The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-26 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO THE

CONTINENT.

Cottracs, Ana 21.—At length, after more than ten days
of almost inceisar t travelling, the Queen and her Consort are
resting in comparative quietude in the residence of the Prince's
ancestors. Her Majesty, it is said, slept last night in the very

in Which Prince Albert Was rou;;urn.
yturxburg here; except tn.
The journey from the weather
was not quite propitious, was not the leasi ititerese;sig as of
tfie tehtle tour. There was much that was new in the scenery,
the little incideilfSef the
,tourney, and the picturesque costumes
el the people. Bamberg, thf6ttet svh eh the route lay, was
full of the inhabi ants of the surrottedieg errantry, who gave
the Qat en a hearty reception during the test twins/les she re-
main, din the teitti, The distance from Bamberg to Coburg
is about twenty-eight miles, through a fertile and populous
cotntrv. After passing Zapfendorf, the road runs along the
bank of tte .Mein—a river presenting, at some points, scenery
scarcely inferior to that on the Rhine—and passes Staffelberg,
a hill of remarkable form arid commanding aspect. On the
other side of the road rises a height, or, which stands the
palace a Ptinee Maximilian of Bavaria, which was formerly
the convent of Bang. Passing Lichtenfels, a town of some
importance, the frontier of Bavaria and the Duchy of Saxe
Cohourg is soon reached.
Hera the royal party were met by the King and Queen of
the Belgians, #he had preceded them to Coburg, and now
returned thither with them. There was a pretty triumphal arch
at the boundary, and the cortege, as it passed on towards
Coburg, preceded by the postilions (In their gay and charac-
teristic blue dress and with plumes of wbite feathers in their
hats), looked picturesque enough, and certainly quite different
from anything of the kind we see in England. Carriages
belonging to Prince Augustus of Saxe Coburg and ether mem-
bers of the family also swelled the procession, which was
assisted by a large body of huntsmen of the House of Coburg,
dressed in their uniform of green and gold, and with their
carbines slung over their shoulders.
The reigning Duke of Saxe Coburg was also at the frontier
to receive his brother and sister-in-law, and he rode by the
side of the royal earflap, the King and Queen of the Belgians
being within.
'the whole reception at Coburg was the prettiest thing ima-
ginable. At the entrance to the town the burgomaster and
town-councillors were stationed to receive the royal party ;
and from this point throughout the city the eye saw but one
long festoon. At the boundary a splendid triumphal arch
stretched across the road, from which hung flags, and every
house in the long line of street through which the royal
cortege passed was gaily decorated with garlands, festoons,
flags, and flowers. Better and prettier still to see were the
smiling faces of the inhabitants, lining the streets, and clus-
tering in all the windows. The great buildii:gs of the city
were also profusely oreamented. The town-home and the
palace of the Prince of Furstenberg were especially decoiVed
with garlands, festoons, and flags.
Arrived at the palace of the Duke, a fine building in the
modern Gothic style, forming three sides of an immense quad-
rangle, and with a turreted entrance, the royal party alighted
and partook of a slight refreshment. A guard of Bens d'artnes
were drawn up here. After a short delay the royal party
left the palace (it is the town residence of the Duke), and
proceeded to the summer palace, Rosenau, situate about four
miles from Coburg. The road to this place runs through a
vale, in which are crowded in picturesque variety all the most
charming features of English rural scenery. A little further
on and en avenue of trees, perhaps two miles long, leads
up to the palace, through a country which has all the charm
and beauty, all the richness and massiveness of forest and
verdure, that you see in an English nobleman's park, without
that exclusiveness which in our country is a check upon all
enjoyment. You cannot see where the public road ends, and
where the domain of the Prince begins, so entirely open is the
place to all corners.
Rosenau itself is the beau-ideal of a summer-residence.
Although built on a princely scale, it looks like an enormous
cottage orn(e, embowered in trees and flowers. The name,
Rosenau," the meadow of roses," aptly describes the lovely
valley from which the palace :rises. The views commanded
from the windows are of the finest kind. A landscape of more
than English softness and rich luxuriance—meadow, woodland,
and stream—is spread at the foot, while all around, as far as
the eye can reach, mountains of Highland grandeur, clothed
to their summits with fir or with rich woods, inclose it and
develope its beauties by a noble contrast. In the distance, at
the extremity of the valley, lies Coburg itself.
After the natural beauties of the place, the next peculiarity
that strikes an English mind is the utter absence of all cere-
monial and exclusiveness. There is none of that sulky solitary
grandeur, with which English noblemen and princes are so
prone to surround themselves. There is not a gate or a sen-
tinel in the whole place; but the country people (and happy
comfortable people they seem) come and go, and look about
them as they please, under the very windows of the palace,
with no other restraint upon them than their own sense of self-
respect, and those habits of decorum which characterise the
Germans.

