an adventitious importance in history, from its having had several Europeon Congresses held within its walls. This invested it with a temporary dignity, emanating, as it were, in a graceful act of filial piety from the sovereigns of modern Europe towards the favourite city of Charlemagne.

Commercially, Aix-la-Chapelle was renowned in former ages for the excellency of its woollen manu

Hotel du Dragon d'Or, close to the Kursaal and principal Bath Houses; comfortable and reasonable. Hoyer's Union Hotel, and Hoyer's Imperial Crown Hotel, belong to the same proprietor. Both good houses, and moderate in their charges. Hotel de l'Elephant, opposite the Eliza Fountain. Population, 74,146.

English Church, in Anna Strasse. Resident Physicians, who speak English.

Newspapers at Mayr's Library.

At Herbesthal, the station previous to arriving at Aix-la-Chapelle from Ostend, the luggage and passports are taken away by the Prussian authorities. The passport must be reclaimed at the station at Aix, where the luggage, for that city only, is also searched; but the luggage for Cologne is searched on arriving there. Without this information the traveller may be looking for his luggage at Aix, while the train is starting with it for Cologne.

Historically, Aachen, as the Germans call it, or Aix-la-Chapelle, as it is usually called (following the French way) from its warm springs (aquæ), is associated with the grandeur and the celebrity of Charlemagne, who died there. The emperors of Germany were formerly crowned within its walls, and its citizens possessed, during the middle ages, so many important privileges and immunities, that it was said that the very air of Aix-la-Chapelle enfranchised even the outlaw! During the earlier progress of the Reformation, the city was the scene of civil dissensions and religious conflicts between the Catholics and Protestants, until the latter were compelled to emigrate to other countries; and as they were principally the most wealthy and influential merchants, their emigration proved highly prejudicial to the prosperity of the town, which declined for centuries. Latterly it has acquired

esteemed in the maritime cities of the Continent; and even at the present day, the manufacturers of Aix are still enabled to produce, from some remarkable properties in the mineral waters of the town, a peculiar light blue cloth, the dye of which wears to the last, and of which they export a great quantity to North and South America. There are also considerable establishments for manufacturing needles and pins, which are largely exported. Also extensive iron foundries, machine shops, coachmakers, &c. Aix-la-Chapelle has also become celebrated for its warm medicinal Springs, which break forth in all parts of the city, and afford a great source of revenue and attraction. These waters are very efficacious, but may be injurious when taken improperly or without medical advice. We refer those who wish to obtain information on their composition and medical virtues to a book written by an experienced physician of Aixla-Chapelle, viz.: "The Mineral Waters of Aix-laChapelle," by L. Wetzler, M.D., Physician at Aix-la-Chapelle. London, John Churchill.

The

Objects of Attraction. The Gothic Town Hall, built 1358-76, has undergone thorough restoration. It includes a tower of the old Palace, and contains a number of fresco paintings by Alfred Rethel, from scenes in the history of Charlemagne. Cathedral begun under Charlemagne in 796, and now under restoration, includes an octagon Basilica, built 796-804 (constituting the Chapel which gives the place one of its names), and a Gothic Choir completed 1413, with richly stained windows. Here are the Emperor's Throne, and the body of Charlemagne (in the Treasury), with an innumerable number of precious relics, of various authenticity and value. There are skulls and bones of questionable anatomy, and relics that would make a sceptic of the credulous; these are exhibited once in seven years, when pilgrims flock to see them from all

parts of Europe. We need not indulge in a comment upon this fact; but if the traveller makes a minute from a list of the relics, it may afford him and his friends a subject of conversation for many evenings, to determine the possibility of their being what they are described. The old Corn Hall with statues of the Seven Electors. War Monument of 1866 and 1870-1.

The Kurhaus or assembly rooms, for strangers; subscription for the season for one person, 4 thalers ; for two persons, if of the same family, 6 thalers; for each person above, 2 thalers. The Polytechnic Institution, in the court of which is deposited a ponderous Aerolite, said to weigh seven thousand pounds. The monument erected in memory of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. in 1818. The Belvedere on the Louisberg, and the hill itself. The new hospital outside the town, A new Church, in the modern quarter of the town. The suburbs and environs of Aix-la-Chapelle are both pleasant and interesting. A charming view of the whole city and surrounding country is obtained from the hill of Louisberg, a favourite resort of the good citizens on Sundays and holidays.

The Valley of the Burtscheid (or Borcette) is also worth visiting. It extends from east to west, and is celebrated for the numerous warm Springs and brooks that run through it. These hot wells supply several large bathing houses, in opposition to the more aristocratic establishments of the city. There are also manufactories of cloths and cashmeres in the valley, established by Protestants, who were formerly not permitted to have an independent place of worship at Aix; but the spirit of intolerance in this part of Prussia has been greatly subdued by late events.

