Peter Elmsley to his sister-in-law [Mary Hallowell?]
- GB 2014 WS-05-ELM-02-5-11
- Item
- 1817-08-04
Augsburg. The Sothebys Italian coachman doesn't understand German, and took the wrong road to Lake Constance - Mrs Sotheby is quite unwell. Left Munich on 29th July and intended to spend only one night in Augsburg, but has remained so as to hear daily news of Mrs S's illness - will depart on 6th August for Ulm and then Stuttgart. Route from Munich to Augsburg, via Furstenfeldbruck and its closed Benedictine abbey (closed in 1806, and in fact Cistercian). Order of 'thriving' cities - 1 Frankfurt, 2 Milan and 3 Munich. The Munich fair - PE stayed at the Black Eagle (NB Mozart had stayed here in 1790) - the landlady Madame Albert had a birthday party with 40 guests, at which a huge amount of very expensive wine was drunk. Bavarians love burgundy and champagne more than metaphysics and mathematics. The reforms of Maximilian 1, the secularisation of Bavaria and its prosperity. The Augsburg cathedral is small and mean - several Lutheran churches (following the emancipation of the Protestants) - many streets named after members of the royal family. Mrs S at one point in danger of death, but now better - PE has not gone to Ulm, but has joined the Sothebys at Schwabhausen.