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136 GERMANY. [WItgenftein.
Hohenftein *, /ijn/s 0/ Homburg, Vallendar, Neumagen, Lohra, Klettenberg,
&c. but the counts of the houfe of Berleburg ftyle themfelves Ccmits
c/"Stayii ^«i/ Witgenftein-Berleburg, /ör^/j c/"Homburg rtW Neumagen, &c.
Their arms for Sayn are, ruby, a lion rampant, guardant, double-queve
topaz } for Witge?2jlein, pearl, two pallets diamond ; ^ox Homburg, ruby, a
cafHe argent.
§. 5. Each houfe has a diflindl vote both in the college of the Wetteran
counts of the Empire and in the Diet of the Upper-Rhine ; but their precedence
is a fubjeft of debate among them. To the matricular taxation of
this county, which is one horfe and four foot, or twenty-eight florins,
JFifgojßein }piä.ys fixteen florins, forty-eight kruitzers; and i?i?r/(?/^7/r^'- eleven
florins, twelve krultzers.
§. 6. The joint revenue of the county o^ JVitgenftein and Berleburg, and
the lordiLip of Homburg, is computed at 50,000 rixdollars.
Tlje houfe of Sayn-Witgenftein, of Witgenftein, pojfejjes,
I. The county of Witgenftein, in a limited fenfe, which confl:itutes only
the greatefl; part of the county o^ Witgenftein in its more extenlive meaning
; and in which, befides the town of Laafphe, the clergy, civil officers
and other freemen, are three hundred and thirty-two vallals. The ordinary
produce of this county amounts to 2100 rixdollars per annum, and the
extraordinary to fix hundred. This county contains
Witgenftein, a refidence of the counts, which is feated in a high mountain
and is the patrimonial- houfe of the ancient counts of Witgenftein. Below
it lies
Laafphe, a little town, fituate on the Lahn.
The thirty-eight villages and farms of this county are divided into the
four diftridls oi Banf, Faydingen, Arfelden 2,x\A the vogtey ol Elfoff; to the
latter of which belong the three villages of Eljojf, Alertßiaujen and Bettelhaufen,
it being feparated from Battenberg, a prefedurate of HtjJ'e-Darm-
Jladt, by the river Elfoff. A part of the lands of the Witgenßein, which are
valTiils to this vogtey, lie on the other fide of the Elfoff, being fubjedl to
'the jurifdidion oi Heffe. Battenberg was once a part of the county of Wit-
* The county oi Hohenßehi was by the Eleflor Frederick IVilliam of Brandenburg granted, in
the year 1649, to J^hn, count of IViigenJh'm, in the manner he had pofle/Ted it; but, in
1699, re-aflumed by the Elcftor Frederick, who, in the year 1702, was pleafed to notify to
Count Augußui of H^itgenßein, that he would liquidate all the debts of the family of Ji'itgen-
/}(':>!, and others of a longer date chargeable on it; pav at once the fum of 100, Oüo fpecics rixdollars,
befides another 20,000 advanced by Count Augutus to his father C:iijnt Gußavus, for difcharging
fome debts with which the county was encumbered. The counts of Wilgcnßein,
however, ftill continue to afl'umc the title and arms of Hohenjhin, Lohra and Klctten'jerg.
genftein.