



Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project
Gutenberg (This file was produced from images generously
made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)








                                  THE
                          LIFE OF THE MOSELLE,
                From its Source in the Vosges Mountains
                                   To
                Its Junction with the Rhine at Coblence.


                                   BY
                            OCTAVIUS ROOKE,

Author of "The Channel Islands, Pictorial, Legendary, and Descriptive."
                Illustrated with Seventy Engravings from
                    Original Drawings by the Author.

                         Engraved by T. Bolton.


                                LONDON:
                      L. BOOTH, 307 REGENT STREET.

                                 1858.







        Ein donnernd Hoch aus voller Brust
        Ersling zum Himmel laut,
        Dir schoenem, deutschem Moselstrom,
        Dir, deutschen Rheines Braut!

                                    Julius Otto.







                              THIS BOOK IS
                              DEDICATED TO

                                His Wife

                             BY THE AUTHOR.







PREFACE.


The beautiful scenery of the Moselle has too long been left without
notice. It is true, some of our Artists have presented to us scenes
on the banks of this river; but English travellers are, for the most
part, ignorant how very charming and eminently picturesque are the
shores of this lovely stream.

"The Rhine! the Rhine!" is quoted by every one, and admired or abused
at every fireside, but the Moselle is almost wholly unexplored. Lying,
as she does, within a district absolutely overrun with summer-tourists,
it is altogether inexplicable that a river presenting scenery
unsurpassed in Europe should be so neglected by those who in thousands
pass the mouth of her stream. When the Roman Poet Ausonius visited
Germany, it was not the Rhine, but the Moselle which most pleased him;
and although glorious Italy was his home, yet he could spare time to
explore the Moselle, and extol the loveliness of her waters in a most
eloquent poem.

The Moselle, which rises among the wooded mountains of the
Department des Vosges, never during its whole course is otherwise
than beautiful. Below Treves it passes between the Eifel and Hunsruck
ranges of mountains, which attain to the height of ten or twelve
hundred feet above the level of the river.

In the Thirty Years' War the Moselle country suffered severely from
the ravages of the different armies; but there still remain on the
shores of this river more old castles and ruins, and more curious
old houses, than can elsewhere be found in a like space in Europe.

Having in the following pages endeavoured to lay before English readers
the interesting scenery of the Moselle, I trust, that although in
summer my countrymen do not mount her stream, fearful, perhaps,
of discomfort; yet that by the fireside in winter the public will
not object to glide down the river, in the boat now ready for them
to embark in; and hoping that they will enjoy the reproduction of a
tour that afforded me so much pleasure,

    I subscribe myself

    Their humble servant,

    THE AUTHOR.

Richmond, December 1857.







CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER                                         PAGE

    I.      THE SOURCE                                 1
    II.     REMIREMONT AND EPINAL                     12
    III.    TOUL AND NANCY                            24
    IV.     METZ                                      39
    V.      FROM METZ TO TREVES                       65
    VI.     TREVES                                    70
    VII.    RIVER INCIDENTS                           99
    VIII.   PIESPORT                                 110
    IX.     THE VINTAGE                              125
    X.      VELDENZ                                  133
    XI.     BERNCASTEL                               144
    XII.    ZELTINGEN AND THE MICHAELSLEI            153
    XIII.   TRARBACH                                 165
    XIV.    ENKIRCH AND THE MARIENBURG PROMONTORY    173
    XV.     BERTRICH                                 185
    XVI.    BREMM, NEEF, AND BEILSTEIN               197
    XVII.   COCHEM                                   207
    XVIII.  CARDEN AND ELZ                           219
    XIX.    OLD CASTLES                              235
    XX.     GONDORF AND COBERN                       249
    XXI.    CHANGE OF THE SEASONS                    261
    XXII.   COBLENCE AND JUNCTION WITH RHINE         269







ILLUSTRATIONS,
FROM SKETCHES BY OCTAVIUS ROOKE;

THE BORDERS AND FLORAL DECORATIONS BY NOEL HUMPHREYS;

THE ENGRAVINGS BY T. BOLTON.


