built for the Defence of that part of the Country Roermonde is seated upon a rising Hill near the River Roer hath a Colledge of Jesuits in it a handsome Piazza and an old Abby with divers Monuments very ancient founded by Gerard Earl of Guelderland From this Town their Excellencies were saluted with the Guns from their Walls charged with Bullets The Spaniards in most places striving to express the highest of their respects From Gulick I travelled to Cologne where I arrived October the 10th 1668. A JOURNEY FROM COLEN TO VIENNA COlen Coln or Colonia Agrippina was anciently the Capital City of the Ubii a people who were at first possessed of the Countries now called Berg and March but being over run by the Germans next to them Agrippa Lieutenant of Gallia received them into protection and placed them upon this side of the Roman shoar of the Rhine where they built this place and called it Oppidum Ubiorum and the Romans seating themselves here for the defence of the Country in Honour of Agrippina daughter to Germanicus and wife to Claudius whose Birth-place it was gave it afterwards the Name of Colonia Agrippina It is at present one of the largest if not the greatest of any City in Germany secured towards the Land by a high Wall and two deep Trenches and towards the Water by a Wall of Stone The Rhine renders it delightful upon one side and divers rows of Trees enclose the Town towards the Land They have some Out-works as Half-moons and Ravelins but their best security is in the great number of men which they are able to raise within themselves Many of the Streets are broad and paved with broad stones It received the Christian Faith very early and Maternus was their Bishop above 1350 years since who subscribed amongst others to the Council of Arles They have a great number of Churches and well endowed which take up a great part of the Town The Prebends and Canons Houses having in many places Vineyards and large Gardens adjoyning Towards the North end of the Town the Church of St. Kunibald is considerable The Convent of the Dominicans is fair and newly built with a Garden in the Court and all the Chambers uniform The Jesuites Church is well built and stored with rich Copes Altar-pieces and other Ornaments In the Church of St. Gereon a Saint of great name here martyred about Colen in the time of Maximianus are about a thousand Saints heads
this may well be reckoned as one of the ten considerable Cities which are upon the Danube accounting from Ulme unto Belgrade as Ulme Ingolstadt Ratisbone Passaw Lintz Vienna Presburg Strigonium Buda Belgrade all which from Ratisbone I had the opportunity to see before the end of my Journey Near to a Wall over against the great Church at Passaw which was then repairing I saw a vast Head cut in stone the Mouth whereof was two spans wide and the rest proportionable The River Iltz which runneth in here from the North is considerable for the Pearls which are found in it and the noble River Inne or Oenus from the South is the greatest River which hath yet entred the Danube having passed by Insbrug and taken in the River Saltz upon which stands Saltzburg and arising in the Alpes in such a high Country as Tirolis it runneth in here with a great force and addeth much unto the swiftness of the Danube Upon the Sixteenth we came to Lintz the chief City in the higher Austria not very great but as neat and handsome a City as most in Germany There is in it a very great Market-place with never a bad House in it the whole Town built of a very white Free-stone and the Castle upon the Hill is of Modern Building and very large There is also a Bridge over the Danube The Imperial Forces rendezvoused here when Solyman came to Vienna This was also besieged by the Peasants of Austria in the time of Ferdinand the Second they having got a Body together of Forty thousand men and many pieces of Ordnance but were stoutly repulsed after many Assaults and at last overcome by Papenheim Not far below Lintz the River Draun enters the Danube this cometh from the Gemundner Sea or Lacus Felicis passing by Lampack Weltz and other Towns and hath a noted Cataract or Fall of Waters The Whirle-poole in the Danvbe I. Olivor Fe THE DESCRIPTION OF VIENNA VIENNA or Wien which the Turks call Berch is the chief City of Austria in the Latitude of forty eight Degrees twenty Minutes not much differing from the Latitude of Paris The old Seat of the Dukes of Austria and for a long time of the Emperours of Germany According to ancient account it standeth in Pannonia superior the Bounds of Pannonia extending unto Kalemburg or Mons Cetius five or six miles Westward of Vienna beyond which still Westward all that lieth between that Hill and the great River Oenus or Inne which runneth into the Danube at Passaw or Castra Batava was anciently called Noricum It was an ancient place of Habitation in the time of the Romans and called Vindobona as the Learned Petrus Lambecius hath at large declared where the Classis Istrica sometimes lay and the tenth German Legion had its station all this shoar or side of the Danube being famous for the actions of Roman Emperours against the Marcomanni and Quadi who possessed the Country on the other side of the River and especially for the wars of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Philosophus who notably defeated those Nations and who as Aurelius Victor who was Governour of Sirmium in Pannonia inferior in the time of Constantius affirmeth fell sick at Carnuntum now Petronel and died at Vindobona now Vienna And to confirm the Antiquity hereof besides what Wolfgangus Lazius hath delivered not many years since some Antiquities were found For in the year 1662. when a wall was digged up near the old Palace the workmen digging still on below the Foundation found a Stone Trough or Coffin containing hard Earth and Bones with a small Gold Coyn a Glass Urn enclosed in a Brass one an Iron Knife like a Sicespita or Knife used about Sacrifices a little Roll or Scroll of pure Gold shut up with a Golden cover at both ends wherein was an Inscription in strange Characters Not far from the Sepulchral Monument were found a Head in Brass a Brazen Patera Lamps Lachrymatories and other Vessels and a Copper Coyn of Antoninus Caracalla The writing in the Golden Scroll which no man could read was conceived by the Learned Lambecius to be the old Pannonian Character and that this might be the Monument of some Pannonian Priest in the days of Caracalla who as good Authors deliver spent some time about these parts It is seated on the South-side of the Danube on the ripa Romana that side nearest to Rome and many Roman Colonies according to the usual position of Roman Stations both upon this River and the Rhine as may be exemplified in Colen Bonna Andarnach Coblentz Ments Wormes Spier and Strasburg And in like manner in the old Roman Stations on the South or Roman side of the Danube which were in no small number in or near the Austrian shoar as Carnuntum or Petronel Vischmund or Aquinoctium Ebersdorff or Ala Nova Melck or Nomale Arlape or Pechlarne Lentia or Lintz for hereby they better secured their Conquests and hindred the incursions of the Barbarians before them It is not seated upon the main stream of the Danube but by a branch thereof for the River running through a low Country it is divided into several Streams and maketh many Islands A small River named Wien runneth by the East part of this City and entreth the Danube below it which upon floods doth often much hurt yet sometimes low and very shallow so as I have stepped over it some will have it to give the Name unto this City it divideth part of the Suburbs from it and hath divers Bridges over it For that we may have a distinct apprehension of Vienna we must consider the City and Suburbs thereof the Suburbs are very great and not without fair Houses Gardens Walks and all Accommodations at large The City it self is that walled and fortified part designed not only for convenience of Habitation but also to sustain a Siege or any Attack from the Turk and is now separated from the Suburbs by a fair Esplanade or open Ground above a Musket shot over The Houses near the wall were pulled down since the last Fortification in the Turkish war when they were in some fear that the Turkish Forces about Gran and New-heusel would move towards them It is fortified a la moderna with ten Bastions towards the Land and a very deep Ditch into which they can let the Danube and with two other Bastions towards the water on that part of the River which lieth on the North-side of the Town The Bastions are large upon one of them I saw Count Souches muster a good part of the Militia of the City The Ditch is large and very deep into which although they can let in the River yet it is commonly kept dry lest they might incommode their deep Cellars There are two walls the one old and inward little considerable at present built at first with the ransome of our King Richard the First who in his return from the Holy War was detained Prisoner by the Duke of Austria upon the 20th of December
