THE DANUBE
WEITENEGG CASTLE FROM THE WEITENBACH
THE DANUBE
BY
WALTER JERROLD
WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY
LOUIS WEIRTER, R.B.A.
OF WHICH TWELVE ARE IN COLOUR
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
[Pg v]
First Published in 1911
PREFACE
The Rhine appears to have been one of the earliest of Continental“playgrounds” for British tourists—to have been such, indeed, longbefore Switzerland had been exploited. In the days of our grandfathers“everybody” went to the Rhine—it had become as it were the last relicof the grand tour which to earlier generations had been regarded asa necessary finishing off to every gentleman’s education. The pastpopularity of the Rhine is emphasized by the fact that the greatriver was utilized by both Thackeray and Hood as scenic backgroundfor literary purposes. What the Rhine was, the greater, the morebeautiful, the grander and more fascinating Danube should become inthese days of improved means of communication. Probably in the past itsdifficulty of access made the enthusiasm of travellers less effectivein attracting English visitors to the Danube. As early as 1827, J. R.Planché, poet, dramatist, and historian of costume, made a Descentof the Danube from Ratisbon to Vienna, and duly published anaccount of the journey in the following year. Twenty years lateranother writer, who had “scribbled successfully for the stage,” JohnPalgrave Simpson, published Letters from the Danube, describinga journey by steamer from Ratisbon to[Pg vi] Budapest. Then, in 1853, “twobriefless barristers and a Cambridge undergraduate” journeyed in aThames rowing-boat from Kelheim to Budapest, and one of their number,R. B. Mansfield, chronicled their adventures in The Water Lilyon the Danube: being a brief account of a Pair-Oar during a voyagefrom Lambeth to Pesth. Some years earlier William Beattie hadgathered various legends of the Danube to accompany Bartlett’s seriesof engravings of The Beauties of the Danube. Thus it will beseen that in days when the river was more distant than it is now itwas not wanting panegyrists. In later years it has been curiouslyneglected, except in the way of casual references and the compactcompilations of guide-books. This, however, may be said, so far as Ihave been able to ascertain, nobody who has journeyed along both theRhine and the Danube—if we except the pardonable partiality of thosewho have a patriotic regard for the former—but finds the Danube almostincomparably the more variously fascinating stream.
From the time of the Romans onwards, from the time when our authenticchronicles begin, this mighty river has along its many hundreds ofmiles been the scene of so much history-making that to present the fullstory of the Danube would be to re-tell a large part of the historyof the Continent during two thousand years. Such, it need scarcely besaid, is not my aim or intention. To bring within the compass of asingle volume some indication of th