“. . . I left Hamburgh with a few shillings in my
pocket, but instead of taking the straight road to Vienna, or even to
Frankfort-on-the-Main, where I had addressed my portmanteau, I turned aside to
Bremen. I then went to Ferden, Hanover, Hildesheim, Gottingen, Cassel. From
Cassel I turned to the left to Mülhauser, and from thence to Gotha, Erfurt,
Weimar, Jena. At Weimar I saw Wieland
and Heider; I called also upon Göethe, but was not admitted. At Jena, where I
saw Tuthil, I staid a few days, and then
travelled over Coburg, Schweinfurt and Wurtzburg to Frankfurt; from Frankfurt I
returned to Wurtzburg, and went to Bamberg, Nurnberg, and Ratisbon. Ratisbon is
said to be about 270 or 280 English miles from Vienna, which, however, I might
have reached in four days by sailing down the Danube, at the expense of perhaps
six shillings, but instead of doing that I
| 342 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
“The weather during the summer was as extraordinary as during the winter. The long continuance of the rain was equally astonishing, vexatious, and ruinous. Having no change of clothes, and being amongst a most unfeeling and inhospitable people, and frequently without a penny, you may conceive that I endured many hardships, and that my health was not thereby improved. Yet whatever effect this may have had upon me at the time, it has upon the whole acted differently upon me from what might naturally have been expected,—instead of disheartening me it has increased my ardour, and rendered me doubly sanguine in my hopes of favourable weather for my travels through Hungary. Having endured so much, I wish to have now some compensation. . . .
“Perhaps I shall pay a visit to the Black Sea. But I don’t know if this would be advisable, and I confess I am not fond of venturing into the Turkish dominions.—I am, with much esteem, &c.,