him who was employed by King Charles the First to endeavour a reconciliation between the Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany and to unite them if possible We were now in the Territory of the Elector of Brandenburg Fridericus Wilhelmus Great Chamberlain of the Empire who is in effect possessed of Magdeburg and next unto the Austrian Family is the most potent Prince in Germany being able to raise great Armies and his Dominions so large that they are reckoned to extend two hundred German miles in length from the further part of Prussia unto Cleve but they lay not together but interspersed with many other Princes Countries Howsoever a Horse-man may so order his Journey as to lye every night in one of the Electour's Towns in travelling from one end of his Territories to another I had now left the pure German Language behind me for at Magdeburg comes in another kind of German called Plat-Deutch Broad-Dutch Nidersachsische or the Language of lower Saxony a great Language spoken in the North part of Germany They speak it at Hamburg Lubeck and many great Cities But they can converse with the other High-dutch and with some difficulty also with the Netherlanders the one speaking in his Language and the other replying in his At this City of Magdeburg was performed the first Turnament that was in Germany which was opened in the year 635. by the Emperour Henry Surnamed the Fowler who coming from the war of Hungary exceedingly satisfied with the Nobility would oblige them to exercise themselves in handling their Arms and managing their Horses and therefore instituted these Sports whereby the Nobility was powerfully attracted to Valour and Gallantry and induced to perfect and accomplish themselves in all kind of Chevalry No new Nobility no Bastard no Usurper none guilty of High Treason no Oppressor of Widows and Orphans none born of Parents whereof one was of base Extraction and Ignoble no Heretique Murderer Traytor no Coward that had run away from the Battel nor indiscreet Person that had given offence to Ladies by word or deed were admitted to this Honour nor above One of the same Family at a time Princes came into the Lists with four Squires a piece Counts and Barons with three a Knight with two and a Gentleman with one The hour and place for the Turnament being appointed he that had a desire to break a Lance there came to the Presidents Lodgings to have his Name written down which was done in the presence of three Heralds to whom the Champion delivered his Helmet and Sword and after he had been at Confession presented himself in the Lists with one or more Squires according to his quality The Horses of the Combatants were to be without fault or exception the Caparisons and Furniture such as gave no offence their Saddles without any extraordinary rising before and behind and all things equal After which they performed all kind of Exercises on Horse-back and after the Jousts were ended every man repaired to the President of his Nation to wait for the Sentence of the Judges and he that best deserved the Prize received it either from the hand of some Lady or from the Prince that gave it These Pastimes were afterwards disused upon the Emulation it caused between the Princes and Nobility who strove to outvie one another or upon wars in which there was no leisure for such Exercises or perhaps upon consideration that divers brave men lost their lives in these Encounters And no less a Prince than Henry the Second King of France neglecting to wear his Beaver down was slain in a Turnament And at Darmstadt also in the year 1403. at the Three and twentieth Turnament which was held in Germany the Gentlemen of Franconia and those of Hesse drew so much blood upon one another that there remained dead upon the place seventeen of the former and nine of the latter The Winter growing on called me to make haste to Hamburg from whence I intended to pass by Sea into England and therefore I took the advantage of the Stage-Coaches at Magdeburg and in four days came to Hamburg I travelled through a Country for the most part barren of little accommodation or scarce any thing very remarkable through part of the Electour of Brandenburg and then through the Duke of Lunenburg's Country passing by the City of Lunenburg a handsome walled City beautified with divers fair Churches with high Spires The Church of St. Lambert the Town-house and the Duke's Palace are fair Here are Salt-springs in the Town very beneficial to the place and supplying the neighbour Countries The Town is commanded by a Hill near to it called Kalkberg which lieth on the North-side In this Road through lower Saxony I could not but take notice of many Barrows or Mounts of Earth the burial Monuments of great and famous Men to be often observed also in open Countries in England and sometimes rows of great Stones like those in Wormius his Danish Antiquities And in one place I took more particular notice of them where three massy Stones in the middle were encompassed in a large square by other large Stones set up an end Hamburg is a fair City and one of the great ones in Germany it is seated in a Plain being populous rich and remarkably strong It is fortified a la Moderne much after the way of Holland with works of earth but in no place yet Revestues or faced with brick or stone The Territory belonging to it is but small it is divided into the new and the old Town There are five Gates The Stone gate leading towards Lubeck the Dome-gate the Alten-gate or which leadeth unto Altenaw a place near the Town belonging to the King of Denmark where the Romanists and Calvinists have their Churches the Bridge-gate and the Dike-gate The Buildings of this City are handsome and commonly have a fair entrance into them The Senate-house is noble adorned with carved Statua's of the Nine Worthies The Exchange or place of meeting for Merchants was then enlarging it being too small to receive those Numbers which frequented it Many of their Churches are very fair with high Steeples covered with Copper The Front of St. Katherines is beautiful The Steeple of St. Nicholas is supported with great gilded Globes The other great Churches are the Dome-Church St. Peters St. Jacob. The greater and less St. Michael the New-Church in the New town The lesser Churches are St. Gertrude St. Mary Magdalen and the Holy Ghost They have a Sermon every day as in other Lutheran Cities The River Alster runs through it into the Elbe and turneth many Mills and the Tide comes up into divers Streets through Chanels although it be distant eighteen German miles from the Sea or Mouth of the Elbe This place aboundeth with shipping and many of good Burden and is well seated for Trade as having an open passage into the Ocean and being but a days Journey from the Lubeck on the Baltick Sea and being seated upon the long
a House anciently belonging unto the Knights of the Teutonick Order which hath the priviledge of a Sanctuary for Man-slayers and Bankrupts but it is a security but for fourteen days Upon this side there is the largest portion of Land belonging to Franckfort on the other side very little This being a trading place it is no wonder that there are so many Jews in it for a distinction they wear great Ruffs their Sons Bonnets and their Wives a peculiar dress of their Head The Collegiate Church of St. Bartholomew where many of the Emperours have been crowned is large hath a high Steeple and is built of a red stone There are divers handsome Fountains in the Town and good Houses in one of the best of which liveth Monsieur Pierre Neufville a great Merchant and a civil worthy person well known in most places of Commerce who obliged me with Letters to Venice and other places From Franckfort I continued my Journey through the Bergstraes passing by Darmstadt which belongs to one of the Brothers of the House of Hessen commonly known by the name of the Landtgrave of Hessen Darmstadt and afterwards through a fruitful plain Country in the sight of Hills and sometimes near them the whole Country planted with Wallnut-trees Vines Corn and in some places with Tobacco till I arrived at Heidelberg In coming into this Town we passed over the River Neccar Nicer or Necarus upon a Bridge covered