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'I arrived here this morning at four o'clock from Hamburg to
Boitzenburg, where we slept.
'I went down to the King (at Sans Souci) by railroad; he was at dinner, I got some brought to me by his old servant. The King soon came out of his dining-room to me and gave me a most hearty welcome, and took me into the garden, where all the court ladies and gentlemen were gathered; presented me to the Queen, both asked after and about you and were very kind. I can hardly say how much interest I felt in being for a few moments at Sans Souci again; it is a most beautiful place. It is wonderful to think of its creation, but there will be speedy decay and dissolution, if it is not ere long repaired. The Palace is small, and not worthy the name of a Palace, but beautiful. I am not expected to remain long I think, from what I gather.
'As I was staring about the town yesterday evening after my return from Sans Souci, I was tapped on the shoulder and informed that the King desired that I would come to sup with him at nine, so as it was half past eight, off I went to dress. By the by I did not tell you that after our dinner at Sans Souci the whole Court moved up to Berlin by railroad, thus I was at the Palace at nine. The supper was served at six small tables, without any covering, the plate and glasses standing on the mahogany. At one table sat the King and Queen, the Princess of Prussia and the Duke of Brunswick; the rest of the party and his household were at the other tables. A seat of honour was kept for me by the great lady of the Court, but I had already found myself seated by a maid of honour whose sweet smiles had attracted me and I did not think it worth while to move. You need not be alarmed, for the stock of beauty here is small. The King and Queen both crossed to speak with me before and after supper, and on taking leave for the night the King kindly shook me by the hand. The King is gone, he visits some of his provincial towns on his way, and takes no one with him but one Aide-de-camp and no escort. I go tomorrow in my own carriage, thank God; a route is given me, a number painted on the carriage, and all paid, so I go like the devil without anything to pay. I shall be at Dantzic before the King.
'The road from Hamburg to Berlin lies through a portion of the Danish territory and the territory of the grand Duke of Mecklenburg Schwerin and the Prussian, the whole way the country is cultivated, the Danish territory of Holstein is sandy and little done with it. That of M. Schwerin is of a better quality, though what we should call moderate soil but very fairly cultivated. I never saw better farming in my life, or a country more cared for, the crops looked well and not a weed to be seen, the road-side planted, and every tree that was young staked and tied, the side of the roads mowed and trimmed, and stone gutter on each side of a fairly macadamized road. I felt humbled after my boasting thoughts of England, as this pattern they have no doubt followed, but the Prince of Mecklenburg Schwerin deserves well of his people for his superior copy. The people are well clothed, and I have not been asked for a farthing since I came to this country.
'Then in Prussia on crossing the frontier the authorities were most civil, cast an eye at the carriage, made a bow, and would not look at an article; the regulations of Prussia are in all departments most excellent, and a painstaking discipline exists everywhere, which makes the position of the traveller quite charming. Here only one side of the road is macadamized, the other half is the soil, but the road is very wide, so down hill you take the soil, very safe. All through Prussia, as far as I have been, the farming is very good, the land very clean, but the soil very, very poor; it is a great desert in fact, made habitable by the perseverance and industry of the people; round this town it is wonderful to see what can be done by the hand of man. This town stands in a desert of driving sand, but the town has created a soil round it which is now pushing the desert back every year, and it is now in the centre of a large circle of fine green fields and corn lands; of course the produce is not great but the labour is small, and the improvement progressing. The accommodation is very fair even to an Englishman. The innkeepers are a very respectable class, and though I have not seen a bed that is larger than a child's crib without curtains, yet they are clean, soft, and well made with lots of pillows for the head.
'Up to this time I have seen nothing but what I may call the outside of Berlin, my impression is that on the whole it is a very fine city. The public buildings are numerous. The architecture is fine, with more of the florid ornament than the style permits; much statuary and grouping of figures in marble and bronze. Streets wide, buildings low and large; but more of this bye and bye.
'My friend Schetky has been very useful to me in killing much "ennui" and comforting me when sick. He is an extraordinary fellow, sixty-three, with the spirits and fun of a boy, and the appetite of a horse. He is bent on going to Dantzig, so puts himself into the mail-post or public conveyance. He thinks he can make a picture [Footnote: Now at Sydney Lodge.] of the King's embarkation; I hope he may succeed, for he is a worthy soul.
'I have passed my morning in the museum of statues and pictures. The museum was founded in 1830 from designs by Schinkel; it is pure Greek Doric (I don't like it), a double column façade, up a great flight of steps; before the entrance stands a basin of polished red granite twenty-two feet in diameter, one block; it was a boulder that lay thirty miles from Berlin called the Markgrafenstein, it lay at a place called Fürstenwald.
'The collection of the museum consists of vases and bronzes, sculpture and pictures. My view was so very cursory, and without a catalogue, that I must not say much about it. It is very large and the statues are mostly antique, and I should say fine. The pictures are numerous and many very fine, but on the whole the collection I should say was not first rate, indeed if it were it would be the finest in the world from its number.