COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, _Sept 12, 1858_.
I had not the remotest idea of revisiting this northern region when I
wrote you last; but such are the extraordinary facilities of locomotion
in this age, that one finds himself within a few days transported
hundreds and thousands of miles. I was on my way to Swinemunde, on
the Baltic, for sea bathing, when I heard that my old friend Captain
Irminger, with whom I visited Caraccas, La Guayra, and Porto Cabello in
Venezuela, and the Island of Curaçoa, and who landed me on the small
island of Beati, south of Hayti, many years since, from the brig-of-war
Örnen, was now residing in this city as admiral of the Danish fleet,
and I felt that I could not resist the desire of seeing him again.
I can scarcely realize the fact that at this time last year I had just
returned home for a visit, and have since passed over so much ground in
Europe, Asia, and Africa. It seems but yesterday that I was climbing
the mountains of Circassia, or travelling rapidly over the steppes
of Southern Russia, or wandering through the ruins of Sebastopol,
passing in review within the year Arabs, Egyptians, Turks, Circassians,
Georgians, Greeks, Hungarians, Moldavians, and a host of other races;
but when I reflect that space is now almost annihilated, I must be
reconciled to the fact, and turn my attention to the quiet and peaceful
Dane, and mark the changes, if any, since I saw him for the first time.
From Marienbad I came twenty miles to Franzensbad, not remarkable for
its position, but somewhat for the healing qualities of its waters,
of which about two hundred thousand jugs are sent away, and about two
hundred invalids visit it annually.
What struck me as most singular are the Schlambäder, or Turf Baths,
charged with alkali, salt, and iron. One large bath house is adapted
to this use. A number of men are employed digging and wheeling in
turf, which is broken and ground in a mill, not unlike the breaking
of clay for brickmaking. A steam engine of sixteen horse power is
employed for this use, as also for pumping and for the heating of the
water reservoirs. The bath tubs are mounted on wheels, filled with the
black mixture, like thick mud, and rolled through the inner courtyard
and in the outer door of the bath rooms. The patient takes his bath
and then jumps into another of equally hot water, for washing and
cleansing himself. The cost of such a bath is only half a dollar. They
are said to be extremely strengthening after the use of other baths
and water drinking, and particularly useful in rheumatic and paralytic
afflictions. A couple of days was quite sufficient to familiarize one’s
self with the springs, grounds, advantages, and disadvantages of the
locality.
A ride of thirty-five miles by post, and one bids adieu to Bohemia,
in Austria, and strikes the frontier of Saxony on the railroad to
Leipzig, a city celebrated for its fairs. It has seventy thousand
inhabitants, and is surrounded with pretty garden suburbs. Among the
number is Gerhard’s, where is the monument to Prince Poniatowski, who
lost his life in jumping his horse across the little stream Elster,
which runs through the city. This was at the famous battle of Leipzig,
of 1813.
I arrived on a Saturday evening. The next morning service commenced
in the Protestant churches at half-past eight, and continued till
half-past ten. Numerous congregations attended, and listened to
earnest, faithful preaching. During the exercises all places of
entertainment are closed, but opened afterwards for necessary purposes.
The beautiful walks of Rosenthal, and oak woods, that extended to the
village of Gohlis where Schiller wrote his Don Carlos, were fully
occupied with promenaders after dinner, and the many public gardens
filled with the multitudes partaking of their coffee and lager beer,
the men smoking their pipes and cigars, women embroidering and
listening to the bands of music, and children with their nurses amusing
themselves upon the grass. All seemed happy and quiet, and as the
evening approached some wended their way to the summer theatre, in an
open garden, others to their homes. Such are the customs, and such the
force of education even in the land of Luther’s reformation.
I made a halt of two days at Leipzig by way of reviving my
recollections, and spent a day at Halle, on the river Saale, noted
for its university--a very old city, of thirty thousand inhabitants,
offering nothing of particular interest. The railroad passes through
Gotha, Dessau, and Wittenburg, all of which places I had formerly seen
in detail before this mode of conveyance existed here. As I partook
of some refreshment at Wittenburg, which I once described to you, I
inquired if the old town was as much a place of pilgrimage as formerly.
The reply was to the contrary, since the railroad passed through the
people had no time to stop. It had once cost me a long journey to visit
the houses where Luther and Melancthon lived and wrote, and where they
lie buried.
I also looked in upon friends at Berlin, whom I had left eighteen
months before, a picnic party in the country being the result, and made
a visit to the grounds of Baron Humboldt, where the remains of the
illustrious traveller’s parents are entombed.
Governor Wright drove us to Charlottenburg, the royal residence. At
the opera in the evening the young crown prince of Prussia was present
with his new bride, young Victoria. A sojourn of three days in a city
which I had visited so repeatedly, and in which I had almost gained a
residence, was brief, but I was _en route_ for the salt breezes of
the sea, and two days later found myself walking ashore from the good
steamer Geiser in the well known port of Copenhagen.
The admiral accompanied me up the coast by steamer some thirty miles
to Helsingsen, and visited the famous old castle of Kronburg and its
fortifications, whose thirty-six pounders reach the Swedish coast
opposite, but as the Sound dues are now compromised with all foreign
powers, the neat and formerly flourishing town looks cheerless. The
neighboring bathing place, Marienburg, if once brought into notice,
would help to revive it.
Omitting the Dardanelles, few straits are so much used by vessels as
this passage. A strong north wind was bringing in many ships, while
almost an entire fleet were at anchor waiting to get out.
The settlement of this knotty Sound question is a source of
gratification to all ship navigators, and the result, I trust, will be
quite as advantageous for Denmark.
A ride of twenty-two miles from the city to the castle of
Fredericksborg, with the visit to the beautiful grounds and the
interior of the immense edifice, with its richly decorated saloons,
halls, church, and picture galleries, and return, occupied a full day,
even with fast horses and equipages from the royal stables.
My friend ranks as chamberlain to the king, and presented me to his
majesty, whom we found with his master of ceremonies on a fishing
excursion. He is passionately fond of angling, and had already
caught sufficient for a good dinner, which he had served in a little
summer-house, upon a small island in the lake. He received me
cordially, and we had a long chat in French together, and he assured me
I should always be welcome in Denmark. I enjoyed a lunch in the palace,
a stroll in the flower and fruit gardens, and through the extended
park, and immense and majestic Black Forest, a glance over the
beautiful lakes and picturesque sheets of water, and the return drive
to town, and the setting sun found me at a family dinner with one with
whom I had passed through many interesting scenes nine years before.