Identifier: luxembourggrandd00renw (find matches)
Title: Luxembourg; the grand duchy and its people
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Renwick, George
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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lace untenable. Thecastle-destroyer-in-chief, then, is responsible for thetragic state in which this ancient building finds itself.How old the castle is does not appear to be exactlycertain, but it is perhaps one of the most recent andyet one of the first to be abandoned by its ownei^s.In the fifteenth century there were seigneurs ofAnsembourg, but not till the eighteenth century didthey receive the dignity of count. The ancient lordswere not of the ambitious metal of most of theirneighbours ; they stirred up few quarrels and tookpart in as little warfare as possible. In present-daytimes Counts of Ansembourg are in the diplomaticservice of the State. It is an awe-inspiring ruin, Ansembourg on theheight. The years have thrown an ivy mantle overit, as though thinking that in its old age it shouldbe decently garbed. Trees ward off the winds and,alas f largely shut out the view up and down theriver. And still some of its highest walls remain.Some say it was abandoned after it had received
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THE VALLEYS OF EISCH AND MAMER 207 Boufflers unwelcome attentions, and, if that be so,it is really wonderful that walls which must be con-siderably over two hundred feet high should bestanding and still boldly defying winds and winterstorms. Ramparts still frown almost every whit asangry-looking as when they were the target for Frenchcannon. The fagade still preserves much of itsnobility. Halls are rubbish-strewn, the chapel mightwell be restored to something like decent order. Therugged fortress is a weirdly picturesque pile trulyworth preserving, for it stands in most appropriatelygrim surroundings. At times it looks like a castlelifted out of an Aubrey Beardsley picture, a vastpage torn from an immense fairy-book. Then again,when dark clouds lower upon it, this deep-enskiedkeep appears to be one down from which Wiertzmight send his dragons and giants sprawling. Not exactly a place to live in, you may think !But some one does not agree. A farmer has hisabode in this ghoulish height,

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