| | | | The most obvious and easy way to get a superficial acquaintance | with the beauties of Styria, is to take that country in the route from | Germany to Italy, following the great road from Vienna to Trieste, | by Bruck, Gratz, and Laybach. This road, after passing the | northernmost ridge of the Alps by the pass of the Sommering, which | divides Austria from Styria, proceeds straight south to Bruck, and | there joining the Mur at the place where it makes the great bend in | its course from east to south, winds along the romantic banks of that | river, till it reaches the plain of Gratz. From Gratz on the Mur, it | crosses the country to Marburg, on the valley of the Drave: thence to | Cilli; soon after which it enters the valley of the Save, and proceeds | through Carniola, over the broad, bare back of the Carnic Alps (the | Karst) to Trieste. This was the route followed by Mr. Russell in | 1822, and described in his well-known "Tour in Germany;" a work, | after so many years and so much publishing is still, perhaps, the best | English book of Teutonic travels that we possess. This also, taking it | backwards, was the route followed by Captain Basil Hall in his | famous expedition to Schloss Hainfeld, in 1835; of which expedition | he has left posterity such a pleasant piece of gossiping record in the | well-known volume, "A Winter in Lower Styria." The Countess | Purgstall, in her letter of invitation to the gallant Captain, we | recollect, expressed her surprise that so few Englishmen had hitherto | had the courage to desert the beaten Tyrolese track, by the Inn and | the Adige, for this of Styria, which is equally attractive in point of | external beauty, and contains certain hidden wonders, which, for the | sake of variety at least, the most devoted admirer of gray crags and | green larches might delight to inspect. Such, for instance, are the | iron mines at Cimen-erz, a little to the right, among the mountains, | as you go up the valley of the Mur, from Bruck, ~~ | , | as Arndt, in his noble songs, sings; then you have the quick-silver | mines at Idria, near the south extremity of the route; and not far from | that the famous grotto of Adelsberg, with its subterranean cathedrals, | and subterranean rivers; and then in the same caverned region, the | amphibious Lake of Cirknitz, which is wet one half of the year, and | the other half dry, ~~ running off, periodically, fish and all, into its | rocky sanctuary, leaving the palace of the local Neptune, and the | haunts of the Water-Nixen, to be ploughed up for a season by profane | boors, and hunted over by a

"game-preserving aristocracy."

| These things are at least worth seeing; and we don't remember | (having travelled both) that the Brenner route presents anything so | remarkable. The good Countess had therefore some reason to | express her surprise, that more Englishmen had not made Gratz | instead of Innspruck their half-way house to Italy. There is a railway | now, however, finally determined on, (as we gather from a recent | intimation of the French consul at Bavaria,) between Gratz and | Trieste; and from the extraordinary rate at which railways are | jumping into existence in all parts of Germany, we have no doubt, | that in a very few years this Styrian route will be a track as much | beaten by view-hunting and other English travellers as any in | Europe. | A mountainous country, however, like Styria, whose great valley, the | valley of the Mur, runs longitudinally from west to east, (as, indeed, | most of the Alpine valleys do,) is not to be known thoroughly by | such a hasty cut across hill and dale in the direction of the great | north and south highway, as we have described. Mr. Kohl has | accordingly done wisely, or happily, by travelling this country from | east to west, entering it ~~ that is to say ~~ by the valley of the | Feistritz, and the Raab from Hungary, a little to the north of Gratz; | and then proceeding through that capital, up the valley of the Mur to | Bruck; thence to Leoben, up the river westward, cross to the valley | of the Ens, and over the heights of Upper Styria, direct down upon | Salzburg. Herr Kohl is an intelligent and agreeable traveller. Many | French tourists have written more cleverly, many English have | described more dramatically; but the German naturally possesses | more intelligence than the Englishman, at least in German matters: in | all matters he is more honest than the Frenchman; and he is never | ill-natured. The volume from which we are about to present a few | extracts to the English reader, is only one of a series; but the | Austrian empire is too vast a conglomerate to be turned over in a | single article of a