The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-29 00:00:00

THE QUEEN AT COBURG.

(1- roan the Times Correspondent.)
COBURG, Aug. 24.
Almost exactly in the centre of Germany are
situate the town and castle of Coburg ; all round the
lovely hills of Franconia extend in a wide, verdant,
and well-wooded circle. A cheerful country, a cheer-
ful people. Apparently a pleasant idyl in the midst
of this restless, excitable, and go-ahead age of ours.
And yet there has been a good deal of history's—
troublesome history's—business transacted in this
tranquil corner of Fatherland. Hence proceeded
the Franks, bent on conquering France, and giving
a new name and dynasty to the Romanised Gauls.
Here was the Home of Charlemagne, here his be-
loved castle, where he would receive foreign em-
bassies in regal pomp, and, in friendly intercourse
with scholars and clerks, rest from conquering the
solid Saxon of the north, and the fiery Celt and
Moor of the west. Here, for an entire century, was
the seat of the early Emperors of Germany, the re-
cruiting ground of their hosts, the starting-point of
so many famous expeditions to the promised land on
the other side of the Alps. Hence Henry IV. went on
his humiliating pilgrimage to Canossa, to beg pardon
of the Pope, whom he had vainly striven to reduce
to the estate of a simple bishop and subject. He,
as his predecessors, had attempted too much. In the
rashness of their sanguine temper, and flushed with
the success of their royal race, they would have
liked to curb their haughty vassals at home, laying
low at the same time the rising ambition of the
Holy See. The plan miscarried, and the establish-
ment of the Papacy as a secular, powerful entity,
together with the breaking up of Germany into a
legion of semi-independent States, was the conse-
quence. Is that not a pretty handful of events to
occur in a silent glen or two ?
With the fall of the Franconian Emperors and
the advent of the Suabian dynasty, empire for ever
departed from the Franks. Of all German countries
their own now became the most divided. Nearly
every town of any pretensions to size and means be-
came republic by itself ; nearly every knight a Sove-
reign in his own right.
Coburg is but a little pearl in the rich array of
cities studding the valleys of the Maine, Saal, and
Itz. Like the rest of Franconian territories, the
ancient fastnesses as well as the diminutive town
at its foot, which have borne the name of Coburg
for the last 700 years, belonged to many a princely
house in the course of time, passing from hand to
hand by marriage, inheritance, or war. About 500
years ago they fell to the Dukes of Saxony,
being the dowry of a fair Countess of Henne-
berg, and transferred with the young bride,
together with her treasure and trosseau, ac-
cording to the habits and customs of the time.
Three hundred years later they were settled in per-
petuum on the Gotha branch of the numerous and
many partite family of the Saxe. Of the ancestors
of Prince Albert, who held possession of the burgh,
many seemed to have lived for a time in what was
long considered an outlying territory by princes
habitually residing at the terrible distance of a
hundred miles off at Gotha, Weimar, or thereabouts.
Still, being situate in a wealthy neighbourhood, and
a strong place enough, until the invention of gun-
powder made an end of the old fastnesses, Coburg
was always regarded as a most valuable piece
of property by its Gotha masters. Such, I
dare say, thought it also Elector John Fre-
derick, surnamed "the generous" by grateful his-
tory, the friend of Luther, and disinterested pro-
moter of Church reform. It was he who shel-
tered the audaciohs monk within the walls of his in-
accessible stronghold, while the new denominations
he had established were handing over their " con-
fession" to Emperor and Parliament in the cele-
brated session at Augsburg. The act and his sub-
sequent conduct in the interest of faith and truth
cost John Frederick one half of his possessions ; but,
as he often said during his captivity, which lasted
full five years, he was quite ready to lose his head
into the bargain, could the sacrifice benefit the good
cause. In the Thirty Years' War the Government
was occupied alternately by the Swedes and Ger-
mans, besieged in vain by Wallenstein, and, a ruse
de guerre coming conveniently to his aid, taken at
length by one of his Generals. Peace restored the
castle to its former owners, when its role in history
came to a close. The part it now plays is the more
modest one of a fine, old, well-preserved invalid, the
delight of travelling visitors, a surviving actor of
past events, and silent witness of those present and,
let us hope, many to come.
The valley of the Itz is just wide enough and the
ridges encompassing it are just sufficiently high to
combine the bolder beauties of the mountain world
with the more rural and unpretending attractions of
an undulating plain. You feel yourself in the hills
and may climb in scraggy woods, without losing
sight of fields, farms, and pasture land. You have
to ascend some 500 feet to get to the top of the
broken, varied ridge, but on arriving at one of the
numberless points de vue find yourself on a smooth
plateau, or on some jutting headland, descending in
gentle slope to the village on its skirts. Nature
made easy is the pervading character of these plea-
sant districts. No country can be better fitted for
parks, and few have had their natural features im-
proved with more careful and aesthetic refinement
than this little Duchy, and more particularly the
parts of it in the immediate possession of the Dukes.

As you saunter along amid oaks and beeches up
the side of the Bausenberg, you are at a loss to de-
fine the exact boundaries between the original copse
and the gardener's park. Past many a lovely view
down the shaded glades, and here and there an open
glimpse at the valley and the town, you reach a
strong wall, apparently iu the midst of the forest,
being the first or outer enclosure of the old castle.
A few minutes' walk will bring you to the moat,
protecting the second wall, which, in due succes-
sion, is followed by the third and last. They are
solid works in a state of 'perfect preservation, and
must have been formidable impediments in pre-
artilleristic times. The inner circumvallation, with
rampart, bastions and the tracesof an ancient glacis,
would make a respectable fort even now ; or, at
least, might be easily turned into one. There are
cairuuou disposed ou the works, mostly of curious