Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836

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CONT. AUG. 26. FRI.

on the spots they refer to.

Another good & picturesque ruin, of Thurnburg castle detained us before arriving at St Goar, to which place we intended to spend the day & arrive in time for the table d'hote. We had walked fast through the hot sun to accomplish this and the black fronts of our Prussian caps reflected the heat so violently that it was with difficulty we could retain them on our heads. The Lily hotel which faces the river we went to & at the table d'hote met a young English officer of the Engineers who accompanied us in our rambles after dinner. We crossed the Rhine to the ruins of the Katz - a well preserved lion for visitors & an excellent one for fine views - having stained glass windows etc and sufficient variety in itself & the views from it for some hours amusement. Thence we wound around a valley at its back which is wild & well wooded & ravined & in some measure deserves its title of the Swiss Valley. It closes very romantically by crags crossing each other in excellent confusion. We walked over much table land of corn fields in search of the Lurleiberg, but found it for a considerable time beyond our reach. We accomplished it at last & lying down flat on its topmost rock of quartz, saw the Rhine rushing below us in a narrow tortuous & rapidly eddying stream. On every side the view was quickly contracted but sufficient wild beauty there was to constitute it one of the finest & most varied that could be conceived. The echo awakened from his cave on the opposite shore in vain blew his blasting horn but no resound could he elicit for us. We found our way down by vineyard paths & bathed at its foot, but having unhappily no invocation to raise to the nymph of Lurlei who is believed to be friendly to faithful lovers, I neither expected nor experienced any adventure in her troubled waters.

We watched the fortune

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