Dr. Fowler's Prescription -- Carlsbad -- "A Matlocky sort
of a Place" -- Springs and Swallows -- Tasting the Water --
The Cliffs and Terraces -- Comical Signs -- The Wiese and
its Frequenters -- Disease and Health -- The Sprudel: its
Discharge; its Deposit -- The Stoppage -- Volcanic
Phenomena -- Dr. Granville's Observations -- Care's Rest --
Dreikreuzberg -- View from the Summit -- König Otto's Höhe
-- "Are you here for the Cure?" -- Lenten Diet --
Hirschsprung -- The Trumpeters -- Two Florins for a Bed.
"To lie abed till you are done enough," says Dr. Fowler, of Salisbury,
"is the way to promote health and long life;" and he justifies his
assertion by living to the age of ninety, with promise of adding yet
somewhat to the number. Remembering this, I let duty and inclination
have their way the next morning, and the market-women in front of the
inn had nearly sold off their baskets of flowers and vegetables before
I set out to explore the wonders of Carlsbad.
"It's a Matlocky sort of a place!" cried a young lady, as I passed an
elegant party, who were sauntering about the pleasant grounds behind
the _Theresienbrunn_--"it's a Matlocky sort of a place!" And a merry
laugh followed the iteration of her ingenious adjective. That it is
not altogether inappropriate is apparent as soon as you arrive on the
upper terrace and overlook a small town, lying deep between hills on
either side of the Teple, a shallow and sharply-curved stream.
All the springs but two are on the left bank, a few yards from the
water's edge. There is a little architectural display in the buildings
by which they are covered: a domed roof, supported on columns, or a
square, temple-like structure, flanked by colonnades. The water flows
into a cavity, more or less deeply sunk below the surface, surrounded
by stone steps, on which sit the nimble lasses, priestesses of health,
who every morning from six to ten are busily employed in dispensing
the exhaustless medicine. A few vase-like cups stand ready for use;
but numbers of the visitors bring their own glass, carried as a
bouquet in the hand, of tasteful Bohemian manufacture, striped with
purple or ruby, and some of the purest white. All are made of the same
size--to contain six ounces--and a few have a species of dial
attached, by which to keep count of the number of doses swallowed. The
visitors, having their glasses filled at the fountain, walk up or down
the colonnade, or along the paths of the pleasure-ground, listening to
music, or form little groups for a morning gossip, and sip and chat
alternately till the glasses are emptied. The rule is to wait a
quarter-hour between each refilling, so that a patient condemned to a
dozen glasses dissipates three hours in the watery task. The number
imbibed depends on the complaint and constitution: in some instances
four glasses are taken; in others, from twenty to forty.
I tasted each spring as I came to it, and felt no inclination to
repeat the experiment. The temperature of the _Theresienbrunn_ is 134
deg., of the _Mühlbrunn_ 138 deg., of the _Neubrunn_ 144 deg., in
itself a cause of dislike, especially in hot weather, and much more so
when combined with a disagreeable bitter, and a flavour which I can
only compare to a faint impression of the odour of a dissecting-room.
No wonder some of the drinkers shudder as they swallow their volcanic
physic! But more about the waters after we have seen the _Sprudel_.
In some places the cliff comes so near to the stream that there is no
more than room for a colonnade, or narrow road, and here and there the
path, stopped by a projecting rock, is carried round the rear of the
obstacle by little intricate zigzags. And every minute you come to
some ramifications of the narrow lanes, which here, so limited and
valuable is the space, serve the purpose of streets, and afford ready
access to the heights above. The houses rise tier over tier, in short
rows, or perched singly on curious platforms excavated from the rock,
in situations where back windows would be useless. The topmost
dwellers have thus an opportunity to amuse their idleness by a
bird's-eye view of what their neighbours are doing below. From May to
September the influx of visitors is so great that every house is full
of inmates.
