I was just browsing through the papers of Michael Richards (1673-
1722), as you do, when I came across the following manuscript note,
dated Saturday 8 August 1705 (N.S.). Captain Richards, having aided in
the passage of the Lines of Brabant in mid-July, had been dispatched
hither and thither as a message boy, bearing dispatches for the
various courts of Europe. On his way back to the army, he enjoyed a
somewhat leisurely trip back along the Rhine, and indulged in a bit of
a manuscript travelogue.
After scrawling quick notes on his early trip from Frankfurt to the
Rhine &c., he wrote:
"On the Lt. almost opposite [Loorickhausen, i.e. Lorchhausen] is
Bacharach famous for its Rhenish Wine. All these Towns have remains of
Walls, but all have Sufferd by the K. of France."
The bastards. Should charge 'em more.
[N.B. of course, he didn't see or describe Castle Stahleck, it having
been destroyed in the Devastation by...]
Stu.