monthly magazine; and we thought we should | edify our reader more, and confuse him less, by confining his | attention for the present to a single point. | We enter, then, the good dukedom of Styria from the Hungarian | border, a little to the north of Gratz, not far from that grim old | quadrangle of a castle with which Captain Hall has rendered our | imagination so familiar; and the first city that greets us is | Furstenfeld. This place is notable as one of the great manufacturing | seats of the greatest tobacconist in Europe, the Emperor of Austria. | Majesty on a throne, and womanhood in a house, are two things very | much given to intermeddle; and when they intermeddle beneficially, | (though somewhat vexatious at times,) we ought to thank heaven that | we are not left in all things to our own evil wits. But when majesty | of womanhood intermeddles to make that bad which might have | been good without them, then indeed they are a curse. ~~ His | majesty of Austria intermeddles with tobacco, as Captain Hall also | taught us, not with the intent to manufacture it as good as possible so | it be only vendible, but with the deliberate purpose of making it as | bad as possible, | | and be only smokeable ~~ Mr. Kohl, in his remarks on this point, | shows that the principles of free trade are recognized in Germany as | perfectly as in England, France, or any other free country ~~ upon | paper: ~~ | | The logic of Conservatism is everywhere the same. Prove a thing to | be bad in itself, as bad as the devil can make it. Admitted, says | Conservatism; it is good in reference to and for the sake of | something else. To make bad tobacco is bad both for the tobacco and | for the smoker; but it is good for the finances: ergo it is good for | me! quoth the clerk of the treasury ~~ Q.E.D. ~~ | said the Swedish Chancellor to his boy, | 'Tis bad to begin bad things; but better than to end with them. There | are many good things in Styria, very many; good people generally | everywhere, good girls and great beauties at Gratz, good steel, good | timber, good water, good wine (some people think) at Radkersburg, | good sugar biscuits, and a good Archduke John. But bad things there | certainly are too; and as they happen to stand here somewhat | prominently in the threshold, we must even take them as they come. | First, then, in the capital ~~ that is to say Gratz, for we have left | Furstenfeld behind us ~~ there is, as in Vienna, a bad aristocracy. | Mr.Kohl discourses very philosophically on this point. | Bating, however, these twenty-four vain and foolish families, there is | society enough in the forty or fifty thousand inhabitants of the | "Vienna in miniature" ( so Weber calls it.) to | make the residence there uncommonly agreeable to strangers. For | besides the lovely beauty of the situation in the rich plain of the Mur, | and the romantic character of the mountains with which it is | environed, Gratz, as the seat of the government for the duchy, of the | military commandant for Styria, Illyria, and the Tyrol, of a | University, etcetera, naturally possesses a | variety of society which renders it independent of such petty | aristocratic conspiracies as that just mentioned. It is, moreover, as | the Countess Purgstall took care to inform Captain Hall, the cheapest | place in Austria; and this, we are afraid, together with the railroads, | will not preserve it long from an invasion of saving | English ~~ not always the best specimens of their nation. One thing, | however, it wants, which Englishmen of the better sort will miss ~~ | high intellectuality. A significant enough token of this we have in the | state of the circulating libraries, or library more properly: ~~ | | | This is characteristic enough, not of Gratz only and Styria, but of the | whole of Austria. And Herr Kohl knows very well too, though he | does not choose to mention it, that certain Bureaucratists in Berlin | are as completely opposed to free printing and free reading as the | priests are at Vienna. We shall have to wait also some years and | some days before we shall be able to say whether the provincial | states, lately called into existence in the North, are anything more | efficient for public and national purposes than those of the South of | Germany, as they are described in the following passage: ~~ | We wish we had time and space here to illustrate this matter of the | German estates fully; because it may not be known to all our readers | that the present despotic form of government which systematically | suppresses freedom of thought and speech more or less in every state | of Germany, is not native to that country, but altogether foreign and | superinduced. The great