In This Point
Of View The Preservation Of Old Palaces And Their Tarnished
Furniture Is Useful, For They May Be Considered As Historical
Documents.
The vacuum left by departed greatness was everywhere observable,
whilst the battles and processions portrayed on the walls told you
who had here excited revelry after retiring from slaughter, or
dismissed pageantry in search of pleasure.
It seemed a vast tomb
full of the shadowy phantoms of those who had played or toiled their
hour out and sunk behind the tapestry which celebrated the conquests
of love or war. Could they be no more - to whom my imagination thus
gave life? Could the thoughts, of which there remained so many
vestiges, have vanished quite away? And these beings, composed of
such noble materials of thinking and feeling, have they only melted
into the elements to keep in motion the grand mass of life? It
cannot be! - as easily could I believe that the large silver lions at
the top of the banqueting room thought and reasoned. But avaunt! ye
waking dreams! yet I cannot describe the curiosities to you.
There were cabinets full of baubles and gems, and swords which must
have been wielded by giant's hand. The coronation ornaments wait
quietly here till wanted, and the wardrobe exhibits the vestments
which formerly graced these shows. It is a pity they do not lend
them to the actors, instead of allowing them to perish ingloriously.
I have not visited any other palace, excepting Hirsholm, the gardens
of which are laid out with taste, and command the finest views the
country affords.
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