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The lower Rhine and its picturesque scenery : Rotterdam to Mayence
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194

THE LOWEK KHINE GOKGE.

Sinzig (the Sentiacum of the Romans *), where, says the tra-dition, Constantine the Great, wliile on bis march to attackMaxentius, who had been proclaimed emperor at Rome, sawin the heavens the cross of fire, " two miles in length!" withthe motto, " In hoc signo vinces," encircling it. We can justperceive the spire of the church and a few of the roofs of theantique town peeping above the distant thickets, and the whitesmoke smearing the red-wooded hüls behind, as if it were somuch morning mist floating about them. The sun is shiningat the back of these, and tlie outlines are beautifully melted inthe flood of amber light, wliile the fresh green meadows seemall the brighter from the broad masses of shadow about them.That fme chasm, too, in the hüls at the back of Sinzig, whoseedges now are as if tipped with burnished gold, shows all thebetter from the rieh warm haze of sunlight beliind it; and inthe far distance there is seen the noble form of the "Landskrone"(the Land-crown), shining like a huge Coronet among themountain summits. That is the entrance to the Ahr Valley.

The curious, old-fashioned, drab-coloured mansion whichstarts out from behind the corner of a tall hill just above Linz,as the boat reaches the end of the broad curve formed by thestream in front of the Sinzig meadows, is the " Scldoss(Palace of) Argenfels." It is finely situate on an elevated

* Sent-iacumis a Latinised form of the German Zehent-ig (the tithing-place),of which the modern term Sinzig is a corruption. The site of the oldZehent-hof, 'tithing-house, is still pointed out to the visitor—the mansion of arieh Jew now Stands upon it—dose beside the church, where is to be seen the" Holy Man" — a natural mummy, preserved in a glass coffin, and tricked outby the priests in a tawdry shroud for duly affecting the vulgär.

The title of the opposite town of Linz, it may be added, is from the sameroot as Lehns-herr (a feudal lord), and originally signified the feudal town(Lehns-dorf) from Lehen or Lehn, a lief, i.e. a dependence upon the lord of themanor, or a loan from him ; for the verb Lehnen means not only to lean, to restupon, but likewise to borrow, and to lend. There is a fine old German pictureto be seen at the church here.