Autograph letter signed : Hinterrhein, to William Angus Knight, [1872] June 24.

Describing the cold and rainy weather and his trip up the Rhine to see the Dom at Cologne; saying "Yet unfinished, the interior presents the most glorious example of the [illegible] genius of one single mind. There is a [illegible] about it such as even the finest of our Cathedrals (York for instance) somewhat lacks, and the harmony of form & colour is carried out with the utmost skill...The combination of greatness & grace surpasses anything one has seen: and with all my affection for Westminster Abbey, it cannot be said to rival the Cathedral at Cologne - As for the Rhine, it is by no means so beautiful as the Clyde: tho' perhaps its difference of style disqualified it for comparison: I was prepared to be disappointed, but that did not save me from disappointment; and while I am glad I have seen it, yet I cannot find in it beauty to account for its world wide interest;" describing, in detail and at length, his travels to several German villages in the company of a "...German gentleman who had lost his only son in the war;" relating the evidence he has seen of the devastation caused by the French; describing Worms saying "... the hall in which the famous diet was held has perished & a modern house stands on its site. Nothing but the Cathedral remains that could have met Luther's eye. It was curious in a town almost wholly Catholic to see the monument of the Great Reformer. There does not appear to be any bitter antagonism between the two religions..I have seen more of the higher side of Catholicism than one does in the out of the way valleys of Switzerland or the Tyrol, where the grossest superstition prevails;" describing mass at a Catholic church in Speyer, a sermon he heard in Strasburg and the debates surrounding the Reformed Church movement in Paris; referring to Coquerel and Guizot and their differences; saying "I think the end will certainly be that the liberals will have to form a free church like our own, bound together by certain principles and methods of thought, as well as certain deep sentiments & affections shared by all alike -yet leaving the intellect perfectly free to arrive at its own beliefs. But the struggle will be watched with interest & for both parties cannot fail to be instructive...When, I wonder, will men cease to attempt to fetter each other's minds;" expressing his shock at hearing of the death of Dr. MacLeod; giving him an address in Altdorf at which he can be reached until July 22nd.