HINTS of OCCURRENCES, &c.
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new fcenes, of which the lead beautiful might have formed an intereding fubjeCt for the inimitable pencil ofPoussin.
My attention had been fo entirely occupied, that I reached the point on the fide of the fird hill, where I tookthe view, without any fenfe of difficulty or fatigue; and began immediately to fketch the outline of the north-eadfront of the cadle, which is reprefented in the tenth plate. This view, though lefs grand than the former, is, Ithink, equally pleafing. The mill, the uncouth bridge that leads to it, and the dream flowing beneath, give aromantic fimplicity to the fcene; whild the cadle, which, in the former plate, fits enthroned as fovereign of theadjacent hills, afluming an appearance lefs awful, feems to accommodate its dyle of grandeur to the objects whichaccompany it in this point of view; forming altogether a fubjeCt well adapted to the dyle of compofition of theFlemifh fchool.
Satisfied with this acquifition, I returned to Goarhaufen; but finding nothing in that place, that meritedparticular notice, I took my feat in the flying bridge, which foon conveyed me to St. Goar, where I was agree-ably welcomed by the captain and my fair friends at the Bois Verd.
The Mouse Castle, fituated on the fame fide of the river, at a fmall didance from fort Cat, and taken likewifefrom the window of my apartment, is the fubjeCt of the eleventh plate. This cadle, though inferior in fituationand grandeur, podedes many of the beauties of fort Cat, and is by no means unworthy to be its companion. Itcommands an extenfive view of the Rhine in both directions: at the foot of the rock on which it dands, is thevillage of Welmich, which lying behind the cadle, as viewed from St. Goar, a fmall part of it only appears inthis plate. The profpeCt from the north-wed front, is terminated by a ridge of lofty hills, crowned with woods,having herds and numerous flocks grazing on their fides; the intermediate ground is compofed of fmall hills, andbeautiful valleys highly cultivated.
The building is in a dyle of architecture fimilar to that of the Cat cadle, and though it has fudered more fromthe hand of time, was probably erected about the fame period: but whatever antiquity they may boad, the erec-tion of them was a wonderful exertion of human art and indudry ; and the multitude of thefe venerable and mag-nificent buildings, that are every where feen on the borders of the Rhine, feem to indicate, that the ancient inha-bitants, aCting under impreffions unfelt by their poderity, were excited to thefe great undertakings, by havingperpetually before them, the bold and majedic objects with which nature hath fo liberally adorned this romanticcountry : for the mod perfeCt harmony of dyle is here preferred between the productions of nature, and the works
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