New_System_of_Geogra.. - Medievalcoinage.com

44 GERMANY. [HefTe.
thirty feet high. The prolpecl here is inexprelTibly fine. The cafcade has four
platforms to it, with a fpacioiis bafon in each. Near the upper bafon is a
fplendid grotto of large rough hewn ftones which look as if only placed
upon one another. In the fecond is a rock confifting of heaps of ftones
diipofed in a moil: beautiful confufion, and under it is a giant reclined on
lus back, and ejeding a ftream of water fix inches in diameter, to the
lieight of above forty feet, whilfl; the cryftalline water falls nearly perpendicular
winding through apertures which are alnioft imperceptible, in innumerable
meanders. The defcent of the cafcade on each fide the bafon
confifts entirely of large fquare ftones over which the water runs about an
inch in height; and a little way forward, over a thin ftieet of lead about
three inches broad, precipitates itfelf from one platform-ftone to another,
having the appearance of a cryftalline mirror ; but by a fpedtator ftanding
at the bottom, when the fun plays his beams upon it, the brilliancy cannot
be viewed without admiration. The water for this work is brought from
feveral ftreams up the mountain, and collected in a refervoir one hundred
feet deep, and of a very confiderable circumference.
3. The bailiwick of Heckershausen. In it
Wilbeniflhcil, a palace belonging to the Prince, and fo nnmcd by the
Landgrave William VIII. its original name being th'SiX. 0^ A?neiientbal.
4. The bailiwick of Lichtenau, in which, near Lichtenau, the Lojfe
has its Iburce, and below Cajj'cl falls, near Romeroda, into the Fulda. In
Hirjchbcrg riles the river Wobra., which below Efchwege, near the village of
Nierde Hohne, runs into the IVerra. In it is
Lichtenau, a fmall town fituate in a cold, and confeauently not a very
fertile country. In the years 1521, and 1637, it was deftroyed by fire.
Formerly, at the diftance of one half mile from it it(;od the feat of
Reichcnhach \n Niedforß, which in the year 1225 devolv'ed to Lewis, Landgrave
of Hejj'e and T^huringia, and afterwards to the counts oi Ziegenhayn,
from whofe family the counts of Rcicheniach are defcended, to whom this
bailiwick once belonged.
5. The bailiwick of Spangenberg lies in Riedfcrft ; in it are fome
vineyards, and a fine plain running along the Fulda. Its villages lie low^
near ftreams which abound in fifh. The Fife, Fßfe, or Pfeife rifes in the
village of the fame name, and after receiving the EJfe near Spa?igenberg falls
into the Fulda.
Spangenberg, an ancient caftle feated on a hill below it, and alfo on an
eminence ftands the little town of Spangenberg, which fo early as the year
1309 was in fome degree of profperity.
Heyda, or Zur Heyden, once a convent of Cißercians, but now a feat belonging
to the Prince, lies on the Fulda near the s\\\-3.ge of Altenmorfchen.
Betwixt the villages of old and new Morfch'en is a bridge which ferves a&
a highway over the Fulda-, and near Connefeld, another village, is a vaft
rock of a beautiful white alabafter. 6. The