p. 24

of monuments to the glory of these conquerors of the world. They were
discovered in 1768, when the Elector, Charles Theodor established
the route between Coblence & Bonn. The anitiquities found prove
that the Emperors Marcus Aurelius, & Lucius Verus established
a military way here. We had already seen them in the grand Ducal
palace at Manheim. The situation of this village is char-
ming, & the view of the Rhine. In short the road for some [illegible?]
to Bonn is by far the most picturesque & romantic part of the
country bordering on the Rhine. On either side the high rocks
are exceedingly bold. It is at Königswinter on the opposite side
of the Rhine, & nearly vis à vis Mehlem, thrû the latter of wh: [which]
our route lay, that properly speaking the valley of the Rhine
terminates, which had commenced at Bingen. The moun-
-tains now begin to fall back on both banks of the Rhine,
& its bed becomes imperceptibly larger, & longer until it has
swelled into an immense breadth of water. Near the [illegible?]
is situated teh Roderberg, one of the most interesting of the [illegible?]
of the Bas Rhine, but which has ceased to throw out
fire long since. On the Mt: Godesberg not far from here are
the superb ruins of an ancient Roman fort & probably
in former times the "Ara Ubiconem". It is said that the name
of this mountain comes from an ancient temple of Wodan or
Mercury on its summit, but with more probability from the
German word Goding, wh: [which] signified tribunal of Justice
& one was held here in the middle age. Not far from Bonn
we passed on our right, a beautiful cross called Hochkreuz,
in the Gothic style, constructed by the Archbishop, Waliam
de Guilliers in 1330. We reached Bonn late but the
brightness of the full moon rendered all the objects as dis-
tinctly visible, as at noon-day. We found a Prussian Ge-
-neral Hock in the town on our approach, & a couple of Lancers.
Their horn musci was playing in the great square opposite our
inn, adorned with the Hotel de Ville, & a Fountain, with a
Pyramid. Bonn, the fourth town onthe banks of the Rhine
once the residence fo an Elector of Germany, was in earlier
times a colony of the Ubü. Tacitus, & Florus, make men-
-tion of the place, as Bonna, & Bonnensia castra. The
great church was built by the mother of Constantine, & the
town was encompassed with a wall in 1240. The town
is not large, but certainly has an agreeable appearance.
The inhabitants have rich collection of Roman antiquities.
The grand Electoral Palace, thru a gate of which we en-