The only thing which attracted our attention, on the road from Walk to Dorpat, was Schloss RIngen, formerly one of the largest castles in Livonin, but now a picturesque ruin. These ruins of Ringen are a perpetual monument of the ferocious feuds between two neighbouring noblemen, the Lord of Ringen and the Lord of Odempa. An old family quarrel between thoin had been heightened by various personal insults into the deadliest mutual hatred. Notwithstanding this, however, they sometimes, when their own interests demanded it, visited and entertained one anotlicr with outwaid civility. One day the Lord of Ringen invited the Lord of Odempa to a banquet. The latter came, enjoyed the feast much, and was particularly pleased with one costly dish, which his host strongly recommended to him. He wished to know what it was made of, but this was a secret, said the Lord of Ilingen. As the visiter was returning to AdempR, however, a servant was sent after him, with a message, that if he remembered what the Persian king, Cyaxares, served up to his servant, Harpagus, he would know how the delicate dish which had pleased him so much was composed. The horror-struck father flew home to seek his only little son, but sought him in vain. The Lord of Ringen had, by way of a practical joke, served up to him for dinner his own son's heart and brains.
The infuriated and deeply-afflicted father it was who laid Schloss Ringen in ruins. He attacked it that same night with all his men, and though the Lord of Ringen was prepared for the attack, yet the superhuman fury of the father, and the justice of his cause, overcame all opposition. The castle was stormed, reduced to ruins, and the hearts and brains of its defenders thrown to the dogs .
The histories of these old Livonian castles are often very romantic and tragical. These bloody feuds have been modified by the spirit of the age, and the animosity of neighbouring nobles now develops itself in intermmable Htigation.
Our way led through many forests, and past many dwellings, whose Inhabitants, seated by their cheerful fires, enjoying their domestic comforts, looked with indifference on the wanderers without. Towards evening a dark indistinct object appeared before us, which gradually stood out more distinctly through the mist. It was the lofty " Dorpater Dom' (Cathedral of Dorpat), the only building visible from afar in the concealed city.
The history of Dorpat is a very stirring and stormy one. The attacks of the Russians from the east, and the Knights from the west, the quarrels of both with the aboriginal Esthonians, and the bloody wars between the Russians, Swedes, and Poles, have more than once laid the town in ashes, or levelled it with the ground. Since Peter the Great's time, Dorpat has risen in importance, and has been much altered and improved, so as to be now a handsome, elegant, and new city. With the exception of the old Dom, no vestige remains at Dorpat of the ancient Gothic nucleus of the town ; all is new. On the Domberg are situated the library, the observatory, the clinicumy the anatomical theatre, the musemns, and the dwellings of the professors. The Berg (mountain) is very extensive, and between the buildings has large open spaces, which have been turned into pretty gardens.
The library has a very curious locality, being situated in the ruins of the old Dom. The books are arranged in two halls, standing above one another, around which lie the ruins in the same condition in which they have remained ever "since they were made into ruins. They are ver'^ interesting and picturesque, and command a beautiful view from every side. On one side the hill forms a precipice from the very edge of the wall. The northera side of the Domberg overlooks the whole town. Between the spectator and the river, on a piece of ground scarcely 400 paces broad,
are crowded together the most important buildings of the town, the Uni versity, the market-place, the courts of law, the Gostinnoi dvor, the principal shops, &c. To the right and left, where a greater space remains between the Embach and the lofty shore, lie numbers of pretty private dweUing-houses, taverns, &c. Part of the town, though a smaller part, lies on the right side of the Embach. The whole of this handsome little town is surrounded by a very ugly shell of suburbs, inhabited chiefly by Russians and Esthonians.