A Tour in Catholic Teutonia, Part III [pp. 11-22]

A TOUR IzN CA THOLIC TEUTONIA.
murdered Swiss Guards, and to the curious Gletscher Garten, the
singular evidences of glacier action in which no visitor should
omit to see, we started for Berne, and succeeded with difficulty
in finding accommodation at the Bernerhof Hotel. That is the
house to which it is advisable to go, not only because it is a very
comfortable house, but because its windows afford an admirable
view of the mountains of the Oberland, save when-as during
our visit-they are persistently shrouded by clouds. The next
day, being the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, we set out betimes
to find the Catholic church, in hopes of getting Mass. We found
the church, a solid, modern Gothic stone edifice, close to the
Rathhaus and overlooking the river Aar. There were, however,
no signs of Mass, nor was a single person at prayer within it.
Searching for some notice, we found to our surprise a placard
stating the hours of the Anglican service, and soon learned that
the building had been taken from the Catholics and given to the
Old Catholics. We duly admired the miles long street of arches,
the numerous fountains and towers, the celebrated clock with its
many droll mechanical figures, and those living symbols of the
_Bernese state-the bears in their pits at the bottom of the hill
just over the bridge. Then, returning, we visited the mediae val, flamboyant cathedral, now a Protestant church, which was
finished in I457, and contains some very fine stained glass. We
noticed with interest that its old sedilia were arranged according
to what is the modern Roman rite, the priest's seat being in the
middle, and not that nearest the altar, as it was of old time in
England, and as the Dominican friars have it to-day. In the
afternoon we left for Interlaken, and found the journey along the
Lake of Thun very tedious on account of the steamer's many stop pages. Most of my readers are no doubt acquainted with Inter laken-that singular modern village-town with wooden houses,
a summer encampment of pleasure-seekers and their ministers so nothing further need here be said by way of description. We
put up at the Victoria Hotel, which has most excellent public
rooms, but a bad cuisine. The next morning was perfect, and
the wonderful Jungfrau showed her whole vast, towering mass
of snow-clad mountain-an immense but slender pyramid of daz zling whiteness. The weather tempted us at once to make our
pilgrimage to Grindelwald, and, mindful of our experience at
Salzburg, we carefully eschewed the cheaper one-horse victorias
and set off in a landau with a good pair of horses. The weather
had tempted many other travellers also to set forth on the same
journey, so that a continuous string of one-horse and two-horse
[April,