But this art of copying paintings in Mosaic work, I understand has of late been brought to a much greater degree of perfection at Rome.
In the vestibule is placed the trunk of a laurel tree, with this inscription on the wall behind it.
QUÆ
PER OCTO PRINCIPUM CATTORUM ÆTATIS
IN AMÆNIS INCLYTI CASSEL.
VIRIDARII SPATIAM FLORUIT
LAURUS
ALT. CIRCITER LIV. LAT. IV. PED. RHENAN.
AD TEMPORA HEROUM
SERENISS. DOMUS HASSIÆ
CORONIS CINGENDA,
SENIO, SED NON IMPROLIS, EMORTUA EST
NE VERO TOTA PERIRET
ARBOR APOLLINI SACRA
TRUNCUM IN MUSEO SERVARI JUSSIT
FREDERICUS II. H. L.
A. M. D. CCLXIII.
They also show a sword, which was consecrated by the Pope, and sent to one of the Princes of this family at his setting out on an expedition to the Holy Land. What havoc this sacred weapon made among the infidels I cannot say.—It has a very venerable appearance for a sword, and yet seems little the worse for wear.
Near the old chateau, and a little to one side, is a colonade of small pillars lately built, and intended as an ornament to the ancient castle, though in a very different style of architecture. The slimness of their form appears the more remarkable on account of their vicinity to this Gothic structure.
Some time since, a mountebank came to Cassel, who, besides many other wonderful feats, pretended that he could swallow and digest stones. A Hessian officer walking before the chateau with an English gentleman, who then happened to be at Cassel, asked him, What he thought of the fine new colonade?—It is very fine indeed, replied the stranger; but if you wish it to be durable, you ought to take care not to allow the mountebank to walk this way before breakfast.
Nothing in the country of Hesse is more worthy the admiration of travellers, than the Gothic temple and cascade at Wasenstein. There was originally at this place an old building, which was used by the Princes of this family as a kind of hunting-house. It is situated near the bottom of a high mountain, and has been enlarged and improved at different times. But the present Landgrave’s grandfather, who was a Prince of equal taste and magnificence, formed, upon the face of the mountain opposite to this house, a series of artificial cataracts, cascades, and various kinds of water-works, in the noblest style that can be imagined.
The principal cascades are in the middle, and on each side are stairs of large black stones of a flinty texture, brought from a rock at a considerable distance. Each of these stairs consists of eight hundred steps, leading from the bottom to the summit of the mountain; and when the works are allowed to play, the water flowing over them forms two continued chains of smaller cascades. At convenient distances, as you ascend, are four platforms, with a spacious bason in each; also grottos and caves ornamented with shell-work, statues of Naiads, and sea divinities.—One grotto in particular, called the grotto of Neptune and Amphitrite, is happily imagined, and well executed.
The water rushes from the summit of this mountain in various shapes:—Sometimes in detached cascades, sometimes in large sheets like broad crystalline mirrors; at one place, it is broken by a rock consisting of huge stones, artificially placed for that purpose.—There are also fountains, which eject the water in columns of five or six inches diameter to a considerable height.