Cassel.
The city of Cassel is situated on the river Fulda. It consists of an old
and new town. The former is the largest and most irregular. The new town
is well built; and there, as you may believe, the nobility and officers
of the court have their houses. The streets are beautiful, but not
over-crowded with inhabitants.
Besides the large chateau in the town of Cassel, which is the Landgrave’s
winter residence, he has several villas and castles in different
parts of his dominions. Immediately without the town, there is a very
beautiful building, in which he dwells for the most part of the summer
The apartments there are neat and commodious, some of them adorned with
antique statues of considerable value.
None of the rooms are spacious enough to admit of exercising any
considerable number of the troops within their walls; but his Highness
sometimes indulges in this favourite recreation on the top of this villa,
which has a flat roof, most convenient for that purpose.
Around this are some noble parks and gardens, with a very complete
orangery. There is also a menagerie, with a considerable collection of
curious animals. I saw there a very fine lioness, which has lately lost
her husband—an elephant—three camels in fine condition, one of them
milk-white, the other two grey, and much taller than the elephant;—an
African deer, a fierce and lively animal, with a skin beautifully
spotted;—a very tall rain-deer—several leopards—a bear, and a great
variety of monkies.—The collection of birds is still more complete, a
great many of which are from the East Indies.
In the academy of arts, which is situated in the new town, are some
valuable antiques, and other curiosities, among which is a St. John in
Mosaic, done after a picture of Raphaël’s, with the following inscription
below it:
IMAGINEM S. JOHANNES
EX ITALIA ADVENAM
IN RARUM RARÆ INDUSTRIÆ HUMANÆ MONUMENTUM
HANC COLLOCARI JUSSIT
FREDERICUS II. HASSIÆ LANDGR.
A. M. D. CCLXV.
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.
All this must have a very brilliant effect when viewed from the bottom.
This sight, however, I did not enjoy; for there has been a continued
frost ever since we have been at Cassel; and when I visited Wasenstein,
the fields were covered with snow, which did not prevent my going to the
top, though it made the ascent by the flairs exceedingly difficult.
On the highest part of the mountain, a Gothic temple is built, and upon
the top of that an obelisk, which is crowned by a colossal statue of
Hercules leaning on his club, in the attitude of the Farnese Hercules.
This figure is of copper, and thirty feet in height. There is a staircase
within the club by which a man may ascend, and have a view of the
country from a window at the top.
Wasenstein, upon the whole, is infinitely the noblest work of the kind I
ever saw. I have been allured, there is nothing equal to it in Europe. It
has not the air of a modern work, but rather conveys the idea of Roman
magnificence.
We think of leaving this within a few days for Brunswick.—I shall not
close my letter till we get to Gottingen, where we may probably stay a
short time.
P. S. The D. and I took our leave of the Court and our friends yesterday,
and actually set out from Cassel this morning; but finding the roads
entirely overflowed by the extraordinary swelling of the Fulda, we were
obliged to return. A great thaw for some days past dissolving the snow
and ice, has occasioned this swelling, and rendered the roads impassable.
After taking leave we could not appear again at court, but dined at one
of the messes with the officers.—From this party I am just returned, and
finding it uncertain when we may get to Gottingen, I send this to-night.
Adieu.