As every house has its sign or designation, ingenuity has been not a
little taxed to avoid repetitions. One ambitious proprietor writes up
_At the King of England_; another, contenting himself with his native
tongue, has _König von England_; a third, _English House_. A little
farther, and you see _Captain Cook_; _The Comet_; _The Aurora_; and
many varieties of Rings, Spoons, and Musical Instruments.
_Israelitisch Restauration_ notifies the tribes of a dining-room; here
_The Admiral_, there _The Corporal_, yonder _The Pasha_ claims
attention; and in a steep street leading towards Prague I saw _The A B
C_. And here and there a doll in a glass-case fixed to the wall,
representing St. Anne--a favourite saint of the Bohemians--looks down
on the sauntering visitors.
Continuing up the left bank you enter the market-place, where the
indications of life and business multiply, and a throng are sipping
around the _Marktbrunn_. This spring burst up from under the
paving-stones in 1838; a temple was built over it, and ever since it
has served as a temple of ease to some of the more crowded springs. A
little farther, and you come to the _Wiese_, or meadow, which retains
no more of grass than Hatton-garden does of gravelled paths and
flower-beds: a row of houses and shops on one side, on the other a
line of wooden booths concealing the river, and all between planted
with trees which shelter an irregular regiment of chairs and tables.
Here is the place where visitors most do congregate, pacing leisurely
to and fro, or lounging on the chairs in front of the cafés, gossiping
over the newspapers, or trifling around the stalls and shop windows.
A remarkable throng, truly! Some with an air highly dignified and
aristocratic; but the greater part somewhat grotesque in appearance.
Graceful ladies with those ungraceful sprawling bonnets not uncommon
in Germany; men, lanky and angular, and short and round, and square
and awkward, wearing astonishing wide-awakes. Such a variety of loose,
baggy trousers, magnificent waistcoats, and gauzy gowns, that look
impalpable almost as a cloud! Here comes a Polish Jew with manifest
signs of having remained unclean beyond more than one evening; here a
Czechish count, who has not forgotten his military paces; here a
spectacled professor, with boots turned up peak-wise, and toes turned
broadly out; here a group of Hebrews glittering with jewelry; and here
a miscellaneous crowd from all the countries of Europe, but Germans
the most numerous. Of English very few. There is nothing stiff or
formal about them; to make things pleasant seems to be a tacit
understanding, for disease has brought them all to one common level.
All are animated by the hope of cure, and find therein an inspiration
towards gaiety.
But who shall be gay in an hospital, among sallow, haggard faces,
sunken eyes, and ghastly features? Some you see who, preyed upon by
disease for years, have well-nigh lost all faith in the smiler who
lingers so long at the bottom of the box; some afflicted by
hypochondriasis appear to wonder that the sun should shine, that
others can be happy while they themselves are so miserable. The lively
fiddles, and twanging harps, and jingling tambourines--the Tyrolese
minstrels--the glib conjuror, all fail to bring a flash of joy back to
their deadened eye; to win for mirth one responsive thrill. I have
never been more thankfully sensible of the blessing of robust health,
than while strolling on the _Wiese_ at Carlsbad.
What with its many stalls and shops, the _Wiese_ resembles a bazaar.
All sorts of trifles and knick-knacks tempt the visitor, and entice
money from the purse. Among queer-looking toys you see WINDSOR SOAP
labelled in good, honest English; pipes, ribands, and pocket-books,
fans, satchels, and jewelry, among specimens of _Sprudelstein_, and
crystals and minerals, from the surrounding hills. Money-changers
abound; and polyglot placards--English, French, German, Czechish,
Hungarian--everywhere meet the eye. And not only here, but all over
the town, brisk signs of business and prosperity are apparent. But to
quote the gossip of my hostess, "many in Carlsbad have to endure
hunger during the winter." The place is then deserted, for the season
lasts only from May to September.
