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RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 173
my ftaying dinner the next day at a gentleman’s houfe, for whom I had letters of re-
commendation from Drefden, at my return he made his remarks upon it; and the day
after took it in ferious dudgeon, that I would not leave a fine garden and good com-
pany, I had ftrolled to, and walk three miles home to add another item to his reckon-
ing. We were however reconciled; but as he perceived I was one of thofe who did
not hold long converfation with inn keepers, he came into my room, and would read
me the Berlin newfpapers, which for lies and nonfenfe are not behind hand with the
French ones. As he was going on with the weighty and intportant intelligence, that
a Pruffian general had died of the gout; that his Royal Highnefs Prince Henry was
gone a journey to Rhinfberg ; that a perfon in the Newmark, who was a man of let-
ters, was afflicted with the cholic; and that the wife of a general officer in Silefia was
fafely delivered of a daughter, I {natched the paper out of his hawtds. He took this af-
front fo civilly, that I was on the point of forgiving the infolence of the night before,
when’‘he gave me to underftand, that he would provide me with a companion to fleep
with, as well as with my board, if I chofe it; upon this I immediately went out to look for
@ private houfe, it being a maxim with me, that every inn keeper who is a bawd, is of
courfe a cheat. In general the inn-keepers of this place feem to be a peculiar kind of
people ; they are all outrageoufly civil at firft, but extremely furly when they meet
with any one who does not choofe to be impofed on by them; there is likewife no end
of their impertinent queftions, and when they have no girls in the houfe, they make it
no fecret, that this is an article which they undertake to provide ftrangers with. ‘They
have lifts in which the ladies of the neighbourhood are forted according to their prices,
and a fervant is always ready to fetch the wares which the {tranger bargains for. My
landlord, the privy-counfellor, aflured me, that there was hardly one landlord in twen-
ty who did not deal in this trade.
A traveller who comes out of Bohemia into Saxony, is apt to be {truck with the
dearnefs of provifions in the latter; but it is nothing to what he meets with when he
comes from Saxony hither. Several caufes contribute to this; among which may be
enumerated the natural poverty of the country in feveral commodities, the high cuf-
toms, and many monopolies. To give you a {mall idea of the latter, the meafure of
wood, which you know colts a trifle at Paris, here comes to a guinea and a half, not-
withftanding that Brandenburg is full of woods of all forts. Indeed the fmall quantity
of money in circulation, and the price of every neceflary of life, forms a {trong con-
tra{t betwixt this place and Vienna. At Vienna you are amazed that, with fuch a cir-
culation of money, every thing can be fo cheap, and here can hardly conceive how,
with fo fmalla proportion of cafh, every thing can be fo dear. Conceive that you pay
fix or feven livres here for a bottle of Burgundy which has nothing but the name of
Burgundy; our common wines of Orleancis, Ifle de France, Guyenne, &c. fell for
three or four livres a bottle. Indeed the King is a little too hard upon the drinkers of
wine.
In all the private houfes I have hitherto feen, there prevails a rigid ceconomy in the
kitchen, cellar, and indeed in every part: the only article of expence is drefs ; but
you fee that the belly has been pinched for the fake of powder and ruffles. ‘The la-
dies drefs in the fafhion, and I faw fome ornaments in very great tafte, and very
rich.
There is no town in Europe, except Conftantinople, which has fo numerous a gar-
rifon as Berlin has: it confilts of twenty-fix thoufand men. For a little money you
may have every thing done for you by a foldier ; they clean your fl:0cs, wath, mend,
pimp,
’
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