Weser

“ WESER (O. Ger. Visuracha, Wisura, Lat. Visurgis) , one of the chief rivers of Germany, formed by the union of the Werra and the Fulda at Münden, in the Prussian province of Hanover, flowing generally north and entering the North Sea below Bremerhaven, between Jade Bay and the estuary of the Elbe. The mouth is 170 m. from Münden, but the winding course of the river is 270 m. long; if the measurement be made from the source of the Werra, in the Thüringer Wald, the total length of the stream is 440 m. At Münden the river surface is 380 ft. above sea-level ”

“ I abandoned myself to fortune; worn and oppressed by such continued exertions, my senses sank under it, and though in momentary expectation of being again overturned, I yet fell asleep for a few minutes. I arrived safe, notwithstanding, at Stolzenau, and walked down, accompanied by the courier, to view the Weser. What a sight! it was more than a mile and a half wide, and ran with vast rapidity. The meadows, the very hedges all under water, and extending quite to the village of Leese on the other side. ”

“ See now, thought I to myself, there were Lüneburg people along with him, for they live between the Elbe and the Weser. Or, when others of our forefathers, who were in general called Saxons, boldly sailed over the sea in their ships, and chased the proud Romans, together with the Picts and Scots, out of England, and took the beautiful land in possession and ruled it; then I was glad again and thought with secret delight—"our Lüneburg people were there too, for those ships sailed from the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser." ”

“ The old man thinks only of brigades and squadrons, of advances and retreats, and of pontoon-bridges on the Rhine and Weser; but—a word in your ear, M. Gauntlet: if he knew all that was reported, you might perhaps have not fared quite so well in Ysembourg to-day. ”

“ Our map shows the transition to occur strictly along the course of the Weser River. A large district is here occupied by the Celtic house, so called. The small circles denote that there are no closely built villages at all in the region so marked. Each house stands entirely by itself, in the middle of its farm, generally in no definite relation to the highroads. ”

“ The deepening of valleys by rivers and streams must keep pace with the gradual elevation of continental masses. The Porta Westphalica has thus been cut by the Weser in the Wiehen-Weser range, in the northeastern part of Westphalia. ”

“ Why does n't Ferdinand cross Weser, re-cross Weser; coerce Broglio back; and save Hanover? cry the Gazetteers and a Public of weak judgment. Pitt's Public is inclined to murmur about Ferdinand; Pitt himself never. Ferdinand persists in sticking by Minden neighborhood,—and, in a scarcely accountable way, manoeuvring there, shooting out therefrom what mischief he can upon the various Contades people in their sieges and the like.
"On Contades himself he can pretend to do nothing,—except hoodwink him, entice him out, and try to get a chance on him. ”

“ Between the Rhine delta and the now dry basin of Paderborn, from the Ems to the Weser, Aller, and middle Elbe, is the mountain tract of the Hartz, (with the Brocken at the north, 3500 feet high,) running up as far as 521⁄2° N. lat. By this natural feature the breadth of the great plain is considerably curtailed. ”

“ THE BRIDGE OF FREYENTHAL.
Severe weather succeeded the battle of Minden, and the Scots Greys, while it continued, were ordered to cantonments in villages near the Lahn.
On a dull wet morning we paraded in our cloaks and bade adieu to the banks of the Weser, and to the fatal plain of the 1st of August. By sound of trumpet we fell into our ranks, and the corporal-major of each troop proceeded to call the muster-roll. ”

“ The allied army formed in order of battle on the plain called Todtenhausen, in front of the town of Minden, which occupies the left bank of the Weser, and in which there was a strong French garrison, whose cannon commanded the famous stone bridge of six hundred yards in length. ”

“ The Weser is pre-eminently the river of the Saxons, with the water-system of which their area coincides more closely than with any other physical division. The Elbe was much in the same relation to the Germans and Slavonians, as the Rhine was to the Germans and the Gauls. Roughly speaking, it is the frontier—the Cis-Albian Slaves (the Linones and the Slavonians of Altmark) being quite as numerous as the Trans-Albian Germans, (the people of Stormar, Ditmarsh, and Holstein) . The Eyder was perhaps equally Danish, Frisian, and Saxon. ”

