In former times Varzin formed part of a much larger and more valuable group of estates, some of which were originally held by the Zitzewitz family, the greater portion, however, being in the possession of the Counts Podewils, who, up to the year 1805, were large landed proprietors here. Tradition has it that this old family of Pomeranian nobles obtained the nucleus of their possessions through an act of bravery. According to an account given to us by the Chancellor, a Duke of Pomerania was attacked by Saracen pirates during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They had boarded his ship, and one of them was on the point of making an end of the Duke, when the faithful Ritter von Podewils rushed from the kitchen, spit in hand, and transfixed the heathen with the weapon in question. He was then told that he might ask a favour, and he begged to be invested with the land surrounding Crangen Castle (about four kilometres from Varzin as the crow flies), in the vicinity of which, at that time, there was a great deal of forest and game. Subsequently this estate was considerably enlarged, _per fas et nefas_, by the Counts Podewils, who repeatedly held the helm of State, and were consequently powerful and influential. At the commencement of the present century, however, the estate, which had dwindled away again, passed into the possession of Herr von Blumenthal, who, in 1814, received the title of Count. The estate, further reduced in the interval by the sale of Chorow, was purchased from a member of this family by the Imperial Chancellor in the spring of 1867, out of the national grant bestowed upon him by the Prussian Diet for his services in the reorganisation of German affairs. At that time the property, the area of which had been reduced from over 100,000 acres to something more than a fifth of that extent, included, in addition to Varzin, the estates of Wussow, Pudiger, and Misdow, together with the farm manor of Charlottenthal. Since then the Prince has been at pains to gradually extend it by purchase. In 1868 he acquired the Selitz estate, and in 1874 he bought back Chorow, which had been sold by his predecessor, so that the total extent of his landed property here, at the present time, is some 30,000 acres. But the Prince has not only added to his little realm, but he has also been an active and circumspect reformer. He always was and still is a capable landlord, displaying in agricultural pursuits the same qualities which have marked his creative work in politics. As his early management of Kniephof showed, in spite of youthful excesses, Bismarck always understood how to make a neglected estate prosper, and his administration of Varzin is a fresh proof. Whoever can do that will in favourable circumstances, that is to say, given the necessary political education, knowledge, and position, generally be found equally capable of restoring the prosperity and dignity of nations.