It was rather late when we drove to the Golden Fleece at Manheim, the best inn in the town—­and situated in a square, which, when we visited it, was filled by booths:  it being fair time.  With difficulty we got comfortable lodgings, so extremely crowded was the inn.  The court-yard was half choked up with huge casks of Rhenish wine, of different qualities; most of them destined for England—­and all seemed to be agitation and bustle.  The first night of my arrival was a night of mixed pleasure and pain, by the receipt of nearly a dozen letters from Vienna, Munich, Stuttgart, and London, collectively:  the whole of which had been purposely directed to this place.  The contents of the Stuttgart letter have been already detailed to the reader.[182] The first object of my visitation at Manheim, on the morrow, was the house of DOM.  ARTARIA—­known, throughout the whole of Germany, as the principal mercantile house for books, prints, and pictures.[183] With these objects of commerce, was united that of banking:  forming altogether an establishment of equal prosperity and respectability.  The house is situated in the principal square, at the corner of one of the streets running into it.  It has a stone front, and the exterior is equally as attractive in appearance, as the interior is from substantial hospitality.  The civility, the frankness, the open-heartedness of my reception here was, if possible, more warm and encouraging than in any previous place in Germany; and what rendered the whole perfectly delightful, was, the thorough English-like appearance of every thing about me.  Books, prints, pictures—­and household furniture of every description—­bespoke the judicious and liberal taste of the owner of the mansion; while the large and regular supplies of letters and despatches, every morning, gave indication of a brisk and opulent commerce.  It so happened that, the very first morning of my visit to M. Artaria, there arrived trucks, filled with boxes and bales of goods purchased at the Frankfort fair—­which had not been long over.  In some of these ponderous cases, were pictures of the old masters; in others, prints.. chiefly from Paris and London,[184] and principally from the house of Messrs. Longman and Co. in Paternoster row.  Among these latter, was a fine set of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, in ten volumes, 4to. bound in russia—­which had been bespoke of M. Artaria by some Bavarian Count:  and which must have cost that Count very little short of 120 guineas.  The shelves of the front repository were almost wholly filled with English books, in the choicest bindings; and dressed out to catch and captivate the susceptible bibliomaniac, in a manner the most adroit imaginable.  To the left, on entrance, were two rooms filled with choice paintings; many of them just purchased at the Frankfort fair.  Some delicious Flemish pictures, among which I particularly noticed a little Paul Potter—­valued at five hundred guineas—­and some equally attractive Italian performances, containing, among the rest, a most desirable and genuine portrait of Giovanni Bellini—­valued at one hundred and fifty guineas—­were some of the principal objects of my admiration.