I assured him there could be no doubt of it; and that what Haeberlin had said, followed by Lambinet, had no reference whatever to his Lordship’s copies—­for that, in them, the final units were compressed into a V and not extended by five strokes, thus—­iiiij.  As he was unacquainted with my account of these copies in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, I was necessarily minute in the foregoing statement.  The worthy old bibliographer was so pleased with this account, that he lifted up his eyes and hands, and exclaimed, “one grows old always to learn something.”

M. Haffner, who was one of the guests at a splendid, but extremely sociable dinner party at Madame Franc’s[224] the principal banker here—­is a pleasing, communicative, open-countenanced, and open-hearted gentleman.  He may be about sixty years of age.  I viewed his library with admiration.  The order was excellent; and considering what were his means, I could not but highly compliment him upon his prudence and enthusiasm.  This was among the happiest illustrations of the Bibliomania which I had ever witnessed.  The owner of this well chosen collection shewed me with triumph his copy of the first Greek Testament by Erasmus, and his copies of the same sacred book by R.  Stephen and Wetstein, in folio.  Here too I saw a body of philological theology (if I may use this term) headed by Walchius and Wolff, upon the possession of a similar collection of which, my late neighbour and friend, Dr. Gosset, used to expatiate with delight.

Let me now take you with me out of doors.  You love architecture of all descriptions:  but “the olden” is always your “dear delight.”  In the construction of the streets of Strasbourg, they generally contrive that the corner house should not terminate with a right angle.  Such a termination is pretty general throughout Strasbourg.  Of the differently, and sometimes curiously, constructed iron bars in front of the windows, I have also before made mention.  The houses are generally lofty; and the roofs contain two or three tiers of open windows, garret-fashioned; which gives them a picturesque appearance; but which, I learn, were constructed as granaries to hold flour—­for the support of the inhabitants, when the city should sustain a long and rigorous siege.  As to very ancient houses, I cannot charge my memory with having seen any; and the most ancient are those on the other side of the Ill; of which several are near the convent before mentioned.

The immediate environs of Strasbourg (as I have before remarked) are very flat and poor, in a picturesque point of view.  They consist chiefly of fields covered with the tobacco plant, which resembles that of our horse-radish; and the trade of tobacco may be considered the staple, as well as the indigenous, commodity of the place.  This trade is at once extensive and lucrative; and regulated by very wholesome laws.  The outskirts of the town, considered in an architectural point of view, are also very indifferent.