_15th._ Leaving Ellwangen, we passed through hilly but barren country, and over the most abominable roads possible, to Nördlingen, the first Bavarian post-town. We were every now and then obliged to get out of the carriage from fear of being overturned; and the postilion frequently preferred driving over a newly ploughed field to passing along the road. We however arrived safely at the post-house; thus accomplishing six short leagues in about as many hours. On driving into the town we were, as usual, asked for our passport, which was an English one: the officer took it for French, and I suppose he had never seen such an one before, for he copied the printed title into a paper which he gave me, as a permission to enter Bavaria, as follows:--"Permit to pass, &c. &c., _Lord Dudley, particulier_," and I could hardly make the man believe that the printed name was not that of the person travelling, but that of the minister. From Nördlingen we drove to Donauwörth, on the Donau, or Danube; passing through Haarburg, a small village, but one of the prettiest spots we had seen since we left the banks of the Neckar. The church and many of the houses are situated on the top of a lofty rock, high above the rest of the buildings, and the whole scene is strikingly picturesque. The Danube at Donauwörth is a small and unimposing stream. Opposite our inn were two boats ready to start for Vienna; they were of considerable size, but wholly built of rough deal planks. Such boats are chiefly filled with merchandize, and rarely take passengers, as their accommodation is very inferior. When they arrive at Vienna, they are broken up and sold as old wood, the current of the Danube being too rapid to admit of boats ascending. We had good accommodation at the only hotel, the Crab, which is out of the town, on the banks of the river; and Sir Humphry determined to remain till tomorrow, to see the fishermen cast their nets in the morning.
_16th._ Sir Humphry did not feel well enough to-day to accompany the fishermen, but desired them to bring him any fish they might catch; they accordingly brought him a schill, the large perch of the Danube, (_Perca lucioperca_, BLOCK,) of which Sir Humphry begged me to take a drawing. We then dissected it, and afterwards had it dressed for dinner, and both of us thought it very good, and much resembling cod in taste. Sir Humphry now generally prefers dining alone, and at a late hour for this part of the world, (four o'clock); and I, therefore, where I find a _table d'hôte_, usually dine at it; for though the business of eating in this country is not one of hasty dispatch, or of such trivial importance as to leave all the powers awake to conversation, yet foreigners who wish to become acquainted with the people and manners, as well as to see them, will, at all events, understand them much better by mixing with them, than by keeping, as is so often the case with English travellers, to their own rooms. While Sir Humphry dined, I took a walk up the Schellenberg, to look at the spot from which Marlborough drove the French at the celebrated battle of Blenheim; and sitting under an old oak, on the top of the hill, I enjoyed the extensive view beneath me. Hardly visible in the distance appeared the towers of Blenheim; nearer stood many a small village, embosomed as it were in the forests; and the Danube, winding through the woods and verdant meadows, now hidden by an interposing hill, then again appearing in many a bending curve, with here and there a small green island, flowed tranquilly on till it reaches the town of Donauwörth, where it receives the tributary waters of the Wernitz, a small river which runs through the town. I hastily took a sketch of the view, the scene of actions which can never be forgotten by the friend of English glory, and then returned to Sir Humphry, and in the evening read to him some of the "Arabian Nights," and Dryden's beautiful poem "The Flower and the Leaf."
