Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
172 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
pleafing appearance. Of all the German provinces I have hitherto paffed. through,
nature feems to have treated Brandenburg the moft like a {tep-mother:
The inhabitants endeavour to remedy the niggardlinefs of nature by their induftry.
Wherever the foil has allowed of any kind of agriculture, they have made the beft of
it. ‘The appearance of the villages and farms, as well as of their inhabitants, befpeaks
profperity.
My own experience confirms what feveral other travellers have obferved before me.
The cuftom-houfe officers in Pruffia are neither fo tedious, nor fo diftrefling and vex-
atious to a traveller, as thofe of Auftria; they are for the moft part intelligible, fen-
fible men, and by no means fo defpotic and boorifh as the Auftrian gentlemen of the
fame profefiion.
Berlin is a remarkably beautiful and magnificent city, and may certainly be looked
upon as one of the fineft in Europe. It has nothing of the uniformity, which in the
long run makes the appearance of moft of the new and regular built towns tirefome.
The architecture, the diftribution of the buildings, the appearance of the fquares, the
plantations of trees both in thefe and the ftrects; every thing, in a word, befpeaks
tafte and variety.
I have been for fome days reconnoitring the town according to my common cuftom.
Berlin is not fo large as either Paris or Vienna; it is about four miles and a half long
from the Muhlenthor, which is fouth-ealt, to the Oranienburgerthor north-weft, and
about three miles broad from the Bernaverthor to the north-eaft, to the Pot/damerthor
to the fouth-weft ; but within this extenfive enclofure there are many gardens, and in
fome parts even fields taken in: there are not more than fix thoufand houfes in this
town, whereas in Paris there are near thirty thoufand. ‘The emptinefs of many places
is a fingular contraft to the magnificence of the buildings.
Nor is the contraft of this magnificence with the circumftances of the people lefs
ftriking. Sometimes while you are ftanding gazing at the beauty of the building in
the Ionic flyle, finely ftuccoed, with a magnificent front, and all,the outward appear-
ance of the habitation of a farmer-general, or at leaft a duke, on a fudden a window
opens in the lower ftory, and a cobler brings out a pair of boots and hangs them un-
der your nofe, in order to dry the leather. As you are loft in wonder at this phenome-
non, the fecond {tory opens, and a breeches-maker treats you with a pair of new wafh-
ed breeches; a little while after another window opens in the fame ftory, and a taylor
hangs out a wailtcoat before you, or a woman empties a difh of potatce parings on your
head: well, you go ona few fteps farther, and come to a palace of the Corinthian or-
der, which looks like a houfe belonging toa miftrefs of the king, or of one of the prin-
ces of the blood. Scarce have your wandering eyes reached the top, but you are fa-
luted by a Jew from the attic ftory, who afks you whether you have any thing to fwop ;
you ca{t your eyes a ftory lower, and behold fhirts hanging out to dry, which belong
to an officer, who is fhaving himfelf, and whom you would hardly conceive to have
two fhirts belonging to him. You march cn through two or three ftreets of the fame
kind, and in all of them fee inhabitants of the fame fort ; at laft you arrive at the houfe of
a general officer, as you eafily difcover by the guard before the door; but you fee
neither porter nor running footmen, nor any thing of the train of attendants of the no-
bility at Vienna.
I have now been three days in the houfe of a privy-counfellor, and am fortunate
enough to have a lord of the war-office for my fellow tenant. It was impoffible for
me to remain at the inn. The hoft made bows upon bows, and was fo very civil,
that I had my fufpicions of him. the very firft moment; nor was I miftaken, for upon
my
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