Turn into a short _Gasse_ from the market-place, cross the
foot-bridge, and you will see a Geyser without the fatigue of a voyage
to Iceland. It is the far-famed _Sprudel_, or Bubbler. At one end of a
colonnade open to the river on the right bank, a living column of
water springs perpetually from the ground. Through an orifice in the
centre of a basin about three feet deep, the water leaps and plays
with a noise of gurgling, splashing, and bubbling, to a height of six
or eight feet, and throwing off clouds of steam. Now it forms a column
with palm-leafed capital--now a number of jets tumbling over in
graceful curves--now broken, fan-like masses, all throbbing and
dancing in obedience to the vigorous pulsations under ground. There is
something fascinating in the sight. Allowing for the artificial
elevation of the floor, the whole height of the jet is about twelve
feet; and so has it leaped for ages, and with but one interruption
since its fabulous discovery in the fourteenth century.
The _Sprudel_ is the hottest of the springs, scalding hot, in fact,
marking a temperature of 167 deg. Fahrenheit: hence the attendant
Naiads--here a couple of strong-armed women--make use of a cup fixed
to one end of a staff for filling the glasses. When a visitor
approaches, the staff is held out to receive the glass; and after a
plunge into the steaming jet, is handed back to the expectant drinker,
who, taking his glass from the cup, swallows the contents at
pleasure--if he can. The drinkers were but few when I came up, for ten
o'clock was nigh; stragglers, who having arrived late, were sipping
their last glasses--some not without a shudder. While the dose cooled,
they examined the heads of walking-sticks, snuff-boxes, seals, and
other specimens of _Sprudelstein_, on sale at a stall; or the
time-tables and advertisement photographs hanging about the colonnade.
The Naiads, in the interval, emptied ladles full of the water into
stone-bottles, which a man rapidly corked in a noisy machine.
The waste water flows away along a wooden shoot to the river, where it
sends small light wreaths of steam floating about on the surface. But
I saw nothing at all like what has been often described as a cloud of
steam perpetually hovering above the _Sprudel_, visible from afar.
Regarded near at hand, or from a distance, there is no cloud visible
in July, whatever may be the case in the cool months.
The quantity of water poured out every day by the _Sprudel_ alone is
estimated at two million gallons. Multiplied by 365, it becomes truly
amazing. In this quantity, as shown by Gilbert, a German chemist, ten
thousand tons of Glauber salt, and fifteen thousand tons of carbonate
of soda are thrown up in a year. And this has been going on from
immemorial ages, the waters depositing calcareous matter in their
outflow, which has slowly formed a crust over the vast boiling
reservoir beneath. And on this crust Carlsbad is built.
The constituents of all the springs, as proved by analyses, are
identical with those of the _Sprudel_--soda in the form of carbonate,
Glauber salt, and common salt; carbonic acid gas, and traces of iron
and iodine. Bitumen is also found in a notable quantity, and a
peculiar soapy substance, a species of animal matter, the cause,
perhaps, of the cadaverous flavour already mentioned. The water, which
when first caught is bright and clear, becomes turbid if left to cool,
and throws down a pale-brown sediment. Ehrenberg, the celebrated
microscopist of Berlin, who has examined specimens of this sediment
under his microscope, declares it to be composed of fossil animalcules
inconceivably minute; these animalcules being a portion of the
material out of which Nature builds up the solid strata of the globe.
Some patients have feared to drink the water because of the concreting
property; but the medical authorities assure that in this respect it
produces no injurious effect on the animal economy. Shopkeepers turn
it to profit, and offer you fruits, flowers, plants, and other
objects, petrified by the _Sprudel_ water.
