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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 1A7
birth of Chrift, commonly called The Nativity, by Corregio, which paffes for the beft
work of that mafter ; it coft above half a million of livres. Some perfons, however,
prefer The St. George, likewife by Corregio; this ought properly to be called The Vir-
gin, for fhe is the principal figure in the piece, and the St. George, with other faints, is
itanding about her. The gallery contains feveral pieces by Carrachi, amongft which is
his beft work ; it isa St. Roch giving alms; this picture is known in Italy by the name
of Opera dell’ Elemofina.
LETTER XLII,
Drefden.
THE longer I ftay here, my deareft brother, the more I think myfelf at home ; the
manners, way of living, amufements, converfation, and in fhort, all’that belongs to the
inhabitants of this place, make me think myfelf at Paris. I only with that our ladies,
both married and unmarried, were as frefh and as handfome as the ladies of this place
are. I recollect that an Auftrian lady made the following anfwer to a gentleman who
was extolling the Saxon women in her company. ‘‘ Give us only,” faid fhe, “as
handfome and ftrong-built men, as the Saxons are, and we will take care of the reft.””
Eating and drinking do not go forwards here quite fo brifkly as in the fouthern parts
of Germany; in this refpect, indeed, the difference betwixt the Saxons and Germans I
have hitherto lived with is total. ‘The broth here is fo thin, the cookery fometimes fo
cold, and always fo flender, that I do not believe an inhabitant of Vienna could make
fhift to live a month with a family in the middling ranks of life here. Indeed I have
’ had oceafion to obferve, even in the very beft houles, an attention to the cellar and kit-
chen, which in Auftria and Bavaria would pafs for poverty.
This rigid ceconomy extends to every article of houfekeeping. The only appearance
of expence is in the article of drefs ;_ this, indeed, is carried farther here than it is in the
fouth of Germany. Every perfon in the middling rank of life, I might addin the lower
ones too, men as well as women, drefs according to the fafhion; whereas at Vienna,
Munich, and other places I have vifited, there is a kind of national drefs, which perfons
even of a better kind conform to.
I lodge at a watchmaker’s, whofe two daughters have their regular zoilettes, and have
their hair_dreffed every day; on the other hand, they content themfelves with a flice of
bread and butter, or bread and cheefe for fupper, which I often partake of with them.
There are hardly three noblemen’s houfes here which have ftables with twenty horfes in
them ;_ and porters, valets de chambre, &c. which make fo great an object at Vienna, are
very fearce. It is true, they call a footman here valet de chambre, as they do at Paris,
but the wages of a Vienna walet de chambre are twice as high as thofe of a Drefden one,
though living at Vienna is as cheap again. Here the women are not afhamed to go
into their kitchens, tell out their candles and bits of candles, and calculate how long
they will burn. In a word, excepting only the article of drefs, every thing is ina ftyle
of the ftricteft. ceconomy.
There are very few rich people here; hardly any of the nobility have more than
30,000 florins a year, and molt of the beft houfes have only from 15 to 20,000. As to
the common people, they are always crying out on the want of money, the dearnefs of
provifions, and the little that is to be got here by indultry ; and, if they compare things
as they are now, with what they were under the late Elector, they have certainly fome
reafon for, their complaints, but I know no city in Germany, where there is fuch a
general appearance of eafe and plenty as there is here; extreme poverty is as rare as
; U2 overgrown
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