The former live
in the open air even in the middle of winter and seldom make use of a
Fire
to warm themselves; whereas the Germans and Dutch live in an atmosphere of
stove-heat and smoke and seldom like to stir abroad in the open air during
winter, unless necessity obliges them. Hence they become half-baked, as it
were; their nerves are unstrung, their flesh flabby and they become so
chilly, as to suffer from the smallest exposure to the atmosphere. In the
houses in Germany, on account of the stoves, the cold is never felt,
whereas it is very severely in Italy and Spain where many of the houses
have no fireplaces. On this account I prefer Germany as a winter residence,
for I think there is no sensation so disagreeable as to feel cold in the
house. In the open air I do not care a fig for it, for my cloak lined with
bearskin protects me amply. The climate here in winter is a dry cold, which
is much more salubrious and agreeable to me than the changeable, humid
climate of Great Britain, where, though the cold is not so great, it is
much more severely felt.
[126] Tacitus, Germania, C, VIII. - ED.
[127] Martin Sherlock (d. 1797), author of Lettres d'un voyageur anglais,
which were published in Paris 1779 and, the year after, in London.
[128] Matthew Gregory Lewis, 1775-1818, published Ambrosio or the Monk in
1795. - ED.
CHAPTER XVIII
MARCH-APRIL 1819
Journey from Dresden to Leipzig - The University of Leipzig - Liberal
spirit - The English disliked in Saxony - The English Government hostile to
liberty - Journey to Frankfort - From Frankfort to Metz and Paris - A.F.
Lemaitre - Bon voyage to the Allies - Return to England.
I left Dresden on the 2nd March, 1819. A Landkutsche conveyed me as far
as Leipzig in a day and half, stopping the first night at Oschaly, where
there is a good inn. At Leipzig I put up at the Hotel de Baviere and
remained five days. Leipzig is a fine old Gothic city. It is, as everybody
knows, famous for its University and its Fair, which is held twice a year,
in spring and in autumn, and which is the greatest mart for books perhaps
in the world. The University of Leipzig and indeed all the Universities of
Germany are in bad repute among the Obscuranten and eteignoirs of the
day, on account of the liberal ideas professed by the teachers and
scholars. In the University of Leipzig every thing may be learned by those
who chuse to apply, but those who prefer remaining idle may do so, as there
is less compulsion than at the English Universities. There is however such
a national enthusiasm for learning, in all parts of Germany, that the most
careless and ill-disposed youth would never be about to support the
ridicule of his fellow students were he backward in obtaining prizes, but
after all I have heard of the dissipation, lawlessness, and want of
discipline at Leipzig, I can safely affirm that all these stories are
grossly exaggerated:
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