The roof of the colonnade above the spring is discoloured by the
ascending steam; and standing on the bridge you can see how the wall
is incrusted with calcareous matter, as, also, the big hump swelling
up from the bed of the stream--a smooth ochreous coat, brightened in
places by amber, in others darkened into a rich brown, or dyed with
shades of green. This concretion is the _Sprudelstein_, or
Sprudel-stone, noticed above; firm and hard in texture, and
susceptible of a beautiful polish. A portion of the waste water is
led into an adjoining building, where it undergoes evaporation to
obtain the constituent salts in a dry state for exportation. From the
other shoot, as it falls into the river, supplies are constantly
dipped by the townsfolk, who use it to cook their eggs, to scald pork
and poultry, and other purposes. All day long you may see women
filling and carrying away on their shoulders big bucketfuls of the
steaming water. Notwithstanding this constant inflow of hot water, the
Teple appears to agree with fish, for I saw numbers swimming about in
good condition but a short distance lower down. As a stream, it adds
little to the salubrity of Carlsbad, for it is shallow, sluggish in
places, and tainted by noisome drainage. Another cause of offence to
the nostrils exists in what is so often complained of on the
Continent, the obtrusive situation of the _latrinæ_ at the principal
springs. Only in England are such matters properly cared for.
In 1809, and for ten years thereafter, the _Sprudel_ ceased to flow,
and the water broke through at a spot some fifty feet distant, to
which the name _Hygieas Quelle_ was given. Here it continued to play
till 1819, when it reappeared at the former source, and from that date
there has been no interruption in the copious discharge of the
_Sprudel_. The underground action is at times so powerful as to rend
the crust and form new openings, and these, if large, have to be
stopped, to prevent the loss of the springs. The yellow hump mentioned
as swelling up from the river's bed, is nothing but a thick mass of
masonry, braced together by iron bars, covering a great rent through
which the waters once boiled up from below. Similar outbreaks
occurred in 1713, and again fourteen years later, when attempts were
made to ascertain the depth of the great subterranean reservoir by
splicing poles together to a length of one hundred and eighty feet,
but neither bottom nor wall could be touched in any direction. The
hills around are of granite, containing mica and pyrites, and one of
them, the _Hirschsprung_, is said to be the source of all the Carlsbad
springs. Their bases come near together, and it is easy to imagine a
huge cavern formed between them descending deep down into the bowels
of the earth.
As regards the efficacy of the Carlsbad waters, let us hear Dr.
Granville, an authority on the subject: "They exert their principal
sanative action," he says, "1st, on all chronic affections which
depend on debility of the digestive organs, accompanied by the
accumulation of improper secretions; 2ndly, on all obstructions,
particularly of the abdomen, which, as Becher, the oracle of Carlsbad,
observes, they resolve and disperse; 3rdly, on the acrimony of the
blood, which they correct, alter, evacuate, or drive towards the
extremities and the surface of the body; 4thly, on calculous and
gravelly deposits; 5thly, on many occult and serious disorders, the
nature of which is not readily ascertained until after the partial use
of the waters, such as tic doloreux, spasms, rheumatisms, and gout."
As if here were not virtues sufficient, the Doctor proceeds: "My own
experience warrants me in commending the Carlsbad waters in all
obstinate cases of induration, tumefaction, tenderness, and sluggish
action of the liver; in imperfect or suppressed gout; in paralysis,
dependent on the stomach, and not fulness of blood in the head; in
cases of tic and nervous disorders; finally, in obstructions of the
glands of the mesentery, and distended state of the splenetic
vessels." The effect on stones in the bladder is almost magical, so
promptly are they polished, reduced, rendered friable, and expelled,
leaving the patient a happy example of perfect cure.
"It is the despondent," to quote once more from the Doctor, "the
dejected, misanthropic, fidgetty, pusillanimous, irritable,
outrageous, morose, sulky, weak-minded, whimsical, and often
despairing hypochondriac--for he is all these, and each in turn--made
so by continued indigestion, by obstinate and unremitting gout, by
affections of the nerves of sympathy and of the gastric region, and by
other equally active causes, that Carlsbad seems pre-eminently to
favour." After reading this, the wonder is, not that the visitors
number from five to six thousand in the course of the season, but that
they are not ten times as many.
