TIMOR'S TOUR IN FRANCONIA. * A mans of lectures which he
delivered on German history, in- duced in. Friend Tylor (for the tourist appears• to be a Quaker)
• An Historical Tour in Franconia in the Summer of 1852. By Charles Tyler. Published by Longman and Co.
a desire to visit the country whose annals he had studied. Op- portunity was wanting to explore the whole region of the Father- land; he therefore confined himself to old Franconia, forming a large part of the present kingdom of Bavaria. The choice was judicious. The country is not so much overrun by tourists as other parts of Germany ; it is both beautiful and varied in its beauty, embracing a part of the German Switzerland. It is per- haps still more attractive for its old towns, memorials of the com- mercial and artistic greatness and wealth of the middle ages, full of remains of ecclesiastical, palatial, and civic edifices, which vividly recall the external life of times insufficiently understood, and not as yet perhaps properly revived to the world by the historian's pen. Charles Tylor is not ill qualified for travelling with advantage in Franconia. He is, in the first place, well versed in its history ; and the object of his tour being historical, his recurrence to its legends is more appropriate than where the present seems the real subject of the traveller. The facts and tales he has recourse to are sparingly introduced, are brief and striking in themselves, and are closely connected with the scene. The past, however, is by no means his only topic. The aspect of the country, the appearance and condition of the people, the modes of life, and the prices of commodities as well as other facts ,connected with present living, are judiciously noticed. The author's sect naturally directed Ins attention to religion and to questions connected with it; and he displays a larger liberality than is always found in sectarians. He renders justice to the labours of many of the missionaries of the dark ages ; their claims to inspiration in fact rather falling in with the Quaker idea of a preacher being moved by the spirit.. War is also handled, but in a less fiery spirit than with many a the peculiar advocates of peace. A churchyard at Nuremberg suggests the wealth and spirit that prevailed in the city where Albert Durer and many other artists of celebrity lived and laboured. In forming a ju • ant on the mode of life in past times, regard, however, should paid to the
means and. fashion of expenditure. Mechanical facilities, and the spread of competency among numbers, have induced in our times a more various and selfish-looking fashion of expense. In the mid- dle ages, necessity compelled an artistical and public-seeming out- lay. People had no other way of spending their money than on buildings, monuments, processions, and furniture that rose above upholstery to art. Science was not then applied to comfort and cosiness.
"There is, perhaps, no burial-place in the world more remarkable than the churchyard of St. John. The day was too glaring and sultry when we visited it to linger long amongst its thousands of proud tombstones, where every slab bears in high relief of dark bronze, fashioned by the skill of the most distinguished artists, the arms of the civic noble who moulders beneath. What pomp of funeral processions must have ascended the steep from the city, year by year, through that gateway, to convey another and another wealthy burgher from the busy scenes of commerce and office to the silent abode of the dead ! The city has declined in power and prosperity, but the emblems of its former glory and pride remain unchanged. The graves of the civic aristocracy of Nuremberg and the funeral obsequies of Cromwell may be alike instanced as proofs that the pride of human power and riches is everywhere the same, whether it is known under the name of feudal, im- perial, or republican. The manners of the Nuremberg patricians, that is, of the small number of burgher families ennobled by Imperial decree, were formed on those of the exclusive class who bore the same title in ancient Rome, and continued such down to the French Revolution. A writer before that eruption, speaking of them, says, 'They are very rich, and so haughty that nobody visits them, and they scarce visit one another. They are apt to ape the Venetians in everything, and to tyrannize over the people. They wear pointed hats and monstrous bushy ruffs.' "
How are the mighty fallen! Toys are now among the staples of Nuremberg.
"Before leaving, I went to a neighbouring toy-shop to purchase a memento of Nuremberg, for some little folks at home. The manufacture and sale of toys, as is well known is a staple trade of the city, and employs, there and elsewhere, a great number of hands. Wooden toys are a principal branch of the trade, and are made in the Black Forest, the Saxon Erz Mountains, Thuringia, &c. ; as well as in Nuremberg itself. The beat representations of animals and men come from the villages of the Black Forest and the Tyrol, and very often display considerable taste, notwithstanding their low price. Of later time, the art has made great progress, especially in Vienna and Nu- remberg, where, amongst other curiosities, large numbers of automatons are manufactured. There were many of these in the shop, which were offered at very low prices. A vast amount of ingenuity is put in requisition for the manufacture of toys in great numbers. Take for example animals, an arti- cle in which this kind of skill is most conspicuous, and which are turned out by dozens at a time. Suppose it is a flock of sheep which is required. The workman screws a block of wood into the lathe, and turns in it hollows, grooves, and such other depressions and prominences as agree with the gene- ral profile of a sheep. Then the block is split, perpendicularly, into as many segments as there are animals to be made from it, each of which possesses the outline of a sheep, and requires but little labour to prepare it for the painter. If instead of a sheep, an animal is to be made broader behind than before, the head is inserted afterwards ; if it is equally broad throughout, the block is often planed out to form the profile, and then cut into parallel segments as before. In this manner, and with ingenious variations according to the nature of the work, a clever mechanic will deliver many dozens of animals in a day : but so small is the price paid for this kind of labour, that the toy- makers are among the most needy class of mankind."
This piece of German wit would argue greater freedom of the press than we might suppose ; but it is from Saxony, not Austria.
"A caricature sheet was brought to us, The Tillage Barber,' a paper pub- lished in Saxony in imitation of 'Punch' and the Charivari.' The jests were coarse and irreverent, two characteristics of German free-thinking ; but one of them may be retailed as a good specimen of German wit, and but too true in its signification. A peasant comes into the presence of a Government official with his hat under his arm and a book in his hand. So,' sais the official, 'he will forsake his fatherland, and be off to America. What has induced him to think of such a thing?' ' A book, Mr. Steward,' replies the husbandman. 'A book !' cries the steward • what book?' One that has cost me a great deal of money,' answers the farmer. 'Let me see it,' is the reply ; and the husbandman hands up to the officer the Tax-book!"
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