fruit-trees, laden with pear and plum, whilst on every side are
stretches of flax and corn, tobacco and hemp. What plenty and
fruitfulness are suggested at every turn! Well might Goethe extol "this
magnificent Alsace." We soon reach Andlau, a picturesque, but, it must
be confessed, somewhat dirty village, lying amid vineyards and chestnut
woods, with mediaeval gables, archways, wells, dormers. All these are
to be found at Andlau, also one of the finest churches in these parts.
I followed the _cure_ and sacristan as they took a path that wound high
above the village and the little river amid the vineyards, and obtained
a beautiful picture; hill and dale, clustered village and lofty spire,
and imposingly, confronting us at every turn, the fine facade of the
castle of Andlau, built of grey granite, and flanked at either end with
massive towers. More picturesque, but less majestic are the
neighbouring ruins of Spesburg, mere tumbling walls wreathed with
greenery, and many another castled crag we see on our way. We are
indeed in the land of old romance. Nothing imaginable more weird,
fantastic and sombre, than these spectral castles and crumbling towers
past counting! The wide landscape is peopled with these. They seem to
rise as if by magic from the level landscape, and we fancy that they
will disappear magically as they have come. And here again one wild
visionary scene after another reminds us that we are in the land of
Dore's most original inspiration. There are bits of broken pine-wood,
jagged peaks and ghostly ruins that have been already made quite
familiar to us in the pages of his _Dante_ and _Don Quixote._

The pretty rivulet Andlau accompanies us far on our way, and beautiful is
the road; high above, beech- and pine-woods, and sloping down to the road
green banks starred with large blue and white campanula, with, darkling
amid the alders, the noisy little river.