They Began Their Research And One Day At That Hour Discovered A
Carpenter Sawing A Block Of Wood.
It struck them that this laborious man
was making a better use of his teeth (viz., teeth of his saw) than the mere
feeder and they judged that this ought to be the place where the town
should be built.
They therefore proceeded to trace with a plough the
circumference of the town. On asking the carpenter what he was about to
make with the block he was sawing, he said " A threshold for a door," which
is called Prah or Praha in the Bohemian language and Libussa gave to
the city the name of Praha or Prag.
BERLIN, 24th Sept.
Berlin has a splendid and cheerful appearance, with fine broad streets,
superb white buildings and Palaces, for the most part in the Grecian taste;
it has quite the appearance in short of an Italian city. Nearly all the
streets are at right angles; they are kept very clean and the shops make a
brilliant display. I felt so much pain in my legs, from the effect of my
pedestrian journey, that I was obliged to remain in my chamber one entire
day. There is a very good table d'hote at my bin for twelve Groschen.
Wine is paid for extra, and at the rate of from 12 to 18 Groschen the
bottle. The sort usually drunk here is the Medoc. The prices of articles of
prune necessity are dearer in Berlin than either at Dresden or Vienna;
particularly the article of washing, which is dearer than in any country I
have yet visited.
The next morning I began my rambles, and directed my course to the favorite
and fashionable promenade of the beau monde, at all hours of the day, I
mean in the fine street or alley Unter den Linden, so called from it
being planted with lime trees. There is a range of elegant buildings on
each side, and at the end, near the Thier Garten (Park), is a superb gate
called the Brandenburger Thor in the shape of a triumphal arch ornamented
with a statue of Peace, with an olive branch in her hand, standing on a car
drawn by four horses abreast, the whole groupe being of bronze and of
exquisite workmanship. The four horses are imitated from the Corinthian
horses at Venice and yield to them in nothing but antiquity. Indeed they
have a much more pleasing and striking effect, in being thus attached to a
car, than standing by themselves, as the Venetian ones do, on the top of
the facade of a church. This Brandenburger Thor is constructed after the
model of the Propylaeum of Athens.
The Opera House, a building in the Grecian taste erected by Frederic the
Great with the inscription Apollini et Musis, and after that the Academy
of the Fine Arts engaged my attention. Both these buildings are remarkable,
and they are near the Linden. The old town is much intersected by canals
communicating with the Spree which divides it. I call it the old town, to
distinguish it from the quarter composed of streets of recent construction
between the former enceinte of the town and the Brandenburger Thor. The
Hotel of the Invalides, a ponderous building, bears the following
inscription: Laesis non victis. The Bank and the Arsenal next engaged my
attention, as also a Guard House of recent construction in the shape of a
Doric temple. The Royal Palace is an immense building, partly in the Gothic
and partly in the Grecian style. It is very heavy but imposing. The
interior of this Palace is royally fitted up, except the little room
occupied by the great Frederic, which is left in the same state as when he
occupied it; and you know he was not fond of superfluous ornament. In the
green before the Palace stands the statue of the Prince of Anhalt Dessau,
the founder of the Prussian Infantry system, and at a short distance from
this, on the Lange Bruecke, stands the colossal equestrian statue in
bronze of the Great Elector.
The Koenigstrasse is the principal street and a very fine one it is; next
to it in point of beauty is the Franzoesische Strasse. The Wilhelm
Platz is adorned with the statues in marble of Schwerin, Seidlitz, Keith,
Winterfeld, and Ziethen. But I cannot enumerate all the splendid public
establishments and fine things to be seen in this beautiful city. The most
striking church is that of St Hedwig. I call it the most striking from its
resemblance to the Pantheon at Rome. The Cathedral is perhaps a finer
building. 'Tis in this last that the Electoral and Royal remains are
deposited.
The streets 'here swarm with military, and indeed the profession of arms
seems to have too much sway in the Prussian dominions. The subalterns and
young men of the Prussian Army are said to have republican sentiments, and
they, in common with all the burghers, desire a constitution. It galls them
to see one enjoyed by the Bavarians, whom they affect to look upon as
inferior to them in intelligence, and that it should be refused to them.
Most of the nobility and the greater part of the General and field officers
are however inveterate aristocrats.
You have heard, I dare say, of the attempt made by some officers among the
nobility to exclude from the service, after the peace, those officers who
were not noble. When it is considered that their best and most zealous
officers sprung from the burghers, and that Prussia, when abandoned by her
King and nobles, was saved from permanent subjection only by the
unparalleled exertions of her burghers and peasantry, one is shocked at
such ingratitude and absurdity. But the officers of the Royal Guard went so
far as to draw up a petition to the King, requesting him to dismiss all the
officers of the corps who were not noble, and Blucher was applied to to
present this petition to the King.
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