summits. Various are the prospects I surveyed from this imaginary
exaltation, and innumerable the chimeras which trotted in my brain.
Mounted on these fantastic quadrupeds, I shot swiftly from rock to
rock, and built castles in the style of Piranesi upon most of their
pinnacles. The magnificence and variety of my aerial towers hindered
my thinking the way long. I was still walking with a crowd of
phantoms upon their terraces, when the carriage made a halt.
Immediately descending the innumerable flights of steps which divide
such lofty edifices from the lower world, I entered the inn at Bonn,
and was shown into an apartment which commands the chief front of the
Elector's palace. You may guess how contemptible it appeared to one
just returned from the court of fancy.

In other respects, I saw it in a very favourable moment; for the
twilight, shading the whole facade, concealed its plaistered walls
and painted pillars; their pediments and capitals being tolerably
well proportioned, and the range of windows beneath considerable, I
gave the architect more credit than he deserved, and paced to and fro
beneath the arcade, as pompously as if arrived at the Vatican; but
the circumstance which rendered my walk in reality agreeable, was the
prevalence of a delicious perfume. It was so dusky, that I was a
minute or two seeking in vain the entrance of an orangery, from
whence this reviving scent proceeded. At length I discovered it;
and, passing under an arch, found myself in the midst of lemon and
orange trees, now in the fullest blow, which form a continued grove
before the palace, and extend, on each side of its grand portal, out
of sight. A few steps separate this extensive terrace from a lawn,
bordered by stately rows of beeches. Beyond, in the centre of this
striking theatre, rises a romantic assemblage of distant mountains,
crowned with the ruins of castles, whose turrets, but faintly seen,