elector of Brandenburg, the founder of the | present Prussian monarchy, attained (as the student of history | knows) to absolute power only by an act of positive public | perjury. The liberals of Germany, when they ask for a free | constitution, not in name only, but in deed, are not asking for | anything new, but for that which was old and hereditary in their | nation. Political liberalism in the north of Germany has been put | down by fraud and by force; just as ecclesiastical freedom was | annihilated by Fernidand II. (a native, by the way, of this very place, | Gratz) in the south. Having spoken of the occasion on which Styria | lost her civil rights, we cannot do better here (although a little out of | the geographical order of the narrative) than allow Mr. Kohl to state, | at some length, how she lost her religious liberties. | | | | We can only hastily refer our readers here to the recent proceedings | of the Austrian government in reference to the Protestants of | Zillerthal in the Tyrol. These proceedings show plainly enough that | the Toleration Act of Joseph is still regarded by the dominant party | in Austria, pretty much in the same light that the Catholic | Emancipation Act is by the High Church party among ourselves. | Leaving Gratz, and ascending the valley of the Mur, we encounter a | phenomenon of a very painful description, too common in all Alpine | countries. It shall be the last painful subject with which on the | present occasion, we shall have to do. | A little above Gratz begins the country of the Cretins, | called here Troddelin or Trotteln, and in | Carinthin Kocker. In Lower Styria, a hilly wine-country, | in which the inhabitants lead a somewhat less laborious life, only a | very few of them occur; and further down, where the Mur enters | Croatia, not a single one is to be found. Here, again, where the | valleys are narrower, the climate more raw, the food less nourishing | and salubrious, some of these wretched figures of abnormal | humanity meet the eye in almost every village. With timid, cowering | mien, with dull, listless eyes, with bent legs, with goitred neck, | (many have three, or even four thick swellings on their throat,) these | misshapen abortions drag themselves everywhere through the streets. | 'Tis the saddest lopping and laming of humanity that is to be found | anywhere on the earth; for the body is as deformed as the soul is | debased; and the understanding as blinded as the feelings are | perverted. These wretched creatures are, for the most part, malicious, | revengeful and cruel. They exhibit, when they eat, a most voracious | and entirely brutal appetite; as, indeed, all their sensual propensities | are manifested in a most brutal and disgusting way. Like the brutes, | they have generally keen scent; but their hearing, as an observer | stated to me, is seldom very acute. Their growth displays no vigour, | and they are mostly of small stature. This is a small kindness of | Nature to these unfortunates, for which we ought to be thankful; for | if these unsightly shapes were allowed to attain a large and full | development, the sight would be altogether intolerable. The vital | power in them, however, imperfect as it is, exhibits toughness | enough at times. They often live to a great age and many of them | drag their unhappy existence on for seventy years, and more ~~ a | misery to themselves and an eye-sore to creation. | Upper-Styria is the proper head-quarters of Cretinism. As, on the one | hand, it disappears towards the south, in the more level country, so, | in the opposite direction, towards Salzburg, it decreases, and in | Bavaria ceases completely. In Linz there is not one to be seen: in | Salzburg not a few still remain. | It is not a little remarkable, that there are whole villages and valleys | which are unvisited by this infliction, while other adjacent localities | suffer beyond the average. There is, for instance. Not far from | Fromleiten, a district called "in der gams", where it is | said that every house has two or three Troddeln among its | inmates. Many persons are of opinion that this peculiarity is to be | explained only by the influence of the soil. Here, as in other places, a | general observation is made, whether well-founded or not, I have not | the means to say, that in the clay-slate districts, a much more marked | tendency to Cretinism appears than in the neighbourhood of lime-stone. | The people themselves have many ways of explaining | | this odious phenomenon. The commonest theory with them, is to | throw the blame on the water; and many springs stand in bad repute | with the boors, and are branded through a whole district, as fountains | out of