over from one end to another with a large Roof of Wood in the same manner is the long Bridge covered at the entrance of the City of Alessandria della paglia in Italy The River Neccar ariseth near the Sylva Martiana now Swartzwald or Black Forest and passing through the Territories of the Duke of Wittenberg runneth into the Rhine at Manheim This though none of the greatest yet is a considerable River of Germany and hath divers good Towns upon it and near it as Sultz Tubingen Wirtingen Essingen Stutgard Canstat Lauffen Hallbrun Heidelberg There being wars at that time when I was in this Country between the Elector Palatine and the Duke of Lorain The Elector resided for the most part at Frankendale to be near his Forces Heidelberg is seated on the South-side of the River Neccar between it and a ridge of high Hills so as it cannot well admit of a modern Fortification or hope to be extraordinary strong as being over-looked by the adjacent Mountains It lieth most at length from East to West It hath been an University since the year 1346. at which time it was begun by Rupertus Count Palatine and at present is much frequented In the great Church was kept the famous Library which after that the Spaniards had taken this Town 1620. was carried to Rome and added to the Vatican where I saw it in the year 1664. being placed upon one side of a very long Gallery belonging to the Vatican Library and the Duke of Urbin's Library placed on the otherside over-against it both which made a notable addition to the Papal Library In this Church and the Church also of St. Peter are divers Monuments of Princes of the Palatine Family and of Learned and Famous Men. The French have a Church here and the present Elector is of the Order of the Holy Ghost and his Son a Mareschal of France and good French and High-dutch are both generally spoken here The Lutherans have also a Church in this Town by the favour of the present Elector although he himself be a Calvinist and to express his generous kindness the higher in this point the first Stone was laid by himself and his Son and it is called the Church of Providence according to the Elector's Motto Dominus Providebit Upon the Town-house is a Clock with divers Motions and when the Clock strikes the figure of an Old man pulls off his hat a Cock crows and shakes his wings Souldiers fight with one another and the like The Prince's Stables for above a hundred Horses are seated upon the River very conveniently but were fairer formerly above half thereof having been ruined by the Imperialists as also divers of the Statues on the outside of the Castle which is seated high above the Town The present Elector is Carolus Ludovicus Son to the King of Bohemia Frederick the Fifth he was born in the year 1617. and passed his Youth an Exile from his Fathers Kingdom and Electorate and at the pacification at Prague 1635. he was excluded from any restitution to be made to him But at length in the Treaty of Munster 1648. he was restored to the lower Palatinate and 1652. returned to the possession of his Fortunes a highly accomplished Prince much honoured and beloved by his Subjects In the year 1650. he married Charlotta Daughter to William the Fifth Landgrave and to the famous Amelia Elizabeth Landgravess of Hassia by whom he had the Chur Prince or Electoral Prince Charles and a Daughter the Princess Charlotta Elizabetha but upon some discontent the Princess Electress since returned to her own Friends and Country This Elector is also Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter Great Treasurer of the Empire and together with the Elector of Saxony Vicar of the Empire In his Palace or Castle at Heidelberg are divers things remarkable a very great Tower to be equalled by very few within which is a Theatre for Comedies This was formerly called Trutzkaisar or the Tower that bad Defiance or threatned the Emperor but since the Restauration of the Elector there are some Works drawn about it in the figure of a Star and the old disobliging Name is by Proclamation forbidden to be continued and it is at present called the Sternschanz or the Star-fort By it is a handsome Garden in the Ditch whereof there was then kept a great Bear and a very large Wolf The Grotto's and Water-works are very handsome they were also making divers others having the advantage of the side of the Hill to bring down the water and to make Grots and Caves in the Rock Amongst other Fountains that of the Lions head with a Frog in his Ear is taken notice of The Cellars are very large and cool filled with Vessels of no ordinary size yet inconsiderable if compared to the great Tun kept in a great Building joyning to the Cellars it was built by this present Elector's Order 1664. and goeth far beyond any made before It contains 204 Faiders and odd measure or about two hundred Tuns instead of Hoops it is built with large knee Timber like the ribs of a Ship which are painted and carved and have divers Inscriptions upon them and supported by carved Pedistals Upon one side of it is a handsome Staircase to ascend to the top of the Vessel upon the top of which is a Gallery set round with Ballisters three and forty steps high from the ground About an English mile from Heidelberg between the Hills is a solitary place where three large Streams or Springs gush out of the
travelled to Lauterbach near which we passed through a Wood and found a Noble Church upon the top of a high Hill which being much frequented by Pilgrims they have made handsome stone Stairs from the bottom to the top then to Rotenburg and lodged at Burgperner and the next day by Schantzbach we came to Nurenberg Rotenburg is an Imperial City which some have likened unto Jerusalem for its Situation upon hilly places and many Turrets in it It is Situated near the head of the River Tauber which may be accounted the second River of Franconia passing by Rottingen Landen and Werthaim where it runneth into the Main Nurenberg is the fairest City that I saw in Germany the Houses most of them of Free-stone very high and divers of them painted on the outside and adorned with gilded Balls on the top many are of six or seven Stories high Der Herr Peller hath one of the fairest The City is very populous and full of Trade although it stands in a barren Country and wants a Navigable River The three best Churches are the Hospital Church lately built very fair St. Laurence which is very large with two high Steeples in the Front and St. Sebald the best of the three The Body of St. Sebald being laid upon a Cart drawn with Oxen in that place where the Oxen stood still they buried the Body and erected this Church in his memory In this Church is a Crucifix of Wood very well carved and esteemed at a high rate The Crucifix without the Church is very great and of a black colour and some fancy that the Raht Herrn or Magistrates of the Town have reposited a Treasure within it The Pulpit is well carved and gilded and the whole Church so stately that it may pass in the first rank of Lutheran Churches that Religion being here practised in its splendour The Priest every morning reads the Scripture to the people for half an hour or preacheth a Sermon The Town-house is well worth the seeing In it the Hall is spacious as also the Chambers and furnished with good Pictures and Stones well gilded and painted with white and gold green and gold dark coloured and gold and the like There is one Picture of most of the Great Persons in Germany entertained in the Great Hall another of the three Brothers of Saxony one of an Elephant as big as the life a piece of St. John and St. Mark and another of St. Peter and St. Paul both by Albert Durer but the most rare piece is that of Adam and Eve by the same Master with this Inscription Albertus Durer Almang faciebat post Virginis partum 1507. Another excellent one is that of St. Luke drawing the Picture of our Saviour and the blessed Virgin Over the Gate at the entrance of the Shambles is a large Oxe carved in Wood and painted over with this Inscription Omnia habent ortus suaque incrementa sed ecce Quem cernis nunquam Bos fuit hic Vitulus The Castle standeth upon a high Hill from whence the Town makes a handsome show In it are observable a very deep well the Emperors Chappel his Picture and the Pictures of the Electors good Night pieces and one of a man behind a white Curtain transparent very well expressed The Armour of Hebbele van Gailinghen the great Sorcerer is here shown and in the Wall of the Castle the marks of his Horses feet when he leaped from thence over the Town ditch The new Fountain was not then finished but the Statua's in Brass made for it were excellent