The Doctor finds nothing nauseous in the taste of the water. "Once
arrived in the stomach," he says, "it produces an exhilarating
sensation, which spreads itself to the intestinal canal generally." To
him I leave the responsibility of this statement; for, preferring to
let well alone, I sipped by spoonfuls only, and can therefore bring no
testimony from my own experience. The practice of drinking the waters
has almost set aside the once exclusive practice of bathing; but baths
are always to be had, as well of mud and vapour as of the water of the
springs.
Now, after this stroll through the town, let us take a wider survey.
As we follow the street down the right bank, we see parties setting
off in carriages for excursions to the neighbourhood, and rows of
vehicles in the open places ticketed, _Return to Marienbad_, _to
Eger_, _to Töplitz_, _to Zwickau_, and the like, and drivers on the
alert for what your London cab-driver calls "a job." A short distance
beyond the _Morgenstern_ a path zigzags gradually up the hill and
brings you soon under the shade of trees, and to many little nooks and
sheltered seats contrived for delightful repose. One remote bower,
apparently but little frequented, is inscribed, _Care's Rest: make
thyself happy_. A little farther, and crossing a carriage-road, we
come to a temple where you may have another rest, and enjoy at the
same time the opening panorama. From hence the paths zigzag onwards to
the top of the _Dreikreuzberg_--Three-Cross Hill--by easy shady
slopes, which even a short-winded patient may ascend, while those with
strong legs may shorten the distance by the steep cut-offs. An
agreeable surprise awaits you at the top: a large, well-kept garden,
gay and fragrant with flowers, surrounded by arbours of clipped fir,
and a graceful screen of trees, while at one side stands a spacious
_Restauration_--all clean and cheerful of aspect. From an elevated
platform, or from the arched recesses on the terrace in front of the
garden, you see all Carlsbad and the hilly region around.
Now you see how singularly crooked is the narrow valley in which the
town is built; how the white houses gleam from the steep green sides
of the farther hills, and straggle away to the wooded hollow at the
head of the valley, from whence the river issues in a shining curve.
In and out flows the stream past the church, past the springs and
public buildings, cutting the town in two, on its way to fall into the
Eger. Your eye takes in the life of the streets, the goings to and
fro, but on a reduced scale--such tiny men and women, and little
carriages! 'Tis as if one were looking into Lilliput. Opposite rises
the precipitous rocky hill, the Hirschsprung, to the craggy summit of
which we shall climb by-and-by; and beyond it, ridgy summits, away to
the gloomy expanse of the _Schlaggenwald_. Many are the paths that
penetrate the rearward valleys, and white roads curving along the
hill-sides high above Carlsbad, and far up the distant slopes.
Altogether the view is striking, and somewhat romantic; yet in the
eyes of the Germans fresh from their flat, uninteresting country, it
is "_wunderschön_"--an epithet which they never tire of heaping on the
landscape.
From the garden a path leads along the ridge to a higher elevation,
where the three tall crosses, seen for miles around, spring from a
rocky knoll at the rear of a small semicircular opening, enclosed by
firs, prettily intermingled with beech and birch. Heath and yellow
broom grow from crevices in the rocks, and the wild thyme, crushed by
your foot, fills the air with aromatic sweetness, for the spot is left
to the nurture of the winds and the rain. It commands the same view as
from the garden; but with a wider scope, and the town lying at a
greater depth.
The path still curving along the ridge brings you presently to _König
Otto's Höhe_--King Otto's Height--the highest point of the hill. This
is also an untrimmed spot, with two or three seats, and a fluted
granite column, surmounted by a globe and star, rising in the midst.
You now look over some of the nearer hills, and get fresh peeps into
the valleys, discovering topographical secrets. Raised high into the
region of cooling breezes, yet easily accessible, it is a pleasant
place for quiet recreation.
