Travels and Travellers. A series of sketches

Front matter

TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS. 9 J!?cru£S of BY MRS. TROLLOPE, AUTHOK OF " THE BAENABYS IN AMERICA," " THE ROBEIiTSES," " THE ATTRACTIVE MAN," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1846. GRAFFENBERG. VOL. I. B GRAFFENBERG. When contemplated a little en masse, that is, from a point sufficiently distant in time to give us a tolerably wide extent to look over, there is something almost comic in the variety of specifics which have been hit upon by poor blundering, but always onwardstruggling man, for the remedy of the ills that he is heir to. But though this may be the effect produced upon the idle looker-on, by the variety, not to say contrariety, of the means employed to achieve this great object, the attempt, when ever seriously and honestly made, is far too laudable, and too important also, to be treated X B2 lightly.

A perfect catalogue of all the expe riments tried to " Make men well, when they are sick," could scarcely be perused with gravity ; yet, with the above proviso, that they were made seriously and honestly, there would probably not be found one wholly unworthy of attention ; and perhaps it may be doubted whether there has been more folly shown in the igno rant rejection, or in the ignorant adoption of some among them. The name of the remote, and, till recently, most obscure little hamlet of Graffenberg, will now at once tell the reader, let him come from what quarter of the world he may, that the following pages are on the subject of the water cure, or, at any rate, on the place where it was first tried, and where its inventor has surrounded himself with an immense establishment, in the midst of which he resides, honoured as a sovereign, beloved as a benefactor, and, by many, almost wor shipped as a saint.

The long-established habit of wandering during the summer months, made the idea of passing from Florence to Silesia a much less terrific thing to me than it would be to most people; and one of my family having been complaining of dyspepsia, and another friend, for whose health I was greatly interested, appearing to think that both the journey and the discipline might be beneficial to her, we set off, a party of four, from the fair City of Flowers, to travel about nine hundred miles to the north-east of it, for the sake of sounding the well, at the bottom of which Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton says that health is to be found. Much short of nine hundred miles we could not have made the distance; but we, in our usual desultory style, contrived to make it considerably more. We certainly came now and then upon some detestably bad inns, where sundry divine creations of a less tranquil nature than sleep, visited our pillows ; but ex cepting this occasional annoyance, the journey had more to please than weary.