Libraries.-Public library at the Town Hall; library of the Gymnasium; library of the Burgher School; library of the Society of Arts and Sciences; library at the Royal Government House. Besides these the possessors of private libraries will very readily afford strangers the loan and amusement of single works. Libraries are kept by the booksellers, J. A. Mayr and H. Benrath, who also circulate a series of periodical journals and magazines.

Next to the teeming flowery meads of the environing country, the promenades about the town gardens of several residents offer to the delighted botanist a full enjoyment of indigenous and exotic plants. Beside the public assembly rooms of the grand Kurhaus, with its choice selection of literature and belles-lettres, where good music is executed, joined to divers other enjoyments, the Fountain Eliza (Elisenbrunnen), where music invites presence, and where a brilliant illumination of the whole colonnade takes place at different times. A ready admittance may be obtained to the following private societies:--The Casino, opposite to the theatre, and the Society of Arts and Sciences, 429, Comphausbad, and the Society "Erholung," opposite to the Fountain Eliza. Each of these societies keeps a variety of political and conversational papers There are also card and billiard tables, merely for amusement and pastime.

Musical and other Entertainments. Concerts are given from time to time in the saloons of the Kurhaus. Performances of instrumental and vocal music take place every week, executed by amateurs of the town. These are the Union for instrumental music, perform every Tuesday at the Erholung; the Liedertafel (vocal music), perform on Saturdays; the Concordia Union (vocal harmony), perform on Thursdays. Every day from 7 to 8 a.m. a band plays at the Elisenbrunnen; and from 3 to 4 30 p.m. in the garden of the Kurhaus. The military band plays on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, at 11 o'clock a.m., before the playhouse. Operas, tragedies, and comedies, are given by turns on four days of the week, at the playhouse. A dress ball takes place once a week in the saloons of the Kurhaus.

a

Public Institutions. Aix-la-Chapelle has royal college, a higher burgher school, a ladies' seminary and boarding-school, St. Leonard's, besides several private schools for both sexes. An establishment for gymnastic exercises and tilting, and a swimming school, have been added. A most important philanthropic institution is the poor and orphan house, under the guidance of a charitable sisterhood lately come over from Nancy, in France. Besides this establishment there is an infirmary for men and one for women, a lying-in

Promenades and Points of Excursion into the Country. The Louisberg presents a delightful point of view over the whole of the surrounding landscape, studded with country seats and villas. It is laid out like a garden, with shrubs and shady trees. The hill itself is a formation of chalk, and celebrated for its treasures in conchites, shells, and vegetable petrifactions. Opposite to the Louisberg lies a secondary hill, the Salvatorberg, with a chapel on its knoll joined to a farm. The chapel was founded by Louis the Meek.

At

the suburb of Burtscheid, or Borcette, are hot springs worthy of notice; the boiling, bubbling Well in the middle of one of the streets; and the ancient Abbey. It is here that the Devonian transition limestone stone is visible, containing very expressed petrifactions, viz., species of Calamopora, Cyathophyllum, and Terebratula, among others. Frankenberg, one of the strongholds of the earlier part of the thirteenth century, said to have been a hunting lodge of Charlemagne. A moat surrounds it, into which, the legend tells us, Queen Fastrada's ring was thrown. Departing from Borcette, the way leads to it by the Warmeweier along the Pockenputzchen (smallpox-puddle pit), through a picturesque rocky cleft. At a short distance eastward lies Drimborn, adjoining to which is a delightful little wood, containing the ruins of some knight's stronghold of yore, a dilapidated chapel, and a sarcophagus. Scheenforst, the ruins of a stronghold of the thirteenth century, lies eastward, not far from Frankenberg.

Its neighbourhood abounds in wild growing plants, amongst which are to be found the Platanthera bifolia and Chlorantha, the Orchis cortopnora, Gymnadenia viridis, and Conopsea, the Arnica montana, Parnasia palustris, Limosella aquatica, and many others. Malaten (very likely a later corruption from the French "malades") a mile and a half westward from Aix has the ruins of an infirmary and chapel, of the dawn of the thirteenth century. This spot owns the Quirinus spring. Septfontaines, about two miles, in the same direction; where Seven springs are observed issuing out of the base of a barren hill of calcareous marl.

