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tember. The Palace, built 1818, in the place of a previous one destroyed by fire, is not very imposing externally, but it contains some very good modern frescoes by the Saxon artist Vogel: those in the Great Saloon represent the Arts Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Music. The chapel is adorned with several subjects by the same artist, exhibiting more of the refined conception and bold execution of the old masters than is usually found in modern works of this class. "During the residence of the Court, strangers can be admitted at before 3 to a gallery in the dining-hall to see the royal party at dinner, offering the only instance at the present time in Europe of a sovereign dining in public: the gallery is usually filled.”— L. M. 1. Pillnitz was the place of meeting of a Congress of Sovereigns, in 1791, including the Emperor Leopold II., Frederick William II. of Prussia, the Duc d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.), Calonne, and many French exiles, who projected a crusade against revolutionary France as the means of reinstating the Bourbons on its throne. There are gardens and hot-houses attached to the palace, and agreeable walks along the heights above pleasure-grounds. The Porsberg, an hour's walk to the N. E., commands fine prospects.

Beyond Pillnitz, the carriage-road quits the bank of the Elbe, and proceeds along an avenue of trees, through the village of Ober Boyritz, to Lohmen. The road to Lohmen lies by the side of one of those glens or gorges པའི for which this country is remarkable, called Liebethaler Grund. Though pretty, it is inferior in beauty to many others; so that persons pressed for time may reserve themselves for the Ottowalder Grund on the other side of Lohmen. It takes about 2 hours to walk through the Liebethaler Grund, and carriages may be sent round to Lohmen. A beautiful stream runs, or rather rolls down the glen, leaving scarcely room to walk by the side. The path passes large quarries, from which millstones are obtained, and leads up the glen as far as the Lochmühle,

a mill sunk deep in the gorge, and wedged in between perpendicular cliffs. The path lies through the miller's house, where refreshments may be obtained; and then, ascending out of the gorge by a flight of some 180 steps, proceeds along the top of the cliffs, by Dauba, to

Lohmen, a small village with a poor country inn, and an old castle on the brink of a precipice, from which a peasant is said to have fallen while asleep into the depth below, and to have recovered from his injuries.

After traversing the greater part of the long village of Lohmen, a footpath turns off suddenly to the rt. to Ottowalde, or Uttewalde, distant 2 miles. The Ottowalder Grund, another ravine, also to be traversed only on foot, and which no one should omit to explore, is remarkable for the height of its sides and the narrow space separating its walls asunder, so that the sun scarce penetrates into its depths. It possesses some remarkable objects: 1st. Das Thor, "the gate;" where 3 large cubicshaped masses of rock, having fallen from above, are jammed in between them so as to form a natural roof, under which, as under an arch, the traveller must pass. Then comes the "Stone House," being various large masses of rock exactly resembling the roof of a house. 3dly. Teufels Küche, or "Devil's Kitchen," a large natural excavation, which puts one in mind of the Abbot's Kitchen at Glastonbury. Shortly after this, the ravine divides into 2 ways: the rt. leads to Wehlen; the 1. hand path, emerging from the Ottowalder Grund, crosses the carriageroad from Dresden and Lohmen, and brings you direct to the verge of the gigantic precipice called THE BASTEI, or Bastion; close to which there is a tolerable Inn, much thronged, however, in summer.

The Bastei, from which is obtained by far the finest view in the whole district, "is the name given to one of the largest masses of rock which rise close by the river on the rt. bank. One narrow block, on the very summit, projects into the air.

Perched on

this, not on, but beyond, the brink of this precipice, you command a prospect which, in its kind, is unique in Europe. You hover on the pinnacle, at an elevation of more than 600 feet above the Elbe, which sweeps round the bottom of the precipice. Behind, and up along the winding river on the same bank, rise similar precipitous cliffs, cut and intersected like those already described. From the farther bank, the plain gra dually elevates itself into an irregular amphitheatre, terminated by a lofty, but rounded range of mountains. The striking feature is, that, in the bosom of this amphitheatre, a plain of the most varied beauty, huge columnar hills start up at once from the ground, at a great distance from each other, overlooking, in lonely and solemn grandeur, each its own portion of the domain. They are monuments which the Elbe has left standing to commemorate its triumph over their less hardy kindred. The most remarkable among them are the Lilienstein and Königstein, which tower, nearly in the centre of the picture, to a height of about 900 feet above the level of the Elbe. They rise perpendicularly from a sloping base, formed of débris, and now covered with natural wood. The access to the summit is so difficult, that an Elector of Saxony and King of Poland thought the exploit which he performed in scrambling up to the top of the Lilienstein deserving of being commemorated by an inscription. The access to the Königstein is artificial, for it has long been a fortress; and, from the strength of the situation, is still a virgin one. Besides these, the giants of the territory, the plain is studded with many other columnar eminences of the same general character, though on a smaller scale; and they all bear, from time immemorial, their particular legends for the mountains of Saxony and Bohemia are the native country of taletelling tradition, the cradle of Gnomes and Kobolds. In the deep rents and gloomy recesses of the Lilienstein, hosts of spirits still watch over concealed treasures. A holy nun, miraculously transported from the irregularities of