the Sea-Horses large the Sea-Nymphs much bigger than the life and Neptune who was to stand on the top is above three yards and a half high When I came first into this place I was not a little surprized to behold the fairness of the Houses handsome Sreets different Habits industrious People and neatness in all things more than I had observed in German Cities before and no place hath greater number of curious Artificers in Steel Brass Ivory Wood wherein they work at an extraordinary cheap rate and there are Officers to inspect and enquire into the works of Artificers that they be true perfect and without fraud they make strong and handsome Clock-work The King of Poland presented the Grand Signior with a very noble Clock who took so much delight in it that when it required some mending the Turks being ignorant in Clock-work he sent it from Adrianople as far as Nurenburg to be set in order again Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden was more magnificently received and entertained in this City than in any other of Germany which so incensed Wallensteyn that he afterwards encamped before their Town and did great spoil upon their Territories But the King of Sweden marched thither towards their Relief and from thence towards Lutzen where in a bloody Battel he lost his life The River Pegnitz runneth through Nurnberg and hath divers Stone Bridges over it and below the Town joyning with the River Rednitz runneth into the River Main at Bamberg and the Main runs at last into the Rhine The Reduitz ariseth at Weissenberg and is not far from the River Altmul which runneth into the Danube towards Regensburg Upon this convenience Charles the Great designed to make a Communication of passage between the Danube and the Rhine and made a Canale thirty paces broad between the Rednitz and the Altmul to joyn those Streams for the commodity of Passage by Boat but after he had proceeded two German miles in this work Boggs Rains and his warlike Diversions made him give over that noble Design whereby there might have been a Commerce by water from the Low-Countries to Vienna and even unto the Euxine Sea The Roman Lieutenant in Nero's time had a desire to unite the River Soane and the Mosella and to make a passage between the Mediterranean and the German Ocean having been at the mouth of the Mosella by Coblentz and passed from Chaalon upon the soft and noble River Araris or Soane unto Lyon I cannot but think these very goodly Streams and fit for such a purpose The present King of France hath a design to unite the River Aude with the Garonne and so to have a passage by Boat from the Mediterranean Sea by Tholouse and Bourdeaux into the Ocean When I travelled in those parts viewing the Country well I thought it would be a difficult work and so it proveth but the King hath proceeded already very far therein About four Leagues from Nurnberg lyeth Altdorff belonging unto it made an University in the year 1623. containing when I was there about 150 Scholars The Physick Garden is handsome and well stocked with Plants to the number of two thousand Dr. Hoffman the Botanick and Anatomick Professour shew'd me many of the most rare of them and presented me with divers The Anatomy School is not large yet the only one in those parts of Germany And they have divers Curiosities preserved in it as the Skeleton of a
Hart of a Horse of a Man of a Bear bigger than a Horse And some Pictures as one of a Ninivite and another of Moses which they take to be Ancient Dr. Wagenseyl Professour of Law and History brother to Captain Wagenseyl who travelled with me from Heidelberg invited us to lodge at his House and shew'd me his Library and all his Rarities and Coyns whereof he hath a good Collection having lived in most places of Europe and speaks many Languages well he gave me a piece of the first mony that was coined in Germany In the University Library I saw a fair Hortus Eystetensis and Youngerman's Collection of Plants by his own hand At Nurnberg I met with the Son and the Secretary to the Holland Ambassador in Turky who had travelled hither over-land from Constantinople in their return into the Low-Countries travelling in Greek Habits From hence I went to Newmarkt a good Town in the upper Palatinate belonging to the Duke of Bavaria and the next day through Heinmaw subject to the Duke of Newburg to Regensburg Ratisbona Regensburg Augusta Tiberii Colonia Quartanorum the chief place of the Roman Forces in this limit of the Empire where the fourth Italick Legion had a constant station was made a Colony by Tiberius in the year as some conceive of the Passion of our Saviour It was much augmented and adorned by the Emperour Arnulphus who had a great affection for this place so pleasantly seated and in a good Country Here the River Regen runs into the Danube from whence it was called Regensburg There are two Bridges one of wood below the Town and another Bridge of stone of about fifteen Arches which is the fairest stone Bridge over the Danube It is an Imperial City but not without some acknowledgment to the Duke of Bavaria And although it be strongly fortified yet it was taken by the Swedes in the German wars There are many fair buildings in it both private and publick and though I am not able to confirm what some report that there as many Churches and Chappels in this City as there are dayes in the year yet are there many fair Churches and Convents As the Cathedral of St. Peter in the South-side of which is the Picture of St. Peter in a ship and on the North aother of the Apostles first Mission In the Piazza stands a neat little Church the Convent of St. Paul founded by St. Wolfgangus Bishop of this place the Convent of St. Emerammus Bishop of Ratisbone a Saint of great Veneration here though but of little mention or name in other parts The name of Albertus Magnus Bishop of this place hath also added unto the Fame of Regensburg But that which chiefly promoteth its lustre is the General Diet or Parliament which is often held in this City and is not to be called in any part out of Germany and the place is not unfit for the accommodation of such a noble Convention as are the Estates of Germany The Vice-Marshal taketh care to provide Lodgings respectively to their persons and seeth that all things be brought hither and at a just price that the Hall or Place of Assembly be furnished and adorned sutably to the dignity of the Persons convened and hath an especial eye and regard towards the Publick safety By this Convention the great Concerns of Germany are much secured and their peace and quiet Established Wherein Germany seems to have a better advantage than Italy For Italy being likewise divided into many Dominions and Principalities hath no Common Diet or Great Council whereby to proceed for their Publick safety Which makes them often so divided in their common Concerns in times of Danger and when they most need a joynt Combination I entred the notable River Danubius at this place which hath already run a good course and passed by many fair Towns or Cities as the large City of Ulme in Swabenland where it beginneth to be Navigable as also Donawert Neuburg and Ingolstadt and hath already received the considerable River of Licus or Leck whereby the Commodities of that great Trading City of Augsburg are brought into it When I first embarked at Regensburg I thought I might have taken leave of the Danube not far below Vienna but an opportunity made me see this great Stream beyond Belgrade as I have declared in another Account of my Travels The first day we passed by Thonawsteyn where there is a Castle seated upon a high Rock and came to Pfeter or Vetera Castra of old now but an ordinary place The Boats upon the Danube are generally painted black and white are flat bottom'd and broad at the Head and Stern there is a Chamber built in the middle and the Rudder is very large to be able to command the Boat where the River is rapid and of a swift Course The next day we came to Straubing a handsome walled Town belonging to the Duke of Bavaria the Streets are streight and there is a Tower in the Market-place painted all over with green and gold-colour There is also a Bridge of wood over the Danube We passed by Swartz in the Afternoon where the Church is seated upon a Hill and is frequented by Pilgrims and lodged at Deckendorff where there is another Bridge Near this Town comes into the Danube that considerable River Iser or Isara having passed by divers considerable Towns as Landshut Frising and München the Seat of Ferdinandus Maria Elector of Bavaria Great Steward of the Empire and at present the first of the Secular Electors and he is to take