“ The Vistula, Oder, Elbe, and Weser have connected the homes of the old Sclavic population with the Scandinavian coasts and the land of the Angles and Saxons at the neck of Denmark, to the equal advantage of both. ”

“ The prosperity of the town depends chiefly on agriculture and the manufacture of iron and steel wares, and of chemicals, but weaving and the making of pottery are also carried on, and there are baryta mills and polishing-mills for sandstone. By means of the Weser it carries on a lively trade. ”

“ This part of the Electorate, from the Weser to Hanover, is the most beautiful I have seen, and finely cultivated; but of all the roads conceivable, none ever, I believe, exceeded this in badness. I drove in continual danger of my life, and, really, several times, in [220] the deep waters through which I passed, prepared myself for instant death.
February 17.—I left Hanover about noon, and took the road for Zell. I do not believe the whole distance is more than twenty-two or three English miles, though it is called five German ones. ”

“ D'Estrees does not yet push forward, owing to Prag. If he do—It is well known how Royal Highness fared when he did, and what a Campaign Royal Highness made of it this Year 1757! How the Weser did prove wadable, as Schmettau had said to no purpose; wadable, bridgable; and Royal Highness had to wriggle back, ever back; no stand to be made, or far worse than none: back, ever back, till he got into the Sea, for that matter, and to the END of more than one thing! Poor man, friends say he has an incurable Hanover Ministry, a Program that is inexecutable. ”

“ Hanover (2,278) , a Prussian province since 1866, formerly an independent kingdom; stretches N. from Westphalia to the German Ocean, between Holland on the W. and Saxony on the E.; the district is well watered by the Elbe, Weser, and Ems; in the S. are the Harz Mountains; for the rest the land is flat, and much of it is occupied by uncultivated moors; agriculture and cattle-rearing are, however, the chief industries, while the minerals of the Harz are extensively wrought ”

“ The first Town I pass'd thro' after I left Hanover, was Minden, which is a Town upon the Weser, encompass'd with Walls, and defended by some Half-Moons, which nevertheless don't hinder one's seeing every thing that passes in the Square from a Hill that commands the Town, and from whence 'tis an easy matter to beat it to the ground. 'Twas formerly a Hanse Town, being a part of Westphalia, and had always the Title of a Bishopric, till the Treaty of Munster, when it was seculariz'd, and given to the Family of Brandenburg, who settled a Regency here. ”

“ When, however, the populations differ, one of two views has to be taken. Either some more distant point than the one which geographical proximity suggests has supplied the original occupants, or a change has taken place on the part of one or both of the populations since the period of the original migration.
Which has been the case here? The latter. The present Germans of the coast between the Elbe and Weser are not the Germans who peopled Heligoland, nor yet the descendants of them. Allied to them they are; inasmuch as [6] Germany is a wide country, and German a comprehensive term ”

“ Western limit.—This is formed by the Batavians and Frisians of the sea-coast, i.e., by the Batavians of Holland, Guelderland, and Overyssel, and, afterwards, by the Frisians of West and East Friesland, and of Oldenburg.
Here, however, the breadth of the non-Saxon area is uncertain. Generally speaking, it is broadest in the southern, and narrowest in the northern portion. The Frisian line is narrower than the Batavian, whilst when we reach the Elbe the Saxons appear on the sea-coast. Perhaps they do so on the Weser as well. ”

“ The greater part of the soil is of inferior quality, and much that is susceptible of cultivation is still lying waste. Of the entire area of the country 28.6% is arable, 16.2 in meadow or pasture land, 14% in forests, 37.2% in uncultivated moors, heaths, &c.; from 17 to 18% is in possession of the state. The best agriculture is to be found in the districts of Hildesheim, Calenberg, Göttingen and Grubenhagen, on the banks of the Weser and Elbe, and in East Friesland. Rye is generally grown for bread. ”

