Munich. By Henry Ramie Wadleigh. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s. net.)—The
three divisions of his subject which Mr. Wadleigh successively treats are history, monuments, and art. Munich does not stand high among German cities for the historic interest of its buildings. The Alto Hof, built by Duke Ludwig the Strict early in the fourteenth century, is its "oldest and only purely mediaeval building." Nor is its early history interesting. The Monarchs who made the city what it is belong to modern times, and their history is a melancholy one. Ludwig I. was at one time of his life a really praiseworthy ruler. The city of to-day is very much of his making. The first trouble came from Ultramontane advisers ; but the downfall was the result of the King's discredit- able liaison with "Lola Montes." His successor, Maximilian, was weighted by bad health, but was on the whole a successful ruler. The end of Ludwig II., who came to the throne in 1864, was tragical in the extreme ; but his situation all along had been such as to try the endurance of a much stronger man. Bavaria practically ceased to have an independent existence after 1870, but it seems to have been all the happier for the change. But the Munich which most people are interested in is the visible city, "home of beer and art," as somo scoffer has put it. To this Mr. Wadleigh devotes the greater part of his volume, one hundred and seventy-eight pages out of a total of two hundred and seventy-four. The subject receives a full treatment which the visitor to the Bavarian capital will find most useful. One appendix gives an account of places of interest in the neighbourhood, another is devoted to Oberammergau and the Passion Play (the village is about sixty miles distant), while between the two there is a notice of Benjamin Thompson, born at Woburn, Massachusetts, and created Count Rumford,— every one may not know that the town of Rumford is now Concord.
Previous page