place immediately after the King of Bohemia it being so concluded on at the Treaty of Munster where Maximilian Duke of Bavaria was allowed to hold the Electorship which was confirmed upon him by the Emperour Ferdinand the Second when he excluded Frederick the Fifth Count Palatine and in lieu hereof there was an eighth Electorship erected for the Palatinate Family who also if the Bavarian branch doth fail are to re-enter into their ancient Electorship and the other newly erected is to be abolished Thursday November the fifteenth we came by Wilshoven to Passaw Patavia or Boiodurum a long and noble City in the lower Bavaria or Bayern made up of three Towns Iltstadt Passaw and Innstadt at the concurrence of the River Inne the Danube and the Iltz. As Towns are commonly of great Antiquity which are built at the Confluence of great Rivers for the Strength of the Situation and convenience of Commerce so is this accounted ancient as being a Roman Colony and the place of the Castra Batava in old times The Church of St. Stephen is stately besides other fair Churches The Bishop who is Lord of the City hath a strong Palace upon a Hill his Revenues are large and besides what he possesseth hereabouts he hath the tenth part of the notable great Lead-Mine at Bleyberg in Carinthia This place had lately suffered much by fire but a good part was rebuilt and very fairly after the Italian manner So that
consists all of the same matter which ferments in time grows hot smoaks and burns perpetually and withal drinks in a new Vitriol into its self From the Spà we crossed over to Frapont a Village seated upon the pleasant River Uta or Ourte where we took Boat and went down a rapid Stream yet one of the pleasantest I ever saw winding and turning between so many green Hills in part of the Forest of Arduenna We descended afterwards thirty or forty small Falls in a long Boat made on purpose The Oar or Paddle being only a square piece of Board fixed to the end of a Pole the Pole standing perpendicularly in the middle of it The delightful River Vesa or the Wesdret soon met us and joyning together we fell down with them into the Maes near Liege Upon the Banks of these Rivers all the Arms Guns and other Instruments are made for which the Country of Liege is remarkable Liege Luick Leodium or Augusta Eburonum Learned Men think this City to be seated near that Valley wherein two Legions of Julius Caesar under Sabinus and Cotta were destroyed by Ambiorix chief Commander of the Eburones It is seated upon the River Mosa which entring with two Streams makes some pretty Islands Three other small Rivers arising in the Forest of Ardenna are also here received into the Maes whereby they have plenty of Fish and other Conveniencies The City is very populous and so it hath been in former Ages when as Charles Duke of Purgunay sacked it and destroyed an hundred thousand of the people It aboundeth with fair Churches stately Convents and Religious Foundations richly endowed so that it hath been called the Paradise of Priests and is in that kind the most notable in all these parts The Palace of the Bishop is a noble Fabrick built by Cardinal Erardus Bishop of Liege The Cathedral beareth the Name of St. Lambert who being Bishop of Maestreicht was murdered by Dodo and others about the year 622. The See was afterwards translated unto Liege by Hubertus as it had been formerly from Tongres to Maestreicht and the Body of St. Lambert removed unto this Church which is at present very noble being built of a reddish Stone very much carved without and handsomely adorned within Between the Quire and Sacristy is this Inscription in very large Letters D. O. M. Intemeratae Virgini Mariae Sancto Lamberto Ecclesiae Patriae Divis Tutelaribus Maximilianus Henricus utriusque Bavariae Dux Archiepiscopus Elector Coloniensis Episcopus Princeps Leodiensis Ernesti Ferdinandi Bavariae Ducum Episcoporum Principum Leodiensium Nepos Successor in sui Praedecessorum memoriam Ponebat MDCLVIII The Canons hereof are of great riches and power and have the Election of the Bishop and Prince who hath also had the Titles of Duke of Bouillon Marquiss of Franchimont and Count of Lootz and Hasbania In the Coin of Maximilian the present Elector of Colen and Bishop of Liege I find this Inscription Maximilianus Henricus Dei gratiâ Archiepiscopus Coloniensis Episcopus Princeps Leodiensis Supremus Bullonensis Dux Speutus the Bishop of Liege bought the Principality of Liege of Godfrey of Bouillon when he went to the Holy Land And in the Treaty of Cambray 1559. the possession of Bouillon and precedency of Title was granted to the Bishop of Liege although at this time also the Houses of La Tour and Mark do bear the same Of the Parish Churches that of St. John and of St. Servasius are fair Of the Abbies that of St. Jacob within the Town and of St. Lawrence built by Bishop Raginardus upon an Hill out of the Town are noble There is also a Colledge of English Jesuites well-seated upon a Hill where the Garden is handsome and the Dyals made by Franciscus Linus are worth the seeing And an English Nunnery handsomely built In the Church of the Gulielmites out of the Town lieth the Body of our famous Country-man Sir John Mandeville who after he had travelled through so many parts took an affection unto this place and here passed the remainder of his life and whose Epitaph and some Rarities of his are still to be seen Bishop Notger who was consecrated by St. Gereon Arch-bishop of Colen and died in the year 1007. built the walls of this City and being Tutor to Otho the third he found means very much to beautifie it to repair and build divers Churches and endow them with rich Revenues and let the River Maes into the Town which before ran upon one side of it As their Churches are fair and numerous so are their Bells and Chimes remarkable In the Cathedral of St. Lambert there are eight large Bells and twelve lesser and there is one so great as it is said to require Twenty four men to ring it In the Church of St. Paul the Bells and Chimes are considerable as also at St. Lawrence and the crossed Friers It is also an University and was so famous in former Ages that they still take notice that at one time there have been Nine Sons of Kings Twenty four Dukes Sons Twenty nine of Counts besides many of great Barons Students therein Their Speech here as also at Spaw is called Roman and is a kind of old French or Dialect of that Language a great part of which is made up of Latin or Roman words and they call the Neighbouring Language of the Dutch Tuiscon But many speak very good French They have some Vineyards affording a small Wine The Hills about furnish them with Quarries of good Stone and of several kinds They have also divers Mines and Minerals and great quantity of Pit-coal for Fire in some places fetched deep out of the Earth in others nearer the Surface and in one place I saw them beginning to dig where they immediately found Coal Their Pumps and Engines to draw out the water are very considerable at these Mines in some places moved by Wheels at above a Furlongs distance to which they are continued by strong Wood-work which moves backwards and forwards continually The Citadel standeth upon a Hill and is of great Strength It was built to keep the City of Liege under Subjection For 1649. there being some disturbances in the City Ferdinand the Elector of Colen offering to come into the Town to appease it was opposed by the Consul Jacobus Hennet who was soon after surprised and beheaded together with Bartholomaeus Rolandus the Consul having sworn the Elector should never come in whilst he were alive And the Citadel soon after was ordered to be built The Bridges are handsome that over the great Stream of the Maes is very broad and fair and hath large Arches From hence we could read the Elector's name upon the Citadel Maximilianus although it were at a very great distance the Letters were so large From Liege we had a pleasant passage down the Water to Maestreicht passing by Argentau a Castle seated upon a high Rock on the right side of the River belonging
