Note 1 — PREFACE.

While this volume was passing through the press, “A Summer’s Ramble amongst the Musicians in Germany” appeared, in which pleasant book, a dozen pages are allotted to an equally brief and spirited notice of the banks of the Danube from Passau to Vienna. Upwards of one hundred years ago, Lady M. W. Montague descended the Danube from Ratisbon to Vienna, a voyage of which she dismisses her account, in a dozen lines. “We travelled by water from Ratisbon,” says the fair writer, “a journey perfectly agreeable down the Danube, in one of those little vessels that they very properly call wooden houses, having in them all the conveniences of a palace, stoves in the chambers, kitchens, etc.” (I do not know what exertions might have been made for the accommodation of a British Ambassador, his Lady and suite, but the Danube, I suspect, has not seen such another boat during the last century.) “They are rowed by twelve men each, and move with such incredible swiftness, that in the same day you have the pleasure of a vast variety of prospects; and within the space of a few hours, you have the pleasure of seeing a populous city, adorned with magnificent palaces, and the most romantic solitudes which appear distant from the commerce of mankind, the banks of the Danube being charmingly diversified with woods, rocks, mountains covered with vines, fields of corn, large cities, and ruins of ancient castles.”—Letter to the Countess of Mar, dated Vienna, September 18th, o. s. 1716.