The cathedral can boast of little antiquity. It is almost a building of
yesterday; yet it is large, richly ornamented on the outside, especially
on the west, between the towers--and is considered one of the noblest
structures of the kind in Bavaria. The interior wants that decisive
effect which simplicity produces. It is too much broken into parts, and
covered with monuments of a very heterogeneous description. Near it I
traced the cloisters of an old convent or monastery of some kind, now
demolished, which could not be less than five hundred years old. The
streets of Ratisbon are generally picturesque, as well from their
undulating forms, as from the antiquity of a great number of the
houses. The modern parts of the town are handsome, and there is a
pleasant intermixture of trees and grass plats in some of these more
recent portions. There are some pleasing public walks, after the English
fashion; and a public garden, where a colossal sphinx, erected by the
late philosopher Gleichen, has a very imposing appearance. Here is also
an obelisk erected to the memory of Gleichen himself, the founder of
these gardens; and a monument to the memory of Kepler, the astronomer;
which latter was luckily spared in the assault of this town by the
French in 1809.

But these are, comparatively, every-day objects. A much more interesting
source of observation, to my mind, were the very few existing relics of
the once celebrated monastery of St. Emmeram--and a great portion of the
remains of another old monastery, called St. James--which latter may
indeed be designated the College of the Jacobites; as the few members
who inhabit it were the followers of the house and fortunes of the
Pretender, James Stuart. The Monastery or Abbey of St. Emmeram was one
of the most celebrated throughout Europe; and I suspect that its
library, both of MSS. and printed books, was among the principal causes
of its celebrity. Of all interesting objects of architectural antiquity