Page:Notes ecclesiological and picturesque.djvu/19

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2
AUSTRIA.

Portugal, of which he has published an interesting little account. A community of interest in our pursuits and inquiries, and the perpetual cheerfulness and unvarying good humour of my companion,— would have been enough to make me forget inconveniences of a far graver character than any which it was our lot actually to encounter.

WE LEFT London on Tuesday, April 17, 1860, by way of Dover and Calais, for Paris. Proceeding by the Great Eastern of France, we devoted some days to the ecclesiology of Toul, Metz, and Strasburg. Hence, through snowstorms and bitter east wind, we made our way, by Karlsruhe and Bruchsal, to Stuttgart. Here we were most kindly received by His Excellency C. T. R. Gordon, Ambassador at the Court of Würtemburg, and one of the first ecclesiologists of our day ; to whom our thanks are due for a most pleasant evening in his hospitable house.

Continuing our route by Esslingen, Ulm, and Augsburg, to Donauwerth, we then descended the river, whence that place derives its name, to Ratisbon. After giving two delightful days to that noble city, we resolved, as I was desirous of obtaining some idea of the churches in the Valley of the Danube, to continue our course by land. Up to this point, the chief ecclesiastical buildings of Wiirtemburg and Bavaria have been so carefully described by English ecclesiologists, especially by my friend, Mr. Webb, in his admirable work, that I could not hope to add anything to the results of their researches. Ratisbon passed, I am treading ground not described, I believe,