Studio: international art (37.1906)

Rothenburg

ROTHENBURG BY C. E. ELDRED

changed. The clustering roofs below are those ot
a mediaeval town. Every one is covered with red
tiles, and the most fantastic feature of this bird's-eye
view is the way in which roofs and gables sprout
from each other at the most odd and unlikely
places. No less erratic are the chimneys and
windows, and the pinnacles and wind-vanes, crown-
ing the not very numerous churches. This picture
is closely framed by the irregular contour of the
walls, stringing together a series of towers, of which
no two resemble each other. And outside the
walls can be traced the white ribbons of roads
undulating and winding over open rolling country,
where an absence of hedges and boundaries is the
most noticeable feature. It is evident that this
sinuous ravine of the Tauber valley, breaking the
more regular contour of the country, determined
the choice of site for the town. The very plan of
the place on a map is fascinating. One makes
imaginary perspectives in anticipation from chosen
spots, where a bend of the river or a spur of the
hillside will occupy the foreground. And if these
anticipated pictures are not effaced by the reality,
they make interesting comparisons. To trace this
plan from the summit of the Rathhaus Tower before
descending the valley is to prolong the pleasure of
the approach.

the Fantastic

There will still be much to delay one's progress
from the Rathhaus Square to the walls, what-
ever route one may take. It is probable that the
old cylindrical iron coffers exhibited in the great
hall will sharpen the interest in metal work, of
which every street abounds in examples—the sign
of a Gasthaus, the grille of a window, the vane
surmounting a pinnacle, they all bear the stamp
of the individual craftsman. So, too, do the
massive bolts and padlock still attached to the
great wooden doors at every gateway.

From at least four of the gateways the ground
falls away outside the walls in an abrupt slope,
supporting orchards of fruit trees, so eccentric in
their ramification that they seem to have caught
something of the fantastic variety of the towers and
gables above them. And the gables themselves
become from here grotesque goblin faces, peering
over the edge of the wall to listen to the humming
mill-wheels, of which the Tauber water sets in
motion half-a-dozen in its course below the town.

There is one mill which has long fallen into
disuse as a mill, but has been transformed into
an ideal habitation by two German lady artists.

ROTHENBURG BY C E. ELDRED

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