HINTS of OCCURRENCES, &c.

11

takes place about four miles on this fide Mentz, is attended with a circumftance very curious and peculiar; the watersof thefe rivers, though rolling in one channel, do not mingle, but are diflinguifhable for many leagues. The fituationof Mentz is wonderfully beautiful, but we found little to admire in the town; the buildings being in general mean,and the ftreets narrow and dirty : the fronts of the houfes arc coloured with a black paint or wafh, that renders themgloomy and difagreeable. A few ftreets lately built muft be excepted in this account. The churches, which areextremely handfome, fome of them in a modern ftile, are the only public edifices worth notice. The electoral palace,though the refiden.ee of an ccclefiaftic who is inferior only to the Pope, and as a prince of the empire fecond only tothe Emperor, is very low, and in no refpedt fuited to the rank or revenue of its owner. The gardens are extenfiveand well laid out; but their chief beauty is a fituation which I believe has no equal in the fidtions of poetic fancy.Before we quitted Mentz we eroded the river by a bridge compofed of forty-eight boats, being informed that theview of the town from the oppofitc fhore was more beautiful than any other. As foon as we had palled the bridge,a perfon accofted us in the German language, which neither of us underllood, and finding him equally ignorant ofFrench, we were proceeding without any further attempt towards an explanation; but our new acquaintance, who wasnot perhaps unaccuftomed to converfations of this fort, not choofing to part with us fo fuddenly, took poffeffion ofmy hat, by rudely (hatching it off my head. My companion took fire at the indignity, and was with great difficultyreffrained from indulging the natural impulfe of an Englifhman, by attempting at leaft to lay the prefumptuous Ger-man at his feet. Concluding my hat had been feized to fatisfy fome claim, I drew out feveral pieces of money,which I tendered by way of ranfom. The collector, for fuch he proved to be, examined them; but finding they werenot of the currency of the place, refufed to furrender his pledge: and I fhould certainly have returned to Mentz bare-headed, if a foldier, who talked a little French, had not accidentally approached us, and produced an eclairciffement tothe fatisfadtion of all parties.

Being now at liberty to purfue our purpofe, we amufed ourfelves a confiderable time with furveying the town, whichfrom this point of view appears extremely grand and venerable; and with admiring the wonderful beauty of its en-virons. Our expeditions were fo fully anfwered in this fhort excurfion, that we returned with fentiments of refpedtfor the ancient city of Mentz, which an interior view of it alone would never

have infpired.

From Mentz we proceeded by water to Bingen, being very conveniently accommodated in a large houfe-boat. Inthis fhort voyage of twenty-one miles only we counted upwards of forty towns, the greateft part of them having caftlesin, or adjacent to them. But the country near the river being Rill flat, the views had nothing in them very pidlurefquetill we had paffed Walluff, and approached Bingen, a fmall town delightfully fituated on the Nabe, very near the pointwhere that river commits itfelf into the Rhine. We arrived about noon, and whilR dinner was preparing, afeended a

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