AN UNIVERSITY STUDENT. 139 distinguish them by their strange costume. and looks, and riotous behaviour. One of the youths, pursuing the same rout with ourselves, joined us. He was a handsome lad of eighteen, whose long hair flowing on his shoulders, uncravated neck, small red cap with the Bavarian cockade, and knapsack at his back, did not altogether ill become his fair face and youthful figure. He was studying physic at Wurtzburg—an University of some repute; and making a peregrination to Bensheim in the Bergstrasse, on a visit to his friends,-anticipating with much joy the delights of a waltz at Auerbach on the next Sunday evening-for which he assured us, he had taken care to provide himself with pumps in his knapsack. -With his knotty stick, and light brown jerkin and trowsers, and pipe in his mouth, he swung on at a gay pace, which we, who were not quite such experienced pedestrians were sometimes obliged to check. His little gourd bottle of brandy and water, dangling at his button hole, was every now and then applied to his mouth, as he vented a million sacraments on the hot sun-The Germans always add emphasis to their oaths by numerical addition—and a very slight excitement suffices to call forth a hundred thousand million sacraments. They also invoke all the possible woes and curses of human nature, as plague, pestilence, thunderstorms, sickness, &c. on the unfortunate objects of their choler, with an ingenuity of resentment which reminds one of the curses of Caliban: You taught me language; and my profit on't For six leagues of sand we trudged on in a sultry sun, through a noble forest, enlivened by our gay young companion, to Diburg— a mean little town, which presented the first habitations we had seen since Aschaffenburg. Our Student, who was an economical traveller, took us to the worst inn in the place, where he flounced down his knapsack on the table, shook hands with the pretty landlady—and was soon relating at his ease his swaggering tale to the gaping peasants round the kitchen table. After refreshing ourselves by a nap on the benches of the black dirty inn, and a dinner of bread-soup, sausages, and bad Burgundy, we proceeded towards Darmstadt, again entering a fine forest of oak and beech, through the arched shades of which the high road rambled in picturesque irregularity. Long green vistas occasionally opened on each side, cut for the convenience both of hunting and carting wood, and affording short communicating passages from village to village. The mail-cart to Aschaffenburg, passed us toiling through the ruts at a foot pace-the wood echoing to the cracking whip of the post-boy, who was laughing cheek-by-jowl with a heavy peasant girl, whom he had taken up to beguile the journey. Epistolary correspondence, as you may judge from the character of this Mercury, does not travel in Germany quite at the rate of the Bristol mail-that happy invention for bringing bills of exchange and billets doux speedily to hand. A letter is sometimes ten days in travelling from Hanover to Frankfort (about 200 English miles); and one which we wrote to Germany from the Netherlands as our avant courier, brought to some friends the intelligence of our approach, when we had been enjoying their society about three weeks. We arrived at Darmstadt on Saturday evening-in time for the Court chapel the next morning, the Court dinner at noon, and the grand Opera in the evening-the invariable Sunday occupations of the gay world in the little capitals FORESTS AND HUNTING. 143 LETTER VIII. Go one of you, find out the forester, And since we have the vaward of the day, THE quantity of forests, and their importance as sources of revenue, render the department of Forest and Hunting a considerable branch in the machinery of the German governments. The Forest Masters of the districts are high offices, to which nobility is a necessary passport, as also to those of Gentilhommes de la Chasse, (Jagd-Junker) -appointments held by young men of rank, who, in a green military uniform, form part of the suite of the Court. I made a visit, in company with the young Princes of Hesse-Darmstadt and their Governor, to a young friend, just promoted from the office of Gentilhomme de la Chasse to that of Assistant Forest Master, in the district of Lorsch near Worms. Driving for a few leagues along the Berg-Strasse, we came to Bensheim a small old town sur |