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Views taken on and near the river Rhine, at Aix la Chapelle, and on river Maese
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HINTS of OCCURRENCES , &c.

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oppofite fhore. We advanced immediately to the little town of Nether-Lahnftein, which is very near the placewhere we landed. Having no means of obtaining information, we went into the firft public houfe we difcovered;the accommodations were pretty much in the ftile of thofe we had lately been obliged to put up with, the provi-fions, if poflible, worfe; but the incivility and infolence of the people of the houfe exceeded all that we hadexperienced in Germany or any other country. I therefore determined to fpend as little time as poflible amongthefe favages.

The Caftle of Capelle, which I had feen from the rock at Marxburgh, but more perfectly from Lonach, beingthe obje6t which attradled me to this place, I was very much delighted on entering the apartment allotted us, tofind that no fituation could be more favourable to my purpofe of making a drawing of it; for the caftle, as repre-fented in the nineteenth plate, was dire&ly fronting the windows. The diftance;the happy diftribution of lightand fhadow which prevailed at the moment;the luxuriancy and beautiful forms of the woods in which it feemedto be embofomed ;the vineyards, lawns, and rocks, alternately interpofed as if to decorate the fcene;the river,which is of great importance to the general effedt;the pretty village of Ober-Lahnftein, lying at the foot of therock, and forming a humble contrail to the fituation and grandeur of the caftlebeing prefented to my view atthe fame inftant, it was not poflible to avoid giving this fcene a decided preference to any landfcape I had everfeen. Though my appetite was in perfedl tune for dinner, I was too much occupied with the fubjedl before meto fpare a moments attention to any other concern. Leaving my companion, therefore, to cater, I inftantly beganmy drawing.

Capelle was anciently a large town, and in its day mull have been a place of confiderable confequence, as amilitary poll. It was built by the Romans, and in point of date is ranked amongft the antiquities in the circlesof the Rhine, next to Treves. The Roman emperors who flayed any time in Gaul, reftding chiefly in that city,occafionally vifited and fpent a part of their time at Capelle. Among the ruins in the environs of the caftle, arefome remains of very fine and extenfive buildings, fuppofed to have been eredled by Tiberius ; many parts ofthem are tolerably perfedl, and difplay evident marks of grandeur and elegance.

Great quantities of Roman medals, and coins of different periods, are found here, of which the Count deLa Laye has made a choice colledtion. His cabinet has been fupplied from hence with a prodigious varietyof foflils and petrefadlions, fome of which are very curious, and it is faid are no where to be met with but in theneighbourhood of Capelle. The count has likewife had the good fortune to recover a few figures in bronze, ofexquifite workmanfhip, and in fine prefervation. A cemetery of great antiquity, containing an immenfe number

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