Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836

<<< previous page   next page>>>

CONT. AUG. 20. SAT.

which included in its territory, Britain & Spain. Some baths with walls & arches of immense proportions, an amphitheatre in which Constantine is known to have celebrated games in which his prisoners were exposed unarmed to wild beasts. These 2 have been purchased by the king & carefully excavated. The black gate (Porta Nigra) a most interesting monument. (On our road from Luxembourg we saw another Roman structure the Igel - an obelisk of stone 70 feet high with carvings.) The other curiosities we saw here, not Roman were the former palace of the electors & bishops founded on Constantine's residence - which has a good carved staircase. The 2 churches of St Peter & Notre Dame in which the matters that interested us most were the number of women waiting for confession. The proportion of [?] was as 1 to 50. -

On the old town hall now an inn is an inscription "Ante Roman Trevires stetit annis MCCC". This is akin to the Welsh pedigree. I bought an old key & 2 coins from the exhibitor of the Porta Nigra: they appear to be true Roman.

We went early to our bedroom having to rise at 3 in the morning to start by the boat at 4 - But first I bought me a Prussian cap for 20 silver groschen or 2/-. Here the coins had changed. I parted with one of my £20 billets on Coutts receiving for it 133 thalers 10 silver gr: which is at the rate of 6 thalers 20 s.gr. to a sovrn- or 25 francs which makes the thaler worth exactly 3/-.

8 miles

AUG. 21. SUN. At 1/4 to four o'clock a lantern preceded us & a party of 3 English ladies mother & 2 daughters with her 2 sons - who were at our hotel, down to the Eiljacht as they call it. This voyage of 2 days down the "blue" Moselle we had looked forward to with great pleasure as affording us an opportunity of getting up our journals which were 6 days behind, besides much quiet enjoyment & rest after our excursion, which our bodies rather than our spirits might seem to require. I may almost blend these

<<< previous page   next page>>>