When I got home it was growing late, and I now began to perceive that
I had taken no refreshment, except the perfume of the hay and a few
wood strawberries; airy diet, you will observe, for one not yet
received into the realms of Ginnistan. {127}

July 14th.--I have just made a discovery, that this place as full of
idlers and water-drinkers as their Highnesses of Orange and Hesse
Darmstadt can desire; for to them accrue all the profits of its
salubrious fountains. I protest, I knew nothing of all this
yesterday, so entirely was I taken up with the rocks and meadows; no
chance of meeting either card or billiard players in their solitudes.
Both abound at Ems, where they hop and fidget from ball to ball,
unconscious of the bold scenery in their neighbourhood, and totally
insensible to its charms. They had no notion, not they, of admiring
barren crags and precipices, where even the Lord would lose his way,
as a coarse lubber decorated with stars and orders very ingeniously
observed to me; nor could they form the least conception of any
pleasure there was in climbing like a goat amongst the cliffs, and
then diving into woods and recesses where the sun had never
penetrated; where there were neither card-tables prepared nor
sideboards garnished; no jambon de Mayence in waiting; no supply of
pipes, nor any of the commonest delights, to be met with in the
commonest taverns.

To all this I acquiesced with most perfect submission, but
immediately left the orator to entertain a circle of antiquated dames
and weather-beaten officers who were gathering around him. Scarcely
had I turned my back upon this polite assembly, when Monsieur
l'Administrateur des bains, a fine pompous fellow, who had been
maitre d'hotel in a great German family, came forward purposely to