1192. The Austrians pretending they had received some affront from the King at Joppa and that he had taken down the Ensign and Banner of Duke Leopold in a contemptuous way The other outward of a great breadth made of Earth and faced with Brick edged with Free-stone so well built as to render this City one of the most considerable fortified places in Europe The Esplanade gently descendeth from the Town for three hundred Paces there are very few Out-works It is very uncertain who was the first Builder of Vienna and after it had been long built it ran to decay again for Four hundred years together till Henry the First Duke of Austria in the year 1158. did much repair it and the ransome afterwards of King Richard beautified it The whole compass taking in the Suburbs makes a very large Circuit but the City it self which is walled in may be about three miles in Circumference and is exceeding populous as full of People for the bigness of the place as most of the great Cities And I could not but take delight to behold so many Nations in it as Turks Tartars Graecians Transylvanians Sclavonians Hungarians Croatians Spaniards Italians French Germans Polanders c. all in their proper Habits The chief Gates are six 1. Stubnthor or the Stuben Gate towards the East 2. Karnterthor or the Gate of Carinthia towards the South 3. Burgthor the Town Gate or Castle Gate 4. Schottenthor or the Scotch Gate 5. Newthor or the Newgate these two last towards the West And 6. the Gate of the red Tower towards the North which leadeth unto the Bridge over the Danube and towards the water side there is also a Port by the Emperours palace and a Cloyster or Nunnery in the Town hath the Name of a Port called Himmel port or the Gate of Heaven The five first of these Gates are vaulted and arched with long passages through the Town-wall and have good Bridges of Wood with Draw-bridges to pass over the Town ditch The sixth is under a Tower and leads to the Bridges of the Danube For that River running here in a flat low Country divideth its streams so that to pass it quite over there are at present seven long Bridges made up of many thousand Tree laid one by another after their way of making Bridges There is also a Bridge within the City of Vienna called the Hochbrug or High-bridge which is made by the crossing of two Streets at equal Angles the ground of one street being as high as the tops of the Houses of the other so that to continue it they were forced to build a Bridge or Arch in the Lower-street to let the upper pass over it The City is fairly built of stone and well paved many Houses are of six stories high they are somewhat flat roofed after the Italian way the Streets are not narrow but the compass of ground will not admit them to be very broad and their Buildings are remarkable both above and below ground their Cellars are very deep To satisfie my curiosity I went into some of them and found four Cellars one under another they were arched and had two pair of Stairs to descend into them Some have an open space in the middle of each roof to let the Air out of one Cellar into another and from the lowest an adit or tube unto the top to let the Air in and out from the street somewhat after the manner of the Mines Aenaeas Sylvius about two hundred years since commending the City of Nurnburg among other expressions le ts fall this Cuperent Scotorum Reges tam egregiè quam mediocres Cives Norinbergenses habitare The Kings of Scots would be content to dwell so well as the middle sort of Citizens of Nurnburg I must confess when I first entred Nurnburg I was much surprised to see such a noble large spruce rich and well built City But Vienna doth also deserve the commendation which he affordeth it Ubi Palatia digna Regibus Templa quae mirari Italia possit Where there are Palaces fit for Kings and Churches which Italy may admire And this being spoken so long ago is now better verified of it A noble copper Columne Standing before the Iesuites College in Vienna Iohn Oliuer Fecit There are also many fair Churches rich Convents and Conventual Churches as that of the Carmelites of the Franciscans of the Benedictines of St. Nicholas In this Church I could not but take notice of the late Sepulchral Monuments of Count Strozzi and Cardinal Harach The Dominican Convent is very fair The Augustines have a large Church in the middle whereof they have built a Chappel after the manner of the Holy House at Loretto upon the top of which hang the Colours taken from the Turks and Tartars many of which Ensigns are not square like ours but made Escucheon-wise some filled with Circles wherein are expressed half Moons The Jesuites Colledges are large who seldome fail of noble Convents especially in places where they have so good footing as in this The Front of one of their Colledges openeth into a fair Piazza in the middle whereof stands a large and high composite Column of Copper upon a Pedestal of white stone with four Angels with Escucheons and on the top the blessed Virgin Inscriptions also in which the Emperour dedicates Austria unto her Patronage and Tuition In another Market-place where the Town-house is there is a handsome Statua of Justice in Copper I could not but observe the Scotch Church and Cloyster which gave also the name unto the Scotch Gate of the City because I somewhat wondered how the Scots in old time should be so considerable in this place but I found by Information and the Account of Lazius and Matthaeus Merian in High-dutch that this Convent was in former times a great Receptacle for the Scots in their long Pilgrimage unto Jerusalem founded and endowed by Duke Henry the First in memory of St. Gregory and it may seem less strange that the Scots should have a Convent here and be numerous in these parts in former Ages if we consider that St. Colman one of the Saints of the greatest Veneration in this Country was a Scotchman and said to be of the Royal Blood of Scotland who in his passage to Jerusalem was murdered by the Baurs or Country people at Stockerau four German miles from Vienna and hanged on a Tree where as the Story goes his Body remained uncorrupted for a year and a half and divers Miracles being affirmed of it it was taken down and honourably interred near Stockerau but by Meginhard Bishop of Aichstadt it was translated unto Melk and afterwards sent into Hungary and his Head kept a long time at Stullweissenburg or Alba Regalis according to the Account which is here given of this Saint The Church of St. Peter is also considerable not for its Splendour but Antiquity as being accounted the oldest in the City standing in a place where in old time there
Bishop of Triers The Picture of St. Katherine of Sienna drawn by Sigismund King of Poland A Picture of the Emperour as he giveth Audience to be looked upon through a little round hole A neat Table of Inlay'd Stone made by the present Empress Dowager Eleonora A Nail of our Saviour's Cross almost a foot long our Saviour's Blood and two Thorns of his Crown the one whiter than the other Priests Garments covered all over with large Pearl The great and high esteemed Agate Dish between three and four spans Diameter with XRISOS naturally in it Unto which one applied that of St. Luke Dico vobis quia si hi tacuerint lapides clamabunt Unto which magnificent Rarities there is one more added the noble Chain of Pearl of eight yards long taken from the Graff Tokoly in the late Hungarian war as I understand since my Return I went unto divers noted Places about Vienna I walked unto the Hill of Vienna two English miles distant from the Town going up all the way by an easie Ascent from whence I had a prospect of the City and the Campagnia about it together with the high Mountains in Steirmark covered with Snow and in my return saw the Palace of the Empress Dowager without the Town called la Favorita and passed by the Convent of the Paulini About two English miles Eastward from Vienna there is a very noble Garden-place belonging to the Emperour built by Rodolphus the Second which hath been formerly well furnished and provided with Plants but now seems to be neglected and somewhat ruinous It consisteth of an inward and an outward square Garden The inward is two hundred ordinary paces square about the same bigness with the Place Royal at Paris It hath a Portico or Cloyster supported by Forty Pillars of white Stone on each side and is covered with Copper as are also the Pavilions which the common people think to be Gold Besides this there is an handsome row of Buildings well seated called Néw-gabaú in which at present are many wild Beasts kept Lions and Tigres breed here and have young ones Some say this was the place of Solyman the Magnificents Tent when he besieged Vienna There is also about two or three miles from Vienna a noted place of Devotion called Arnols much frequented especially in Lent divers carrying Crosses very heavy all the way upon their shoulders There is here a little House built exactly after that of the Sepulchre at Jerusalem and also a handsome Copy of the Picture of our Saviour and the Virgin Mary with their exact heights That of our Saviour is about two yards high that of the blessed Virgin three or four singers breadth lower