Berlin
20th January 1827
My Dear Horatia
I fancy you travelling to Boulogne just about this time & am afraid you found it a cold journey – the weather is calm here, and I hope will give you a prosperous passage. This city looks so clean, regular, & spacious; with such handsome architectural buildings that it makes me think of the gallery of Models we saw somewhere, all ranged in order. I am not yet reconciled to the Stoves, which take an hour before they begin to emit any heat: That, and the custom of serving up a sweet omlet just before the Roast, are the chief complaints I have against North German inns; some of which surprised me by their cheapness – Travelling over the snowy plains of Prussia is like reading a blank book. Leipsic has a nice walk all round it, like Francfort, I wish the idea was adopted by all towns.
At Gotha I enquired for Baron de Zach, <1> & was told he had received leave to stay at Genoa till the 1st of January. Near Eisenach I was surprized by a romantic stage and found I was crossing the Thüringer Wald. I had a glimpse of the high Rhöngebirge which form the Northern extremity of Bavaria. Nothing can be tamer than the scenery of Weimar, the modern Athens. Berlin looks well in its winter dress, the streets full of beau monde <2> in sledges; the air is very keen which is so delightful & wholesome. Lit with gas, & paved with snow, it looks lighter from my window tonight than some capitals do in the morning. One day for variety, as I journeyed I invoked the Muse; but she only reechoed in verse the oftrepeated questions & answers of which these two stanzas are a sample.
Ich bitt’. – Ihre Name
Und Ihr Character!
Wo reisen Sie hin?
Und wo kommen Sie her?
Ich bin weiter nichts als
Ein reisender Herr –
Ich bin ein gewisser –
Ein particulär! <3>
I took this opportunity of reading Moore’s Sammtliche Werke <4> almost all thro’. It is a very cheap German Edition of the Bard, comprising him all for seven shillings, & very fairly printed with but few Errata. As I crossed the field of battle of Lutzen I saw an ancient stone Cross. I fancied it was the grave of Gustavus Adolphus <5> –
Your affte Brother
Henry Talbot
Miss Horatia Feilding
31 Sackville Street
London
Brighton <6>
Susex [sic]
Notes:
1. Franz Xaver, Baron von Zach (1754–1832), Hungarian astronomer.
2. High society.
3. I ask your name/ And your Character./ Where are you going?/ And where are you coming from?/ I am nothing but/ A travelling man –/ I am a certain –/ A particular one!
4. Probably a German edition of the first collected volume (six) of Thomas Moore, The Works of Thomas Moore (Paris: 1819).
5. Gustavus Adolphus II (1594–1632), King of Sweden.
6. Readdressed in another hand.