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

shape and workmanship, some of them exquisite
models of the founder's art. The first piece of
artillery meeting your eye near the principal gate
has a little figure of Luther on the barrel kneeling
opposite that of the Pope, and boxing his ears with
equal satisfaction to himself and effect on the victim
of his wrath. (!) There were no woodcuts then, no
Punches and Funs, and caricatures to be embodied
at all had to be cast in bronze.

The castle is a very extensive conglomeration of
palatial, military, and other buildings, dating from
various ages, and unlike in size and style. The
whole, however, looks rather like a mediaeval man-
sion-house than a fort. Some enormous piles, with
slanting roofs in the ordinary fashion of the age,
will remind you of patrician buildings you have
seen at Nuremberg or in some other neighbouring
town. They are disposed on the level summit of
the hill without much symmetry, divided by spacious
courtyards, and connected by buildings of inferior
quality and size. The northern wing alone has any
pretensions to external ornament ; but even here the
inside is so incomparably superior to what the flattish
aspect of the front promises that I should be
damaging the reputation of the venerable old keep
by dwelling too long upon the pattern of a fine but
rather solitary porch, or making too much of it.
Were Coburg the hereditary seat of a line of
mighty conquerors, or had it begun giving kings to
the world as early as five centuries ago, no more
palatial hall would be needed to represent old family
pride, wealth, and influence. They must have been
valiant and successful seigneurs indeed who con-
trived to erect such a structure and amass such
eloquent proofs of opulence in the retirement of a
Franconian schloss. You are amazed to find such a
number:of lofty Gothic rooms in a palace scarce known
to the foreign tourist. You wonder at the highly-
finished carvings in wood—statuary work in oak
one might call it—covering the doors, wainscoting,
and ceiling of many of the apartments formerly in-
habited by the noble owners. You like to look at
the stately rooms where the ancestors of the de-
ceased Prince, who was destined to marry the
Queen of England, were leading a quiet and com-
fortable life centuries ago. You admire the num-
ber and value of the family pictures, dating back as
far as 200 years ago, the portraits of the great men
of the Reformation filling some of the rooms, and
the very creditable frescoes adorning the walls of
others. You are agreeably surprised to discover a
large and remarkable armoury in what is but one
among the many seats of the royal and ducal house
of Saxony. In Germany, I am told, there is no-
thing to compare with this collection of swords,
pikes, helmets, hauberks, and cuirasses from the 13th
to the 17th century. Indeed, a good many men
might be clad in coat of mail from the treasures of
Coburg Castle. Breastplates, casques, and the
whole accoutrement of chivalry are exhibited in long
rows, including every size, kind, and taste, and
calling back to memory the glories of a tune when
war was the rule and peace the exception. Swords
and elegant blades from Italy and Spain, as they
shine and glitter on the wall, try hard to convince
you that there may be luxury even in death ; a
proposition which, perhaps, is rather supported
than otherwise by contrasting it with the execu-
tioner's axes exhibited in another part of the hall.
There is a broadsword which saw the heads of no
less than 101 people (let us hope they were all
criminal enough to deserve punishment) roll in the
*lust under its deadly blows ; the axe with which
the wicked Grumback, who stole a couple of Saion
princes, was quartered ; and many more lions in
the carnificial and torturer's line.
