In the evening we went with Mrs. Parish to the Syndic Dormanne’s house in the country. It was a day of festivity, being an annual commemoration of a charitable institution. We laughed at Marsh, who endeavoured to make a compliment to the Syndic about his house, and began praising it as a town house, whereas the Syndic had been pointing out to us the champêtre appearance and the point de vue pittoresque which it enjoyed. But Marsh persisted in his original idea, and dwelt upon its excellence considering it was in a populous town. The truth is the house, tho’ two miles from the city, is one in a sort of row upon the Alster.
They left Hamburg on July 24, to go by Hanover to Berlin, crossing the Elbe at Tollenspicker. ‘The carriage came over in the regular ferry boat, which is of a singular construction considering that the waves are sometimes high; the ends are both open. Marsh and Duncannon bought a horse between them, which keeps up with German travelling, a proof of its rapidity!’ They slept the first night at Lüneburg. The road to Zell lay through a stretch of forest land, but sparsely inhabited, ‘not more than three villages sprinkled over an extent of thirty miles.’ Lady Holland says, ‘On the whole it is the worst country I ever saw, and naturally so incapable of improvement that it would baffle the agricultural skill of our English improvers.’
From Zell to Hanover two posts: we were eight hours. Saw nothing but forests of diminutive firs, deep sands, and barren wastes. In fifty years there may perhaps be a tolerable road; at present all that appears is that probability. The chaussée is marked out, trees were planted, and even in some places stones are collected in heaps, but only here and there for about a hundred yards are any laid on the road; and where there is that small portion of pavé, it seems merely to be a pretext for a heavy toll. Well may these Hanoverian surveyors boast, as did one of the French patriots, that they labour for posterity!
Arrived at Hanover ye 27th July, 1800.
28th.—The King’s stables, or rather stud, are very fine. It is from hence he is supplied with the white and cream-coloured horses which draw his state coach; they are beautiful animals, but have a diseased, unhealthy look, especially about the eyes, which have a reddish hue. The breed of horses and men are alike, and I could trace a likeness to my liege Lord and Sovereign among his coach horses. They breed good-sized mules from Italian asses. I was surprised at finding them so good in this cold climate, for tho’ as hot as Italy now, the cold in winter is insufferable. The riding house is large and grand; one or two riding masters were busy dresser these manège horses. It is a graceful action, a man on a well-dressed horse, and it is much to the loss of our young men that the slouching fashion of riding gets the better of the manège method. The boys hoot at Duncannon and Marsh, and abuse them for their ignorance of riding, calling out jeeringly ‘Englander.’
HANOVER
Saw a beautiful palace built by the D. of York, sold by him to one Eckhart, an army commissary, and repurchased by the King; and now occupied by Prince Adolphus.[141] It is exactly like a Paris hotel; the whole was executed under the direction of a French architect, and the furniture and decorations brought from Paris and Lyons. The Electoral Palace is old, irregular, and vast. One of the inner courts was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by George II. In his private apartment they showed us the altar he commonly used, which had been rescued from the flames; it was very much scorched. His common walking cane the concierge kissed with veneration, adding, ‘He loved us, he lived among us.’ The Hanoverians are short-sighted enough to regret not having their Sovereign among them; they long for the splendour of a Court, without taking into account that his residence would entail taxes, burthens of various sorts, and perhaps wars.
A dark passage between the ball-room and the Electress’s private apartments is shown as the spot where Königsmark was murdered. He had slipped out from the festive scene to indulge in the softer delights of love in the arms of the Electress; on his return he was rushed upon by the guards with their halberds, and dispatched. Various stories were invented, some that he was put into an oven and suffocated, another that he was thrust into a reservoir and drowned, another that the Elector (George I.) kept him to enjoy ye sight of his torture, etc. True it was that he disappeared, and that the Electress was banished her husband’s presence and exiled to a castle at All or Aller.[142] She was never permitted to go to England, or assume the title of Queen. Some time afterwards B. Hoadly to satisfy the royal suspicions wrote the play of The Suspicious Husband, which proves that a gentleman may be in a lady’s bedroom at night most innocently. Königsmark was but a mauvais sujet; he had run off from England for murder. He shot Mr. Thynne in Hyde Park to prevent his marrying an heiress he had designs upon.[143]
In the evening we went to drink tea with P. Adolphus at Montbrilliant. He is remarkably handsome and pleasing in his manner, and since the decline of the Prince’s beauty, is certainly the best looking of the Royal Family. He complains of being exiled. He left England when he was 12 years old, and since that time has only been there for four months. I renewed my acquaintance with Count Münster and Tatter, two Hanoverians whom I had formerly known at Rome when they were attached to Prince Augustus.
When we arrived at Brunswick we found the inns filled with Jews and infidels on account of the Fair, which is a great epoch in German festivity. We, however, obtained a tolerable lodging. Mr. Kinnaird is living in a Swiss pension, imbibing Genevan principles; these upon a Scotch fond will produce a useful man to himself and family.