_17th._ Crossing over to the right bank of the Danube by a small wooden bridge, our road passed through many pleasant meadows covered with beautiful anemones, interspersed here and there with the dark blue gentian, and enlivened by numerous herds of cattle. The first _poste_ was Bergheim, and from thence to Neuburg and Ingolstadt. The church steeples of all the villages by which we passed were covered with tiles glazed with different colours, which in the sunshine have a very brilliant and Chinese appearance. Ingolstadt is a small old town, with dilapidated fortifications and walls. The only inn seemed in a similar condition, and the kitchen and some of the rooms being in a state of repair, we were obliged to continue our route. On leaving the town, we crossed over the Danube again and drove on to Vohburg. In the distance we thought we saw the Salzburg Alps, but we were unable to determine with certainty, the clouds having the greatest possible resemblance to distant snowy mountains. The Danube at Vohburg is by no means so wide as the Rhine at Mannheim, but is much more rapid. We again recrossed it, and drove through some marshy land, and a small forest of firs, beautifully green, to Neustadt, where we remained for the night at a most wretched inn.
The whole country through which we have passed appears very populous, but the peasantry look wretchedly squalid and poor, and an English eye is much struck by seeing the women constantly at hard work in the fields, and apparently performing a much greater share of the laborious part of their employment than the men.
_18th._ We left Neustadt in the morning, and drove on through pretty and hilly country, chiefly covered with fir wood, to Postsari, where we came down close upon the Danube, and beheld some most beautiful rocky scenery, far superior in grandeur to that of the Rhine. Immense perpendicular masses of grey rock, with dark fir-trees here and there forcing themselves through the fissures and crevices, form the right bank of the Danube at Abach, a small village at the foot of a hill, on the top of which stands an enormous round tower, the only remaining vestige of a large castle which formerly crowned the summit. Before entering the village the road is hewn through the solid rock, and high above the head of the traveller is a gigantic Latin inscription, cut in the rock, purporting that this work was undertaken and completed by Charles Theodor, Elector of Bavaria; two colossal lions on pedestals mark the spot which was once solid rock. From this little village we passed over the hill to Regensburg, or Ratisbon, which lies in the valley beneath. The appearance of this old city from a distance is not more imposing than when in it, for it has no high towers nor fine prominent buildings. We entered it at about one o'clock, through an alley of young poplars, on the right of which stands a small modern temple, dedicated to the memory of the celebrated astronomer, Keppler. A light pretty gateway leads into dark and narrow streets, at the end of one of which was our inn, the Golden Cross, and the good accommodation we here found, was not rendered the less agreeable from its contrast with that of the wretched inn at Neustadt. In the afternoon I walked out with Sir Humphry to see the town. The greatest, or rather only curiosity it possesses, is the large room in which the celebrated Diet of the Empire used to be held: the exterior has a miserable appearance, and Sir Humphry, instead of going in, went to see some fish in a tank, and wished me to accompany him as interpreter. I went in the evening again to see the hall of the Diet, but it was shut, and the man who shows it was not to be found. From the fish-tank we went to the bridge over the Danube, which is well built of stone, and is entirely paved with large flag stones. The river, already of considerable breadth, rushes through it with astonishing rapidity, and turns a number of mills below it. We then returned and took our tea, and our evening's book was "Palamon and Arcite."