A separate room contains a collection of 800
muskets, fowling-pieces, and rifles. As my cicerone
solemnly assured me, each of them is a priceless
curiosity. They certainly looked exquisite weapons,
belonging to all ages, and including specimens
from the clumsy arquebuss and firelock down to
the rifles of these latter days. I regretted I was not
capable of appreciating the eulogiums of my admiring
guide. A most interesting collection of mediaeval
carriages, chiefly bridal cars of heavy yet fantastic
form ; other collections of the most celebrated en-
gravings of ancient art, of coins, autographs, and
objects of natural history—each of them large and
remarkable enough to do honour to any regal
palace in the world—complete that portion of the
furnishings which, above all others, bears witness
to the quality of the men that took delight in bring-
ing together, Owning, and using them. When I
have added that among the rifles the most highly
prized is the one which did such formidable execu-
tion in the hands of Andreas Hofer, the leader of the
Tyrolese people's campaign against the marshals
of Napoleon I. ; that among the coats of mail is to
be seen the cuirass of Thomas Munzer, the captain
of the infuriated serfs in the Peasants' War ; that
there is the veritable bedstead of Luther, still stand-
ing in the same dark and narrow alcove in which
he slept during his sojourn here ; that Gustavus
Adolphus bequeathed to the fort and his illus-
trious friends inhabiting it a sword and a bumper,
when one fine morning, 225 years ago, he bade
them adieu in the Castle Yard, and rode down the
blossoming avenue to fight the Pole, the Spaniard,
and the Walloon, then serving the Kaiser ; that the
prows of the Christian and the Gefion, taken by the
reigning Duke in the Danish campaign of 1848, are
exhibited along with trophies of older date; and last,
not least, that the collection of autographs, being
greatly increased by the donations of Prince Albert
to his ducal brother, contains, I am told, the sign
manual of nearly every man of first-class notoriety
Great Britain produced in modern times, enough
has been said of the relics and other objects of par-
ticular interest to give an idea of the accumulated
treasures of history deposited at Coburg.
We oughtenot, however, to take leave of our
friendly guide, who has shown us over the castle
with pleasant loquacity, without pulling out our
note-book again, and duly entering the fact that
Luther thought but indifferently well of its qualities
as a habitation and dwelling-place for Christians
and pious people. In the 119 letters he wrote dur-
ing the six months he resided up here, A.D. 1530,
earnest complaint is made repeatedly that the devil
is haunting the premises with a numerous host of
attendants and underlings. In an epistle to Me-
lancthon, his friend and fellow-labourer in the vine-
yard, he, however, gives a more worldly version of
his state of mind, saying he feels very dull, and ex-
pressing a desire to leave as soon as possible. It is
but natural he should have been anxious about the
future, while such great events were being consum-
mated at Augsburg, and he not in the midst of his
friends ; but if he felt the time hanging heavily on
his hands, though in those very six months he com-
pleted a most powerful and spirited version of the
Psalms, finished his translation of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, and rendered the fables of 2Esop, it is said,
into very readable German, his industry certainly
kept pace with his ardour and honest piety. It was
also here in a leisure hour he composed the text and
music of the impressive chorale " Ein fate Burg
ist unser Gott," and wrote the almost equally popular
letter, so full of wisdom and fatherly kindness, to
his little son Hans. In addition to his more serious
occupations, he would, it is recorded, fence, wrestle,
and practise archery with the 12 men-at-arms, to
whose charge his safety had been committed. In
bad weather he had recourse to his lute or the
turner's lathe to while away the time—the enemy.
And yet he felt dull.
Coburg, a town of some 12,000 inhabitants, seems
to be a well-t3-do place enough, having lately come
into vogue among tourists, and attracting an
ek or
over-
growing number of visitors, who stay
this beautifulstay a week
two, passing their villeggiatura in
neighbourhood. There is also agotobde deal of
of
in-
dustry in the adjoining parts
Meiningen and of Prussia, which has helped on
the place, and made it the centre of a busy little
world of its own. Export breweries, cotton spin-
neries and mills, rifle works, and very large toy
and wicker work manufactures are flourishing in
the vicinity. With all these props of culture and
the additional advantage of having long held rank
as the leading town of the district, one cannot fail
to observe the disproportion existing between the
material resources and the intellectual and artistic
activity of these lilliputian townships of Germany.
There is a daily paper, three political weeklies, a
public library of 50,000 volumes, a private circulat-
ing library of as many, a respectable publishing firm,
and four booksellers besides ; an excellent grammar
school, a good theatre, a reading room, a freemasons'