Emily and I started out sight seeing and landed in St. Lorenz Church, the finest in Nürnberg. It was begun in 1246 and additions were made up to 1477. Above the west portal is a beautiful rose window, and the north tower has a roof of gilded copper. In the interior are numerous tablets with epitaphs of patrician families and a fine brass candelabrum by P. Vischer.

The finest work of Art is the receptacle for the host (the Ciborium). It is beautifully and elaborately executed in stone in the form of a tower 65’ high enriched with many sculptures of scenes from the life of Christ. The top of this tower is bent like a bishop’s staff. It rests upon three kneeling figures of the sculptor Adam Kraft and his two assistants, who worked seven years on this work of Art. Just think of it! Where would we get our pay nowadays if we had to work for seven years on one piece of work.

The windows are fine, too, one, the Tucker window was made in Zurich 1601, another, the Volkamer window, representing the genealogy of Christ, was made in 1493, and another, the “Kaiser fenster,” which was put up in 1881 in memory of the 84th birthday of Emperor William I, blends beautifully with the old ones.

In the afternoon we took a car and ascended to the old Burg Hügel. We were admitted to the Kaiserburg (Imperial Castle) founded in the 11th century and enlarged by my old friend Frederick Barbarossa (on whose back we came across the ocean). It is the common property of the Bavarian and Prussian Royal families.

An old venerable lime tree which stands in the court is said to have been planted by Empress Kunig in 1020. It died in 1893 having reached quite a respectable age.

We were taken to the old chapel, which is the only point of interest in the old palace. The Royal Apartments were fitted up in Gothic Style in 1854 and contain some very nice tile stoves. The ceiling, where prepared for repairs, was discovered to have some old coat of arms painted by a pupil of Durer’s in 1520.

From the balcony, we had a fine view of the city and environs. We saw the beds in which the King and Queen sleep when they pay a visit to N. and a tablet gives the names of the royal personages who have slept in these rooms, from Emperor Henry II in 1012 up to King Wilhelm II last year, I believe.

After we left the old palace, we went to look at the deep well; near the water are two subterranean passages of which one leads to the cemetery and one to the heart of the city.

We also looked at the parapet where two hoof-shaped impressions are hewn into the stone to show the spot from from where a captive robber Knight Eppeleiin von Gailingen leaped across the moat and gained his freedom. He was to be hanged for his misdeeds and asked the privilege of riding his horse around the courtyard before his execution. This was granted and he escaped.

This incident gave rise to a sarcastic proverb, “The Nürnbergers hang no man, unless they have caught him.”

From here we stepped into the five-cornered Tower in which we saw a large collection antiquities and implements of torture, among them the celebrated “Iron Virgin,” a hollow figure made of iron with iron spikes inside. Into this the victim was placed, and it was closed on him—when the two halves were closed together, the spikes penetrated his eyes and other parts of his body. The mutilated body was dropped into a receptacle below and ground up into small pieces.

The young lady who showed us around called our attention to a certain article which was last used in 1786, and I said to her, “Why, you were not present at that time!” Whereupon she promptly answered, “No, indeed, else I, too, would be among the antiquities.”

We now descended into the old city, passing Rauch’s statue of Durer and an attractive statue of the Madonna made in 1482, also Durer’s House in which there is a collection of antique furniture and many copies of his paintings.

We went into the Rathaus [town hall] which has a very tasteful bronze fountain in the interesting old court. The Great Hall on the first floor has some fine fresco paintings from Durer’s designs. The ceiling of the long corridor in the second floor has a relief in stucco representing a tournament held in the city in 1446. The room in which the civil marriage ceremony is performed has some very pretty modern stained glass windows.

In the evening, we went to a garden and listened to a concert given by a military band. I had quite a chat with one of the band and gained some information regarding their time of service, etc.