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charged with a responsibility which does not attach to
the retailer ; for his growth must preserve its character,
whereas the retailer shifts the burden of his sins upon
the grower. Wine bought in these cellars is therefore
unadulterated, and is a delicious and most wholesome
beverage in that state ; but it is rendered difficult for
private consumers by the immense size of the casks ;
since few private consumers can make use of 100 dozen
of a wine that costs four pounds per dozen in the grower’s
cellar.
After passing Geisenheim, the traveller turns up a road
that leads to the left directly from the river, in the
direction of the mountains, and after winding up a steep
ascent about three quarters of a mile, finds himself upon
a small plateau that stretches like a neck from the Tau-
nus towards the river, and drops with a sudden slope,
presenting a rounded front to the level of the villages on
the river’s bank. This is the celebrated Johannisberg,
the pearl of the Rhinegau, and one of the most delight-
fully situated mansions in Europe. The full advantage
of the situation can be supposed from a distant view of
the commanding site, retiring, as it were, from the brunt of
the storm between the projecting eminences on the east
and the west, and presenting its full breadth to the sun
which shines upon it from its rise to its setting. The
attention that is paid to the direction of the rows in the
Rhenish vineyards is perceptible even to the traveller as
he passes before it in the steam-boat. The rows open
one after another as the boat advances like the meridians
on a map, and the want of picturesque effect which their
regularity supposes, is not regretted where art has so
evidently sought to court the co-operation of Nature in a
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193
useful task. To return to the summit of the eminence—
all these advantages are imperceptible on first reaching
it, because the castle, with its spacious court-yard, covers
the whole breadth of the brow of the hill. It is not
until we arrive at the balcony of the first floor that the
beauty of its position bursts upon us. Whoever chooses
a bright day for the excursion will be repaid with a view
that is scarcely to be surpassed. The vale of the Rhine,
from Bingen to Mayence, lies under the spectator like
an unrolled map. Clear and bright the Rhine presents
its broadest mass to the view, but studded with islands of
various sizes, on which the luxuriant foliage of forest-
trees refreshes the eye, and contrasts softly with the
extent of lands, “ rich in corn and wine,” that cover both
banks as far as the eye can reach. To the right, Riides-
heim, with its hill, and opposite to it Bingen with its
“ Scharlachberg,” both places crowned with ruins of
ancient date ; at the base of the hill Geisenheim, the
village of Johannisberg, and Winkel, whose name is said
to indicate the spot where Charlemagne had fixed his
cellar; on the opposite bank Ingelheim, embosomed in
a hollow covered with vineyards, the favourite summer
abode of that great man and mighty potentate ; on the
left, the long vista of undulating heights, varying with
vineyards and forests skirting the bright broad stream
until the banks seem to close upon its course, with num-
berless additions which the observer can note at his
leisure, compose a view of inexpressible beauty—grand
from the extent of the scattered signs of richness that it
developes, but Soothingrather than startling in its general
effect. The interest attaching to the vines which run up
to the walls of the houses, of course, is rather of an