The original
is a drawing by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. and the plate in the _Souvenir_
is by J. Pye--both artists of high excellence in their respective
departments:--
The waters of the Rhine have long maintained their pre-eminence,
as forming one of the mightiest and loveliest among the highways
of Europe.
But among all its united trophies of art and nature, there is not
one more brightly endowed with picturesque beauty, or romantic
association, than the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. When the eye of
our own Childe Harold rested upon its "shattered wall," and when the
pencil of Turner immortalized its season of desolation, it had been
smitten in the pride of its strength by the iron glaive of war: and
its blackened fragments and stupendous ruins had their voice for the
heart of the moralist, as well as their charm for the inspired mind
of genius. But now that military art hath knit those granite ribs
anew,--now that the beautiful eminence rears once more its crested
head, like a sculptured Cybele, with a coronet of towers,--new
feelings, and an altered scale of admiration wait upon its glories.
Once more it uplifts its giant height beside the Rhine, repelling in
Titan majesty the ambition of France; once more, by its united gifts
of natural position and scientific aid, it appears prepared to
vindicate its noble appellation of "the broad stone of honour.
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