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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 247
carried down the Lower Rhine, as far as Holland. The little city of Croneburg, fitu-
ated on an erninence fix miles off the main road, drives a trade with Holland to the
amount of 8000 guilders a year for apples, cyder, and chefnuts, of which laft it has large
groves. All the villages of the country lie in orchards of trees, and command large
fields of corn below. Thefe numerous orchards make the country look a little poor,
though it is as well cultivated as any other part of Germany. In the ftrip of land which
lies betwixt Francfort, Mentz, and the neareft hills to the north of Mentz, containing
a fpace‘ of about twelve miles long, and fix broad, they reckon eight little cities,
five large market towns, and about eighty villages, few of which contain lefs than fixty
familiés.
At Wickeard, a place which is fix miles from Mentz, the nature of the country intirely
changes; an arm of the large mountain called Wetteraw, extends itfelf here to the banks
of the Maine, and formsa couple of large hills, on the one of which, Wickeard, and on
the other, Hocheim is fituated. The fouthern and weftern fides of the former produce
an excellent wine. The eaftern fide of the fecond yields admirable corn; and the parts
of it expofed to the fouth and weft, afford the moft delicious wine, without comparifon,
of allGermany. The little village of Hocheim, from whence the Englifh give all kinds
of Rhenifh wine the name of Hock, contains about three hundred families. A prettier
village 1 have not feen. It belongs to the chapter of Mentz, the Dean of which enjoys
the revenue of it; in a good year he makes from 12 to 15,000 guilders of his wine.
He and the Auguftines of Mentz and Francfort, have the exclufive enjoyment of the
belt Hocheimer wine, of which, in good years, a piece, confifting of one hundred mea-
{ures, fells for from goo to 1000 guilders from the prefs. This is certainly one of the
deareft wines in the world. Having a defire to tafte it om the fpot, we were obliged to
pay a rix dollar; it was, however, of the beft vintage in this century, to wit, that of -
1766. Nor fhould we have had it, but for an advocate of Mentz, to whom the hoftefs
meant to fhew favour. This was the firft German wine I had met with which was in-
tirely without any four tafte: it was quite a perfume to the tongue ; whereas the other
wine of Hocheim, let it be as good as it may, is not quite clear of vinegar; though for-
this alfo, if it has any age, you are forced to paya guilder and a half. The whole way
from Hocheim to Mentz, was the moft beautiful of the whole journey during three miles.
It lay along the flope of the hill, covered with vineyards, which are thaded from the road
by beautiful fruit-trees. This defcent commands a beautiful profpe@, over a fmall, but
uncommonly rich country, terminated by the conflux of the Rhine and Maine. The
fine wine does not grow on this fide of the hill, but on the other. From hence you de-
fcend into a vale, watered bya little rivulet, where corn-fields, meadows, and orchards,
form the prettielt profpect imaginable. At the leit, through an orchard of fruit-trees,
you fee the beautiful village of Koftheim. ‘The way then winds through the orchards
and vineyards of the large village of Caflel, which appears directly oppofite to Mentz,
at the end of a fine alley leading to the banks of the Rhine.
As foon as youarrive at the bridge of boats acrofs the Rhine, you are ftruck with one
of the moft magnificent fpectacles. that it is poflible for human imagination to conceive.
The proud ftream which has now {wallowed up the Maine, and is fourteen hundred feet
broad, comes out of a plain which extends as far as the horizon ; but at Mentz large
hills come athwart its courfe, and compel it, after forming fome iflands, to change the
northern direction, which it has kept from Switzerland hither, fora weftern one. It is
thefe hills, on the flopes of which you behold feveral habitations, which form that cele-
brated amphitheatre called the Rhinegau, the throne of the German Bacchus. The
Rhine ftill keeps the beautiful green fo much admired in Switzerland; and even at fome
diftance
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