His image still lives most vividly in my soul. For many years my mother,
and I with her, inhabited the same house with the Grimms, in Lenné
street, and I know how right Frau Lepsius was, when she said in her
diary that there was in all the world nothing more benevolent and
kind-hearted than William Grimm’s wife: that every one must feel to her
as towards a beloved mother. The kindness and cheerful friendliness with
which she added to the happiness of all of us brothers and sisters,--who
among us has forgotten them? When Jacob met me on the way to school he
always stroked my hair, and said: “Hurry, Flaxen-head.” It was Jacob
Grimm who afterwards introduced me to Lepsius: Frau Grimm I saw for the
last time when I was ill in bed, and she brought me a delicious cooling
drink of fruit juice. Every memory of her is connected with something
kind and lovely.
If we except Abeken, the most beloved of all the learned friends of the
Lepsius family were the Grimms and Gerhard, whose wife was Frau
Elizabeth’s intimate friend. This cordial feeling also extended to the
children of William Grimm, and especially to Hermann, whose first poetic
essays they watched with affection, but with impartial criticism.
So passed the weeks and months. The winter was given to work and social
pleasures in the city; in the summer the wife and children went into the
country. Longer journeys, such as the trip to upper Italy, were usually
undertaken in the autumn. The family were very comfortable at
Park-Birkenwäldchen near Berlin. In 1852 this was completely in the
country, but it has long since been absorbed by the metropolis of
Berlin. The husband often went thither to see his family, friends
accompanied him, and in the repose of this rustic life Frau Elizabeth
prepared the index for the letters from Egypt and Ethiopia. They were
dedicated to A. v. Humboldt, and he received them with gratitude and
emotion, although, to Lepsius’ regret, the friendship between them had
been troubled, in consequence of an affair which concerns people who are
still living, and therefore cannot be spoken of here.
In the summer of 1852, the first numbers of the great work on monuments
were completed. But they had not yet been sent out, although Lepsius for
several months had been insisting on their distribution. Finally he went
once more to Sans Souci to urge the expediting of the matter upon
Niebuhr, and found him walking with Gerlach upon a terrace. Just then
the King stepped out on an upper terrace, and when he became aware of
the Egyptologist called down to him “Lepsius, Lepsius.”
The monarch then shook him by the hand, and a conversation ensued which,
on account of its characteristic turn, we will give just as it was
recorded immediately afterwards.
King: “I have not seen you for along time. You have grown quite stout.”
Lepsius makes some reply, and then speaks of the delay in distributing
the completed numbers of the great work.
King (to Niebuhr): “Tell me exactly how it stands?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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