These are taken from the Original in St. John de Lateran at Rome Hither the Empress desired to go one morning from her own Palace on foot out of Devotion which she performed though with a great deal of difficulty she being not used to walk and the way was dusty The Emperour accompanied her and all the Court followed on foot which made a handsome shew Nearer unto Vienna there is also a remarkable place for Devotion called Itzing and in the way from Vienna unto it the twelve Stations of the Cross are marked out in imitation of what is observed near Jerusalem in the Via Crucis or Dolorosa in our Saviours proceeding from the City unto Mount Calvary the Figures thereof are printed and the several paces between every Station set down The Emperour hath a handsome Park near Vienna called the Brater wherein I beheld the effects of the great Lightning and Thunder which happened three days before upon many great Trees which were torn split or twisted There is a House of Pleasure in it where among other things I could not but take notice of a Musical Instrument which I had not seen before a Seat or Chest-drum it hath a Cord like that of a Sea-trumpet but soundeth like a Kettle-drum I went also unto Laxambourg whither the Emperour often retireth he hath a House in this place but it is old and not large There is also a House of Pleasure in the Mote into which there is no other passage but through a high Gorridore The Castle is commodiously seated for the Emperours recreation and there is an eight-square House in the Marsh from which the Nobility and the Empress Dowager sometimes used to shoot she being very expert therein Over the Gate of the Emperours House hangs a great Rib and Jaw-bone whereof I could get no better account then they were the Rib and Jaw-bone of a heathen-maid They seemed to me to be Bones of an Elephant But many things that are old or obscure they call in this Country Heathen as Roman Coyns they call Heathen mony And the Peasants brought me in a place which had been formerly an old Roman Station part of the bit of a Bridle digged up which they concluded to be a Heathen Key From hence I went unto Mannersdorff seated not far from the River Leyta where there is a natural hot Bath called the Wildebath it ariseth under a Church the Church being built over the Spring-head The water of it is but Lukewarm and therefore when they desire it hotter they boyl it and so bathe in Tubs in a large room From that Substance which sticketh to the sides of the Coppers in the boyling of it they judge it to be impregnated with Sulphur Salt-peter and Chalk The water colours the stones and makes them look when wet like fine Turquoises And the vapour of the Bath hanging upon the Moss on the sides gives it an Amber or Gold colour The Physicians of Vienna have given a good account concerning the use of these Baths in High-dutch Not far from hence is a noted Quarry of Stone out of which a great part of Vienna is built The Stones being large they cut and square them at the Quarry From hence I proceeded to the Newsidler-sea or Lake so called from Newsidle which is a Town seated upon the Northern part of it consisting of one street and some back-houses and a small square old Castle upon a Hill from whence I had a good prospect over the Lake It is about three German miles broad and seven miles long The fairest Lake in these parts affording plenty of Fish encompassed and thickly set about with small Towns and Villages and hath no River at least not considerable running into or out of it A little way from the Gate of Newsidle they dig out a black earth out of which they make Salt peter In this Journey not far from Himburg we passed by a place called Rauckward which though it seems not high looks over a great part of Austria and as far as Brin the second City of Moravia a part also of the Kingdom of Bohemia and a part of the Kingdom of Hungaria I went afterwards four English miles up the Stream of the Danube to see a noted Quarry of Stone in a Hill called Altenburg The beds rows or
Metallica gives this for one reason why Mines or passages in Mines are given over From Janikaw I travelled to Czaslaw a good Town and the chiefest in the Czaslawer Circle In this place they say that Zisca was buried that famous Bohemian General he lost one Eye by an Arrow and was at length blind of both yet gave not over the war and proved successful in it He wished his Friends to make a Drum of his Skin which should serve to fright away their Enemies And though he cared not for any Sepulchral Monument yet he had one in this place From Czaslaw we came to Guttenberg or Cottenberg about eight Bohemian miles from Prague every mile being five or six English miles A large Town and much frequented not far from the River Albis or Elbe of especal note for the Silver Mines about it The Hills near it are not high and consequently the Mines are not so deep as those of Hungary and some others in Germany yet some are above seventy or eighty Fathoms They have wrought at these Mines seven hundred years and there are about thirty of them I went down into that which was first digged but afterwards left for a long time but they work there now again it is called the Cotna or Auf der Cotten upon the Cotten or Coat-hill and as the Story goeth a Monk walking over this Hill found a kind of a Silver Tree sticking to his Garment which was the occasion that they afterwards digged and built these Mines and the place retains the name of Cottenberg The Mine into which I descended near the Town is but nineteen Fathoms deep the chief Vein of the Ore runneth South and is about a foot in breadth the Ore holdeth or containeth in it Silver and Copper so that out of an hundred pound weight of Ore they ordinarily get an Ounce of Silver and eight nine or ten ounces or more of Copper even to pounds but it is not well known for the Copper-works are the Emperours The Undertakers get out what Silver they can and afterwards sell the Ore unto the Emperours Officers but some Ore is sorich as to contain eight or nine ounces of Silver A blew Earth which they meet with in digging affords the best hopes of Ore Two men lately perished in this Mine having made a fire in it being either choaked with the smoak or as they thought by the poysonous exhalations forced out of the Minerals by the fire I have read that Libussa the Princess and reputed Sorceress of Bohemia foretold many things concerning these Mines but certain it is that for the advantage and profit these bring the Town hath suffered much in many wars The Emperour Sigismund made haste out of it upon the approach of Zisca and seeing he could not hold it burnt the Town but it was soon rebuilt and possessed by Zisca whose party called it the Purse of Antichrist Leaving Cottenburg I came to Colline and to Bohemian Broda so named to distinguish it from Dutch or Teutonick Broda before mentioned a considerable good Town and from thence came to Prag or Prague the Capital and Royal City of the Kingdom of Bohemia The Walls of this City seem to enclose the greatest Citcuit of ground of any I have seen in Germany but the Hills and void spaces within it take up a large Tract and therein it is like the City of Lyon in France it is seated upon the River Muldau by the Bohemians named Ultaue a large rapid River arising in the South part of Bohemia and before at arriveth at Prague receiveth the River Sarsua and the Watta into it and Northward of Prague the River Egra and joyneth with the Elbe This great place consisteth of three Towns named the Old the New and the Kleine Seitten or lesser Town The old Town lieth upon the East of the River Muldau is very populous full of Buildings private and publick Very considerable in this part is also the University wherein are great numbers of Students and Scholars there being but one University in Bohemia many persons also resorting thither from other Countries It is scarce credible what is reported of the number of Scholars in Prague in former Ages as hath been delivered by divers Authors And Lewis du May Counsellor unto the Duke of Wittenburg affirmeth That there are at present scarce so many Students in all Germany as there were at Prague in the year 1409. when they reckoned above Forty thousand under the Rectorship of John Hus. Charles the Fourth Emperour and King of Bohemia founded the University of Prague giving equal priviledges to the Bohemians Polanders and Germans and when he would retrench his favours towards Strangers there went out of the Town in a weeks time twenty four thousand Scholars and a little after sixteen thousand whereby we may judge there were more Scholars in Prague than other