I took the shortest way down from Otto's Height, crossing the rough
declivity and the fields that stretch far up the lower slope of the
hill, and made a circuit to Findlater's monument at the upper
extremity of Carlsbad. From the eminence on which it is erected you
get a new prospect of the town, and up the valley of umbrageous
retreats much resorted to by visitors on sultry afternoons.
On my way back to the _Morgenstern_ I had another look at the
_Sprudel_. The place was now deserted; the Naiads had departed; the
stall-keeper had locked her glazed doors and withdrawn; and there was
nothing near to subdue the vivid rushing sound of the water. So to
remain till evening, when a few anxious patients would appear to quaff
new draughts of health.
The inn was in all the bustle of dinner, after the manner of a _table
d'hôte_, but without its formality--twenty little tables instead of a
single large one. By this arrangement the guests formed small parties,
and ate and chatted at pleasure. Many came in who were not lodgers in
the house--among them a countess, from Moravia, to whom no more
attention was paid, nor did she appear to expect it, than to the
others. The absence of stiffness was, indeed, an agreeable
characteristic of the company, who were mostly Germans.
"Are you here for the cure?" said an old gentleman who sat opposite
me, and looked at my tankard of beer and salad with an air of
surprise. "Are you not afraid?"
My answer reassured him. Visitors who come to drink the waters are
required by medical authority to conform to a simple regimen. To eat
no salad, fruit, or vegetables--to drink no beer or wine--to eat no
bread. The exceptional cases are rare; hence the provision consists
but of sundry preparations of meat, decanters of water, pudding
resembling boiled pound-cake, and baskets of small rolls. The latter,
made of wheaten flour, are not recognised as bread, but come under the
common term, _Semmel_--the simmel of which we read in descriptions of
lordly banquets in our Plantagenet days. The term bread is confined to
the large brown and black loaves made of rye meal, the staple of
household diet in Bohemia; and to Carlsbad patients this is forbidden.
So Nature always goes on vindicating her simple laws, convincing
mankind, in spite of themselves, of the wholesome effects of fresh
air, daily exercise, plain food, and spring water; and mankind,
returned to crowded cities and artificial pleasures, go on forgetting
a lesson which is as old as the hills.
In the afternoon I mounted to the top of the _Hirschsprung_, and
passed two or three hours on the jutting crags which overlook the town
and a wide expanse of rolling fields and meadows towards Saxony.
Stairs and fenced platforms on the outermost points enable you to
survey in full security. The conformation of the crags is not unlike
that which prevails in the Saxon Switzerland. Here and there tablets
in the rock record the visits of royal personages, and on the topmost,
surmounted by a cross, is an inscription in Russian, and the name of
Czar Peter, who included among his exploits that of riding up the
_Hirschsprung_ on horseback in 1711.
You cannot be long in Carlsbad without hearing a flourish of trumpets
from the top of the Watch-tower, announcing the arrival of visitors.
No sooner do the trumpeters spy a carriage approaching from their
lofty station, than they begin to sound, and, in proportion to the
appearance of the vehicle, so do they measure out their blast--most
wind for the proudest. While I was looking down, a sudden note,
unusually prolonged, woke up the drowsy echoes, for rattling down the
zigzagged highway from Prague came his unenviable majesty, Otho of
Greece, to undergo a course of the _Sprudel_--at least, so said the
newspapers. Not till he had alighted at the hotel did the trumpeters
cease their salute, for kings can pay well; but let a dusty-footed
wayfarer, with knapsack on shoulder, come into the town, and not a
breath will they spare to give him welcome.
At six in the evening--having surveyed Carlsbad from within and
without, and from the highest points on either side--I started to walk
to Buchau, a village about ten miles off--an easy distance before
nightfall. The _Morgenstern_ charged me two florins for my bed, and
less than two florins for all my diet--supper, breakfast, and dinner;
which, in one of the dearest watering-places in Europe, was letting me
off on reasonable terms.