appointed place for the abbey, which they accordingly proceeded to found there, the Count Palatine constituting himself the Visitor of the convent. The original record of the foundation was supposed to be preserved in the royal state archives at Berlin, until signs were detected which fixed the date of the apocryphal document to be the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Count Palatine Henry dying, left the work to Count Siegfried, who for years neglected to carry it out, but at last, moved by repentance, and terrified by a storm at sea, proceeded with it, destroying the neighbouring castle in order that the monks might be left to dwell in peace. The Cloister was put under the supervision of the Abbot of Haffligem, in Belgium, and Siegfried made himself Visitor, or patron. Whenever the Visitor was called it was settled that he was to receive three malters of corn for bread; in winter ten, and in summer five malters of oats for his horses; two pigs, five florins in cash in the evening, and one florin thirty hellers in the morning, and lastly an awme of wine in the evening, and half that quantity in the morning, for the refreshment of himself and suite. This Count enacted also that he and his family, as well as other Visitors, should be buried in the convent. Siegfried died without completing the work, which was neglected by his son William, and again taken up by Hedwig, Countess of Are, in Nickenich, probably the widow of Gerhard II., of Hochstaden, she giving the remaining half of the lake to the convent. Her benefaction was gratefully recorded in an inscription on a pillar in the choir of the church:
Prole potens virgo, petimus pro munere largo
Da tibi submisse celos Hedwich comitisse.
The first monks came to Laach from Haffligem, in Belgium, which convent is said to have had so great a reputation for piety, that St. Bernard, of Clairvaux, declared he found them angels rather than men. The consecration of the church by Archbishop Hillinus, of Trêves, took place on the 24th of August, 1156, to the honour of the Holy Trinity, while it was confided to the special protection of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Nicholas, the legal appellation of the convent being: “Monasterium beatæ Mariæ Virginis in Lacu prope Antonacum.” It was governed by priors till 1627, when it was given an abbot of its own. Laach fell to the See of Cologne through the last will of Count Palatine William, but in the sixteenth century we find the Abbot John, of Cochem, at issue with the See of Cologne, and intriguing to transfer the investiture to Trêves, consequently the convent was taken forcible possession of by Raban William, a Captain of Cologne, in the name of the Archbishop, and occupied by a party of men-at-arms and arquebusiers seventy-five strong. The monks were of the Benedictine order, which had its rise in Italy 540 A.D., and the rule was that of Clugny. One vow was taken, that of unconditional obedience, and the regulations were supple, the dress itself of the order assimilating itself to national costumes. The abbot alone had the power of inflicting punishment, on the report of the prior. These varied from the greatest, which was the lesser excommunication, to such discipline as sitting on the ground at meals, which was applied to those who were late at matins. This convent, after a long period of secularisation, during which its buildings were considerably modernised, has at length, by lease or purchase, come into possession of the Jesuit Fathers, a party of whom, on the memorable 20th of April, 1863, were celebrating their arrival with a bowl of May-wine (i.e., Rhine wine sweetened and flavoured with wood-ruffe and a slice of lemon,) and they looked with their severe robes and buxom faces something like a party of jolly undertakers’ men. Of course there is a restaurant in the garden of the convent, a very necessary institution when the villages are so far off. The church is entered from the lovely convent-garden through a beautiful cloister, with a little classic flower-garden in the midst, bringing to mind the Alhambra Court in the Crystal Palace, save that the arches are not of horse-shoe shape, but perfectly beautiful specimens of the round Byzantine style.
The ornamentation of the main arch leading into the cloister is an exquisitely tasteful and chaste design of leaves and flowers. This cloister appears to date from the second half of the twelfth century. Three of the portals of the church have been walled up; the other two are approached through the cloister. The ground plan is supposed to have been borrowed from that of the cathedral at Cologne: the length of the interior is 208 feet: the whole length of the building being 261 feet 10 inches. The nave is tripartite, the highest part being in the middle. The vaults of the roofs spring rapidly from square shafts, which are partly ornamented with pilasters. There are two transepts, two choirs, and five towers: besides these there is a short one over the eastern transept, crowned with an octagon cupola. The whole of the details of the interior and exterior deserve careful study, as showing how simple means may produce an architectural effect of perfect beauty. Beneath the choir is a crypt with corresponding area. It is long since the church has been used for Divine service. It looked naked and empty, and full of glaring light, as the Byzantine style requires coloured windows to give the proper religious gloom. In the full sun-glare the remains of gaudy colours that had been laid on the internal architecture in some particularly vulgar age, looked especially odious, and the tombs wore a mouldy, mournful, and neglected look. From the emptiness of the whole space the natural echo was increased, so that every step was repeated throughout the length and breadth of the building. It is necessary to beware of a stumble in descending the step between the nave and choir, since that step is said to have been often overlooked through people keeping their eyes fixed on the vaulted roof. A striking contrast is felt on emerging from the solemn desolation of the church to the luxuriant world without, and the orchards laughing in blossoms, which stand out against the blue heaven with the mingled lustre of rock-salt, and snow, and silver. Our path lies along the western shore of the lake, up a deep sandy road to the crest of the hills on the north, whence a pretty peep of the Rhine and Drachenfels is gained, and so down to the valley