her convent to the summit of the Nonnenstein, that she might spend her days in prayer and purity in its caverns, is commemorated in the name of the rock; and the Jungfernsprung, or Leap of the Virgin, perpetuates the memory of the Saxon maid, who, when pursued by a brutal lustling, threw herself from the brink of its hideous precipice, to die unpolluted."— Russell's Germany.

These stiff bare rocks, rising from the earth, manifest, though now disjoined, that they once formed one body, all the softer parts of which have mouldered away, and left only the naked, indestructible framework.

The scene beheld from the Bastei will most assuredly detain the traveller for hours. The view over the plain, however, is not the only wonder of this remarkable spot. Behind, and at one side of the Bastei, numerous gigantic pinnacles of rock, separated from the main body by rents and chasms of tremendous depth, shoot upwards to a great height, in every variety of fantastic forms. So slight and slender are these natural pillars and obelisks, that it is difficult to understand how they maintain themselves upright at a height of several hundred feet. "Numerous tufts of large trees have struck root in this world of rocks, where there appears not an inch of earth to nourish them."

L. These slender pinnacles have been rendered accessible from the main land by slight wooden bridges spanning the chasms. A band of robber knights in former times set up a nest-like castle upon some of the loftiest and apparently most inaccessible of them; ì was called Burg Neurathen, and scanty remains of its masonry are still visible. The entrance on one side was through a natural arch and over a drawbridge; the approach on the other lay through a cleft, 3 ft. wide, and was closed by a portcullis formed of a slab of stone which ran in grooves still visible in the rocky walls. The narrow planks with which the robbers bridged the chasm around them were easily removed wher danger threatened, and their strong hold was then impregnable. From this lofty eyrie they watched the ap

proach of vessels on the Elbe, and dashed down to pillage or make captive, being long enabled by their position to bid defiance to legal authority. This fortress was at length destroyed in 1468; but in 1639, during the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, many poor refugees, driven out of their houses in the plain, sought shelter from the enemy among these crags.

There is a carriage-road from the Bastei to Schandau, "leaving Hohnstein on the opposite side of the ravine, on the 1., and winding down a long and gradual descent towards the Elbe, among rocks and thickets, commanding views by turns into the ravine on the 1., and into the valley of the Elbe, including the noble rock of Lilienstein, on the rt. It is one of the finest landscapes in the Saxon Switzerland." A steep path also descends through the narrow cleft above mentioned to the margin of the Elbe and the village of Rathen, at the foot of the Bastei.

At Rathen, a ferry takes you over the Elbe, and the traveller bound for Teplitz or Prague, and not intending to descend the Elbe again, may cross here and follow the 1. bank as far as Königstein (p. 477.), after which, recrossing the river higher up, opposite to Schandau, he may either retrace his steps down the rt. bank as far as the Tiefer Grund, and proceed through it to Hohnstein and the Brand, or go at once to Schandau.

From the foot of the Bastei at Rathen a path threads the bottom of other ravines as far as Hochstein. The waterfall of the Amstel Grund, though much praised by the natives, is but a sorry affair, especially after the cataracts of Switzerland; indeed, there is not one waterfall in the whole of this district worth the trouble of stepping two yards aside to see it.

Hochstein is a projecting promontory of rock, 400 ft. high, commanding a good view, approachable by a frail bridge thrown over a deep dark gulf, or yawning abyss, called Wolfschlucht. It is made accessible by ladders and by steps cut in the sides; and, from traces

of walls and iron hooks fastened in the rock, it is probable that there was once a fort here, serving as a watch-tower or out-work to the castle of Hohnstein on the opposite side of the valley. Hohnstein is a village of 900 inhab., with a Castle, which is surrounded on all sides by precipices. The fearful dungeons were once used as state prisons. Accommodation may be had

at the Weissen Hirsch.