which, one may drink stupidity, goiters, and Cretinism. About | three hours' walk from Fromleiten, there is in the so-called "long | meadow" (hi lange wise ) a fountain which yields a pure | delicious water; but it stands under the mystic interdict, and is called | "Kropf-quelle," or goiter-well. The cattle drink out of the | well without any injury; but men who allay their thirst by drinking | from this stream, cannot possibly escape goiters, they say, and (in | the case of young persons) Cretinism. Other springs, again, bear a | good reputation in the country, and are recommended as the antidote | to the bane which is in the former. | Mr. Kohl returns to this curious but painful subject, in several parts | of his tour. We can only afford to add the following; remarking at | the same time, in passing, that the author's assertion, in the extract | just made with regard to the longevity of the Cretins, (if taken | generally,) is contradicted by the best medical authorities, (see the | article in Copland's Dictionary;) and also by that most respectable | perambulator of Deutschland, Charles Julius Weber. | To the west of EluenWrst lies a district called "the Radmer." There | are found the greatest number of Cretins, especially in Upper | Radmer, which is quite full of Troddelns, though in a very high | situation. A young man from this district was named to me, who, till | his eighth year, had been quite healthy and sound. He had attended | school with the boys of his own age, and made considerable progress | in his studies, when suddenly a dullness and a shyness became | observable in his eye. (This dullness of the eye is generally the first | symptom of approaching Cretinism: and experienced persons can tell | from the look of a child's eye in the cradle, whether it is to share the | common joy of intellectual day, or is destined to spiritual darkness.) | Then his features assumed a stupid and rigid appearance; his legs | bent inwards, and became crooked; his gait became clumsy and dull, | his memory, and his desire of knowledge vanished; the mind was | blunted in all directions; and the unfortunate parents saw their | hopeful son sent down into the dark faculty of perfect Cretinism ~~ | an abnormal creature without felling, without thought, and yet living, | and fed a man. | Here in Styria, also, as in Switzerland, the poor Trodleins are looked | on by the people as a sort of hallowed persons; and any injury | offered to the Troddel of any family is highly resented. Nothing is | more natural than this idea, partly because these helpless creatures | actually stand in need of all the sympathy their fellow mortals can | give them; partly because, in their mysterious and apparently-undeserved | infliction, the friends of the helpless victim recognize the | hand of Heaven, cherish the fixed opinion that the poor Cretin | suffers vicariously for the sins of the whole family to which he | belongs. And, in almost all nations, a certain saintly tale is piously | allowed to encircle the head of those who are unsound in mind; for | what men cannot explain by any second cause, they inevitably refer | to the great First Cause; besides, that in the common and normal | condition of the mind, there is often less to remind us of our | connection with a higher spiritual world than in the extraordinary | and abnormal. | Very good! ~~ witness animal magnetism. A German that does not, | philosophize, is a traitor to his country. Our way is now clear to | allude more particularly to some of the good things in Styria. Of | these, unquestionably they best at present ~~ though, unfortunately, | it cannot last for ever ~~ is the Archduke John, "der Johann," | as the good people familiarly call him; plain John, with an | emphatic article ~~ the John, as we in Scotland talk of | the Bruce, and as the old Greeks did of | the Socrates. Him, however, because we have no space, and | because he has been sufficiently eulogized already by Captain Hall, | we are compelled to satisfy ourselves with merely naming on the | present occasion; remarking only as we pass, how strange a thing a | real prince who knows his duty, and who does it must | have become in modern Europe, since, when we do meet with one | now and then like ArchDuke John, or the famous Duke of Weimar, | the press must immediately blare out such multitidudinous blasts of | laudation. Honour be to the good Archduke John! We are thankful to | Heaven that there is at least one prince in the world, who knows he | has something else to do on God's earth than to get into debt, to | shoot partridges and to drink wine today and soda-water tomorrow. | Go to Gratz, whoever has money in his pocket, and inspect the | Johanncum, or public national museum of the duchy ~~ that | part of the Archduke John concerning which he can say | triumphantly, as Horace said ~~ | ~~ I shall not all die;" and then let him travel | up the country to the iron mines at Vordanberg, where he may | chance to see the other part of him which shall die. A prince who is | the best landlord, the best miner, the best farmer, the best public | economist, the best chamois hunter, the best dancer, and the best | fellow altogether, in the country to which he belongs, ~~ is really a | thing to be looked at and loved. A prince indeed! ~~ a Furst, | as the Germans emphatically phrase it; a person First in all | good works and noble qualities. This is the aristocracy whose | heraldry we delight to acknowledge. But we must proceed in our | catalogue of good things. The Styrian steel ~~ "the Noric blade," as | our poets, taught by the Romans, phrase it ~~ has long been known | as the best in the world. The principal seat of this is at Eisenerz, in | the mountain ridge that divides the valley of the Mur from that of the | Ens. This Mr. Kohl visits, and examines the mines. We pass on, in a | north-westerly direction, till we reach this Ens-thal; and the first | object that meets us there is the famous Benedictine cloister of | Admont, founded in the year 1074, where there is a capital library, | containing 100,000 volumes, Mr. Kohl assures us; and excellent | quarters, as Sir Humphrey Davy found when he was there. Here, and | beyond this, higher up the valley to the west, the Alpine scenery | becomes truly sublime. We do not think Herr Kohl particularly | happy in his descriptions; but the following may serve as a | specimen: | | | There remain yet the two best things in Styria; and the first is the | Chamois-goats and the Chamois-hunters, with whom Mr. Kohl was | wisely careful to cultivate a particular acquaintance in these alpine | regions. Of course there is no method of traveling in such places, but | pedestrianizing; and pedestrianizing amid such magnificent mazes of | mist and mountain no wise man will venture without a guide; and of | guides, where such a one may be had, an old Gemsen-jager is | incomparably the best. Herr Kohl has reported at length some of his | sporting conversations with these heroes of the cliff. Here follows | one. The English reader will understand that the old he Chamois-goat | is called a Bock, the she goat a Geis, and | the young ones Kitzen: ~~ | | | | The last good thing of Styria, and, perhaps, (even better than the | Archduke John,) the best, remains. It is the Alpine shepherdesses, | the fair Sennerinnen, Arcadian maids, diligent as | Minerva, and chaste as Dian's minions, who pitch their tents alone | amid the lonely Alps securely, and fear no mortal. Some of our | readers may recollect the beautiful opening chorus in Schiller's | "William Tell," composed of three parts ~~ the Fisher-boy's song, | the Jager's song and the song of the Senners returning from the | Alpine pastures. | | What Schiller here so beautifully fancies, is described by our | traveller as a more beautiful reality. The descent from the Alps ( | Aberauschen, as they call it) is conducted in Styria with a | grace and a dignity that only requires to be seen, to convince poets | and philosophers of a certain class, that even in this iron age of the | world, Arcadian manners are in some places practicable. A common | plan is for some nine or ten Sennerinnen to unite, and | make the descent together. This of course, cannot always take place; | partly because the pastures are often small, and at a great distance | from one another; partly because some pastures, from their situation, | must be left much earlier in the season than others. But whenever a | sufficient number can be brought together, they descend in a body; | and in this way they will often have 200 or more kine in a troop; and | as these are all busked with wild flowers and mountain wreaths, the | effect of their march homewards with their pretty mistresses | attending may be conceived. | The day before the descent, the mountain maidens employ | themselves merrily in decorating their kine for the journey. | Distinguished above the rest of the troop, are the oldest cow and the | oldest steer. Their horns are gilded and adorned with silk ribbons, | and massy thickly-woven wreaths of the rarest Alpine plants. At | times, an Alpine cow will be so richly adorned, that the mounting is | worth twenty florins, or more; to understand which, we must bear in | mind, that certain Alpine plants are in great request for medical and | other purposes; so that a well-woven wreath for a queen cow may | come to be a matter of as much usefulness