Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. IIGleig, G. R. (George Robert)
History
Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II
Gleig, G. R. (George Robert)
Austria -- Description and travel; Bohemia (Czech Republic) -- Description and travel; Germany -- Description and travel
I did not find that there were any public gaming-houses in Toeplitz;
though it was whispered that the practice of gaming was not unknown in
private circles. It may be so; though I am bound to say that I could
perceive no evidences of it. In like manner, a thousand tales were told
of other matters which went forward sedulously, of which it is not
worth while to take notice. But the general impression left upon my
mind by a few days' sojourn in the town was, that it had all the charms
about it which we expect to find in fashionable watering-places, and
that he who could not make himself happy there for a season, must lay
the blame, not upon the scene of other people's enjoyments, but on his
own temper or prejudices. Neither did I relish it the less from finding
that it was very little frequented by my countrymen. There had been but
one English family there before we arrived, and they, I am happy to
say, left an excellent name behind them.
The country between Toeplitz and Prague, after you have passed over the
heights of Wachholderberg is not, in a picturesque point of view, very
interesting. The chateau of Krzemusch, with its fine garden, and the
Teufelsmauer, a basaltic precipice hard by, are indeed worth the
expenditure of an hour or two to visit, while the situation of Bilin,
in the valley of Bila, is beautiful. But you soon escape from the
mountains, and then, for many miles, the eye finds little on which it
need pine to linger, more attractive, at least, than a wide extent of
cultivation. The principal towns through which you pass are Laun and
Schlan, neither of them large or very prosperous; the rest are mere
villages. By degrees, however, as you come within what may be described
as the vortex of Prague, a great change is perceptible. The country
becomes much more broken and undulating, while here and there, from the
summit of a hill, elevated above the rest, the view which you command
is both striking and extensive. At last, the White Mountain, as it is
called, lies before you, and by an easy and almost imperceptible
ascent, you arrive at its crest. There it will, indeed, be worth your
while to pause; for a finer scene of its kind you will rarely look down
upon in any country of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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