“ On the other hand, it is necessary, since although the à priori view is in favour of the coast having supplied the British immigration, the chances of its having proceeded from the interior by the way of the large rivers Rhine, Weser, and Elbe, must also be taken into consideration. {15}
The importance of this latter alternative, will soon be seen.
§ 26. The Menapians.—Locality, from the country of the Morini on the French side of the Straits of Dover, to the Scheldt. It is generally considered that these were not Germans but Celts. The fact, however, is by no means ascertained. ”

“ Nearly the entire course of the Wescr lies in Prussia, but it also touches part of Brunswick and Lippe, and after flowing through Bremen expands into an estuary separating the duchy of Oldenburg from the Prussian province of Hanover. ”

“ No one can claim to know Wessex until some hours of quiet have been spent within the walls of the ancient capital, and no one can know England until the spirit of the English countryside, the secluded and primary village of the byways with its mothering church, rich with the best of the past, has been studied, known and loved. This is the essential England for which the yeoman of England, whose memorials will be seen in almost every Wessex hamlet, have given their lives. ”

“ Wessex is a land of downs and dales, and broad stretches of fertile country. It is the home of the chalk hills—those great, smooth, rolling heights, covered with short, sweet grass, on which great flocks of sheep pasture and speck the vast slopes with dots of white.
"There is hardly any part of our land which has remained so little unchanged as these Downs of Wessex. It is not because they are rugged and difficult to climb: they are not; they are often easy to surmount. ”

“ The scenery of Inner Wessex is as varied as the materials that go to make it up, from the bare rolling chalk downs of Salisbury Plain to the abrupt and imposing hills around the Vale of Blackmore. To most who travel in search of the picturesque and the beautiful, the Dorset coast and the country immediately in the rear, will make the greatest appeal. ”

“ Cast out you are from the Wessex land, but before long Wessex shall be beholden to you. Not long shall Matelgar, the treacherous, hold your place -- but you shall be in honour again of all men. Only must you forego your vengeance and leave that to the hand of the Lord, who repays. ”

“ From the chalk uplands of our northern boundary we may look to the distant vale in whose heart is the dream city of domes and spires—Oxford, and trace the trench of England's greatest river until it is lost in the many miles of woodland that surge up to the walls of Windsor. East and south is that beautiful and still lonely country that lies between the oldest Wessex and the sister, and ultimate vassal, kingdom of Sussex ”

“ For miles one can wander amid such scenes in this fair Wessex land, where the roses of dawn fade into the infinite azure of a cloudless sky, and the cool salt breath of the sea-borne air is an elixir of life. Moreover, these soft sea breezes, that temper the dazzling heat of the summer sun, waft in their train an unfading wreath of memories of that antique civilization which existed long before the prows of the Roman galleys clove the ethereal mists that fringe the Dorsetian seas. ”

“ But men must know that you yourself have power there, and, therefore, I make you lord of all Quantock side, from Watchet stream to Parret, and from the borders of your own land at Cannington to Severn shore between those two. And this shall you render in return for those rights: that you shall be ready at all times to bear the standard of Wessex, against all comers from over seas, at my bidding. ”

“ All this storied beauty is without the scope of this book but within the greater Wessex that came to the King who is the really representative hero of his countrymen. The genius of the West Saxon became for a time, and to a certain extent through force of circumstance, a jealous and rather narrow insularity, without wide views and generous ideals, but to this people may be ascribed some of the higher traits that go to redeem our race. ”

“ For I had seen a man outlawed once, and given a day's start, like some wild beast, in which to fly from the hand of every man that would seek his life. But I was to be safe from such harm, and but that I must go hence, I was not to be hounded forth, nor was my shame to be published beyond Wessex. ”

“ After having left these two Places, there is no considerable Town till we come to Wesel, which stands upon the Rhine, and is a part of the Duchy of Cleves. 'Tis now one of the strongest Places in Europe ”

“ WAREHAM—BERE REGIS—THE HEATHS The Wessex of which I shall treat in these gossiping pages is that Wessex of romance and of the great dairy-farms, which has been little touched by the influence of railways. Hampshire and Wiltshire—Winchester and Salisbury—have become too closely in touch with London to stand so fully upon the ancient ways as does Dorset, with the greater part of its north-western neighbour, Somerset. ”