    FRONTISPIECE.
    DEDICATION.
                                                    PAGE
    THE SOURCE                                         1
    THE SPIRIT OF THE MOSELLE AND HER ATTENDANTS       4
    THE CONFLUENCE                                    12
    NURSES AT EPINAL                                  20
    RIVER FALL                                        23
    BATHING AT TOUL                                   24
    REAPING                                           31
    JOAN OF ARC                                       38
    AQUEDUCT AT JOUY                                  39
    METZ                                              52
    ENVIRONS OF METZ                                  64
    ROMAN BRIDGE AT TREVES                            65
    INITIAL                                           70
    PORTA NIGRA                                       71
    ROMAN BATHS                                       84
    FOUNTAIN                                          95
    ROMAN MONUMENT, IGEL                              98
    FERRY                                             99
    WOMAN FERRYING                                   102
    BOAT-BUILDING                                    103
      DITTO                                          104
    HAY-LADING                                       106
    BEDDING                                          106
    BOAT WITH CASK                                   107
    CHURCH                                           109
    PIESPORT                                         110
    THE VINTAGE                                      125
    GIRLS TENDING VINES                              132
    VELDENZ                                          133
    GIRL AT SHRINE                                   143
    BERNCASTEL BY MOONLIGHT                          144
    OLD HOUSES, BERNCASTEL                           147
    THE GERMAN MAIDEN                                152
    THE GRAeFENBURG                                   153
    TRARBACH                                         165
    CONFLAGRATION AT TRARBACH                        170
    LILIES                                           172
    MARIENBURG                                       173
    ENKIRCH                                          175
    MERL                                             183
    BERTRICH                                         185
    KAeSEGROTTE                                       192
    ALF-BACH                                         195
    THE OLD CHURCH                                   196
    BEILSTEIN                                        197
    NEEF                                             199
    KLOSTER STUBEN                                   203
    COCHEM BY MOONLIGHT                              207
    CLOTTEN CASTLE                                   216
    FISHING                                          218
    INITIAL                                          219
    TOLL-HOUSE                                       224
    CARDEN                                           226
    GATE AT CARDEN                                   227
    CASTLE OF ELZ                                    231
    SKETCH AT CARDEN                                 234
    BISCHOFSTEIN                                     235
    ALKEN                                            243
    THURON CASTLE                                    245
    ASCENDING SPIRIT                                 248
    GONDORF CASTLE                                   249
    LOWER CASTLE AT GONDORF                          252
    THE PROCESSION                                   257
    ST. MATTHIAS CHAPEL                              260
    WINTER SCENE                                     261
    TOWING                                           268
    MARKET, COBLENCE                                 269
    SPIRITS OF THE MOSELLE AND RHINE                 287







CHAPTER I.


At a short distance from Bussang, a little town in the Department des
Vosges in France, is the source of the Moselle; trickling through the
moss and stones that, together with fallen leaves, strew the ground,
come the first few drops of this beautiful river.

A few yards lower down the hill-side, these drops are received into a
little pool of fairy dimensions; this tiny pool of fresh sweet water
is surrounded by mossy stones, wild garlic, ferns, little creepers
of many forms, and stems of trees.

The trees, principally pine, grow thickly over the whole ballon (as the
hills are here called); many are of great size; they shut out the heat
of the sun, and clothe the earth with tremulous shadows--tremulous,
because the broad but feathery ferns receive bright rays, and waving
to and fro in the gentle breeze give the shadows an appearance of
constant movement.

Here, then, O reader, let us pause and contemplate the birth-place of
our stream; leaving the world of stern reality, let us plunge together
into the grateful spring of sweet romance; and while the only sounds
of life that reach our ears are the rustling of the leaves, the
buzz of the great flies, the murmur of the Moselle, and the distant
ringing of the woodman's axe, let us return with Memory into the past,
and leaving even her behind, go back to those legendary days when
spirits purer than ourselves lived and gloried in that beautifully
created world which we are daily rendering all unfit for even the
ideal habitation of such spirits.

And reverie is not idleness; in hours like these we seem to see
before us, cleared from the mists of daily cares, the better path
through life--the broad straight path, not thorny and difficult,
as men are too prone to paint it, but strewed with those flowers and
shaded with those trees given by a beneficent Creator to be enjoyed
rightly by us earthly pilgrims.

Life is a pilgrimage indeed, but not a joyless one. While the whole
earth and sky teem with glory and beauty, are we to believe that
these things may not be enjoyed? Our conscience answers, No; rightly
to enjoy, and rightly to perform our duties, with thankfulness,
and praise,