DR. GRANVILLE'S SPAS OF GERMANY.
SOME years since, a facetious " old man " visited some of the lead- ing Spas of Germany, and blew thence a series of bubbles, of such a light and spirited kind as to attract thither a number of excur- tionists, many of them being of the scribbling genus. Among the foremost was Mrs. TROLLOPE ; next, came the author of Slight ,Reminiscences of the Rhine; and after them, Tourists or Guides innumerable, till one would have thought that the subject was pretty well exhausted. Dr. GRANVILLE, however, thinks otherwise; and as his object is to give a complete and connected view of the leading Spas, with their outward appearance—their accommodation and social capabilities—the properties and uses of their waters—the diseases they will benefit, and the costs of living at them—he is probably right. It is not our intention to describe the route of Dr. GRANVILLE, or to follow him from Spa to Spa. Let it suffice to say, that he visited the principal ones, and discovered many hitherto unknown to the English world ; that he bathed in every bath, drank of every spring, and visited every brother doctor, examining, analyzing, or comparing the merits of each; that be describes the Spas, and their company; the best ways of reaching them, and the country round them; besides giving copies of his own expenses and lists of prices in the duller season, when Dr. GRANVILLE was not to be seen. He also, rather unnecessarily, gives their history, medical and topographical ; and their statistics, when they happen to have any ; besides which, ha has drawn up a table exhibiting a chemical analysis of the waters of the thirty-six different Spas he visited, and given other information of scientific kind.
Spas, however, though the principal, are not the sole topics of the Doctor. These stars of Germany, like other stars, are sepa- rated from each other, can only be approached by ways, and have planets scattered around them. And at many of these our fashionable physician was band and glove with ministers and official doctors, received by German princes, and himself a shining light if fashion; of whose persons and doidgs lie speaks with the tolerance of a man of the world, save upon the subject of unwholesome pranks. As a guide, to any one proposing an excursion to the Brunnens, the Spas of Germany would be a useful, though a portly and
we imagine a costly companion. As a home book its value is less ; for the Doctor, with some sense, much pleasantry, and a good deal of gossip, is given to twaddle and diffuseness. However, he trifles agreeably, and upon trifles that have a certain sort of in- terest.
BALL AT BADER.BADEN.
A Bal Par, given in the principal salon on the following night, brought under the same gilded roof for a few hours all the beau.inontle of Baden. It was the sixth since the commencement of the season, and a promise was in- serted, along with its announcement in the Blutte, that " Les Valses et les Galops seront executes par vingt-quatre musiciens du Regiment en Garnison a Rastadt, et les Contra- dames par Forchestre ord inai re de Bade." A servant out of livery, placed at the entrance of the ball-room within, and at the further end of one of the gambling-roots, receives three francs, as the price of admission from any one who presents himself in a costume deemed respectable. The power of ex- clusion depends on no other condition. The " external man" alone is consi- dered, and the same of his fair partner. Hence it follows, that the assemblage within presents a coup-d'eril not easily defined. With the Sommites aristocra. tiques" of almost every nation in Europe, one sees the Zeros and the Rogues from the same countries, in no inconsiderable numbers. The presence of the truly amiable Dowager Dutchess Stephanie, and of her daughter the Princess Marie, is not always a guarantee that the purest of their sex only will be ad- mitted. The melange indeed is complete ; and in this respect, Baden-Baden is inferior to Carlsbad and Brdchenau, at both which places impudence finds less facility of introduction. The Princesses kept aloof, under the gallery, seated on ottomans, and surrounded by their ladies of honour and the officers of their household. Between each dance they advanced and received such of the com- pany as the Chumbellan de service thought proper to introduce. There is no other etiquette. All restraint is thus removed, and the affable manners of the illustrious relatives put every one present at their ease. Le Chambellan is a quick-eyed man of the world, not easily imposed upon, I should think ; and his judgment and discretion are seldom at fault. By this means, even in this motley throng of real and mock exclusives, a positive distinction is soon estab- lished, after all the presentations have taken place, which becomes curiously visible in the gait and conduct of the different classes towards each other, throughout the rest of the evening.
EFFECTS OF A BATH AT WILDBA D.
After descending a few steps from the dressing-room to the bath-room, I walked over the warm soft sand to the furthest end of the bath, and I laid myself down upon it, near the principal spring, resting my head on a clean wooden pillow. The soothing effect of the water, as it came over me up to the throat, transparent like the brightest gem or aquamarine, soft, genially warm, and gently murmuring, I shall never forget. Millions of bubbles of gas rose from the sand and played around me, quivering through the lucid water as they ascended, and bursting at the surface, to be succeeded by others. The sensation produced by these, as many of them, with their tremulous motion, just effieuraient the surface of the body, like the much-vaunted effect of titillation in animal magnetism, is not to be described. it partakes of tranquillity and exhiliration ; of the ecstatic state of a devotee, blended with the repose of an opium-ester. The bead is calm, the heart is cam, every sense is cam; yet there is neither drowsiness, dupe. faction, nor numbness ; for every feeling is fresher, and the memory of meet, pleasures keen and eharp. But the operations of the moral as well as phy,k4 man are under the spell of some powerfully-tranquillizing agent. la is the human tempest lulled into all the delicious playings of the ocean's after-wares From such a position I willingly would never have stirred. To prolong 434. licious effects what would I not have given? but the Bad-meister appeared it the top of the steps of the further door, and warned me to eschew tie danger of my situation ; for there is danger even in such pleasures as these, if greatly prolonged. I looked at the watch and the thermometer before I quitted my station. The one told me I had passed a whole hour, in the few minutes I had spent accord. ing to my imagination ; and the other marked 29i degrees of Reaumur, or eel degrees of Fahrenheit.
ENGLISH CHARACTERISTICS.
As usual among the guests, the English predominate. You can mark them at once by diagnostic signs which never fail. If you behold an unusually well. dressed individual, high-cravated, and clad in a Stulz frac, coming into the dining-room after all the rest of the people have finished their potage, be RI. cured be is an Englishman. If he begins grumbling in indifferent French e the hellner at the bouillon an ris, and turns up his nose at the bouilli which follows, doubt not that he is any other than an Englishman. If he beckons to the waiter to bring him a dish out of its turn. so as to derange altogether es usual routine to which every one cheerfully submits, he is unquestionably la Englishman. If he calls for a bottle of champagne, when every one eke ie quaffing his demi-bouteille of sour wine, the conclusion is inevitable ; and il three or four such individuals cluster together, talk loud, and d— the cookery, at the same time that they admit how cheaply they can live and amuse them. selves, the case is guise manifest they are all from this side of the Channel_ landed from the Dampschiff at Frankfort, and recently imported into Bavaria, The volumes are illustrated by a general map of Germany and Switzerland, as well as by smaller district maps ; and they are profusely decorated with wood-cut views of the principal objects and Spas.
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