P.S.—I may as well state here, for the information of travellers, and especially of invalids, the ready means of communication that now exist, independent of the rail-road abovementioned.
| From Teplitz to Tetchen | 4 | hours. |
| From Tetchen (through the heart of Saxon Switzerland by steamer) to Dresden | 12 | ” |
| From Dresden to Magdeburg (passing through Leipzig—rail-road) | 8 | ” |
| Magdeburg to Hamburg (steam) | 14 | ” |
| Hamburg to London | 48 | ” |
| Total | 86 | hours. |
The whole run may be done in six days; the traveller sleeping every night in his bed, and undergoing no fatigue whatever in the day. The opposite course will require an additional day, on account of the stream of the Elbe, but may be performed with great ease by all, to whom economy of time, money, and bodily exertion is of any moment. It is only an easy day’s journey from Teplitz to Carlsbad, and 24 miles from thence to Marienbad. The route through Saxon Switzerland alone, will well repay the journey, which is almost all by water, and the far greater part by river steaming, where there is no chance of sea-sickness. In fine, the line of the Elbe offers, as it were, an invalid carriage, by which the most frail valetudinarian, or the most crippled victim of gout or rheumatism, may repair to the great fountains of health in Bohemia, with almost as much ease as if reposing in an arm-chair. J. J.
THE ELBE—SAXON SWITZERLAND. TEPLITZ TO TETCHEN.
CULM.
On leaving Teplitz, we pass through a highly picturesque country, full of mountain scenery, but not of that Alpine grandeur which excludes fertility, cultivation, and beauty, till we come to the Thermopylæ of Bohemia—the battle-field of Culm—whose history, though “Ære perennius,” is yet commemorated by three monuments—the Russian and Prussian dedicated to the memory of those heroes who fell in the combat—the Austrian, to the general who turned the fortune of the day—and changed a doubtful and sanguinary battle into a splendid and decided victory.[84] The three monuments are of very different stature and dimensions. The first we come to is the Russian, a Gothic pyramid of cast iron, of great height, bearing on its summit the figure of Fame. The portrait of the hero Osterman, who, with 8000 Russians, checked Vandamme and 40,000 Frenchmen, is sculptured on one side. This monument is like Russia itself, infinitely more colossal than either of the others. The Prussian, like its kingdom, is the smallest of all—while the Austrian, is next in dimensions to the Russian, and dedicated, as was observed, to the hero who conquered, and not to those who fell in the battle. After all, this was perhaps the wisest plan. The living hero would feel pride and pleasure in contemplating the monuments; but, alas!
“Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion draw the fleeting breath?
Can honour’s voice provoke the silent dust,