A carriage-road leads from Hohnstein to the Brand, another very good point of view, but inferior to the Bastei. The road then passes down the Tiefer Grund, a valley so narrow that the sun appears rarely to penetrate it, to the banks of the Elbe, which it follows for about 1 mile, till it reaches

Schandau. Inns: Sächischer Schweitz, best; Forsthaus, good; Deutsches Haus. Badhaus, an inn out of the town about m. up the valley of the Kirnitsch, at a spot where a mineral spring supplies some baths, much frequented by Dresdeners in summer; rather dear. Schandau is a town of 1000 inhab. on the rt. bank of the Elbe, here crossed by a ferry at the junction of a streamlet called Kirnitsch. From its central situation, Schandau is convenient head-quarters for those who propose to explore at their ease the Saxon Switzerland; and there is a railroad thence to Dresden (after crossing the ferry). Boats may be hired here to ascend or descend the Elbe. A good walker, setting out early from Schandau, might visit in one day the Kuhstall, Winterberg, Prebisch Thor, and Hirniskretchen, and return without much exertion to sleep at the Baths.

A carriage-road runs up the valley of the Kirnitsch, to within a mile of the Kuhstall, about 6 m. from Schandau, where a path turns abruptly to the rt., across a brook and up a steep wooded hill, and after a mile of ascent, brings you to the Kuhstall. Ladies not strong a-foot may be carried up in a sedan-chair by two stout bearers, who will be found in readiness near the spot.

The portion of the Saxon Switzer

municated by two bridges of boats with Königstein. During the Seven Years' War (1760) an army of 17,000 Saxons laid down their arms here to Frederick the Great, in sight of Augustus, their sovereign, who was shut up at the time in the fortress.

1. Königstein (a tolerable inn) is a small town of 1300 inhab. on the Elbe. Above it, at a height of 779 ft. from the river, rises the virgin Fortress of

THE ELBE FROM SCHANDAU TO DRESDEN BY KÖNIGSTEIN AND PIRNA.

Steamers daily between Tetschen and Schandau and Dresden (p. 469.).

There is a ferry over the Elbe at Schandau, to the railroad on the opposite side, which is open to Dresden, passing by Königstein and Pirna, Mügeln and Niedersedlitz.

The voyage down the river in a boat is very agreeable, and the traveller may on the way land at the foot of Lilienstein, Königstein, the Bastei, &c. and explore these spots with little fatigue.

rt. "The Schrammstein, a bold perpendicular promontory of sandstone, overtops the neighbouring hills. Near the river it has a columnar fracture, but inland it assumes the form of a gigantic Cyclopean wall."-F. S.

rt. Lilienstein is the highest of the twelve isolated table mountains of the Saxon Switzerland, surpassing by 168 ft. its opposite neighbour Königstein. Its summit, 1254 ft. above the sea, is accessible from the village of Ebenheit, by narrow paths cut in the rock, and by scaling-ladders placed against the precipice. These means of access were first prepared in 1708 by order of Frederick Augustus I. of Saxony, after having himself made the ascent; an exploit of which he was so proud, that he set up an obelisk, which still remains, to commemorate it (p. 474.). The view from the top extends down the Elbe as far as Dresden and Meissen, and upwards to the Bohemian mountains. The French laid out around the base of Lilienstein, in 1813, a fortified camp, the ramparts of which still remain in part; it com

Europe never yet taken. "Viewed from a distance it bears a strong resemblance to one of the "hill forts" of India, and will give an European an exact idea of those singular strongholds."-L. M. It is deemed impregnable, from its lofty situation, surrounded on all sides by perpendicular escarpments of several hundred feet, which have been improved by artificial cuttings, while the weaker places have been filled in with masonry; but more than all from its isolated position, so far removed from any other height, the Lilienstein and Pfaffenstein, on opposite sides, being each 3000 yards distant, that it cannot be commanded by artillery. Napoleon endeavoured to batter it from Lilienstein; but, after raising 3 pieces of cannon with great difficulty to the summit, he found that the balls fell short. "The approach to it is most extraordinary, through a slanting way cut in the living rock, which rises on either side like a wall, and partly by a sloping wooden bridge, which, when removed in time of war, leaves the gateway unapproachable, high up in the face of the cliff.

Besides this, it is

defended by outworks and drawbridges, after the manner of many Indian hill forts."-L. M. The platform on which the fortress is built is several acres in extent. This space is partly cultivated in fields and gardens, and includes a wood of forest trees; it produces a little corn, and pasturage for one or two cows, so as to suffice to support a garrison of 600 men. In time of peace not more than 200 are stationed here. A well, cut to the depth of 1800 ft. in the solid rock, supplies them with water from an inexhaustible