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262 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
four thoufand five hundred inhabitants. A great part of the corn, which is carried into
fe Rhineeau from the neighbouring Palatinate, comes through this place ; which on
he other hand fupplies the Palatinate with drugs, and various foreign commodities.
ic alone would make the place very lively ; but befides this it has very fruit-
ful vineyards. The hill, at the foot of which it lies, and one fide of which is made by
the gullet, through which the Nahe runs into the Rhine, forms another fteep rock be- -
hind this gullet parallel to the Rhine, andthe golden Rudefheimer mountain ; it there-
fore enjoys the fame fun as this does, which makes the Budefheimer wine that grows
on it little inferior to the Rudefheimer.
After I had enjoyed this yncommonly beautiful profpe& during a few days, I fpent a
few more in the villages of the Rhinegau: here too [ received ocular demonftration
that the cultivators of vineyards are not the happieft of men. ‘The inhabitants or thefe
regions are fome cf them extremely rich, and fome extremely poor ; the happy middle
{tate is not for countries, the chief produé of which is wine: for befides, that the culti-
vation of the vineyard is infinitely more troublefome and expenfive than agriculture, it
is fubjected to revolutions, whicia in an inftant reduce the holder of land to the condi-
tion of a day Jabourer, {t is a great misfortune for this country, that though reftrained
by law, the nobility are, through connivance of the Elector, allowed to purchafe as
much land as they pleafe. ‘The peafant generally begins by running in debt for his
vineyard ; fo that if it does not turn out well, he is reduced to day-labour, and the
vich man extends his poffeffions to the great detriment of the country. There are feveral
peafants here who, having incomes of 30, 50, or 100,000 guilders a year, have laid.
afide the peafant, and afiumed the wine merchant ; but fplendid as their {ituation is,
it does not compenfate, in the eyes of the humane man, for the fight of fo many poor
eople with which the villages fwarm. In order to render a country of this kind prof-
perous, the flate fhould appropriate a fund to the purpofe of maintaining the peafant in
bad years, and giving him the affiftancé which his ‘neceffities, and his want of ready
money, may from time to time make convenient.
The inhabitants of the Rhinegau are a handfome and uncommonly ftrong race of
men. You fee at the very fir{t afpect that their wine gives them merry hearts and
found bodies. They have a great deal of natural wit, and a vivacity and jocofenefs
which diftinguifhes them very much from their neighbours. You need only compare
them with fome of thefe, to be convinced that the drinker of wine excels the drinker
of beer and water, both in body and mind, and that the inhabitant of the fouth is much
ftouter than he who lives in the north; for though the wine drinker may not have
quite as much flefh as he who drinks only beer, he has better blood, and can bear much
more work. ‘Tacitus had already obferved this in his treatife De moribus Germanorum.
«¢ The large and corpulent bodies of the Germans (fays he) have a great appearance,
but are not made to laft.’”’ At that time almoft all the Germans drank only water; but the
mere drinking of wine has effeéted a revolution in feveral parts of Germany, which
makes the prefent inhabitants of thefe countries very different from thofe defcribed by
Tacitus. Black and brown hair is much commoner here than the white which made
the Germans fo famous in old Rome. ;
You will eafily imagine that the monks fare particularly well in fo rich a country.
We made a vifit to the Prelate of Erbach. I cannot find adequate words to difcover
the poverty of this cloifter. Thefe lordly monks, for fo in every refpect they are, have
an excellent hunt, rooms magnificently furnifhed, billiard tables, half a dozen beaudful
finging women, and a {tupendous wine cellar, the well ranged batteries of which made
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