In its near vicinity lies Vetschau, a very interesting village for geologists. Here the Naestricht stratum, containing a variety of petrifactions, is met with. A pleasant way leads from Vetschau to Laurensberg. The village church is situated on the top of the grass-grown knoll, from whence, under spreading linden trees, a most delightful view of the town of Aix is beheld. From thence the carriage road leads back to Aix across the Wildbach. Kaisersruhe, about 2 miles northward of the town. Its vast and delightful gardens, its nurseries, hothouses, and its beautiful perspectives are very attracting. Bordering upon the backgrounds of the gardens lies the Scherberigberg (flinty hillocks with vast pebblestone beds.

The Wolsfurth (wolves' track) in the valley of the Wurm, at the foot of the Scherberigberg. Here is the only discharge of all the drains of Aix-laChapelle. This place consists of some few buildings, chiefly cloth manufactories. Some good flower and kitchen gardens are attached to them, and also a small park, the property of the cloth manufacturer, Mr. Kuetgens. Gardens and park form a part of the Bois de Pauline, a name given to this wood by Napoleon's sister. Roads conduct to it from different sides.

There are resident German Physicians who speak English. See Bradshaw's Continental Guide.

Railway to Düsseldorf and Cologne, as below. Persons going to Hanover or Berlin will find the route via Aix-la-Chapelle and Rührort the nearest.

[The walk from Aix-la-Chapelle to Liége is charming.-R. S. C.]

Aix-la-Chapelle to Düsseldorf and Rührort, by railway.

Geilenkirchen (Station), the nearest for Jülich or Juliers, a small town on the Roer, said to have been founded by Julius Cæsar. (See below.) Erkelenz (Station). Population, 2,300. A small place on the Roer.

München-Gladbach or Gladbach (Station). Population, 26,364. On the Ners. It has a Bene

dictine Abbey, and considerable manufactures of fine strong linen are carried on. This is the junction where the railway branches off to Rührort. From here a branch of the Berg-Märkische Railway was opened 1873 to Jülich (22 English miles), and extended thence to Stolberg and Düren (13 and 14 English miles respectively), on the line from Aix la Chapelle to Cologne (see p. 70). The line to Jülich passes Odenkirchen and Amelon; the extension to Stolberg passes Eschweiler or Escheweiler (p. 80). Jülich was once a strong fortress, which upon the death of the Duke of Cleves and Jülich, in 1610, leaving "every body his heir," was seized by the Dutch, under the advice of Barneveld, in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Emperor. This was previous to the Thirty Years' War.

Neuss (Station). Population, 10,720. This place used formerly to be quite close to the Rhine, but since the fourteenth century, owing to the altered course of the stream, it has been removed from it about a mile and a half. The new station is in the Renaissance style.

Numerous excavations of Roman antiquities have been made on the site, supposed to be the Novesium of the Romans. Here Drusus, who built the town, threw a bridge over the Rhine. Neuss has sustained some remarkable sieges, which are mentioned in history. Among its edifices the old church, or cathedral, of St. Quirinus, a fine Gothic building, erected in 1209, is well worthy examination, its dome having some modern paintings in fresco by Cornelius. A War Monument of 1866 and 1870-1, has been erected.

Near Neuss, is the ancient abbey of Eberach, the church of which, built in the thirteenth century, was remarkable for its monuments. On the decease of the Princes and Bishops of Wurzburg, their hearts were deposited in it. Dusseldorf (Station). For description of town, see Route 20.

Crefeld (Station). Population, 57,105. This is a flourishing town, with fine wide streets of nicely built houses, about 5 miles from the Rhine, between Düsseldorf and Cleves. Here there are considerable manufactures of velvet, silk, cotton, wool, linen and other articles, besides dyeworks. The produce of the looms amounts, annually, to

several million dollars. During the Seven Years' war, an important conflict took place hereabout. Uerdingen (Station). Population, 2,800. Close to the left bank of the Rhine, surrounded by poplars. Near this place, at Eichelskamp, the French Revolution-army, under Lefébre, numbering about 25,000, first crossed the Rhine in 1795, and turned the Austrian position.

Rührort (Station). Population, 3,740. Situated at the confluence of the Ruhr (Roer), with the Rhine. It possesses many large ship-building docks, and has an immense coal-trade with Holland, the coal being derived from the large beds of mineral on the banks of the Roer. This is the best harbour on the lower Rhine, and does a large carrying trade, besides those in corn, timber, and wool. To Luftballon, a public pleasure garden about a mile distant, an agreeable walk may be taken; and the ironworks at Sterkerade, near Oberhausen are worth visiting At Rührort is

an Hydraulic Establishment, consisting of two towers, each 120 feet high, one on each side of the Rhine, at Homberg and Rührort, each of which contains an engine. These machines have a platform with rails, by means of which two loaded wagons can be raised and lowered according to the height of the water and of the railway, which terminate in the towers. The correspondence between the two banks and the stations is made by a large steamer, having rails on deck carrying twelve carriages, in which the passengers are conveyed, without changing their seats, from one bank to the other.

Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne.-The railway leaves Aix-la-Chapelle station by a splendid viaduct, on two tiers of fifteen small and twenty large brick arches. The viaduct spans the narrow valley of the Wormbach, and is 892 feet long, and 70 feet high in the centre.

Close by the side of the line, to the left, is the Castle of Frankenburg. Charlemagne is reported to have founded a castle on this spot, in which he dwelt, and there died his third queen, Fastrada. Tradition states that he never left her body, night or day, which was inclosed in a glass coffin, until Turpin the Wise opened the coffin one day during the emperor's sleep, and released him from his thraldom, by taking from off the dead queen's

finger her gold wedding ring, and throwing it into the moat of the castle.

Nirem.-Near the cutting leading to the Nirem tunnel, which is 327 yards long, through the hills which surround Aix-la-Chapelle.

Passing through the beautiful wood of Reichswald,

Stolberg (Station) is reached.
Hotels: Hissels and Wetters.

The town, a manufacturing one, with about 2,760 inhabitants, is built about 3 miles south of the station, up a valley studded with mills, forges, &c., near a picturesque old castle.

A short branch from this to Alsdorf (Station) was opened 1872; and a connection was made, 1876, with Würselen (branch to Morsbach) and Höngen.

Leaving here, the railway traverses a country rich with coal mines, and having houses, chimneys, and steam engines on every side To the left and right we see the little village of Pump, with its extensive ironworks, and, crossing the Jude, we enter a tunnel, in the Schenberg, and arrive at Eschweiler (Station)-An industrious little town of 13,8 0 inhabitants, built on the Jude, and having silk, iron, and wire manufactories, and also an old picturesque Castle close to the line. The old castle of Northberg is next passed; it is flanked with four towers, and then we pass over the high embankment which precedes the deep cutting passed through by the railroad previous to our arrival at

Langerwehe. Beyond this, through the Vale of the Wehe, a viaduct of seven arches conveys the railway, which, after emerging from the cutting looks by the village and castle of Merode; and again pursuing its course through the village of Dhorn, crossing the Rhine immediately after, by a bridge of six arches, we enter the station. Quitting here, the railway passes through the villages of Dhorn and of Gwazauch on the left, and is there carried over the Ruhr, by a bridge of six arches; after which we arrive at Düren, 1 mile distant.

Düren (Station). A manufacturing town, with a population of 10,300; so called from the Roman Marcodurem, near which Charlemagne defeated the Saxons. Chief manufactures are cloth and paper. It contains one church, that of St. Anne, and a

Protestant place of worship lately erected. From here a pleasant excursion may be made up the valley of the Ruhr to the beautiful village of Niedheggen, 8 miles south of Düren, built on a hill, on which are the ruins of a castle, where Engelbert Archbishop of Cologne, was imprisoned in the thirteenth century.

A short railway connection was opened, 1875, with

Essen and Bochum (see BRADSHAW's HandBook to Germany). The line passes a cutting between the Meuse and the Rhine, terminating a little way short of

Buir (Station), from which it proceeds by a high embankment, over the lowlands of the valley of the Erft, crossing that river by three bridges before reaching

Horrem (Station), which is near the fine old Castle of Fronz. Passing from the Erft into the Valley of the Rhine, through Königsdorf tunnel, a mile long, carried through a hill of sand 136 feet below the summit, we arrive at Cologne, with its myriad towers and steeples; elevated far above which rises the octagon of St. Gereon, with its detached forts and half-buried towers surrounded with trees. This brings us to Königsdorf; from here we proceed to

Mugernsdorf, crossing the road from Cologne to Jülich. Here a very fine view can be had of COLOGNE (Station)-German, Köln; Dutch, Keulen. Population, 135,400. Hotels:

Hotel Disch, in Bridge Street (not the Restaurant of the same name), very highly recommended. The Hotel Disch is most centrally situated, and is much frequented by English families and single gentlemen, who experience equal attention and civility. The proprietors, Messrs. Disch and Capellan, have a large assortment of the best Rhine and Moselle wines for wholesale.

Hotel du Nord.-Excellent hotel, near the Central Station, the Cathedral, the Rhine, &c.

Hotel de Hollande, a first-rate establishment, facing the quay, commands a charming view of the Rhine. Moderate charges, civility, and attention.

Grand Hotel Victoria, situated in the Haymarket, close to the Rhine-exceedingly good in every respect; capital table d'hôte.