The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

So it does not do much damage where you live? said he. Oh yes, said I, if there is continuous rain it rages horribly. I think even more terribly than it does here. But we have better dykes and dams, yet sometimes it carries everything away. It has torn away all the bridges in the Toggenburg save for some few, broken through the dykes, brimmed over onto the finest pastures and meadows, so that the whole valley was a lake. It has torn down barns and done damage to the tune of many thousand guilders - Meanwhile we had ridden on and left behind on the Thur the ferryman and his disagreements with the weather. Now there is a plan on the table for a bridge over this river, which would certainly be a very expensive project but also a very useful one. [...] We drank a bottle of extra good red wine, so that the night was drawing on and only by nightfall did we arrive at Weil. The next day I went home on foot, having sent my pony back." [Voellmy, v 3 pp 194-213]

6th Oct. Bräker writes to Füssli, saying that he trusts Füssli completely as far as editing his works is concerned, but "...if you will only grant me that I - so long as God gives life and health - may once a year collect my pension from you". He encloses a piece of cotton priced at three louis d'ors which he had promised to buy for one of the women of Füssli's family, and sends greetings to two of the firm's senior staff. He also asks Füssli to lend him Lavater's "Solomon, or the teaching of wisdom", published in 1785.

In an undated entry Bräker excuses himself for neglecting his diary: "From here on I have completely forgotten my little book and neglected it, until the end of the year - when I then began on another little book - but it too has been poorly continued - I still thought to knit all kinds of material into it - but to date it has not been done - amongst other things I expected to finish and improve my account of my journey to Konstanz - then I made another little journey to Chur - via St. Gallen - Rorschach, Rheineck - and through the whole of the Rheinthal - [...] Chur - where at the house of Herr Schorch

190

I enjoyed much love and friendship - the return journey I made via Wallenstatt and the lake as far as Wesen - What a pity that I have not the means - I would spend most of my time travelling - but I should not scribble down the constitutions of the states nor works of art that are above my horizon

191

- but what good does it do in the end, other than satisfy my inclination - of travellers and travel writers there are such a large host who describe everything exactly - but there are also a large host that make mistakes - now so may all of mine remain unfinished." [Chronik, p 370]

1 Nov. Baptism of Bräker's grandson Johann Rudolf Wälli. 12th Dec. his burial. [Chronik, p 371]

Bräker had obviously read a good many travel books by this time and a reading of Coxe, for example, shows he well knew what travel writers felt it their duty to record.