New-York daily tribune., 1843-12-26
VOL. AEE. NO. 223.

the eternal cabbage. Then at last come the pas
try, fruit and nuts | fear that this dinner would
meet with no more favor at the Astor House than
at the Graham House in Barclay street, where |
remember once dining with you on vegetables
exceedingly well.
The Rhine wines are well known and greatly
favored in the United States, but only the best
are sent there and you may get very excellent
idea OF the ordinary kinds usually drunk here at
dinner under long and high sounding names, by
| mixing spoonful Of very hard cider with quart
of water No Temperance Society need object
to their use, for before a man could drink enough
to affect his head he would have half dozen fits
Of the cho!ic
Codientz is best known by its vicinity to the
famous fortress of Ehreabrelstein, or "honor's
broad stone,'' which is the Gibraltar Of the Rhine.
This stupendous rock rises abruptly from the wa
ter's edge, and Oh three sides plunges down mac
esslbly The fourth is made equally untakcable
by forts behind forts. Having obtained pcrmls
sion from the cemmandant residing at Coblentz,
mounted to its summit under the convoy OF
sergeant The road winds up in zig-zags, each
one exposed for It's whole length to rakng fire
from the four hundred cannon which fill every
nook, and TO the musketry which would rain
through the loop-holcs in thc walls. # by any
possibility the enemy gained one outwork, he
must pass yawning chasms, now covered by
Graw-bridges, and mount perpendicular walls, to
WIN second; and if this could be done, third, !,
still stronger than the rest would yet repcl hun.
Nothing but famine could conquer Ehrcnbrelt-
stein: and to guard against this are magazines
capable Of containing provisions for 5000 men
for ten years cisterns which hold water for three
wears, and a well sunk four hundred feet deep to
the Rhine.
Coblcntz itself is beautifully situated on the
banks of the blue MoselIe," and contains a mon
umcnt which bears one of the neatest sarcasms
ever yet recorded. When Napoleon set out on
his fatal march TO Moscow, the Project of Co.
blcntz, eager to show his loyalty to the Emperor,
| erected marble column in a fountain with the
| inscription" Year 1912. Memorable for the
campaign against the Russians, under the Pre-
lecture of Jules Doazan.' a year rolled on
Napoleon fell, and Russian army occupied Co.
blentz Their general saw the monument, and,
instead of destroying it with its offensive nscrip
ton, he contentcd himself with the cutting irony
of simply adding to it the words" Seen and ap-
proved by us, Russian Commandant OF the City OF
Coblentz. Jan. l, lol4." Both the inscriptions
vet remain undefaced.
Between Cobicntz and Bngcn is concentrated
much of the finest scenery Of the Rhine The
mountains on each side approach one another
more nearly, become bare and ragged, bearing
ruined castles for trees, and darken the whole
river with their broad and deep shadows. The
river itself seems like succession of lakes, so
completely is the sight bounded by the cliffs
which constantly appear to close 1t at either end.
Throughout the whole gorge, the rocks seem
black and broken, as though they had been
freshly cleft asunder by some convuslon of ma
ture which had also destroyed the towers whose
remains sprinkle every commanding summit At
every turn is seen some new combination Of
beauty, which the pencil OF slk!llful artist might
| caeby represent, but to which the pen is wholly
inadequate. The charm is doubled by the his
torcal associations, and the romantic legends
which so many centuries have We'd in entwining
around every stream, rock and tower of the
Rhine. At Rhense the affairs OF the mighty
CermaIic Empire once used to be decided
Braubach still retains its dungeons and its cham
bers Of torture. Roppart sent forth the knight
| Tcmplars who frst mounted the breach at the
storrlin,r of Ptoiemies III the third crusade The
Lureiberg has been hundred times sung Of as
the rock haunted by the beautiful nymph I'm
dine. whose lnagically delicious voice would
charm the passing boatman INTO her fatal whir-
pool. Near Schonberg are stlii shown the seven
rocks into which the beaueous sisters were trans
formed for their hard-heartcdness in loving one
but themselves. The tower still stands near
Bmgen in which The army of mice devoured the
cruel Bishop Hatto; as is faithfully recorded by
Sou,hcv But I should need volume instead
of a letter, if | attempted to makeeven passing
ausion to all the tales told Of this exultng and
abounding river"
The Hudson and the Rhine are often CON-
pared, but never with any satisfactory result
Like blonde beauty and brunette, each has
charms peculiarly It's own, and each may in turn
be preferred by different tastes without dlsparage-
ment of the other. If they must be contrasted,
the difference might be best expressed to those
familiar with the nice shades of language, by
calling the Rhine picturesque, and the Hudson
naiestic In our pet river, in all our country,
every thing is on larger scale. The stream is
| wider, the hills are higher, and their ranges and
sweeps are vaster. But this very grandeur OF
size is defect for the eye can take N so much
fewer objects, and the picture composed BY those
few, though grand ones, which it can comprc-