Catharine Maria Sedgwick

“ Imagine, my dear C., a little strip of level land, not very many yards wide, between the river and precipitous rocks; a village with its weather-stained houses in this pent-up space; an old chateau with its walls and towers, and at the summit of the rocks, and hanging over them, for the rocks actually project from the perpendicular, the stern old Castle of Marksburg, and you have our present position. Murray says this castle is the only one of the strongholds of the middle ages that has been preserved unaltered, the beau ideal of an old castle ”

“ The streets are scarcely wide enough for a carriage to pass, and the lanes are but a flea's leap across—a measurement that naturally occurs here. But mark the compensating blessing! the denizens of these dreary places, steeped to the very lips in poverty, are a smiling, kindly people. ”

“ You are set on to something half cushion, half saddle, that neither has itself nor imparts rest. Though there is a semicircular rampart erected, to guard you from the accident of "high vaulting ambition," it seems inevitable that you must fall on one side or the other. ”

“ I thought myself happy; my life was gliding in the midst of my family and my vines; but man, with whom nothing lasts, should not call himself happy. Seven months ago my wife died"—the old man's eyes filled—"it was a sudden and a hard blow; we must bow before the stroke of the good God! ”

“ In my youth I was at college, and, afterward being engaged in commerce, I travelled: so I can teach them French, Dutch, and Italian. Certainly I am not a severe master; but they love me, and love can do more than fear. The youngest is sometimes too much for me. ”

“ The peasants, women as well as men, scale the precipices to dress their vines, and every particle of manure is carried up on their shoulders.
In the steepest places the vines are put in baskets as the only way of retaining the soil about them. ”

“ A woman with three or four children to support has a florin a month allowed her. Begging is prohibited, but they must subsist on charity. Every hotel has a poors' box, of which the magistrate keeps the key, and comes each month to take out and distribute the travellers' alms. ”