Vienna, June 29, 1841.—Yesterday at night-fall I went with my sisters, Schulenberg and Count Haugwitz to the Volksgarten where the whole of Vienna does its best to enjoy the dew amid clouds of tobacco smoke. Fireworks and Strauss were the amusements provided. One positive refreshment was the ices, of which an enormous quantity seemed to be consumed. The population of Vienna are quiet, well-dressed, entirely respectable and very mixed, for in these amusements the aristocracy take part. There was no sign of a policeman, nor were any needed.
Vienna, June 30, 1841.—I am leaving Vienna this evening. The heat continues to be extreme and will make my journey very unpleasant. I shall not send off this letter until I reach Dresden; correspondence is more certain outside the Austrian states. I do not mind people reading my expressions of affections, but my impressions and opinions are another matter. I trust therefore that I have been prudent in this respect during my stay here.
Tabor, July 1, 1841.—I left Vienna yesterday at seven o'clock in the evening. In the afternoon I had a visit from Prince Metternich. He was kind and confidential, and the idea that he has deteriorated is quite wrong. Perhaps he expresses himself more slowly and vaguely than he used to do, but his ideas are in no way confused, his opinions are firm and decided, he remains moderate and gentle in temper, and in short is entirely himself. He strongly advised me to return by way of Johannisberg, whither he will go from Königswart in the month of August and stay until September. His wife urged me to do the same and showed me the utmost kindness. Her beauty strongly appeals to me, though it is a style often spoilt by harshness of voice, common manners or vulgar language. She is generally disliked at Vienna to my astonishment, for I think she is good-hearted though unpolished. Several people kindly came to say good-bye at the last moment. My sisters, with Schulenburg and Count Maurice Esterhazy, who is the smallest and liveliest of the family, accompanied me two leagues beyond Vienna, where my travelling carriage was waiting for me. Count Esterhazy is the same who was at Paris; he was afterwards attached to the Austrian embassy at Berlin, where I last saw him. This post he left a few days before I came to Vienna, as he is going to Italy, where his mother is now lying ill. He is a close friend of my sisters', somewhat malicious like all very small men, but a pleasant talker and far more civilised and in better taste than people generally are at Vienna, especially the men, who are usually very ignorant. On the whole I prefer Berlin to Vienna society. At Vienna people are richer and more high and mighty and their naturalness is affected: at Berlin I admit there is more affectation, but there is much more culture and intellectualism. Life at Vienna is extremely free and easy: people do anything they please without being regarded as eccentric, but though no one is surprised at his neighbour's doings slander is as commonly current as elsewhere, and I am ready to assert that a false good nature of a very dangerous kind is prevalent. At Berlin life is more formal and more attention is paid to a certain decorum: the consequence is some stiffness, but words are more carefully weighed, and as there is less reason for backbiting there is more real kindliness. Personally I have nothing but praise for the hospitality of either town and remain entirely grateful to them both. I was especially struck at Vienna by the manner in which men and women commonly address one another by their baptismal names; however slight acquaintanceship is, provided people belong to the same clique, family names disappear, and to use them is thought a mark of bad taste. Women are constantly kissing one another and invariably upon the lips, which I think horrible. Men continually kiss ladies' hands, and at first sight society seems to be composed of brothers and sisters. Perhaps twenty people in speaking to me or in reference to me would say "Dorothea;" those less familiar would say "Duchess Dorothea;" the most formal would use the term "dear Duchess," but no one would say "Madame" or "Madame la Duchesse." I am astonished that anything remains of my hands; and my cheeks, which I try to substitute for my lips, have suffered a perfect martyrdom. The coquetry of the women at Vienna is obvious, nor is any attempt made to disguise it, though the churches are full and the confessionals besieged; but there is no appearance of real devotion, and the sincere and active faith of the Royal Family has no influence upon society, which displays its independence by habitual opposition to the Court.
Dresden, July 3, 1841.—I have now returned to my starting point of a month ago. I came here from Tabor without stopping, except for dinner at Prague and for lunch this morning at Teplitz. I am never wearied by the country between Teplitz and Dresden. It is Saxony in all its beauty, rich and smiling and pleasantly united to the strength and wildness of Bohemia. It is the only picturesque part of the journey between Vienna and Dresden apart from Prague and its neighbourhood.
At the gates of Teplitz I saw a procession of pilgrims descending from a chapel upon a hill with rosaries in their hands, singing psalms; it was a touching sight and I should like to have gone up to worship in my turn but the approach of a storm obliged me to continue my journey without stopping.
I am reading the History of the Life, the Writings and the Doctrine of Luther by M. Audin. It is the most learned, impartial, interesting and Catholic study of the subject that I have come across. As I left Vienna I finished the Life of the Saint Dominic by the Abbé Lacordaire, which is written with a view to effect and pleased me only moderately.
I hear in the inn that M. Thiers has been expected for the last three days. I hope he will not arrive until after my departure to-morrow. I propose to reach Königsbruck this evening and to stay a few days with my nieces.
Königsbruck, July 5, 1841.—I reached here yesterday at five o'clock. At Dresden I had a call from Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar who was staying in the same hotel as myself. He was coming from Berlin where he had been spending a fortnight with his niece, the Princess of Prussia.
In the same hotel I also met Countess Strogonoff, formerly Countess Ega, whom I had seen last year at Baden and who then pleased me greatly. She told me that as soon as I had left Baden, Madame de Nesselrode spent every evening until she started for Paris at the public gaming-table, playing Benacet, opposite the old Elector of Hesse, and that she lost or won during the evening with the same imperturbable calmness the twenty louis which she had made her limit. What a strange person!
At Dresden during mass I saw the widow of Prince Maximilian of Saxony, who had returned from Rome where she married her chamberlain, a certain Count Rossi, a cousin of the husband of Fraulein Sontag. She is obliged to return to Dresden from time to time under the terms of her marriage settlement. Her husband accompanies her and continues to act as chamberlain. She seems to me to be neither young nor pretty, well made nor fashionable; he is a tall man with an imperial beard and the air peculiar to the husband of a princess.