[208] “The engineer Specklin, who, in order to complete his MAP of ALSACE,
    traversed the whole chain of the VOSGES, estimates the number of these
    castles at little short of two hundred:  and pushes the antiquity of
    some of them as far back as the time of the Romans.”  See Hermann;
    vol. i. p. 128, note 20:  whose compressed account of a few of these
    castellated mansions is well worth perusal, I add this note, from
    something like a strong persuasion, that, should it meet the eye of
    some enterprising and intelligent English antiquary, it may stimulate
    him—­within the waning of two moons from reading it, provided those
    moons be in the months of Spring—­to put his equipage in order for a
    leisurely journey along the VOSGES!

[209] This was formerly called the bell of the HOLY GHOST. It was cast in
    1427, by John Gremp of Strasbourg.  It cost 1300 florins; and weighs
    eighty quintals;, or 8320 lb.:  nearly four tons.  It is twenty-two
    French feet in circumference, and requires six men to toll it.  In
    regard to the height, I must not be supposed to speak from absolute
    data.  Yet I apprehend that its altitude is not much over-rated. 
    Grandidier has quite an amusing chapter (p. 241, &c.) upon the
    thirteen bells which are contained in the tower of this cathedral.

[210] It was necessary, on the part of my friend, to obtain the consent of
    the Prefect to make these drawings.  A moveable scaffold was
    constructed, which was suspended from the upper parts—­and in this
    nervous situation the artist made his copies—­of the size of the
    foregoing cuts.  The expense of the scaffold, and of making the
    designs, was very inconsiderable indeed.  The worthy Prefect, or Mayor,
    was so obliging as to make the scaffold a mere gratuitous affair; six
    francs only being required for the men to drink! [Can I ever forget,
    or think slightly of, such kindness?  Never.]

Cicognara, in his Storia della Scultura, 1813, folio, has given but a very small portion of the above dance; which was taken from the upper part of a neighbouring house.  It is consequently less faithful and less complete. [In the preceding edition of this work, there are not fewer than eleven representations of these Drolleries.]

[211] I think this volume is of the date of 1580.  CONRAD DASYPODIUS was
    both the author of the work, and the chief mechanic or artisan
    employed in making the clock—­about which he appears to have taken
    several journeys to employ, and to consult with, the most clever
    workmen in Germany.  The wheels and movements were made by the two
    HABRECHTS, natives of Schaffhausen.

[212] [The Reader may form some notion of its beauty and elaboration of
    ornament, from the OPPOSITE PLATE:  taken from a print published about
    a century and a half ago.]