The castle is the most magnificent ruin in Germany.  The towers, turrets, buttresses, balconies, and fine statues still stand there, proud and bold, even in its ruins.  And the portcullis of iron in one of its lofty gateways gave me the first idea how the balance of the enemy could be shut off, after a portion had been admitted into the yard of the fortifications with a view of slaughtering them.  The iron bars of this portcullis or sliding gate are very thick and heavy, and have sharp points below.  A tower stands over the gate, into which the portcullis is drawn up.  The defenders of castles would sometimes conceal themselves and keep perfectly silent on the approach of an enemy, as if the castle had been abandoned, but as soon as as large a portion of them as they thought they could dispose of, had entered, the portcullis was dropped, which, on account of its immense weight, of course made its way to the ground even, if it had to pierce the bodies of a dozen that stood under it!  Hereupon the alarm was sounded and all that were inside were barbarously slaughtered.  In some castles there were large pit-falls full of pointed spears standing upwards.  As soon as a large part of the enemy were upon this pit, they would be precipitated into the spears below!  At other places there were immense rollers, and only one approach to the castle, which lead directly up the hill.  When the assaulting enemy made its approach by this, the hillside was filled with the enemy’s soldiers, these rollers would be loosened upon them, and thus the bodies of many thousands would be mangled in a minute!  Such was the barbarity of the ancients.

I will not forget the long walk I had all alone through one of the underground passages of the Heidelberg Castle.  I saw a pale light at the other end, when I entered; but it was dark in the middle, and turned out to be much longer than I had anticipated.  These passages are about 7 feet high and 10 feet wide, and are arched by a brick vault.  The illumination of this ruined castle on the evening of August 23rd, constituted one of my grandest sights in all Europe.  It seemed to be enveloped with flames of such an intense heat, that its walls, towers, &c., appeared to be about to melt down!  As the colors of the illuminating light changed suddenly from yellowish white to blue, green and red, the scene was so indescribably beautiful, that numbers of the ten thousand spectators actually went into raptures.

The Tun,

in the castle of Heidelberg, the largest of all the tuns in the world, is 32 feet long, 22 feet in diameter at both ends and 23 feet in the center.  Its eighteen wooden hoops are 8 inches thick and 15 inches broad, and its 127 staves are 91 inches thick.  The bung-hole is 3 to 4 inches in diameter.  To built it cost the enormous sum of $32,000, and its capacity is equal to about 2,200 common barrels!  On top of it is a dancing-floor having the bung-hole in the center!  What a joy it must be for the dancers to reflect that there is such a flood of wine still beneath them!  This giant tun erected as an altar to the jovial God “Bacchus,” has been filled completely three times, (1753, 1760, 1766).