beautiful district of the electorate of Mentz, is situated on the Rhine, about three miles from the city of Mentz, and is so populous that it looks like one entire town intermixed with gardens and vineyards. The Rhine here grows astonishingly wide, and forms a kind of sea, near a mile broad, in which are several well wooded little islands. The Rhinegau forms an amphitheatre, the beauties of which are beyond all description. At Walluf, the very high hills come nearly down to the river side; from thence they recede again into the country, forming a kind of half circle, the other end of which is 15 miles off at Rüdesheim, on the banks of the Rhine. The banks of the river, the hills which form the circles, and the slopes of the great mountains, are thick sown with villages and hamlets. The white appearance of the buildings, and the fine blue slated roofs of the houses playing amidst the various green of the landscape, have an admirable effect. In the space of every mile, as you sail down the river, you meet with a village which in any other place would pass for a town. Many of the villages contain from 300 to 400 families; and there are 36 of them in a space of 15 miles long and five miles broad, which is the width of this beautiful amphitheatre. The declivities of all the hills and mountains are planted thick with vineyards and fruit trees, and the thick wooded tops of the hills cast a gloomy horror over the otherwise cheerful landscape. Every now and then a row of rugged hills run directly down to the shore, and dominate majestically over the lesser hills under them. On one of these great mountains, just about the middle of the Rhinegau, you meet with Johannesberg, a village which produces some of the best Rhenish. Before this village is a pretty little rising, and near the banks of the river there is a very fine old castle, which gives unspeakable majesty to the whole landscape. Indeed, in every village, you meet with some or other large building, which contributes very much to the decoration of the whole. This country is indebted for its riches to this semicircular hill, which protects it from the cold winds of the east and north, at the same time that it leaves room enough for the sun to exercise his benignant influences. The groves and higher slopes of the hills make excellent pastures, and produce large quantities of dung, which, in a country of this sort, is of inestimable value.

The bank of the Rhine, opposite to the Rhinegau, is exceedingly barren, and heightens the beauty of the prospect on the other side by the contrast it exhibits; on this side, you hardly meet above three or four villages, and these are far distant from each other. The great interval between them is occupied by heaths and meadows, only here and there a thick bush affords some shade, and a few corn fields among the villages enliven the gloomy landscape. The back ground of this country is the most picturesque part of it. It is formed by a narrow gullet of mountains, which diminish in perspective between Rüdesheim and Bingen. Perpendicular mountains and rocks hang over the Rhine in this place, and seem to make it the dominion of eternal night. At a distance, the Rhine seems to come out of this landscape through a hole underground; and it appears to run tediously, in order to enjoy its course through a pleasant country the longer. Amidst the darkness which covers this back ground, the celebrated Mouse tower seems to swim upon the river. In a word, there is not anything in this whole tract that does not contribute something to the beauty and magnificence of the whole; or, if I may be permitted the expression, to make the paradise more welcome. As you sail along the Rhine, between Mentz and Bingen, the banks of the river form an oval amphitheatre, which makes one of the richest and most picturesque landscapes to be seen in Europe. The inhabitants of these regions are some of them extremely rich, and some extremely poor. The happy middle state is not for countries the chief product of which is wine; for, besides that the cultivation of the vineyard is infinitely more troublesome and expensive than agriculture, it is subjected to revolutions, which in an instant reduce the holder of land to the condition of a day-labourer. It is a great misfortune for this country, that, though restrained by law, the nobility are, through connivance of the Elector, allowed to purchase as much land as they please. The peasant generally begins by running in debt for his vineyard; so that if it does not turn out well, he is reduced to day-labour, and the rich man extends his possessions to the great detriment of the country. There are several peasants here, who having incomes of 30, 50, or 100,000 guilders a-year, have laid aside the peasant, and assumed the wine-merchant; but, splendid as their situation is, it does not compensate, in the eyes of the humane man, for the sight of so many poor people with which the villages swarm. In order to render a country of this kind prosperous, the state should appropriate a fund to the purpose of maintaining the peasant in bad years, and giving him the assistance from his necessities, and his want of ready money, may from time to time make convenient.

The inhabitants of the Rhinegau are a handsome and uncommonly strong race of men. You see at the very first aspect that their wine gives them merry hearts and sound bodies. They have a great deal of natural wit, and a vivacity and jocoseness, which distinguishes them very much from their neighbours. You need only compare them with some of these, to be convinced that the drinker of wine excels the drinker of beer and water, both in body and mind, and that the inhabitant of the south is much fatter than he who lives in the north; for though the wine drinker may not have quite as much flesh as he who drinks only beer, he has better blood, and can bear much more work. Tacitus had already observed this, in his treatise De moribus Germanorum. "The large and corpulent bodies of the Germans (says he) have a great appearance, but are not made to last." At that time almost all the Germans drank only water; but the mere drinking of wine has effected a revolution in several parts of Germany, which makes the present inhabitants of these countries very different from those described by Tacitus. Black and brown hair is much commoner here than the white, which made the Germans so famous in old Rome. "It will be easily imagined (says Baron Reifbeck), that the monks fare particularly well in so rich a country. We made a visit to the priory of Erbach. These lordly monks, for so in every respect they are, have an excellent hunt, rooms magnificently furnished, billiard tables, half a dozen beautiful singing women, and a stupendous wine cellar, the well ranged batteries of which made me shudder. A monk, who saw my astonishment at the number of the casks, assured me, that without the benign influence which flowed from them, it would be totally impossible for the cloister to submit to so damp a situation."

RHINFELS, a castle of Germany, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, in a county of the same name. It is looked upon as one of the most important places situated on the Rhine, as well in regard to its strength as situation. It is near St Goar, and built on a craggy rock. This fortress commands the whole breadth of the Rhine, and those who pass are always obliged to pay a considerable toll. In the time of war it is of great importance to be masters of this place. E. Long. 7° 43', N. Lat. 5° 3'.