Not more than four miles from Rosenau, and nearer Coburg,
there is another summer residence, the palace of Prince Ernest
of Wurtemburg, from which a very fine view is obtained of
the vale in which Coburg is situate, the spire of the Church of
St. Maurice rising boldly from the centre of the city. On
the opposite heights is the fortress of Coburg, which her
Majesty went last evening to visit, driving over from Rosenau
for the purpose.
As to Coburg itself, the notion entertained of it in England
is one of the most absurd and outre in John Bull's bundle of
prejudices. That its situation is picturesque will have been
gathered from what has already been said. But the city itself
is much larger and of much more importance than is generally
supposed. The palace of the king is a noble structure, and
the great buildings of the town are very little inferior to any of
the same recent erection in the chief towns in Germany.
These are comparatively modern, but the town itself is much
more ancient. The streets, however, are wider than in most
of the older towns in Germany. The houses are for the most
part white ; and, above all, they seem remarkably clean. The
market .place is a fine large area, very similar to the great
square at Bonn, and there are some magnificently quaint old
houses in it. The theatre, also, is a fine building ; and the
suburbs of the city, in which there are villas in abundance, are
of remarkable beauty, combining a very rural air with much
elegance. But what is, after all, much more interesting to the
stranger, and more surprising to the Englishman, than the
merely ph} sical aspect of Coburg, is the wealth and comfort it
displays. The residences of the better classes are dis-
tinguished by much elegance ; and there is no
poverty or squalor, but, on the contrary, much ap-
pearance of substantial comfort in those of the lower.
Of course Coburg cannot compete in size with the
capital towns of larger states; it is, In fact, a sort of miniature
city, in which everything is perfect, although on a somewhat
small scale ; but in the possession of all those features which
are desirable for the happiness of the people it seems unique. It
has its historical associations too. Wallenstein besieged it in
vain in the thirty years' war, and it boasts of being able to
show the room where Luther slept while in concealment here,
and the:pulpit from which he preached.
In the theatre operas and German plays alternate. It is
under the direction of the Grand Duke, and it bears a high
character for musical and dramatic excellence. Her Majesty
and the rest of the royal party now here went there last
night. The opera was the Huguenots, and the theatre was
densely filled. The population of Coburg is about 10,000.
That of Gotha, which is about seventy-five miles from here,
is 14,000. When her Majesty arrived at Coburg the whole
population turned out to meet her. There were dense masses
all along the road between the frontiers and the town. Not
only these were there, but also the people of the surrounding
country, in a circuit of many miles, came in crowds into
Coburg. Some came as much as twenty German miles, and
some from Leipsic.
It was stated that there would be at Coburg a grand re-union
of royal personages—that not fewer thsn fifteen crowned heads
would here meet Queen Victoria. At present, besides the
members of the Ducal house of Saxe Coburg, there are only
the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Duchess of Kent, and
the Prince of Leiningen, the half. brother of her Majesty Queen
Victoria. The Palace of Rosenau is occupied by the Queen
and Prince Albert. The ether royal personages, with their re.
spective suites, stay at the town Palace of the Duke.
Her Majesty In s since her arrival rested after the fatigues of
her inces,ant travelling. Beyond an occasional drive out in
the neighbourhood, and through the town of Coburg, there has
been no movement of the Court.