persons in some great Cities There are also in this old Town divers Colledges and Cloysters The Jesuites have a fair handsome Colledge near unto the Bridge but the Buildings of the old Town are inferiour to those of the lesser Town The new Town is large and together with the River encompasseth the old and is divided from it by a large Trench or Ditch in o which they can let in the River The Irish have a Cloyster of Franciscans near unto an old Tower in the Wall of the old Town The Jesuites have also begun a large Cloyster which if finished according to its beginning and design will be very spacious and noble They are now making Bastions about the Town at one end thereof there is also a Citadel but not finished at Wisseraht or Wissegrade formerly the Seat of the Princes of Bohemia and also of the famous Princess Libussa the Daughter of Crocus and Wife unto Primislaus The Kleine Seitten or lesser Prague far exceedeth the other for pleasantness and beauty of Buildings and fair Palaces This part lieth Westward of the River Muldaw which between this and the old Town is passable by a strong Stone-bridge consisting of sixteen great Arches being about Seventeen hundred foot long and Thirty five foot broad and two open Gates under two high Towers of Stone at each end A great part of this Town lieth high and upon the Hill standeth Hratschin or Upper Prague and a Summer House of the Emperours besides a Magnificent Palace of the Emperours as King of Bohemia and by it a fair Cathedral Church dedicated to St. Veit first built by St. Wenceslaus Duke of Bohemia 923. from whence the Town and River is best viewed In this Church are divers old Monuments for great Persons as for Pogiebrachius a Bohemian King Wenceslaus Rodolphus the Second Charles the Fourth Ladislaus Maximilian the Second and other Arch-Dukes and Emperours There are also many Houses of the Nobility in this part of the City The Palace and Garden of Colaredo is exceeding neat though small But I was most pleased with the Palace of Count Wallensteyn Duke of Friedland
General unto the Emperour Ferdinand the Second who being suspected to Usurp that Kingdom was afterwards killed at Egra This Palace was built upon the Ruins of an hundred Houses purposely plucked down to make room for it wherein the Hall is large the Garden handsome upon one side whereof there is a place to manage Horses and near unto it a Fish-pond in another part there is a noble Aviary with a Garden and Trees in it after the manner of the Aviary of Prince Doria at Genoa which is eighty paces long and eighteen broad The Stable is large and worth the seeing wherein there is a Marble Pillar between each Horse and for every Horse there is placed in a nich of the Wall a Rack of Steel and Manger of Marble and over his Head hangeth a Picture of the Horse as big as the Life with his Name under it Among the rest I observed that a Bay-horse had for his Name Monte d'Oro a Mare Bella donna another Espagnoletta and his most beloved Horse was named Mas Querido Some have thought that the best high German is spoken in this part of Prague and there living so many of the Nobility and great Persons it is not to be wondred at that their Language is better than ordinary But the common Language of Bohemia is a Dialect of the Sclavonian though very many speak also High dutch as we found in all our passage through that Country Koningsmark being with his Forces on the Frontiers of Bohemia a discontented Colonel of the Imperialists came unto him making it probable that he might surprize Hratschin and the lesser side of Prague which he suddainly attempted and so successfully that he surprized many Officers and old Colaredo in his Bed getting so great a Booty that he could scarce carry it away A part of Prague is inhabited by Jews and called the Jews Town there are no small number of them and many rich as trading in all Commodities and have good skill in Jewels and several sorts of Stones digged out of the Mines in Bohemia I bought some Bohemian Topazes of them neatly cut and well-figured and some which were very large and clear were at the rate of seven or eight Dollars During my stay here I had a great desire to have saluted Johannes Marcus-Marci a famous Physician and Philosopher of Prague and also to have induced him to a Correspondence with the Royal Society but I understood that he had left this World to the great grief of Learned Men in these and other parts Many here do speak still of John Hus and Jerome of Prague and I have seen Silver Medals of them They were surely very notable men and I shall only set down what Aeneas Sylvius or Pope Pius the Second said of them Johannes aetate major authoritate doctrinâ facundiâ superior Hieronymus pertulerunt ambo constanti animo necem quasi ad Epulum invitati ad incendium properarunt nullam emittentes vocem quae miseri animi posset ferre indicium ubi ardere ceperunt hymnum cecinere quem vix flamma fragor ignis intercipere potuit nemo Philosophorum tam forti animo mortem pertulisse traditur quam isti incendium In Hist Bohemica John was or greater years and authority Jerome of more Eloquence and Learning both of them endured their Death with great constancy and went unto the fire as though invited to a Banquet when they began to burn they sung an Hymn which the flame and fire could scarce intercept None of the old Philosophers endured their death with such a courageous mind as these the fire The same Author compareth Prague unto the City of Florence in Tuscany wherefore having seen both places I cannot omit to say something I had a view of the City of Florence from the top of the Domo or Cathedral and of Prague from the Church of St. Veit upon the Hill in the lesser Town Prague seemed to my eye to contain a far greater Circuit than Florence it seemed also more populous and to exceed it very much in the number of People the Streets larger and the Windows of Palaces and fair Houses being of Glass looked not so tatterdly as the ragged Paper Windows of Florence The River Arno which runs through Florence is not to be compared with the Muldau at Prague having run about an hundred miles from its Head The large massy long Stone-Bridge exceedeth any of if not all the four Bridges of Florence The Emperours Palace also upon the Hill is very stately But as for the well-paved Streets of Florence the Domo or Cathedral with black and white Marble with a Cupola second only to that of St. Peters of Rome for the incomparable Chappel of St. Laurence and the Dukes Gallery and Rarities I must confess I saw not any thing in Prague which answered them At Weissenberg or the white Hill near Prague that deciding Battel was fought Novemb. 8. 1620. between Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine elected King of Bohemia and the Forces of the Emperour Ferdinand the Second which gave such a deep blow unto the Protestant Party wherein so many of Frederick's Forces were slain and drowned in the River in their slight wherein also that famous Commander Papenheim was found lying among the dead who notwithstanding died not of his wounds but was reserved to end his days with the King of Sweden in the memorable Battel of Lutzen From Prague I designed to pass by water down the Muldaw which uniteth with the Elbe about Melnick and so down the Elbe unto Hamburg But the Winter advancing and the Weather proving cold the Boats did not go as in Summer and therefore I took my Journey by Land and leaving Prague and the Muldau on the right hand I passed the first day to Zagethal the next to Weluerne and so to Budin and Labasitz upon the Elbe Having passed over the Egra a considerable River arising not far from the City of Egra and at last running into the Elbe the next day by the Castle of Kriegstein or Warrestone seated upon a high steep Rock I came to Ausig a small City not far from the Elbe having little remarkable in it like many other small Cities of Bohemia and so forward to Nolndorff where we lodged upon Mount Kninsberg the day after we entred into Misnia passing by Peterswald and Hellendorff the first Village in Misnia and Kisibel where are Iron Mines about eighteen Fathoms deep and Iron works We now understood that Bohemia was a larger Country than we expected it lieth round and some say it is three days postage over others that the Diameter extendeth two hundred miles From Igla upon the Confines unto Hellendorff it took me nine days Journey in November by Coach not reckoning the time I staid at Prague In many places there are very ill Passages and so rudely mended with great Trees laid side by side that they are often very troublesome to pass We travelled afterwards towards Dresden