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24

D0MEST1C MANNEES OF TUE PEUSSIANS.

liowever, it was entirely destroyecl by tlie French, one houseonly having beert left standing.

The western part of the church was begun in 1262, byRichard of Cornwall, emperor of Germany, and finished in1317 ; but it was reduced to ruins by the French, in the seven-teenth Century. The eastern part was built in 1439, andescaped the general destruction. To this day, however, theedifice forms, in the words of the guide-books, " one of thefinest monuments of German architecture," being, we are told,"a pure example of the Gothic style, and displaying theutmost richness of decoration consistent with elegance andpropriety."

Assuredly the contemplation of this fine structure is suf-ficient to repay the traveller for the inconvenience of a sojournat the town. It is now half in ruins, and half restored to itsoriginal grandeur; and a most interesting object, too, seeming tobe formed, as it were, of three distinct edifices joined in a lineto one another,— a roofless and windowless shell of a chapel atono end; a small reculver-like church, with twin Square towers,in the middle; and a tiny cathedral, with a transept, and tall,elongated dorne, at the other extremity.

We first saw this church at early morning, in Companywith a celebrated Belgian architect, and certainly the sight ofthe cold blue-grey of the dawn, peeping in beautiful patchesthrough the meshes of the lace-like tracery that still remainsintact at the ruined western chancel,— together with the finetwilight gloom that hung about the several pinnacles, andbuttresses, and towers, gave it a solemnity and an interest (forthere is always something touching in a ruin) that enchantedthe pair of us.

The Belgian architect was travelling in search of the"Gothic," and when he beheld the wondi-ous " rosaces" (rosetraceries) to some of the windows of the outer nave of the