Hotel du Nord
Cologne
Monday March 15th/69
My dear Father
You have lost nothing by not being abroad during the weather I have had. – I believe, judging from the newspapers that it has been much the same in England. – I came went from Munich to Nuremberg which I found a picturesque town, with walls and towers. – There are 3 remarkable churches. – From Nuremberg I went to Frankfort. – There is a cathedral there which was damaged by fire not many years ago. The tower shows evident signs of the fire. – The details of the windows are good, but the whole building not very remarkable. That of Mayenne is much finer every way and more interesting. – The timber houses do not seem to be very numerous, at least, the good examples. – I saw one very good one in an open place. – The kreutzer coins of these parts are a simple disgrace – They are worn so, that it is hardly possible to make them out. – Bavaria has good single kreutzers, and they might just as well coin some fresh and call in the old. – Their silver coins are very good. – My principle objective to Prussian thalers is that they are so big that they burst ones purse. – I came through from Frankfort to Cologne, and arrived here yesterday. – The Rhine looked rather dreary being seen on a day without sun. – and I appreciated Rice Nicholls <1> comment that the hills on the Rhine look very small after one has just been through the Tyrol. – Many of the Inns along the Rhine seem to be increasing rapidly. –
Today I spent in Cologne. – The weather has been bad, – it having snowed more or less all day. Cologne is remarkable for the number of its Romanesque churches. – I have found some that I did not observe when here before. –
There are also a good many good modern specimens of architecture. – The cathedral seems to have made progress since I last saw it. They are working at the North west tower. If Milan had been like it in design, and built as it is of white marble there it would have been fine.
I think the general effect of the interior cold and disappointing and it would look better if there were more of a division between the choir and the nave, such as one of our old rood screens. –
The North west nave aisle is glazed with old stained glass, apparently of the 15th century, or 16th. – The south nave aisle has modern Munich glass good of its kind, and very much better than that in the cathedral of Glasgow. – The effect of the old glass at a distance is much the best, but the pictorial design of the Munich glass seem to be good. I do not so much like the decorative parts. –
I go tomorrow to Brussells, when I shall perhaps stay a day and then to Calais. I wrote to you from Munich and I hope you got my letter. – what a dreary bit of <country?> it is between Bonn and Cologne. – This hotel is the most comfortable of any that I have been in, and the reading-room is good and has its fire lit, which is rather exceptional. There is also a Times. – . Cologne seems to be flourishing and has good shops. – .
I may perhaps not write again till I get to Dover,
Your affect son
Charles
The railway passes a remarkable fortress, Franzenfest in the Tyrol situated in a fine gorge.Notes:
1. Probably the son of Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).