in the plains, as it was of | beauty and joy in the mountains. There grows, for instance, on the | Alps, near the Carinthian border, a certain plant called "speik," in | great quantities. Of this plant, the shepherdesses make bushy crests | for their kine; and thus profitably adorned, send them parading down | the hills straight to the door of the apothecary's ship. The claves also | ~~ to the very youngest ~~ are all decorated; but they must content | themselves with a single small wreath about their horns, and this not | a flower-wreath for the most part, but made of mountain berries, hips | and haws, or roots cut into hearts and diamonds, strung together. | Their cattle thus prepared, the Sennerinnen then pack their milk-pails, | clothes, and whatever else they have, on the back of an ass, or | a small pony, and then commence the descent. In this festive way | they go on, laughing and talking and singing cheerily (they are | beautiful singers often) till they come to the opening of their own | valleys; and there the lads of the village will often be found meeting | them with music, and gaily conducting them home. Sometimes, also, | they will bring a Sennerinn a horse gallantly busked with flowers; | and mounted on this, with her milk-pails dangling and jingling at her | side, she rides into the hamlet in triumph. | The Sennerinn is, in the rural economy of the Alps, always the most | important person, and much looked up to. For not only has she the | management of the cattle, on which the livelihood of the good | peasants principally depends, but the nature of the Alpine pastures is | such that, without the superintendence of a person at once | considerate and dexterous, serious accidents must continually occur, | and heavy losses be sustained. The ground, for one thing, must be | regularly studied and surveyed; pits must be covered, precipices | railed in, and these rails must be kept constantly in repair. Many | places of the pasture, also, are safe enough in good weather; but in | bad weather, particularly dangerous. The Sennerinn, accordingly, | must keep a constant look-out, to use skillfully the Alpine times and | tides, and to obey he laws of pastoral navigation, which require a | clear and a steady hand, as well as those of the sea. | A Sennerinn is responsible for any damage that may happen to the | kine while under her charge; the presumption is, (so the peasant law | has decided,) that without some carelessness on her part, the | mischief could never have happened. For this reason, no Sennerinn | who has lost one of her number, (were it only a silly calf or an | unruly ox that threw itself down a precipice,) is allowed to come | home flaunting with such festal decorations as we have described. | She dare adorn neither herself nor her cattle, and the common halter | enrobe them for a wreath. No Sennerinn, also, who is known as | | a gossiping girl, or one who has dawdled away her hours of duty | with a sweetheart, amy expect that the lads of the village shall come | to meet her with music and merry <>. Only the wise and dexterous | manager is considered not to have disgraced her office by her | conduct. She only comes down from her Alps (like the old Roman | generals from the wars) with triumph or with ovation, as the case | may be; while her careless colleague comes joyless home, and drives | her bald charge into their stalls, which no-one | waits with forward welcome to open. | These Arcadian descriptions apply generally to the high country | between Admont on the Ens, and Salzburg on the valley of the Salza, | which, as we mentioned in the outset, our traveler makes the | legitimate termination of this Styrian tour. Part of this region, the | lakes in Upper Austria and those in the Bavarian Highlands, are | pretty well known to the great swarm of pleasure-tourists from | Vienna or Munich, who make Salzburg their head-quarters for | exploring these regions, pretty much in the same way that Stirling is | a sort of gathering point for Highland travelers in Scotland. The | proper Styrian Alps, however, over which Mr. Kohl passed in the | upper valley of the Ens, are not often visited by travelers; and are not | like to be so. So much the better. The travelers, who are something | more than mere show-hunters, and wish to live with the people for a | season, instead of merely looking at them, will meet with so much | the more kindly reception. To the poet, the painter, and the | pedestrian of this country, who have not sunk the man in the | Englishman, and the Englishman in the tourist, there is treasured up | many a happy summer hour yet, amid the nimblefooted Jagers, and | the sweet-singing Shepherdesses of Upper Styria.