As to booksellers, for the sale of modern works, and for doing, what is called “a great stroke of business,” there is no one to compare with the house of TREUTTEL and WUeRTZ—­of which firm, as you may remember, very honourable mention was made in one of my latter letters from Paris.  Their friendly attention and hospitable kindness are equal to their high character as men of business.  It was frequently in their shop that I met with some of the savants of Strasbourg; and among them, the venerable and amiable LICHTENBERGER, author of that very judicious and pains taking compilation entitled Initia Typographica.  I was also introduced to divers of the learned, whose names I may be pardoned for having forgotten.  The simplicity of character, which here marks almost every man of education, is not less pleasing than profitable to a traveller who wishes to make himself acquainted with the literature of the country through which he passes.

[203] Alsatia Illustrata, 1751-61, folio, two volumes.

[204] In the middle of the fifteenth century there were not fewer than nine
    principal gates of entrance:  and above the walls were built, at equal
    distances, fifty-five towers—­surmounted, in turn, by nearly thirty
    towers of observation on the exterior of the walls.  But in the
    beginning of the sixteenth century, from the general adoption of
    gunpowder in the art of war, a different system of defence was
    necessarily adopted; and the number of these towers was in consequence
    diminished.  At present there are none.  They are supplied by bastions
    and redoubts, which answer yet better the purposes of warfare.

[205] This work is entitled “Notices Historiques, Statistiques et
    Litteraires, sur la Ville de Strasbourg.” 1817, 8vo.  A second
    volume, published in 1819, completes it.  A more judicious, and, as I
    learn, faithful compilation, respecting the very interesting city of
    which it treats, has not yet been published.

[206] I had before said 530 English feet; but a note in M. Crapelet’s
    version (supplied, as I suspect, by my friend M. Schweighaeuser,) says,
    that from recent strict trigonometrical measurement, it is 437 French
    feet in height.

[207] The Robertsau, about three quarters of a mile from Strasbourg,
    is considered to be the best place for a view of the cathedral.  The
    Robertsau is a well peopled and well built suburb.  It consists of
    three nearly parallel streets, composed chiefly of houses separated by
    gardens—­the whole very much after the English fashion.  In short,
    these are the country houses of the wealthier inhabitants of
    Strasbourg; and there are upwards of seventy of them, flanked by
    meadows, orchards, or a fruit or kitchen garden.  It derives the name
    of Robertsau from a gentleman of the name of Robert, of the
    ancient family of Bock.  He first took up his residence there about
    the year 1200, and was father of twenty children.  Consult Hermann;
    vol. i. p. 209.